OUR NATIVE NEIGHBOURS.
A great friend of ours, and a near neighbour, is Tama-te-Whiti, the old
Maori. He is not _the_ chief of the Ngatewhatua, but as he comes of the
royal stock he is _a_ chief. He belongs to the caste styled tana, or
chieftains, a degree above that of rangatira, or simple
gentlemen-warriors. In the old feudal times--for the ancient Maori
system may be so designated--Tama would have held a delegated authority
over some portion of the tribe, just as a Norman baron did in the elder
world.
Now the tribe is very small, having been almost exterminated by the
Ngapuhi fifty years ago. Three or four families form the section over
which Tama presides. But civilization and European colonization have
abolished the old order of things, so that even a head chief's authority
is now more nominal than real.
In his youth Tama was a warrior, having taken part in the battle which
ended with the affair at Marahemo, as described in the previous chapter.
A fugitive from his own district, his hopes of one day becoming a lordly
ruler over some large kainga of his own being shattered by defeat, he
fell in with Samuel Marsden, and by that Apostle of New Zealand was
converted to Christianity.
So now, in his old age, Tama is a worthy exponent of the new
dispensation. Born to warfare, he is now an ordained deacon of the
Anglican Church; instead of cannibalism, he has taken to thrifty
farming; instead of fighting, he preaches among his countrymen; instead
of leading a ferocious taua, he finds himself the venerated pastor of a
little community of earnest Christians.
Tama's place is some seven or eight miles away, down the Arapaoa. He has
a very comfortable little kainga, a fenced-in enclosure, wherein are
raupo whares built in the best styles of Maori architecture, with little
verandahs in front of them, and curiously carved doors and fronts.
Here reside Tama and his wife, and one or two others; while just across
the river is a larger kainga, where live the remainder of Tama's flock.
Round about his whares is a plentiful clearing, whereon are to be seen
pigs and poultry, a few cattle, and a horse or two. On a well-selected
hill-side close by are his cultivations--some few acres of maize,
potatoes, kumera, melons, taro, fruit-trees, and so on, surrounded by a
strong stake-fence. A few yards below the kainga is the beach, where a
capital boat shows that Tama prefers Pakeha workmanship to the native
article--a canoe that also lies near. Nets and other matters prove that
he reaps a harvest in the water as well as on land.
A very "comfortable" man is our Maori friend, for he has a claim over
many hundred acres of good land around, some of which has already been
sold to the Pakeha. Much of this is heavily timbered with valuable kauri
and puriri. Bushmen cut on his land to a small extent, and pay him a
royalty of a pound per tree. We often say, jokingly, that the old fellow
must have a tolerably well-filled stocking somewhere.
Tama is amazingly industrious. He and his wife together get through an
immense amount of work. The produce of the farm is amply sufficient to
provide them with all necessaries. More than that, the surplus produce
probably pays for all the groceries, tools, and clothes required by the
family. His seventy years weigh lightly on him. He is as strong and
active as most men of forty, and is never idle. He fully understands the
duty that devolves on him of setting an example to his flock, as well
as of preaching to them.
Tama's ordinary costume is much the same as ours, except that he prefers
to go barefooted. On Sundays and occasions of state he dons the black
cloth and white choker of an orthodox clergyman; but even then he avoids
boots. Only on very special occasions, such as when there is a grand
gathering at the township, or on the rare occurrence of an English
clergyman's visit, only then does Tama put on boots; even then he brings
them in his hand to the door of the place of meeting, puts them on
before entering, and takes them off with evident relief directly he
feels free to go.
Tama is about five feet ten inches in height. He is broad and square,
very muscular, and without an inch of fat on him. His body is long and
his legs short; the usual Maori characteristic. His face bears the
elaborate moku that denotes his rank, and is without hair. The hair of
his head is grizzly; but his features, the shape of his head, and the
expression of his eyes, bespeak an intelligence superior to that of many
Europeans who come in contact with him.
Tama visits us very frequently, and often brings his wife with him. She
is a pleasant, buxom body, with a contented smile always on her face.
Though not young, being probably between thirty and forty, she has not
yet grown at all hag-like, as Maori women generally do. She dresses
cleanly and nicely--cotton or chintz gowns being her usual wear--but she
leans to an efflorescence of colour in her bonnet, and has a perfect
passion for brilliant tartan shawls. I think I once saw her at the
Otamatea races in a blue silk dress. But, both she and her husband have
discarded all the feathers and shells and pebbles that are purely native
adornments.
