TWO PERIODS OF MAORI LIFE 55 



descendant of ancestors who have travelled from warmer climes ; in New 

 Zealand he has clung to the coasts, to the thermal regions and to the 

 northern portions of the North Island. The Ngai-Tatara during winter, 

 and whilst planting of crops was in progress, dwelt chiefly about the 

 estuaries of the local rivers. The climate of Tutira was rather too cold 

 and wet, the land usually too poor for the cultivation on a great scale of 

 such exotics as the taro (Colocasia antiquomm), the hue (Lagenatia 

 vulgaris), and the kumara (Ipomcea batatas). On the other hand, 

 the flax (Phormium tenax) x growing about its swamps was celebrated for 

 strength, the shallows of the lake were paved with mussel-beds kakahi 

 (Diplodon lutulentus), the flavour of its eels was unsurpassed. They 

 were speared in the lakes, they were caught in enormous numbers in 

 eel-weirs patunas or in whare tunas built along the edges of streams. 

 In the forests of the interior, pigeon (Carpophaga Novce Zealandice), 

 tui (Prosthemadera Novce Zealandice), and kaka (Nestor meridionalis) 

 abounded ; they were captured by means of decoy birds, or snared by 

 natives ambushed beneath selected trees. Often a superabundance of 

 birds preserved in their own fat was bartered for the delicacies of 

 other hapus. Tools of wood and weapons of stone were manufactured. 

 These relics of bygone days pounders for the softening of flax-fibre, 

 adzes, eel-spears, and bundles of bird-snares hidden in rocks are still 

 from time to time discovered. The womenfolk by many processes 

 worked the tall flax-blades into soft beautiful mats,, or nursing their 

 babies, sung them to sleep with such lullabies as the following : 



E hine e tangi nei ki te makariri i a ia, 

 Kaore nei e hine te ran o te ngahere i a taua. 

 Pinea rawatia ki Tutira ra ; 

 Ki te ue pata, ki te kai rakau. 

 A ehara e hine i te roto hou ; 

 He roto tawhito tonu na matou ko o nut. 

 Ina tonu te raro i potau atu at e hine : 

 Ko Hine-rau-wharariki te hahanu noa nei : 

 Ko tini o hunga ki roto kakati ai e hine. 



1 Through this plant an acquaintance with the Latin tongue is the heritage of every man, 

 woman, and child in New Zealand. All know two words of it Phormium, flax ; tenax, tough. 

 No writer on country matters can forgo the magic words ; even flax-millers attain scholarship. 

 What pax vobiscum was to Wamba, the son of Witless, Phormium tenax is to the New Zealand 

 settler. Wool may be down, stock may be down ; he braces himself in the knowledge that 

 phormium means flax, and tenax tough. 



