MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1940, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

MAORI DIET AND HEALTH. (Recorded by J.H.S. for the "Times-Age.”) It would appear to be a strange omission of bountiful Nature in this ideal climate and soil to have no bees to fertilise certain plants and provide sweetness for humanity. The importation of the honey bee and the bumble bee not only enabled the farmer to grow clover, but gave the Maori his first substantial taste of honey. Having no sugar, his only sweet was to suck the petals of the harakeke (flax flower) I'm- one month in each year. His great rival in that accomplishment was the tui. which came in thousands to the flax swamps during Hie brief season of blooming. A strange thing., hitherto not mentioned by any writer, was quite familiar to all of us children who lived near the sea in the early days when honey and sugar were scarce. In the swamps at sea level, no birds oi' Maoris came to suck the flax Howers at low tide. It became clear to! us that the honey sap in those tall flower stalks actually rose and fell with the tidal waters.

Another mystery is that, although the original Maori almost invariably lived a healthy and vigorous life, dying only in battle or of old age, he had no milk after infancy, no sugar, no fruits but a few small berries in season, and no meat but an occasional Maori dog. Birds and fish were alike restricted by the want of tirearms and steel hooks. Perhaps the absence of narcotics and intoxicants, and a free indulgence in cold water, may account for the absence of disease.