Astute and intelligent as Tama really is, it is, of course, to be
expected that he cannot comprehend all the novelties of civilization.
His deportment is always admirable, and he would carry himself through a
drawing-room without any sensible _gaucherie_. He would be calm,
composed, and dignified among any surroundings, however strange to him;
only his keen and roving eyes would betray his internal wonder. Like
Maoris in general, he is critically observant of every little thing
among his Pakeha friends, but, with true native courtesy, endeavours to
hide from you that he is so. But the extraordinary mixture of grave
intelligence and childish simplicity in him is perpetually leading to
very quaint little incidents.
One day, when routing among the "personals" I had brought with me from
England, I discovered at the bottom of my chest an umbrella. Now, in
England, I suppose most people consider an umbrella as quite an
indispensable article of attire, and even in colonial cities its use is
by no means uncommon; but I need hardly say that in the bush such a
thing is never seen.
I brought out my relic of other days, and displayed it to the boys in
the shanty. It was received with great applause, and I was unmercifully
chaffed. It pleases our community to regard all the comforts and
luxuries of a more complete civilization as effeminacies; and it is the
received theory among us that we live the purest and highest life,
having turned our backs upon all the corrupting influences of an effete,
old world.
There is among us a party, headed by O'Gaygun, who take the position of
ultra-conservatives; the object of their conservatism being the keeping
alive of all the most primitive usages of the bush. To them anything new
is an insult; the introduction of imported comforts and appliances a
horrible iniquity. It will be remembered how fierce was O'Gaygun's wrath
on the occasion when forks and spoons were brought into the shanty. Now,
his sublime indignation was roused to the utmost at the spectacle of
such an outrageous incongruity as an umbrella, in the pure and holy
atmosphere of our shanty. An umbrella! Did it not convey an instant
recollection of all the worst emasculating tendencies from which we had
come out? Why, it was almost as bad as that acme of horrors, a
chimney-pot hat!
"Smash it! Burn it!" he shouted. "Mother av Moses! f'what nixt?"
However, it was eventually decided that I should give the umbrella to
old Tama, it being a handsome one, with carved ivory handle, silver
mounting and crest, etc. This would ensure the removal of the obnoxious
invention from the shanty; and, moreover, so O'Gaygun declared, the vile
thing would be an acceptable addition to a museum of Pakeha curiosities,
which, he said, Tama was collecting.
The next time that Tama visited us I formally presented him with the
umbrella, giving him the minutest instructions concerning the spreading
and furling of it. He had taken a strong fancy to me; and was much
pleased with the gift. His first inquiry was, naturally, what I expected
to get out of him by such a splendid gift. Knowing that it would be
futile to attempt to persuade him that I gave the thing freely, and
without expecting any return, I said that, although the umbrella was
worth a mere ponamu,[6] at least, yet that I should be satisfied if he
would give me a kitful of taro in exchange.
This thoroughly jumped with the old man's humour. Not only did he shake
hands with me, but he also accorded me the nose salutation. The rubbing
of noses is now disused; and when a Maori confers it on a Pakeha it
means an extra display of feeling, almost a making brotherhood. It was
the highest honour old Tama could pay me.
I thought I had fully explained to the reverend gentleman the uses of an
umbrella. I had over and over again hammered into him that it was meant
to protect one from rain. But it appears that the idea failed to reach
his mind.
When Tama left the shanty it looked threatening to rain, so I unfurled
the umbrella, and placed it open in his hand. He stumped off proudly
with it held above him. We watched him go down the clearing towards the
river, where his boat was moored. Presently it came on to rain in
earnest. Then Tama seemed to hesitate, it evidently occurring to him
that something was wrong. In an undecided sort of way he inverted the
umbrella, and held it handle upwards in front of him; but as the rain
came thicker and faster, even this seemed unsatisfactory.
At last he stopped altogether, having apparently come to the conclusion
that the wet would injure the umbrella. After a prolonged struggle, for
the catch was a mystery to his unaccustomed fingers, he managed to
close it. Then he took off his coat, laid it flat upon the ground, and
placing the umbrella upon it, wrapped that up in the coat. Lastly, he
cut some strips from a flax-bush close by, and carefully tied up the
parcel. Then he put it under his arm, and marched off in his
shirt-sleeves contentedly, evidently feeling that he had got the better
of the pouring rain.
