MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 September 1939, Page 10

MAORI MEMORIES

, REO MAORI (Language). ' (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) Maori eloquence, simple, natural, poetic, and with perfect rhythm, was indeed a thrill of pleasure to the speaker and bis audience alike. Speech was not ambiguous because the meaning was also conveyed by the speaker’s gesture, action and intonation. The absence of all rules of grammar gave absolute freedom to every speaker, whose listeners understood the varied shades of meaning which could be intoned by the voice, the movements, and the facial expression of a speaker. In their language the word Maori means “Natural,” and as they were sincere though silent worshippers of nature, the name was singularly appropriate. To apply such words as tito (liar) or tahae (thief) to persons-who unwittingly made a mistake or' 1 borrowed from a friend did not offend even though it might reprove them. So much depended upon the tone and gesture. All these subtleties have disappeared by their adoption of the English words strangely modified by their inability to pronounce the final consonant or the sibilant sounds. The name Fraser became Pereiha, Roberts Ropata, Simpson Himihana, Taylor Teira, etc. Had it not been that in their silent reverence for all things in nature, they refrained from attempts to copy any living thing, their artistic instinct would have induced them to illustrate the spoken word with pictures drawn in charcoal on a wooden surface.