SOME ANECDOTES OF THE MAORIS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1713, 18 June 1884, Page 2

SOME ANECDOTES OF THE MAORIS.

In. tho early days the Maorie3 had an unbounded admiration : for the Pakeha ladiea' white eking, and one told me she could not imagine what it was touching her bared shoulders at a reception, till, turning suddenly, she confronted a Maori in. the act of prodding her shoulders with his. duskv finger, and he explained gravely he wanted to see if her fair skin, so like the snow, melted at the touch. The taste for human flesh in the Maoris was satisfied in the early days of the colony. In the wars with the British the owners of the dark impregnable forests of New Zealand were not troubled as were our troops, as to how to live in the ravelled, impenetrable, animal-less bush of these islands. The natives, whenever they killed a straggling redcoat naively said the English Government were kind, for it supplied them with clothes, arms, ammunition, and fresh meat. Cricket they like, too, but the gay croquet balls infatuated ■ them. A friend told mo that one Ohristmns-Day blib was present at a cricket match on an out-of-the-way northern river in New Zealand. There were a few Pakehas in the district, and they played against the Maoris. The ground was the only level piece 'at hand, and was guarded by cutting grass called toi-toi, The well-booted Pakehas always batted the ball into this toi-toi. Only one of their adversaries! had boots, and he preferred to plajßb* barefooted. Whenover the ball landed in' these knife-hke blades of grass, a cry arose for the man with the boots, and while, he drew them on the Pakehas scored, and the Maoris nearly wept with excitement.—From Cassell'sSaturday Journal,