OUR FLAX-MILL [Part 2]
[Image of page 65]
strike the fatal blow! as he trots off to your side, with a plaintive grunt, to wish you good morning.
I had sowed four beds of vegetables, viz., turnips, cabbage, cauliflowers, and radishes, but only the first and last made their appearance. The ground requires a good deal of preparation besides digging over; all the fern-root should be picked out and burnt, or it sours and impoverishes the soil to such an extent that your crops can make no head.
This district of the North Wairoa however, will some day be the fruit country and vineyard of the two islands. The grapes are really magnificent, and peaches, though of course hardly equal to hot-house and wall-fruits, surpass the flavourless productions which they "can," or preserve, in the United States. I have seen cumeras (sweet potatoes) as large as a man's head; and all this, remember, under Maori cultivation, which is of the most meagre description. You often hear people say in jest, of very prolific lands, that if you "tickle the earth, she smiles with crops"; but here the proverb is literally true, for the natives scarcely scratch up three inches of the surface.
The other day, when we were invited to "lunch" at Parore's, he gave us a vegetarian entertainment of cumeras, calabash and taro. I don't think either of the latter grow in the South Island. The taro is the great staple of food with the Kanakas of Honolulu, and, in fact, all the inhabitants of the Pacific. It requires copious irrigation; its leaf is not unlike that of a water lily, but the flower is a bright pink, and the edible bulb or root is of a lilac colour, and tastes a little like a yam, but the substance is stickier and more glutinous. I always thought it best when cut into slices, and baked like "scones," or potato-cakes.
We have seen a good deal of Maori customs lately, and I suppose that, as we have come to reside in the neigh-
[Image of page 66]
bourhood, they look upon us as members of the "hapu," or family connection, and pay us ceremonious calls, much as you would to new arrivals in England. The first visit we had was from Maria, a "chiefess," who owns most of the estate on which we live. She is a pleasant, dignified woman, about thirty, and the most industrious native I have seen. Whether in a canoe or on horseback, or while chatting to us, she has perpetually got a piece of knitting or needlework in hand. She took a very intelligent interest in our mills, and put a leaf of Phormium through the dressing-machine with her own hands. Of course it did not come out as white or silky as what she herself could have prepared with the pipi-shell; but the rapidity of our process amazed her, and also the fact that we utilised the whole leaf; whereas in hand-dressing nearly two-thirds of the fibre are left in and wasted. When the inspection was concluded, she sent us a present of a basket of tairoas, a large white shell-fish from the coast, which is considered a delicacy by those who can't get oysters. The natives find them by digging in the sand wherever they see a breathing-hole; and when roasted, or, better still, made into soup, they are not unlike the clams of New England.
Parore's son rowed up to lunch a few days after Maria had been here, and amused us a good deal by his attempts to handle a knife and fork, which he had never seen before. He held them with his fist clenched, which gave him more strength than delicacy of manipulation; and, as he refused advice, and would not use his fingers, it took him some time to finish his food.
The most important and interesting ceremonial, however, that took place while I was there, was a "huhunga," or bone-scraping, at which nearly four hundred Maories were present. You must know, that after a body has been buried some two years, the remains are disinterred, and the
[Image of page 67]
bones carefully scraped. The latter are then wrapped up in a new blanket or shawl, and sent off to their relatives, who deposit the precious relics in some hiding place, known only to a select few. This precaution is taken to prevent insult after death by enemies of the deceased or his tribe; and one frequently comes across such "chapels of bones" in the most remote corners and caves of the country.
As I walked up to Taita, where the family gathering was to be, I noticed casually that nearly all the large puriri-trees had marks of the tomahawk on them, and the only explanation I could suggest was, that the surveyors had chipped out the pieces to make them serve as land-marks; but we afterwards heard that there is a grub which buries itself in the trunk, and that here, as in Australia, it is considered a great delicacy by the native gourmands, whose mouths water on extracting the savoury morsel, much as ours might do over a Whitstable "native, " or a creamy "Saddle-Rock" oyster from New York; and with equally good reason too, allowing for the difference of tastes.
When nearing the village, I picked up a skin of the aboriginal black rat, "a thing of which you often read, but very seldom see;" for he has been nearly exterminated, or eaten out of house and home, by his brown brothers from Norway. I have been told that no such animal exists now; but here was evidence to the contrary. It had been cleanly skinned from the carcase, as if with a knife, by the "more-pork," a small owl which preys on such vermin, and which gets its name from the melancholy and monotonous cry it utters through the night.