Tama keeps the umbrella stowed away in the recesses of his whare. He
often tells me, with a quiet, good-humoured sneer, as of one talking to
a child, that it does not keep off the rain. His view is that I, in my
incomprehensible Pakeha way, imagine the thing to be an anti-rain
fetish; a notion which superior Maori wisdom has found to be erroneous.
I saw that umbrella once again. It was a fine moonlit night, and two or
three of us were rowing up the river on a return from some excursion. On
the way we passed a boat-load of Maoris coming down. In the stern of
their boat sat Tama, and above him he held the umbrella open. As the
boats crossed, he called to me:--
"It is not raining to-night. But it is not this thing that keeps it off;
it is God only who does that!"
And so the good man went on his way, doubtlessly glowing at the thought
that he had fitly rebuked my folly; for, like some other Christians,
though he might retain some superstitions of his own, yet those are
real, and all other people's false.
On another occasion Old Colonial had been away in Australia. On his
return, Tama and his wife came up to welcome him home again. Old
Colonial had brought back presents for all our Maori friends; and he had
selected for Tama a silver watch, with a gorgeous guard and seals. This
pleased the old fellow mightily; and for three mortal hours did Old
Colonial strive to instruct him in how to tell the time, and how to wind
it up. He thought at last that he had thoroughly succeeded in
enlightening the Maori about his new acquisition. Tama departed with
ill-concealed glee, stopping every now and then, as he went, to listen
to the watch ticking.
However, the next morning, as we sat at breakfast, Tama appeared, with a
serious and sad expression on his face. He would eat nothing; but,
drawing Old Colonial aside, communicated to him the distressing
intelligence that the watch had _died_ during the night. Without
betraying any amusement, Old Colonial wound up the watch again, and
proceeded to give another lecture on its action to the ancient child.
He went away apparently satisfied, and much lightened in his mind; but
we began to have a fear that the watch would prove an injudicious
present. The next morning Tama appeared again, with the same sad and
serious aspect, this time complicated with a look of intense puzzlement.
He contemplated Old Colonial's hands as he wound up the watch again and
set it going. This was a total mystery to the old fellow. He said he had
been "doing that" to the watch all night long, talking to it, and
telling it not to die. We opined that he had not succeeded in opening
the case of the watch, but had sat twiddling the key about the outside
of it.
The same thing went on day after day. Tama began to grow weak and ill.
He was haggard with anxiety, spending his days in listening to the
regular tick-tick of the watch, and his nights in trying to keep it
alive. In vain he sat up with it night after night, holding it in his
hands, caressing it, wrapping it in warm clothes, and laying it beside
the fire, even, so he told us, reading the Bible and praying for it. In
spite of this generous treatment the watch invariably died about five
o'clock in the morning. Then the miserable proprietor had to take his
boat and row up the eight miles of river that lay between his place and
ours.
At last the old fellow began to get a better idea of the hang of the
thing. He essayed to wind the watch at night, but failed, and in some
indescribable way managed to break the key. Then the charm was
dissolved. Feeling that his health was becoming impaired by his devotion
to this Pakeha fetish, and that consideration finally overcoming his
pride in its possession, he returned the watch to Old Colonial. He said
it was "Kahore pai;" or, as a Scotsman would put it, "no canny."
Tama keeps the guard and seals to wear on festive occasions. But the
watch, no. He has had enough of such silly things. Henceforth, as
formerly, the sun will suffice him for a timekeeper. That is not given
to dying, nor does it require sitting up with at night and such like
attentions, and it manages its own winding up.
We have other Maori neighbours besides Tama and his immediate following.
There are several families living on the different rivers and creeks
round about, and with them all we are on friendly terms; with some we
are passably intimate, though with none quite so affectionately at one
as with Tama. Perhaps our next best friends would be found at Tanoa.
Tanoa is a large kainga on the Otamatea river, and lies about sixteen
miles across the bush from our farm, or somewhat more by the water-road.
It contains a population of two or three hundred; men, women, and
children. This Maori town may be considered the metropolis of the
Ngatewhatua tribe.
