MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1940, Page 8

MAORI MEMORIES

THE WHALING INDUSTRY. (Recorded by J.H.S., of Palmerston North, for the "Times-Age.") Whalers in the early days macle more, money out of the by-products and ether incidental sales and purchases than from whale oil. Whale bone t'paraoa) easily cleansed by the warmth of huge fires from the blubber, after the oil had been melted in great cast iron pots, realised £215 per ton. The Maori name of an oven in the earth was “Kohua,” and when whale oil pots were shown to them they naturally called them, by that name. Most writers say Kohua meant a corruption of “go a-shore.” An ancient Maori curse <Kanga) for which the only indemnity is death was "Upoko Kohua" (may your head be cooked in the oven). Old sailors and whalers from many countries were taken from convict camps or prisons. Men broken by cruelty readily took to drink and debauchery when allowed on shore, and the crews were thus depleted. The captains were compelled to offer articles highly prized by the Maoris for their capture. A cask of rum or gunpowder, six red blankets or flintlock guns were the minimum. The most successful mode of capture was to make the missing man drunk. The runaway was then handcuffed during the stay in port. Thirty sailing traders or whaler vessels were to be seen in the season at one time in a northern harbour. Those which were not filled up with oil. and they were few, loaded with Maori Whitau (dressed flax) bought for a trifle and sold abroad at £6O per ton.