OUT ON THE WAR PATH.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1371, 14 April 1881, Page 2

OUT ON THE WAR PATH.

Native Taua at Cambridge. A war dance performed amidst heaps of red paint, hideous grimace, and light fantastic attire — light enough to mated the situation, under which a knowledge of "good and evil' I—was1 — was at first developed, took place on Monday morning shortly after dawn. It was, writes our Cambridge correspondent, bruited abroad on Saturday that a chief belonging to one of the Taupo tribes had infringed clause 7 of the decalogue delivered on Mount Sinai. The rumour was repeated on Sunday, and despite the better observances of the day more or less excitement prevailed. In the church services conducted by the Maori divine, which are, as a rule, well attended, the matter was alluded to. Indeed, it is reported, the lessons of the day were specially chosen with reference to the subject ; that portion of scripture being named, wherein it is written : " When the morning was come the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death." The text itself, apart from the exhortation, was strikingly characteristic, inasmuch aa that, a council of war was at that very moment deliberating the course of action to be pursued. It is right to add that the rev gentleman in his allusions to the affair, counselled his hearers not only to abstain from personal violence, but likewise from taking part in the proceeding. Conducted as the discoui'se was in the native tongue, I am not in a position to give you a precise rendering of it. I have the authority of a good Maori linguist, however, for saying that the admonition was fraught with good sense and sound reasoning. As a rule of conduct, however, it was only partially adhered to. The circumstances attending the offence are alleged to have been particlarly aggravating, but contrary to the predictions of those who prefess to understand these things little or no personal violence was had recourse to. The war dance, however, with all its threatening attitudes and savage gesticulations was gone through. Shortly after day-light a tumultuous mob of natives, men and women, made their appearances, hooting and yelling about the streets. The morning was raw and damp still that was no deterrent. The war paint and the scarf were about the only protection sought from the weather. Perhaps I am a little out in that remark. A few of the party had head-gear composed of felt and feathers, the latter in that sadly ruffled state which betokens the storm. Later on these fragments of barbarism concentrated in two distinct masses each of which made its appearance simultaneously — one on the brow of the hill at Kirkwood'a corner, and the other along the slope opposite the National Hotel. At these points a hault was made and a kind of preliminary war dance performed. A forward dash ensued the converging point at which the two parties arrived being- Hewitt's corner, in Duke-street. For the information of strangers it is necessary to explain that a native refuge or hostelry has been erected on a vacant plot at this place, domiciled by the tribe or hapu to which the delinquent native belongs. So imminent did the risk appear that the original cause of the complaint was " spirited away" under coyer of eight his whereabouts being kept a profound secret amongst -those who are more closely associated with his future dealings. To return, however, to Hewitt's Corner : The representative tribe of the offending party was not wholly unprepared. They ranged in rows outside, on their mats, and with pipes in their mouths calmly waited the crisis. Confronted by their antagonists, the latter did " kick up a- dust" — real as well as symbolical. Each man had a six-foot stick in hia hand, with which he thrashed the ground, while his neighbours danced, jumped, and shuffled about until the whole place was literally "smoked-out" in a dusty cloud. To the female portion of the performers belongs the honor of eclipsing all other efforts in that direction. They became literally frantic, kicking up their heels, distorting their bodies, rolled their eyes, and putting out their tongues, in a way sufficient to have quailed the gallantry of the gayest of Lotharios. Altogether it seemed a carious method of enforcing the obligations of the moral law. One well-defined Pakeha-Maori, who identified himself with the fracas, got his "head into chancery" at the instance of a dusky amazon. On emerging, he carried away certain protuberances on the skull not laid down in his phrenological chart, besides an assortment of scratches which might be supposed to represent his alliance to his tribe in the way of an ill-defined tattoo. The best part of an hour was spent working out these moral problems, at the expiry of which a capitulation was come to, the condition being that the offender should render ample pecuniary compensation for the wrong done, and so the matter ended.

Mbs Rugo, a widow, having taken Sir Ghas. Price for her Becond husband, and being asked by a friend how she liked the change, replied, "Oh, I have got rid of my old Kngg for a good Prioe." "My dear",B»id Mrs Linton to her husband," why do they so often put 'appraiser' after an auctioneer's name?" Because, madam, an auctioneer is always a pruiser of the goods he Bella."