Walsh. — The Manuautc, or Maori Kite. 



sn 



have brought the practice with them ; while in most places they have intro- 

 duced the material of which tradition states his kite was originally made — 

 viz., the ante or paper-mulberry, which gives to the New Zealand kite its 

 generic name — the term manuaute meaning "the bird (made of) the aute.'^ 



This plant, a small tree with rough trilobed leaves, known to botanists as 

 the Broussonetia papyrifera, is common to most of the Pacific islands, where 

 to this day its bark is used for the manufacture of tapa, or Native cloth. 

 Together with the kuniara or sweet potato, the hue or calabash, the ti pore 

 or Cordyline terminalis, and probably the karaka or native laurel, it was 

 introduced into New Zealand by the Maoris in some of their earlier migra- 

 tions. Though specimens of the tree, as well as of the cloth which was made 

 from it, were seen by Cook and others of the early navigators, it never seems 

 to have been very abundant. Being a tropical plant, it would no doubt 

 need a good deal of care in the cultivation ; and as soon as the Maoris were 

 able to obtain a supply of cotton and linen cloth it was neglected, and be- 

 came the prey of wandering cattle, and gradually died out. Parkinson, on 

 a visit to the Bay of Islands in 1844, heard of some plants still existing 

 in Hokianga, and managed to get a few cuttings from the chief Patuone, 

 which, however, he failed to propagate ; and Colenso, writing in 1880, was 

 of opinion that at that time not a single vestige of the ante tree was remain- 

 ins in New Zealand. 



Fig. 1. — Manuaute : Sir George Grey's model in Auckland Museum. 



It is probable that the first kites made in New Zealand were constructed 

 on the Polynesian model, in which the aide was used in the form of tapa, 

 or paper cloth, stretched on a frame ; but the difficulty of obtaining a suffi- 

 cient quantity of the bark, and perhaps the unsuitability of the climate for 

 the manufacture of tapa, necessitated the adoption of another material, 

 especially for the larger kites, and a substitute was found in the leaves of 

 the raupo (a kind of giant sedge — Typha latifolia), a coarse tussock-grass 

 named upoko tangata, or in the flower-stems of the kakaho {Arundo con- 

 spicua). Even after the plant had become scarce the connection with the 

 aute was kept up, the heads of the kites being sometimes made of that 

 material while the body and wings were commoner stuff. 



All the larger kites consisted of a light frame of twigs or reeds to which 

 were sewn the raupo, upoko tangata, or whatever other material might be 

 used to hold the wind. Even when the aute was used it was employed — 

 at least, in later times — in the form of strips of the inner bark ; in any case, 

 there is no record of its use in the form of tapa for this purpose in New 

 Zealand. 



