Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

The Waipukurau Press. Friday, January 19, 1906. MAORILAND AND NEW ZEALAND.

(Communicated.) Does the reader raise his or her eyebrows at the apparent tautology of the title ? The smallest pause for consideration will cause those brows tv become level once more. There is a Maoriland as distinct from New Zealand as the thermal region of Rotorua is distinctly different to the Southern Alps. Yet our South Island are as old as the hills; Wai man gu is as new as yesterday. The King Country is still a terra incognita to the New Zealander, but it is the home of the Maorilander ; whilst the Maori who once actually delighted in picking the bones of his enemy is to-day enjoying the fruits of the most modern and up-to-date legislation —the old age pension 1 Truly, in no other country in the w >rld do the ancient and the modern .un cheek-by-jowl so frequently and so familiarly as in Maoriland and New Zealand. There are aborigines in the land yet who hate the pakeha as profoundly as they d d tn Heke’s time or when the redoutable Te Raupahara filled the settlers of Wellington with dread. Yet there are Maoris who successfully practice the modern arts, such as medicine and politics, and who follow the crafts, such as printing and saddlery, and who have adopted the latest methods of farming. Tcera are natives who st ill wear the t. at and carry the mere; and in our cities and towns some of the greatest beaus and dandies are descendants of rangatiras who tried to stem the tide of civilisation. In many of the North Island Maori pahs (villiages) will be seen just on the fringe of European settlements. In those pahs you will find the ancient stvle of whare standing alongside the most modernly designed villas. The piano, the violin, the banjo are the instruments of the Maori as well as of the European ; the native is even a constant aub-

scriber to the daily newspaper, and enjoys the privilege of printing a paper in his own language. There is no end to this ringing of the changes and opening of surprise packets in Maoriland - New Zealand. We have a Maori King, yet he is a member of Parliament! The Maoris have prophets who continue to dream dreams of native supremacy over the white invaders, and who still sit in the shadows of their whares waiting for “the cooking of the potato.” The Europeans send missionaries to the Maoris, and there are pure-blooded natives who to-day are clergymen in the Anglican and other sects. The tourist who has eyes to see, ears to hear, and an appreciative instinct for the unusual and for comparisons will find enough to develop his curiousisy and his powers of observation to a remarkably successful degree. And New Zealand, also, might put in a not-unsuccessful claim to supply the eight wonder of the world. This colony to-day is a greater wonder than the Pyramids of Egypt, or Babylon’s gardens, or Diana’s temple, Ac., &c. Sixty ye. re ago the laud of predatory tribes of savages, who practised cannibalism —to-day the foremost among progressive countries. As a nation, the New Zealanders are keen, clever, pushful, capable with pen or rifle, excelling as poets or patriots, vigorous and victorious even in the Motherland as footballers, and as exporters astonishing other nations in the competition for the world’s markets.

New Zealand’s cities bear comparison in progressiveness with those of hoary age in the old lands of the world. In Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin there are up-to-date, well-equipped electric tramway systems in use. Machinery is driven by electric power, and the streets are lighted by similar means. Modern opera houses and music halls are occupied by companies which give highly satisfactory performances of the latest things from the Hub of the Universe, London itself. There is no lack of entertainment, of healthful places of resort, of first-class hotels, and nearly all the metropolitan municipalities subside brass bands for the encouragement of music in the open air. Sport? Well, there is no lack of that in season. New Zealand is the happy hunting ground of the deer-stalker and of the angler. The streams are well stocked with active trout; the hills carry deer well worthy powder and shot. For the mountaineer there are glaciers and crevasses aud peaks to overcome that have successfully challenged the surest feet and the most experienced alpinists. The yachtsman the sculler, the canoeist has plenty of water along coast and harbour and river; a ..d the automobilist and the cyclist can get stretches of good roan sufficient to satisfy the hunger and thirst after a speedy way, a clear run, and a sight of the grand and the unique. And even now much has beeu left unwritten that might well be said about Maoriland and New Zealand.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WPRESS19060119.2.6

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Waipukurau Press, Issue 8, 19 January 1906, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
810

The Waipukurau Press. Friday, January 19, 1906. MAORILAND AND NEW ZEALAND. Waipukurau Press, Issue 8, 19 January 1906, Page 2

The Waipukurau Press. Friday, January 19, 1906. MAORILAND AND NEW ZEALAND. Waipukurau Press, Issue 8, 19 January 1906, Page 2

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert