MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 August 1939, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

KAWA KAWA (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) It is an interesting study in contrasts first to compare the reports of those good missionaries who came in 1814 to cultivate the Maori race by teaching practical trades, how to grow the introduced fruits and vegetables, to make and wear warmer clothing, to read and write; then “incidentally to learn Christian ethics, before attempting to bewilder them with the orthodox formalities of many creeds.” They sought, though vainly, to induce them to forsake their' necessarily communistic mode of living and to become like those pioneer teachers, dependent upon their " own personal efforts for their daily bread.

The prospective results of this practical method of teaching by example were counteracted by the deliberate efforts of the liquor vendors to rid the Maori people of their natural antipathy to all forms of fermented or spirituous liquor. In 1814 Marsden wrote, “Maoris are averse to drinking spirits. I do not think Ava (kava) which has done so much harm to the natives of Otahiti grows here.” A naturalist of that period said. “The Kawa Kawa of New Zealand from which a drink is made is botanically a different plant from the Kava.” To an amateur, the difference is not apparent, their taste differs only from the fact that Kava is brewed, while Kawa Kawa is merely crushed and soaked. Kava thus prepared is an intoxicant, as also would Kawa Kawa be if similarly treated. Both plants have the same aromatic warmth of flavour. Each has the dark stem, knotted at intervals like some canes. Their names differ only in dialect. Kava is larger, glorified by tropical sunlight. Some day perhaps Kawa Kawa beer may increase the toll of the road hogs.