MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 August 1940, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

FOOD. (Recorded by J.H.S., of Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.”) What should we do in this genial clime if reduced to the original diet of the Maori? No beef, mutton, pork; no wheat, oats, corn; no potatoes, carrots, onions; no peaches, apples, pears; no cherries, grapes, currants; no bread, butter, cheese; no milk, tea, coffee; no sugar, honey, jam—-in fact nothing that appears on our table three times a day from beginning to end of each year, and no means of boiling water or food. The available food was Aruhe (fernroot), rauriki (sowthistle), puha (wild cabbage), pith of the nikau, or rhe ydung whanaki (cabbage tree), fish in fine weather only, manu (wild birds), snared by strategy, small berries in season, and eggs rarely. All these were obtained, weather permitting, by strenuous effort. The kumara and taro both tropical plants, and subject to frost, were introduced at an early period, and subsequently became their staple sustenance. The Hue (calabash) also came to light not only as food, but as the only portable water carrier. The kiekie, a creeper growing in moist ground was a great delicacy. The flower was sweet as a peach and much appreciated. Strangely enough we never attempt to grow it in our gardens. The stimulating berry of the kawakawa wa sgreatly sought. That is another easily grown shrub, but utterly neglected by our gardeners. The kernel of the karaka berry was the Maori substitute for .our. Its poison had to be eliminated by soaking in a stream for three months. With an extremely limited food supply, and the cultivated habit of mastication (ngau). they had a world's record for splendid teeth, even in old age, and health.