MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 December 1939, Page 8

MAORI MEMORIES

» - A MIRACLE. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The Maoris watched with great interest the preparations made by our meteorologists for the observation of the Transit of Venus. Among them were a few who derisively referred to them as tangata nukurau (deceivers). Some asked what was the object ef their search, and when told it was to measure the distance of the sun and its size, they laughed heartily at the hangarau nui (big joke). "How can they measure the sky with a rod or a line?" The operator invited the chief to plant his taiaha at any distant point he chose. Taking the necessary angles with his theodolite, he made a simple calculation. and invited the doubters to confirm or dispute it by the use of the chain measure. To their astonishment, "the distance was correctly seen through the air to the fraction of an inch." All preparations for the Transit were duly completed, and, the Maori faith in the mana of the Pakeha fully restored, they looked with renewed interest upon the "miracle by which the magician drew the star across the face of the sun through a great gun barrel.” To them that seemed a more reasonable explanation of the marvellous event, than that the operator could tell to the minute when the star would enter the circle, and when it would again pass into space. Thereafter no member of the tribe who witnessed the miracle could be other than loyal to its performer. There was no flaw in their silent worship