MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 May 1940, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

I WINCED SHEEP. <Flecorc!c<l by J.H.S., of Palmerston North, for the ‘‘Times-Age.’*) The Million Bird Piakoia, a name given by the Maori to imitate its plainlive cry. is one of several varieties. This one pays an annual visit io the Islands where it breeds. Unlike other birds it lays only one egg. and their vast numbers may be realised by the fact that on one lonely spot alone an annual average of ten to fifteen thousand young birds are killed for food and preserved in fat enclosed in strips of bark. Another species is the one known as the New Zealander. These are not counted in thousands, but in millions. They leave their nesting places in numbers beyond our capacity to estimate. and migrate to and from Australia on regular dates as by the calendar. Shipmasters report having passed through masses of them flying or on the water fishing for 20 or 30 miles and 5 or 6 miles wide. The Maoris know to a day by the moon at sunset when they are to arrive in the dusk on the cliffs. Long lines of blazing fires attract and confuse them. Then, they are knocked on the heads by sticks or caught in long nets as they fly dangerously near to the fascinating flames. Nature seems to have thus provided for hungry Maoris at a season when other foods were scarce, also by the surplus fat with which to preserve the flesh for future use. In the Maori worship of the Gods of Nature lay a keener sense of appreciation for such services than ours. Their benefactors are ever present and personal.