Tanoa is prettily situated, for the Otamatea, though a larger river than
the Pahi, is very picturesque in parts. The kainga lies embosomed in
orchards of peach and pear, cherry and almond, and extensive
cultivations and grass-paddocks surround it. Most of the houses are, of
course, the usual raupo whares, but there are carpentered frame-houses
in the kainga as well.
A Wesleyan mission has been established in this place for about a score
of years; and an English minister and schoolmaster reside permanently at
it. The former has great influence with his flock, who are fervent
Christians to a man. The latter is bringing up the rising generation to
a standard of education that would put to shame many a rural village of
the old country.
The ariki of the Ngatewhatua lives at Tanoa. He is between forty and
fifty, if as much, a very tall and very portly personage. He is a great
man, corporeally certainly, and, perhaps, in other ways as well. Arama
Karaka, or Adam Clark in Pakeha pronunciation, has had more English
education than Tama, and is altogether of larger mind. Nevertheless, we
do not feel that we can like him quite so well as our dear old
barbarian.
Arama rules his little community in paternal and patriarchal spirit. He
understands the Pakeha better than many Maoris; and in most things
accepts the guidance of his friend, the missionary. He carries on
affairs of state in a manner blended of Maori and Pakeha usages. He is,
of course, a politician, and takes a leading part in the local
elections. But he adheres to Maori customs in their modified and
civilized form, and may be called a Conservative in such things.
Arama has a pet theory, on which he often enlarges in picturesque style
to such Pakehas as he considers as of more than common note. Pre-eminent
among these is Old Colonial. Indeed, our chum is generally looked upon
by the Maoris as a sort of chief among the Pakehas of the district. His
experience and acumen have made him a general referee among the Kaipara
settlers; and, in all important matters, he is usually the interpreter
and spokesman between them and the natives. Moreover, he is now the
oldest settler in the district; that is, he is not the oldest man, but
has been in the Kaipara longer than any other Pakeha, having come here
before any settlement had been made in this part. And so he is an old
and intimate friend of the Maoris.
To him, then, I have heard Arama discoursing on his project for the
regeneration of the Maori race, talking as one chief among men may talk
to another. For the ariki is thoroughly aware of the gradual extinction
which is coming for his race. He sees and knows that the Maori is dying
out before the Pakeha, and his great idea is how the former may be
perpetuated.
Says he to Old Colonial, for example, somewhat as follows:--
"Oh, friend! What shall be for the Maori? Where are they now since the
coming of the Pakeha? The forest falls before the axe of the Pakeha; the
Maori birds have flown away, and strange Pakeha birds fly above the new
cornfields; the Pakeha rat has chased away the kiore; there are Pakeha
boats on our waters, Pakeha fish in our rivers. All that was is gone;
and the land of the Maori is no longer theirs. God has called to the
Maori people, and they go. The souls of our dead crowd the path that
leads to the Reinga.
"Lo! the Pakeha men are very many. It is good that they should see our
maidens, and it is good that they should marry them. Then there will be
children that shall live, and a new race of Maori blood. So there shall
be some to say in the time to come, 'This is the land of our mothers.
This was the land of the Maori before the Pakeha came out of the sea.'
"Oh, friend! send your young men to Tanoa, that they may see our
maidens, and may know that they are good for wives. The mihonere and the
kuremata[7] have taught them the things of the Pakeha. It is good that
we should cause them so to marry."
Thus does Arama propound his plan for a fusion between the races. Still
more to further it, he proposes to endow certain young ladies of his
tribe with considerable areas of land, in the event of any
Pakeha--_rangatira_ Pakeha--who may be acceptable to the tribe, offering
to marry any of them. We have tried to urge the Little'un, or the Saint,
or even O'Gaygun into some such match; but they are shy, I suppose, and
do not seem to fancy taking "a savage woman to rear their dusky race."
Yet it would be unfair to call the brunette beauties of Tanoa savages.
_Place aux dames!_ Let us get on to consider the ladies.
Ema, and Piha, and Ana, and Hirene, and Mehere; there they are, the pick
and particular flower of all that is beautiful, fashionable, young, and
_marriageable_ in Tanoa. Bright and cheerful, neat and comely, pleasant
partners at a bush-ball are these half-Anglicized daughters of the
Ngatewhatua. They can prattle prettily in their soft Maori-English,
while their glancing eyes and saucy lips are provoking the by no means
too hard hearts of Pakeha bushmen.
