MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1940, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

MAORI ETHICS. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) With the Maori the ideas of right and wrong were diverted by the strange laws imposed upon their credulity, mainly with the object of preventing crime. The law of Tapu was an example. When we speak of “natural people” we usually think of civilised folk such as our own. The very reverse is the truth, especially with the Maori race. Even the name Maori means “natural.” Worship was devoted to the gods of Nature, and they knew no other. Nothing in Nature was regarded as improper or obscene. No one could be more surprised than the Maori men and women of the very early days when they were warned not to look upon or mention certain things in nature of which “the Pakeha seemed to be profoundly ignorant.” The birds of the forest, and even the imported animals, hid nothing from their fellows and were quite natural and happy. Why should we be unnatural? Another matter in which the birds and the Maoris were so happily alike, was that both share every gift of Nature together, whether sunshine, food, or pleasures. Why have the Pakeha denied their own “superior people” these gifts of the gods? “Another wrong you have created,” said Tamati, an educated Maori, “is that of an artificial sin called theft. In Maori ethics among equals there is no such thing. Hospitality is so universal that it is impossible. Our generous acts are their own reward. We do not. therefore, look upon them as vii’tues, but as gratification. No guest would invoke the contempt which would follow such a grave breach of courtesy."