The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-05-11


Maori chief held long Grafton ac-
companied by violent gestures, of
which of course we do not under
stand anything, and after him an
other man, the same in whose WHARF
we were lodging, held another ora
ton. We afterwards heard that it
was all about our coming to the set
Element. The old Maori was furious
at our being let through, and wanted
us to go back the same way; but the
second speaker protested, and at last
it was decided that we should be al
lowed to pass, especially as we had
a lady with US, which seemed to the
Maoris guarantee of the harmless
ness of our purpose. The next day
we started for Matatua, the principal
settlement, where there is carved
meeting house. We were disappoint-
ed in finding so few carved houses,
but they had nearly all been burnt
down during the war, and the carved
house at Mattaua has only been built
short time. We passed a settle
ment where the younger generation
were playing football. 1t is to be
feared that when the old generation
shall have disappeared, there will be
nothing left of the old Maori custom,
as the young men nearly all work as
shearers or on the survey. They
seem prompt to learn all the white
mems vices. While we were at TIE
Mimi they proposed that we should
be made TO pay, and about two miles
outside the settlement we met Ma
orr coming towards us with a notice
fixed on paddle, dated 1st April,
to the effect that each person that
passed through the Urewera Country
should pay los, and IL for horse.
We determined to 60 on, and at our
arrival at Matatua we were received
with the utmost cordiality, the whole
population came out, and there was
no end of speechifying and laudations
in our honor. A large new WHARF
was allotted to us, and two Maori
maidens selected to serve on US.
During the evening we had the whole
village in our WHARF, and it was with
the greatest difficulty we could persu-
ade them to leave us when we re-
tired, especially the women, whose
admiration for Mrs. Fowler, the first
white woman they had ever seen,
was unbounded. When they heard
she came from the Hawaiian Islands,
(from whence the Maoris are sup.
posed to have originally Gomez, and
were shown the photograph of the
King and Queen of Hawaii, they
wanted Mrs. Fowler to stay with
them altogether. The next day it
was raining, and we were pressed to
stay, SO we made the best of it we
could, and had the pleasure of enter
tanning the natives all day. The
carved house we were only allowed
to gaze at, at distance, but as far
as we could see, the carvings were
extremely handsome and in very
vivid colors, mostly red, yellow and
white. The chief Whenuanui, who
objected to our going inside the carv-
ed house, was otherwise extremely
civil, as also were the other Maoris.
The Maorls seem to attain very old
age, the oldest man we saw Che look
ed as if he was at least 100 years)
was lying in miserable little WHARF
all by himself left there to die. He
was coughing very heavily, and had
apparently not many days to live.
1t is pity civilization has not been
able to do away with such a bar
barous custom as this.
The Urewera natives, as a rule,
are very dark, darker than any Ma
oris we have seen elsewhere, and the
old people are mostly tatooed.
Among the women we found several
beautiful types, pointing the origin
of the Maoris to be from higher
race. Some of the types one could
almost call Semitic. We were sur
prlsed to find little girl with almost
golden hair, evidently pure Maori.
The following morning we started
off, with eight very skinny Maori
horses, up an immense hill, at the
top of which we had the most beauti-
full view. We then went into a val
ley, and along a creek which we had
to cross continually. The bush
scenery is sublime, and we saw some
very large pine trees, almost as large
as the big trees in California. The
track was here at least visible, hav-
ing been cut by Maori for the bene-
fit of TIE Kooti. The greediness of
the younger Maoris showed itself
again in their wanting US to pay for
travelling on the road, but that we
promptly declined to do. 1t was
quite dark when we arrived at TIE
Whaiti. There we spent our last
night in whare. and next day
reached Galatea, where our interest
ng Journey came to an end. 1t APP
1eared wonderful 10 US to be again
N civilised quarters, aud to eat with
real knives and forks. On the whole
we were pleased and interested with
our journey, the magnificent scenery
alone makes it worth while 10 visit,
md if we were a little disappointed
With regard to the native customs,
We had enough pleasant experiences
% make us consider the trip a sue
,ess. We soon reached Rotorua,
md there our party dispersed.
AxEL WACHTMElsTER.