Ah! live in the bush, reader! Live and work from month's end to month's
end without even a sight of a petticoat, and then go slap into the
middle of a "spree" at some such place as Tanoa or Te Pahi. Then you
would appreciate the charms of our Maori belles. Under the influence of
music and the dance, supple forms and graceful motions, scented hair and
flower-wreaths, smiles and sparkling eyes, the graces of nature not
wholly lost under the polish of civilization, you would say our Maori
girls were very nice indeed. And so say all of us, _although_ the Saint
and the Little'un and O'Gaygun hold aloof from matrimony--as yet.
These Maori maidens are not to be thought of as savages. Far from it.
They can read and they can write, in English as well as Maori. They can
read the newspaper or the Bible to their less accomplished papas and
mammas. They can cipher and sew; have an idea of the rotundity of the
earth, with some knowledge of the other countries beyond the sea. They
are fully up in all the subjects that are usually taught in Sunday
schools. They can play croquet--with flirtation accompaniment--and wear
chignons. Oh no! they are not savages. At least, _I_ should say not.
But far pre-eminent among the young ladies of Tanoa is Rakope. She is
the daughter of Mihake, the nephew and heir of Arama, and who is himself
a great favourite and good friend of ours. Mihake is a jolly,
good-tempered kind of man, very knowing in stock and farming matters,
and a frequent guest of ours. His daughter, as Arama is childless, ranks
as the principal unmarried lady of the tribe, and most worthy is she to
bear such a dignity.
O Rakope! princess of the Ngatewhatua and queen of Maori beauty! how am
I to describe the opulence of your charms, your virtues, and your
accomplishments? How am I to convey an idea of what you really are to
the dull and prejudiced intellects of people in far-off foggy Britain?
Yet have I sworn, as your true knight, O beautiful Rakope! to noise your
fame abroad to the four corners of the earth, with the sound of shouting
and of trumpets!
Prepare, O reader! with due reverence, with proper admiration, to hear
of our Maori paragon.
For she is a beauty, our Rakope; and more, her intelligence amounts
almost to what is genius, by comparison with her companions. You can see
it in her broad, low brow, in her large, clear, liquid eyes, shaded with
their black velvety fringe of lashes. Her features may not be good,
judged by Greek art standards; but what do we care about art and its
standards here in the bush? We can see that Rakope is beautiful, and we
know that she is as good as she is beautiful.
Her colour is a soft dusky brown, under which you can see the blood
warming her dimpling cheeks. Her figure is perfection's self, ripe and
round and full, while every movement shows some new grace and more
seductive curve. Her rich brown hair reaches far below her slender
waist, and when it is dressed with crimson pohutakawa blossoms, the
orange flowers of the kowhaingutu kaka, or the soft downy white feathers
that the Maoris prize, then it would compel the admiration of any London
drawing-room. And what is it in Rakope's cheeks and chin, and rare red
lips and pearly teeth, that makes one think of peaches and of rosebuds
and of honey, and of many other things that are nicest of the nice?
Away, away with your washed-out, watery Venuses, your glassy-eyed Junos,
your disdainful, half-masculine Dianas! Away with all your pretended and
pretentious beauties of the older Northern world! We will have none of
them. Give us our Rakope, our Rakope as she is, glowing with the rich
warm colour, the subtle delicacies of form, and all the luxuriant beauty
that is born between the South Sea and the sun!
And is she not clever? Words fail the schoolmaster when he attempts to
sound her praises; for she has learnt nearly all that he can teach her.
She is the apple of his eye and the crown of his labours. To hear Rakope
sing is to believe in the Syrens; to chat with her and receive her looks
and smiles, to dance with her--ah!
She is the pet of the tribe. Men and women, girls and boys are never
weary of admiring or caressing or spoiling her. She can coax and wheedle
her father and Arama, mihonere and kuremata alike, to do almost anything
she desires, and through them she may be said to reign over the
Ngatewhatua. She is the delight and darling of all the settlers round.
