A MAORI ALMANAC.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2900, 14 February 1891, Page 2

A MAORI ALMANAC.

\Vi; arc in receipt of :i M iori almun; <•, by I [o.uii N'ahi, of llaitraki. which we hoiicvc i i be tho tirst, tiling of its kind compiled by a Mauri. In an explanatory uoln in Kiiglish on the lir-t. page we were < 11■ liL;htc-il t;j read, •rhr " Ji" rc mh" V/„ ;,!■ ,-i,ra i'f< ■!.'' Tin-, italics are ours, it is very rarely indeed that we meet with a bojk or pampliii t thai is absolutely correct in oreiy deUil. lieucc out nleasure at the- publishi-i'sannouncement. J pen veilection, however, our joy was somewhat mnilitieil by roincinlmrmg that t,o err is Inimnn, and we made up our miml to accept the statement "at a liberal -lise iunt," as Mar!; Twain says, anil a rather hasty pi.rusal of the almanac m-evi'il the wisdom of this meuta! reservation. for we n\:rret to s.iy we discovered quite a number of typographical error?. And in the third coin tin or the calendar, opposite the Ist ol January, wc were completely by the following startling paradox, " !I> ll'., Jl' 'lit", wliicli, being translated literally, means '' a wroiiL'- —a right, aedoiithe j 111 tit the ■i-iiiiu nioutti weave met wit It another facer, namely —// ' //< ll' -" a right, a. u 10112," ".vh'.ch ;s .-i'liplv a reversal of the. paradox wiLhout any I'lneiilation thereot, and this sort of tliiin.', with sundry moditications. is continued right through the year. We gue.s.-ictl, of eoursu, tliat these wrongs and rights and rights anil wrongs reterred to the .state ol the weatiier, but not being able to carry it out satisfactorily were ahout to gi\e it up ill despair, when we luckily discovered the key to this ab-slns's weather problem on page three, where we are told "a right- a wrong ' means that the day will tie right in the morning and wrong in the evening, and tli.it "a wrong—a riirht" means the reverse ; that "a right." means that it. will I"' right all day, and "a wrong ' that wc may expect the reverse. Now, all this right and wrong business we take to mean line days or wet ones, or culm days or rough ones, and though our knowledge ol the, Maori language is rather limited, we tire of opinion that a native when referring to the weather does '■■',' say the day is right or wrong —but i;ood or bad, wjt, or dry, hot or cold as the case may be. 15ut putting these consideration!) aside, if we can rely upon lloani Nalti.s nro£>no-t.icatinns, the new (loveinment could ellect a considerable saving by " retrenching-' Commander Kdwin and furnishing every post-otHee in the colony with a copy of the Maoti almanac aiid weather guide, which not only telh us when a change of weather will take place bin whether it is to be looked tor in the morning or evening. Ihe burning ol the Cospatrick is mentioned among the remarkable events—which number altogether about twenty-live—though why on earth that particular catastrophe should be singled out of so many_ of "renter or less magnitude to the exclusion of many events ill which we might naturally suppose tho natives to be interested, as for instance, the crowning ol Kin" I'otatau, the commencement ol the Taranaki and Waikato wars, the eruption at Rotorua, etc., is a puzzle which wc "pass.'' Had that ill-fated vessel been owned, manned, or commanded by Maoris, or had there been Maori passengers on board at the time, we could have understood it, but as it H we give it up. We should like to know why /«' is spelt " /<'<■, '}t> <l P""," I' l '* l " f" t( I''"' l . In conclusion, wc arc of opinion that whatever Hoani Nahi as a legislator may have been, iu matters literaly he is a must unqualified failure.