MAORI ABORIGINAL MANUFACTURES. 489 
with greater ingenuity than others, and keener perceptions of what is 
applicable for their various purposes. Some savages know no other 
adornment or covering than perishable leaves, whilst others have 
carried the weaver's art to perfection, and placed all those members of 
the vegetable kingdom under tribute that can yield them a fibre. "The 
New Zealander," says the Rev. Richard Taylor, "is acquainted with 
every department of knowledge common to his race ; he can build his 
house ; he can make his canoe, his nets, his hooks, his lines ; he can 
manufacture snares to suit every bird ; he can fabricate his garments, 
and every tool and implement he requires, whether for agriculture or 
war ; he can make ornaments of ivory, or of the hardest stone ; and 
these too with the most simple and apparently unsuitable instruments, 
sawing his ivory without loss, with a mussel shell, and his hard green 
jade-stone one piece with another, with only the addition of a little 
sand and water ; and all these works, it must be remembered, he could 
accomplish without the aid of iron, which was unknown before Cook's 
time. The native is not deficient in those arts which are essential to 
his comfort. His house constructed with great skill and elegance, his 
garments with much beauty, and ornamented with a border of ela- 
borately wrought embroidery." 
The articles of clothing used formerly and still partially retained by 
the Maoris, were in most cases manufactured from the native flax or 
Phormium tenax. The Maoris are very successful in the preparation of 
the fibre of this plant, as the beautiful silky texture of their mats shows. 
They cultivated the plant, carefully selecting the various kinds of leaves 
for the different purposes to which the fibre was to be applied. The 
coarser fibre was used for rough common mantles or mats, and the fine 
silky threads for their fishing lines and best garments. There are 
several kinds of flax mats. That kind called kaitaka is the softest and 
most valued ; they vary in size, somebeing as large as twelve feet long and 
seven wide. They are made of close parallel lines of soft twisted flax, 
with transverse threads at intervals of about an inch. The " weft," if 
we may so call it, is knotted round the warp, six or seven threads of 
which are taken up in each knot. They generally have borders of about 
a foot in width, of closely woven material, beautifully embroidered in 
ingenious patterns with black or red threads. The weaving of one of 
these mats occupied one person eight months. The inhabitants of the 
East Cape were noted as the most expert manufacturers of this mat. 
There were several very fine specimens of the kaitaka mat in the Exhi- 
bition. 
Another description of mat is called korowai. It is generally about 
six feet square, smooth inside, but having outside a number of black 
strings seven inches long dangling from it. This mat, like the kaitaka, 
has a very open texture. 
The mat called taupo is made of flax leaves, seven inches long and 