She is the idyll of our shanty, and our regard for her approaches to
idolatry. O Rakope, Rakope! I hope you will some day marry a Pakeha
rangatira, and endow him with your ten thousand acres; for if you mate
with even an ariki from among your own people, your lot will be but a
hard one when age has dimmed the brighter glories of your beauty!
There was a spree at the township; an event that had been looked forward
to by everybody for months past. English people are given to associating
the idea of a "spree" with that of a bacchanal orgy. Not so we. With us
the word is simply colonial for a festivity of any kind, private or
public. And whatever may be the primary object of the spree, it is
pretty certain to conclude with a dance.
On this occasion "The Pahi Minstrels," who had advertised themselves for
long beforehand, were to give a musical entertainment, disguised as
niggers. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to explain who these personages
were, since it will be remembered that our shanty was given to sending
out serenading expeditions. _We_ were the Pahi Minstrels; having
laboriously trained ourselves in a certain _repertoire_, and having been
reinforced by one or two other amateur instrumentalists.
In the bush a very little is accepted as an excuse for amusement. The
public festivities of our district are confined to two events in the
year--the Otamatea races and the Pahi regatta; so that any addition to
these is received with unanimous pleasure and applause. Our present
intention had met with a hearty reception.
On the appointed evening, just about sundown and after, there was a
grand gathering at the township. All along the beach boats lay drawn up,
and the number of people walking about made the place seem quite
populous. Of course, everybody was there from our own river, and from
Paparoa and Matakohe besides. There were people, too, from the Wairoa
settlements, from the Oruawharo, even from Maungaturoto and distant
Mangawai. Our hearts sunk into our boots when we saw the prodigious
audience that was assembling to hear our crude attempts at minstrelsy.
Our Maori friends were there in full force. Rakope, Piha, Mehere, and
the rest of the girls, a blooming band of native beauty, escorted by a
large contingent of their male relatives. All the married settlers round
had brought their wives, and--theme of all tongues!--there were actually
as many as four young single ladies! This was evidently going to be a
spree on a most superb scale. Dandy Jack fairly beamed with rapture, and
the gallant O'Gaygun almost burst with the overflow of his exuberant
feelings.
The scene of the spree was, of course, to be our Assembly Hall, although
every citizen of Te Pahi township kept open house that night. The
Assembly Hall has been already mentioned, but must now be more
particularly described.
Although the township is all parcelled out into town and suburban
allotments, yet, for the most part, it remains in its original
bush-covered condition. There is a piece of flat land round the base of
the bluff, and this is all under grass; the half-dozen houses of the
citizens, with their gardens and paddocks, being here. But all beyond is
bush, with a single road cut through it, that leads up and along the
range to Paparoa and Maungaturoto.
When it occurred to us as advisable to build a hall, and when we had
subscribed a sum for the purpose, a site was selected further along the
beach up the Pahi. Here there is a little cove or bend in the shore,
and, just above it, a quarter-acre lot was bought. This was cleared, and
the hall built upon it. All around the little patch of clearing the bush
remains untouched. A track connects it with the houses on the flat,
about a quarter of a mile off; and the beach just below is an admirable
landing-place for boats.
The hall is simply a plain, wooden structure, capable of containing two
or three hundred people. The Saint, when describing it in a letter home,
said it was "a big, wooden barn with a floor to it." However, we voted
this statement to be libellous, and cautioned the Saint on the misuse of
terms. The Pahi Town Hall is not to be rashly designated with
opprobrious epithets. Such as it is, it serves us well, by turns as
chapel, court-house, music-hall, and ball-room.
On the night in question the hall was brilliantly illuminated with
candles and kerosene lamps. The benches were filled with an eagerly
expectant audience, brown and white, who applauded loudly when the Pahi
Minstrels emerged from a little boarded room in one corner, and took up
their positions on the platform at the end of the hall. Then, for two
mortal hours, there was a dismal and lugubrious travesty of the
performances of that world-famous troupe which never performs out of
London.
But our audience were not captiously critical, and received our
well-meant but weak attempts to please them with hearty pleasure and
vigorous applause; and when we finally took ourselves off down to the
river to wash our faces, every one declared we were a great success, as
they busied themselves in clearing the hall for the dancing that was to
follow.
It is not my purpose to describe the entire spree. I have merely alluded
to it in order to record one of its incidents, which may fittingly
conclude this brief account of our Maori neighbours; moreover, it is an
illustration of something I said once before about caste and class
prejudices.
