CoLENSo. — Beminiscences of the Ancient Maoris. 467 



ropes so made, they had also flat ones of various widths, which 

 were plaited or woven, resenibliiif^ our webs and bands, and 

 much used as shoulder-straps in carrying back-loads ; also 

 double -twisted ropes, and three -strand ones; likewise a 

 remarkably strong one that was four-sided. This was made of 

 the unscraped leaves of the cabbage- tree, that had been gathered, 

 and carefully wilted in the shade, and then soaked in water to 

 make them pliant. It was used for their anchors, and other 

 heavy canoe and house requirements. The leaves of the flax 

 would not be suitable for this purpose. I have had all those 

 different kinds of cords and ropes made for me in former years, 

 but I much fear tlie art of making them is lost. 



There were also their nets for catching fish and for other 

 purposes, with their meshes of various dimensions. Their 

 smaller ones (hand-nets) were made of all manner of shapes and 

 sizes. Some of them were dexterously stretched over circular 

 skeleton framework. And their large seine-nets, used for 

 catchins mackerel and other summer fish that swam in shoals, 

 were very long and very strong, made of the leaves of flax, split 

 and prepared, but not scraped, and completely fitted up with 

 floats, and sinkers, and ropes, and other needful appurtenances. 

 Cook, who was astonished at their length, has written much 

 in praise of them. I make one striking quotation: "When 

 we showed the natives our seine, which is such as the King's 

 ships are generally furnished with, they laughed at it, and in 

 triumph produced then* own, which was indeed of an enormous 

 size, and made of a kind of grass [Pltonnium] which is very 

 strong. It was five fathoms deep, and by the room it took up 

 could not be less than three or four hundred fathoms long."* 

 (Voyages, vol. ii , first voyage, pp. 369, 370.) 



In residing at Dannevirke, m the Forty-mile Bush district, 

 during several months, I have often noticed the Maoris from 

 neighbouring villages coming to the stores there to purchase 

 tether and other ropes and hues (large and small) for their use 

 with their horses, ploughs, carts, pigs, &c., while on their own 

 lands and close to them the flax plants grew in abundance. 

 These Maoris had very little to occupy their time, and could 

 easily have made common lines and ropes for their own use if 

 they knew how to spin them as their fathers did, and also 

 possessed their forefathers' love of work. 



* An interesting historical tragic story of the cleverly-planned taking 

 and death of a large number of Maoris in one of these seine-nets, 

 together with the fish (illustrating what Cook has written of their im- 

 mense size), and of the deadly warfare that followed, is given in the 

 Transactions N.Z. Institute, vol. xiii., p. 43. 



