Newman. — 0« Maori Dredges. 141 



ally Maori women, have collected shell-fish by wading into water- 

 as deep as they could go, but as they found the kakahi lived in 

 great numbers in the deeper waters they invented this clever 

 and complex machinery for gathering them at greater depths, 

 and these dredges served admirably. The limit of depth at 

 which they could be used was bounded by the length of the 

 tallest pole they could find in the adjacent forest. 



When Maoris fished with a roukakahi they acted as follows : 

 A Maori stood up in the stern of the canoe, and this roukakahi 

 was slipped over the side with its attached net, and tied to it 

 was a sinker of volcanic stones. Some dredges had three sinkers- 

 Attached to the apex of the triangle, firmly bound to it by 

 strong flax string, was a long pole, the one end at the apex, the 

 other in the hands of the fisher. The Maori felt about until 

 the dredge touched bottom, then he began to work. He rolled 

 the stick about from side to side, and, of course, the dredge at 

 the bottom, and so he went on dragging the dredge and the net, 

 now fast filling with shell-fish. This was very laborious and 

 tiring work. Mr. J. T. Smith says in a previous article in the 

 Transactions that this work was hard and fatiguing, and an old 

 Maori couplet praised a Maori who worked long and industriouslv 

 at it as being a particularly good husband — a great provider of 

 shell-fish. Colenso, in his collection of Maori proverbs, men- 

 tions " Taane roukakahi mom" which he translates, " The 

 husband who is dexterous at getting shell-fish in deep water will 

 find a loving wife." Strange to say, Colenso adds in his com- 

 ment that the work of gathering shell-fish in deep water was very 

 arduous, and writes as though he had never seen or heard of 

 these dredges. Having roukakahi-ed one patch of lake-bottom, 

 the canoe was paddled to fresh ground, and the work began 

 anew. 



On Lake Taupo, where fresh-water crayfish were caught, 

 the method of using a toothless dredge, or hao, was slightly 

 different. My friend Mr. L. Grace tells me that the canoe was 

 fastened to a tree on the bank, and then rowed out to the full 

 length of a many-fathomed rope. The hao was put overboard, 

 but not worked from side to side in the same way as a roukakahi ; 

 the long pole was so held that the apex and part of the dredge 

 were a little distance above the lake-floor. In this way the 

 hopping crayfish were enfolded in the net. The Maori in the 

 bow slowly pulled the canoe over the lake's surface till it got to 

 the tree anchor, whilst the Maori in the stern held the dredge 

 in proper position to catch the koura. The upper lid of the net 

 was kept open by means of a string tied to it and the long pole, 

 and thus it was kept open wide enough to engulf the koura. 

 The apex of the dredge was held a few inches from the bottom 

 in order better to catch the jumping crayfish. 



