MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 October 1939, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

LIVING IN “DUG OUTS.” (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) From the typed reports of a Rangitikei Maori scholar who had many years’ experience in the Native Land Courts as an advocate, there were obtained a number of interesting records, all of which were unfortunately destroyed when his house was burned nearly sixty years ago. Among these were descriptions of Maori dwellings on the East Coast seldom heard of in our histories.

During the Great Wai - the Maori contingent referred to the “dug outs” in 1916 as “inferior to those of their ancestral homes.” Discoveries since made in Poverty Bay have confirmed the above references. Well preserved square or oblong pits from 20 to 40 feet long have been found on the slopes of ranges with an entrance from the lower side. These, according to Maori memorised reports, were the usual dwellings of the East Coast tribes. The spoil taken from them formed a palisade five or six feet high surrounding the gable shaped roofs, covered with nikau or raupo, making it rainproof, and a protection against enemy tribes. In some instances, two or more such pits would be connected together by a manhole just wide enough for a man’s body, the master pit alone being similarly entered from without. Questioned from the witness box of the Native Land Court as to light and air, independent evidence was given by memorised minds that something in the nature of a wide chimney served three purposes, an exit for smoke (paoa), an entrance for light (marama), and breath (taupua).