Rough on the Maoris.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 436, 1 April 1890, Page 2

Rough on the Maoris.

Is his contributions to the Melbourne Ago and Leader the ‘ Vagabond’is severe on the Maori race. He thus writes of his trip to Ohinemutu:—Mr Graham built the Lake House, but tho ground landlords did not part with their titles. There are about 30 natives interested in the land on which the hotel is built. Each one will tell you that it belongs to him. All day long they loaf about the bar and in the public rooms, with their wives and sisters and cousins, the Maori relationship of cousin being a very elastic one. Some are full blooded, some half castes—the half castes, perhaps, being the most objectionable. They force their services on you as guides, they beg liquor from you, they organise haka dances for the edification of all tourists. Young female children are trained in the most indecent measures of the haka. The women all dance and posture with pleasure. Ha'f stripped of their European dresses the indecency is greater, the suggestiveness more pronounced than in the nude dances of of the Samoan, The men cheer on the women and get drunk on Auckland beer at the tourist’s expense.

At Ohinemutu the mile Maori o£ the present devotes himself to football, the female to haka dancing. Travelling football teams make large gains. The haka can always be made a source of profit from the New Ohum. Old travellers are not particularly shocked at the absence of manners and the peculiarity of customs of any people. But I am disgusted with the shameless indecency and the grasping greed of the Maoris at Ohinemutu. “Do the men here ever work 1" I ask one man who speaks good English. “ Scarcely any I ” he frankly admits, “ We live on our rents and what we pick up.” The " picking up ” takes all sorts of forms. Girls who are not dancing the haka cover their h«ads and turn their faces to the wall. When astonished, you ask the reason of this, you are told by another girl or man, “They afraid of the Pakelli 1” A Pakeha globe trotter was so flattered at the modest terror his presence inspired that he emptied hie pockets, and divided the silver amongst these modest girls, which in turn, we may be sure, was divided amongst the men. Ondof these girls hides her face and gets behind the door as I approach. Not receiving the slightest attention, she puts out her nose and hand from her shawl,and says “ Pakeha ! shilling,” which she does not get. Young men clad in jerseys, bearing the letters “RFC.”— Rotorua Football Club, haunt you with lists for subscriptions to help send a Maori team to England. There are all sorts of “ confidence t'icks” tried upon you to extort money, and all day long the men drink beer and nlay billiards, and the women chew the ends of sperm candles, keeping up a continual clicking with their tongues, and at night they dance the haka even if there is no one to pay for witnessing it. Nowhere in the world have I found men of my own race to ba held of so little account as amongst the Maoris. Nowhere in the world have I found an aboriginal raca so petted and spoilt by the conqueror. A Maori thinks himself better than a white man. If he is decently behaved to you, it is only with the idea that he will help 'to empty your pockets. When old and young men cometomeand shake hands saying Tenakoe, literally •' here you are,” I recog. nise it as a sort of grace before moat. I know it will be urged by Philo-Maoris that the natives here have been oorruoted bv contact with the Europeans, and especially the rich globe trotter who throws his money about foolishly in payment for such amusements as haka dancing. My first acquaintance with the Maori in any number was in Taranaki, some years ago. The natives of the King Country were present in force on a market day. No one can say that they were spoilt by communication with globe trotters. One saw there the habits of the Maori as he is at home—lazy and selfish. For instance, I saw two great strong men lift big burdens on to the shoulders of old women' who staggered away under the loads.