MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1940, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

ANIMALS FOR FOOD AND SPORT. (Recorded by J.H.S. for the “Times-Age.”) When the Maoris came to Now Zealand about, six or seven hundred years ago (it may have been more than a thousand), the only “animal" was that curious cross between a bird and a four-legged creature, tho Pekapeka (the bat). With the destruction of its forest home and the introduction of dogs and rats by the Maori it is now believed to be extinct. The Maori bred dogs and rats as we do sheep, for their flesh and their skins as food and clothes respectively. Captain Cook to his dismay was reduced to eat clogs meat as flesh food. He was astonished to find it luscious and tender when steamed in the Maori umu (oven). The bine Kiore (rat) also was likened to tender chicken. In 1773 Captain Cook brought three pigs and wisely induced the tohunga (priest) to protect them by the sacred law of Tapu. Although declared Non (common) in less than 40 years Dr Hochstetler reported in 1862 that three 1 men killed 25,000 in iess than two years, receiving a bonus of Is per tail. After the first month it was'said that pigs were born without a tail, so tho award was changed to heads. Rabbits were introduced by sportsmen and increased by millions. Opossums were brought fi-om Australia and provide more valuable furs than those of their native home. Goats even now threaten to destroy our beautiful forests.