TE IKA A MAUI or THE FISH OF MAUI

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 476, 6 August 1948, Page 16

TE IKA A MAUI or THE

FISH OF MAUI

(All the Characters are Depicted from Real Life)

S our story opens our young hero -(nor must we _ be ashamed of so open and honest a term) is being paddled swiftly up stream along the banks of the Waikato. The gorge sloped upward, a mottled green of innumerable trees, They flowed down the spurs into the white stream, they plodded upward to the tumbled ridges. In the distance on broad green-brown plateaux they formed a compact mass; like people in St. Peter’s Square come to hear the Pope. The river zigzagged around a dozen spurs. Its curves: had a camber now of chrome, now of silver. Fumeroles blew plumes from the banks. Brown algae grew in hot rivulets, that steamed in soggy junctions in the mild ‘winter air. Language like this is am ornament to our native literature. Sir Hartley Cairngorm bore a name lost now in the mists of this unknown land. The ancient baronetcy had lapsed (or whatever one says when the heir disappears). He sat now in the slim racing canoe and reflectively poked with his toe at the carcase of the Ngahoe tribesman lying in the bottom of the hollowed totara trunk-a peace offering and goodwill gift to the friendly tribes up river, For the year,’ Dear Reader, is 1825, and long before pork and beef became common food in New: Zealand. They halted at mid-day, and Sir Hartley took his fowling-piece and went off into the tall rata forest. Roots crept like pythons and writhed in fhe stream -in the clear water they interlaced and struggled in sudden curves and convolutions. The bluff dripped its green green moss tears into 20 feet of limpid prose. No one noticed this, for Sir Hartley (I, think the "Sir’ should be dropped here because hereditary titles , wilt and droop in this free democratic atmosphere)-no one, I say, noticed any of this for Hartley passed on and forthwith missed two pigeons with the right and left barrels (his eyesight his only. bodily defect). In his jacket pocket was a slim volume of matter of fact Hoface. He read as he walked and was stirred by a chance passage which beginsNota refert meretricis acumina saepe catellam saepe periscelidem raptam . . ee and he blushed and stumbled over rocks : as he reflected whether the little chain was also an anklet adorning the slim olive limbs of the light lady. This led him to think (for his mind was full of Greek and Latin and literature and such like, and German and Celtic, too) of

the lovely Greek word which means having beautiful legs, and he went forward more gently breathing to himself the soft syllables eucnemos, eucnemos, eucnemos, eucnemos, eucnemos .. . There were no more pigeons, none at any. rate as near as 10 feet away, and he returned to the canoe. ._Wainui and Matipo had lunched on sweet potato and a draught from the rivulet. Wainui took up the bow paddle and ‘pushed off,

Matipo commented. gravely in his courteous guttural tongue on Hartley’s nonsuccess with the pigeons, "The pakeha shot well but Te Atua was good to the birds," Musing on’ Matipo’s innate courtesy and gentle tolerance of what must undoubtedly be described as bad shooting Hartley recalled rather anachronistically Abe Lincoln’s epitaph on the Kickapoo IndianHete lies Johnny Kongapod Have mercy 6n him Gracious God As he would do if he were God And You were Johnny Kongapod. * % Bs {Tt was four months later that Hartley, now nearing Auckland, found himself by a fringed pool in the forest at Papakura. He had not yet reached civilisation and his plight was dreadful. His body was emaciated, cut and bruised His clothes were long since worn out and discarded. Sandals of twisted flax and a cloak of the same material were his only covering. _ (This journey is not very well known in the annals of exploration, but it is the greatest epic of all time, It is well known that the Australians and Americans are "better at publicity, and the history ‘of our country has yet to be told.) He ate karaka berries and drank for coffee an infusion of dried karamu seeds. He slept in the wet fern. He studied

his Horace; he recited his Virgil. No missionary zeal inspired his ardours. As a matter of fact he led the natives into some malpractices. Well, here he is by the rock- inden pool. This is about to be described so skip a bit and you'll be right: into the narrative again. He sat on a low shelf beside the outlet and removed his sandals. Surrounding him were graceful tree ferns, punga

and mamaku, and to, his left where the bank inclined upward toward the inlet the sun struck through the trees and lighted a tiny grassy sward. Beyond it and across the pool the grey smooth trunks of matait supported a roof of dark green intertwined with rata vine and glowing with crimson flowers, The little birds were friendly. Fantails. fluttered, swooped and perched and a tiny New Zealand robin without any preliminary perched on his shoulder. He inhaled the fragrance of the place, harsh, yet sweet and aromatic like country wine, like Harris tweed. The pool was cold.* He slipped in silently and bathed his bruised body in the astringent water, allowed it to flow over his limbs and through his hair. He glided under, and stepped out into the sun on the grass bank. He stretched forth his armsliving, burning with a pure gem-like flame, As he did so Hinemoa moved out from behind her sheltering matai trunk... * * ed = ’ ad ALKING down Queen Street, Auck- . land, a day or two later he noticed some new saddles on sale. Their colour reminded him immediately of Hinemoa. This set him off. He thought about her continuously for three weeks. He

thought all the thoughts about Hinemoa that Mr. W. H. Hudson has set forth about Rima, only he thought them much more intensely’ and more delicately, and at even greater length. He’ thought about her spiritually. There was nothing chemical about their affinity. It was spiritual. He made up word pictures of her to tell to Epstein as soan as he got home. How would Epstein represent her hair which seemed to float out behind her like smoke, soft, thick, and dusky. Would her’ sinuous’ form become bulbous, low browed, amorphous, hipless, and’ flat chested? And in the comparison Hartley was obliged to remove and polish his spectacles, which had misted over. At the end of this period of self and other-self contemplation he recollected his duties. He called in great state the following day on Sir Julius Vogel. He was admitted immediately and found the holder®of the Agriculture Portfolio closely examining some _ Californian thistle on his desk. "I’m sorry," said Hartley, "to disturb the Minister at his lunch." Sir Julius laughed heartily at the joke and explained that he had originated it himself some days earlier. "You should take up land," said the Minister. "This country is settling down. Hone Heke has not cut down the flagstaff for three months. The last one erected was of Onekaka steel and turned the edge of his tomahawk." Hartley took up land. He took up a million acres, He cleared it and burnt it and drained it and ploughed it and limed it and rolled it and fenced it and subdivided it and top dressed it and stocked it and grazed it and grumbled at it. ‘He married Hinemoa and had 30 children and wé are all his descendants.

*The whole of this you can find. in a picture in Hochstetter who found the same spot quite undisturbed in 1859.