Of the four young English ladies who were present at the spree, three
were known to us as the daughters or sisters of settlers in the
district. The fourth was a visitor from Auckland, who was staying with
some friends in the district, and had come with them to the township.
Miss "Cityswell" I will call her, the name will do as well as another.
Now, it is the praiseworthy custom of settlers' wives in the bush, to
ask their unmarried lady friends from the city to visit them as much as
possible. There is a dearth of feminine society in the newer districts;
and the most insignificant miss, on her travels from house to house up
country, receives pretty nearly as much homage and attention as did the
Queen of Sheba on her visit to King Solomon. If she be matrimonially
inclined--and, to do them justice, our colonial ladies are not backward
in that respect--she has an infinite variety of choice among suitors
eligible and ineligible. But on that head more anon.
Every woman is a lady in the bush, and Miss Cityswell was, of course, no
exception to the general rule. We were aware, however, that her father
and mother were of the English peasant class, though he had prospered
and was now an Auckland magnate. She was a fairly educated young woman,
passably good-looking; but her head was evidently turned by the
attentions of which she was the recipient. Certainly, if mannerisms,
affectation, vanity, and dress have anything to do with it, her claim to
be called a lady was a most emphatic one.
Auckland city people know little or nothing of Maoridom. In fact, the
generations born and bred in Auckland seem to be as ignorant about the
natives as people at home. They never come into contact with them. They
see an occasional Maori in the streets, or perhaps witness a native
canoe-race at the regatta. But as for knowing anything of Maori life and
character, past or present, that they do not. And they are generally
absolutely ignorant of the history of the colony. They are given to
looking on the Maoris much as people at home regard gypsies--as quite an
inferior order of beings, in fact.
Miss Cityswell was naturally imbued with these notions. She regarded the
Maoris who were present at the spree with sublime contempt and gathered
skirts. During the early part of the evening, she confined herself to
saying that she thought we took too much notice of our native
neighbours. But when it came to the dancing, and when she saw the Maori
girls making ready to take part in it, then the storm burst.
"Pray, are you gentlemen actually going to dance with those creatures?"
We intimated, mildly, that such was our explicit intention.
The lady's indignation was almost too great for words. She regarded us
with mingled horror and disgust, replying--
"Well, all I can say is, that I shall certainly decline to dance with
any gentleman who demeans himself by taking one of those brown wretches
for a partner."
Here was a terrible to-do. Expostulations, explanations, entreaties, all
alike failed to move Miss Cityswell's determination. The matter began to
assume a darker complexion as we thought it over. Under ordinary
circumstances, every gentleman present would consider it his privilege
to lead out the fair stranger for at least one dance, an honour he would
not concede on any account, and would fight and bleed for if necessary.
But now we began to perceive that we were between the horns of a
dilemma.
An eager and excited group of us withdrew to consider the matter.
Something like _lese majeste_ must be committed either way, that was
apparent. To give up the chance of a dance with Miss Cityswell was to
forego a rare and exquisite moment of ecstasy; and yet, to qualify
ourselves for it, we were required to put an insult upon, and to
neglect, our beautiful Rakope and her sisters. Whatever was to be done?
Dandy Jack, O'Gaygun, the Fiend, and another, in spite of their
exuberant gallantry, declared themselves firmly for the belle of the
Kaipara, _versus_ her white and more sophisticated rival. Probably,
these gentlemen were actuated by a sneaking expectation that Miss
Cityswell would not be able to hold out against the advances of such
magnificoes as themselves, all night. But the Saint, Yankee Bill, and
Whangarei Jim headed a party who were all for the Auckland lady. Her
slightest wish was to them an absolute law, for that evening, at least.
They would dance with no one else, look at no one else, speak to no one
else, if this heaven-descended apparition so desired it.
Then there was a party of moderates, represented by Little'un, the
Pirate, Wolf, Dark Charlie, and the Member. These were all for a
compromise of some sort. And at last they were inspired with a plan that
seemed the best that could be done under the circumstances, and that was
finally, after much dispute, accepted as our line of action by all
parties. It was this. Each one of us was to go in rotation and to lead
out Miss Cityswell for a single dance; after that he would be free to
devote himself to all and sundry. No one was to dance with any other
until he had had his turn with the haughty Aucklander. We hoped that
such homage to her would appease her pride; while we relied on the good
sense of all the other ladies, to put our singular conduct down to a
whimsical desire on our part to pay a fanciful attention to a fair
visitor and stranger.
