MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1940, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

1860. (Recorded by J.U.S., of Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.” 1 With war imminent in 1860. new arrivals from Britain were astonished to observe the indifference to danger and the safety of the early missionaries who visited the enemy centres in the Waikato. The majority of these Maoris, influenced by the sincerity and unselfish conduct of their pioneer teachers, still held out the hand of friendship to them. The rare exception to this friendly attitude was where their teacher had acquired large tracts of Maori land, thus desecrating their centuries of belief that “the land is a living thing, a creator in perpetuity, and the true symbol of immortal life, and benevolence to mankind.” Maori mentality and original thought were matters of surprise for those to whom their words of wisdom were translated, and even more so to those who understood their language and its quaint idiomatic philosophies. In contrast to this, their homes, their food and the manner of eating and drinking was akin to that of their adopted peropero (dogs). As to their homes, they were proof against cold and wet; but for two reasons were always temporary. It was easier to use fresh bush soil for growing food than to transfer their leaf manure from the forest. Their homes too were merely forts from which they were apt to be driven out by enemy tribes at intervals. Schools and school houses for Maori boys and girls taught by natives were in most native villages. They were taught to read and write their own ideally simple language in a few weeks. Simple arithmetic was in their syllabus, but still more useful, practice of handicraft was prominent. Wars have cast all this into oblivion and the loss of their principal treasure —the land —has brought despair.