Walsh. — The Passing of the Maori. 165 



and meeting-house. Although the style and dimensions vary 

 considerably with the importance of the settlement, the general 

 plan is the same. The hall is a long building, entered from the 

 end. A bare strip some 8 ft. or 10 ft. wide runs up the centre 

 of the floor, and the space between this and the side walls is 

 littered down with fern or mangemange, covered with mats of 

 green flax. This serves as a sleeping-place for the Maoris, who 

 lie with their heads towards the wall, from which they are sepa- 

 rated by a kind of narrow trough filled with fern, which acts 

 as a general spittoon. Each Maori, on entering, takes his place 

 — a kind of seniority being observed — the principal men occupy- 

 ing the upper end, and the women and children gathering near 

 the door. The food, which is cooked outside, is set on the 

 floor in the central space, the Maoris squatting in a row along 

 each side. The business — if there is any to be done — is con- 

 ducted by a sort of informal debate, which is often carried on 

 far into the night ; and the hui, for whatever purpose it may 

 have been called together, usually lasts until the stock of pro- 

 visions shows signs of giving out. 



It would be impossible to conceive of a more perfect medium 

 for the dissemination of disease than the hui as it is now con- 

 ducted. As it is important to have plenty of food, the larger 

 meetings are held, if possible, soon after the crops have been 

 harvested — -that is to say, in the late autumn, when the weather 

 is often cold and wet. A crowd of men, women, and children 

 are packed together more closely than the passengers on an 

 emigrant-ship. A large percentage are suffering from some 

 pulmonary complaint, or from some inherited constitutional 

 delicacy which renders them peculiarly accessible to infection. 

 Night and day they are lying in damp clothes — as they never 

 wholly undress — and breathing a mephitic atmosphere, poisoned 

 by the exhalations from so many bodies and from the general 

 spittoon. A person suffering from influenza comes in, and in a 

 few hours the disease has gone the round of the house. Some- 

 times a death occurs, and the body is kept for days in the vicinity 

 of the food, while the tangi (mourning) goes on. Diseases con- 

 tracted at the hui are taken away to the homes of the visitors, 

 where fresh centres of infection are started ; and, although a 

 new supply of bedding is provided, the germs remain about 

 the building, to be nursed into life on the next occasion it is used. 



Wars with the Europeans. 



It was only to be expected that sooner or later the Maoris 

 would come into conflict with the invading race. This first 

 happened when, in 1845, Hone Heke cut down the flagstaff 

 in the Bay of Islands. This action resulted in a war that lasted 