But there was one factor we had entirely forgotten to reckon. As we were
proceeding in a body back to the hall, we met all the Maori girls coming
out, and a high state of indignation they seemed to be in. Some
officious person had carried Miss Cityswell's dictum to their ears, and
up went all the brown noses in the air as a consequence. _They_ were not
going to stop in the hall to be grossly and gratuitously insulted! No,
thank you! If they were not good enough for Pakeha men to dance with,
they had no further business there! It was time for them to be going
home!
Here was another nice little mess. All the Maori girls, from Rakope
downwards, were as wrathful as such brown darlings could be. They would
go straight home at once, they said, and never, never again come to a
Pakeha spree! And their masculine friends were siding with them, and
already making for the boats, though, for the most part, indignantly
silent, waiting to see what we would do.
Several of the Pakeha ladies present tried to pacify the outraged Maori
feeling, but without avail. On the other hand, it appeared that Miss
Cityswell was inwardly somewhat frightened at the turn things had
taken, and at the excitement every one was in. She would not move from
her silly standpoint, however; but when Dandy Jack blandly, and with
many elaborate compliments, proceeded to lay our proposal for compromise
before her, she eagerly grasped at it as an escape from the awkwardness
of the situation.
So far that was settled, then; but how the Maori beauties were to be
pacified it passed our understanding to conceive. Old Colonial was at
last discovered behind a flax-bush, deep in a discussion on beet-root
sugar-making with a stranger, and wholly oblivious of the row. He was
instantly dragged forward into the light, and every one turned to him as
the one person who could save our honour and our partners.
When the case had been fully explained to him, Old Colonial's eyes
twinkled with fun. "I see my way to square matters," he said, "but you
must leave me to do it by myself."
He then went down to the beach, where the Tanoa ladies were sitting in a
group in the moonshine, waiting for the tide to turn before they
embarked to return home. He sat down amidst them, and after some
desultory chat, and flirtation perhaps, he brought the talk round to
Miss Cityswell and her proceedings.
"Yes, she's a niceish girl," he drawled meditatively, "rather foolish
and ignorant, though, I think. You see, she is a visitor up here, this
Auckland person; and we are bound to be hospitable and attentive, and to
put up with her whims."
His auditors assented to this, but intimated that _they_ were not bound
to put up with Miss Cityswell's arrogance, and did not intend to.
"Of course not," returned Old Colonial, with a wave of his pipe-hand, as
he reclined at Rakope's feet; "of course not. But then, you see," and
here he glanced cautiously round to make sure that no Pakehas were
within hearing, "she's not worth thinking about, _not being rangatira_."
"Oh!" cried Rakope, with round open eyes; and "Oh!" cried Piha and
Mehere, and all the chorus.
"No," continued he, lazily contemplating a smoke-ring in the moonlight;
"her father and mother were only kukis, or something not far off it, and
she, of course, is not rangatira, not a lady."
"Oh!" cried Rakope and the others briskly, and joyously jumping to their
feet, "that alters the case. We thought she was a lady, and were
offended at what she said; but as she is not, it does not matter--she
knows no better, and what she says is nothing. _We_ are ladies, and
don't mind what common persons say or do."
So, back to the hall came the whole body, romping and laughing round Old
Colonial, the acute and wise diplomatist, who had made matters straight
and pleasant once more. And we, standing in a body near the hall, heard
the rippling laughter of the merry band, and saw their white muslin
dresses and bright ribbons glancing among the trees. From within the
lighted hall came the sound of fiddles and of stamping feet. We forgot
all about Miss Cityswell; we left her to the care of Saint and Whangarei
Jim; we forgot the terms of our compromise. We rushed into the bush to
meet our partners, as they came up from the beach, with streaming hair
and eager eyes. And presently twenty couples took the floor--we Pakeha
men and the dusky daughters of the land; and Old Colonial and Rakope
waltzed fast and furiously at the head.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 6: A battle-axe of polished green jade. One of the most valued
of Maori possessions.]
[Footnote 7: Missionary and schoolmaster.]