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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 12 (March 1, 1935)

The Wisdom of the Maori

page 30

The Wisdom of the Maori

Teaching the Language.

Lord Bledisloe, in his capacity of Governor-General, never let slip an opportunity of urging the cultivation of the Maori traditions and poetical and artistic lore, and also the Maori language. In his farewell address to the Waikato Maoris, an address directed also at the pakehas of the Dominion, he appealed once more to the people to adhere to the best things of the past, and in particular the Maori tongue. He emphasised the lamentable neglect of the language, and regretted the fact that “few public men in New Zealand can speak the beautiful Maori tongue, and therefore few can put themselves in the Maori's place and find out what his true aspirations are.” He hoped, for the sake not only of the Maori people but of all sections of the community, that a greater knowledge of the Maori language and customs would be developed.

Wise counsel from a great man who has shown again and again during his sojourn with us that he is heart and soul a patriotic New Zealander as well as an Englishman. He has indicated a great defect in our system of education. The Maori population is increasing steadily; it will not be many years, at the present rate of progress, before it is up to 100,000. The Maori has regained the old zest in life, the will to get on and become a strong people again, and the importance of education in all forms of native culture is gradually being realised.

But education lags behind. The language is not encouraged by the bodies that control the schooling of the New Zealander, either in the primary or the secondary Schools. Indeed I know that it is actively discouraged in some native schools. I have even heard of Maori children being forbidden to speak their own tongue in the playground. The idea is that they hear enough Maori at home, and that every effort should be made at school to concentrate on English. The intention may be good, but the effect is to make the children rather ashamed of their parent tongue.

A Necessary Subject.

In my opinion the time has come for the inclusion of Maori in the pass subjects necessary for a New Zealand University degree in Arts. At present it is an optional subject, and as we know, little or no interest is given to merely optional subjects. A vast amount of the work devoted to French, for example, could be diverted to Maori. It is likely to be of more use and interest to a New Zealander than any other language except English. Latin is indispensable to a student who would understand the origin of his own language; but French I would make a purely optional subject. Maori emphatically, should be taught in the secondary schools. It has its literary culture equally with French.

As for the Governor-General's reference to the want of knowledge of the Maori tongue amongst public men in New Zealand, I need not discuss that here. Sufficient to say that I would like to see our public men, and especially the young “coming-on” men, take the great Englishman's sage counsel to heart.

The Tale of Horohoro.

In last month's “Railways Magazine” I discussed some place names. One I shall take for a topic just now is Horohoro. That flat-topped mountain range, lifting like a huge violet table from the plains, is a wonderful landscape feature when you come on it round a bend in the Rotorua-Atiamuri road. There was a little isolated Maori kainga at its foot, on the gently sloping talus of good volcanic soil. Now there is a well-cultivated native farming area with modern homes about the base of the ancient mountain. It is a fascinating skyline, that table with a vertical uplift of more than a thousand feet (its summit between 2400 and 2500 feet above sea-level), its tremendous eastern face of rocky wall, broken into innumerable chines. Horohoro I have seen translated as “fallen, fallen,” in supposed allusion to the geological cataclysm of old which left this Maori “mesa” standing there sharp-cut against the sky. Also, “horohoro” might refer to landslips, or falls of rock from the cliffs. But the root word “horo” means something quite different.

A wise man of the Arawa once discoursed to me on some of these names and their origins. The full name of the mountain (it is really the butt-end of the range which extends from the Hautere-Mamaku plateau) was given by this authority on local history as “Te Horohoronga-nui-a-Tia,” which means “The Great Swallowing of Tia.” This ancestor Tia lived six centuries ago; he was one of the chiefs who landed at Maketu from the Polynesian immigrant canoe Arawa.

Tia and the Tapu.

He set forth into the interior to explore and claim land for himself and his family and followers. Some incident occurred here which placed him under the temporary ban of tapu. It became necessary to remove this inconvenient restriction before he could eat or travel, and so here at the base of the strange mountain, then nameless, a priestly ceremony was performed. The principal part of the rite consisted in the swallowing (horoho-ronga) of some specially charmed or karakia'd food which had been cooked in a sacred fire. It had to be gulped down without remaining long in the mouth. Thus was Tia freed from the wizardly spell, and the incident was commemorated in the name given to the place where the explorers had camped.

There is an alternative explanation of the name, which was given me by an elder of the Ngati-Raukawa tribe, whose territory extends from the westward to Horohoro. This variant means “The Sacred Cleansing of the Hands of Tia”—in the Maori “Te Horohoroinga-o-nga-Ringaringa-a-Tia.” Here the root word is “horoi,” to wash. The story pertaining to it, as preserved by the Ngati-Raukawa, is that a member of the travelling party died there, and Tia having handled the body at the burial in a cave, was temporarily tapu and therefore unable to use his hands to feed himself. The rite of “pure” or “whakanoa,” was performed. The prayers were recited, and Tia ceremonially washed his hands—“out, damned spot!”—in a stream, to cleanse them from the imaginary fatal tapu. Not until this and divers other rites were observed did Tia the tohunga feel free to take his customary nourishment again, whatever it was in those days when everything was new in Aotearoa.

So there is a choice of name-origins there for you, but the basic incident is the same, ridding Tia of the troublesome tapu at the base of the grey mountain. This Tia was responsible also for the name of Lake Taupo, but that is a rather long story which will keep for another occasion.

High Gear.

Traffic Inspector: “Now, Miss, what gear were you in at the time of the accident?”

Demure Miss: “Oh, I had on a black beret, tan shoes and a tweed sports dress.”

page 31
The Royal Train—A Product of New Zealand's Railway Industry. (Rly. Publicity photos.) The above are illustrations of various compartments on the Royal train, built at the Otahuhu Railway Workshops, Auckland, for the tour over the North Island lines by His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester. (1) The Royal car; (2) the lounge; (3) the Duke's dining car; (4) the Duke's bedroom; (5) the general dining car; (6) the kitchen; (7) lounge in the Ministerial car; (8) the official car.

The Royal Train—A Product of New Zealand's Railway Industry.
(Rly. Publicity photos.)
The above are illustrations of various compartments on the Royal train, built at the Otahuhu Railway Workshops, Auckland, for the tour over the North Island lines by His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester. (1) The Royal car; (2) the lounge; (3) the Duke's dining car; (4) the Duke's bedroom; (5) the general dining car; (6) the kitchen; (7) lounge in the Ministerial car; (8) the official car.

page 32