The fur of the rat was of a glossy black, but the longer hairs were tipped with grey, rather like a baby 'possum skin from Tasmania. I tried hard to keep it a curiosity; but having no means of preserving it at hand, I had to throw it away before 1 got back, to prevent it walking off itself.
[Image of page 68]
Taita, the Maori settlement to which I was going, is picturesquely situated on a small peninsula, between two tributaries of the Kaihu, across which lie natural rustic bridges, formed of single totara pines, which the natives have felled across the stream. The size of these trees may be estimated, when I say that a horse can easily walk over them from end to end as they lie. The sight which greeted me, as I entered the enclosure, was sufficiently quaint. In the centre of the stockade was a group of "tamariki," or children, playing at cricket with the most primitive bats in the world; at the further end of the enclosure hung two bundles of red blanket, swinging in the breeze, which contained the bones of two distinguished strangers, whose friends had come to convey them to their last resting-place.
I found Te Roore's whare or hut, full of notable chiefs from Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, to whom I was introduced as "the most recent addition to the 'hapu,' or social circle of Kaihu Valley." The lady of the house soon made her appearance, and, seizing my hands in her own (which were rather sticky, from eating dried eels and decomposed shark's fin), exclaimed, Tenakoe (You here? which is the Maori How d' ye do?) then, after a pause, Tena-a-a-a-akoe (What? you here, this is indeed an honour, I feel much flattered by your condescension, etc.), and then a long-drawn breath, Eh-h-h! confirmation of the above. Whilst they sent off for their interpreter, Te Roore (a finished diplomatist, by-the-bye, who is famed far and wide for his silvery laugh) pressed upon me rum and biscuits, apologising for the absence of fish. Presently, they returned with the object of their search; a white man, named Tom Johnston, who is living here with another lad, and has married, a native wife. He does their fencing, etc., and often has to go and catch eels in the evening, while the
[Image of page 69]
chiefs recline at ease in their blankets waiting for supper. Rather a servile office, considering our received opinions of the respective position dark and light skins should hold with regard to each other.
Separated from the rest of the inhabitants, and in a state of "Coventry," were the bone-scrapers, who had performed the last offices to the dead. These wretched men are not allowed to touch food or anything else with their fingers for some days after the pollution; but are fed with long sticks, from which they gnaw the meat or potatoes, like so many brute beasts. It is a pitiable and disgusting sight; but the Maoris have the strictest possible rules of "tapu" on such an occasion, and would never think of using any utensil again if it came in contact with these fellows.
There are two customs, or superstitions, which are a constant source of difficulty to strangers here, viz., the "tapu," or consecration, and the "utu," or forfeiture. Quite lately I was bringing a heavy barge up the river, and, having got it about half way before the turn of tide, was about to moor it for the night to a willow, which stood near Puhi's house. To my surprise, the boatmen begged me not to do this, for the tree had been "tapued" by Puhi, and anything tied to it would be claimed by him, if we broke the "tapu." The forfeiture of a person's effects, or "utu," is generally for more serious offences, such as adultery or homicide, in which the injured individual lays his case before a meeting of the tribe, and they decide to what extent he may mulct the offender, by taking his horse and saddle or requiring a money-payment as a fine.
I would refer anyone who is curious on these points to a very amusing book, the Pakeha Maori, by Judge Manning, who lives at Hokianga, about two days' journey north of us. He has been for thirty years living among these
[Image of page 70]
people, and his "mana" or influence, is said to be very-great with them.
At all important meetings, they have a custom of presenting kits of potatoes, biscuits, &c., to all who attend. The quantity and quality of the "backsheesh" varies according to your rank. I dare say R--, one of the Lands' court judges, whose jurisdiction as magistrate I dare say extends over nearly two hundred square miles, would receive two canoe-loads of provisions, if he came to a "bone-scraping" in his official capacity, or as a dignitary of the county.
When potatoes were selling at extortionate prices in Auckland, and it even paid our merchants to import them in steamers from Sydney; when, also, the poorer natives were starving from the failure of the crops, or begging for Government rations, Parore would frequently pay us a visit at the Mill, and bring a present of half-a-dozen kits from his ample store of perquisites, as one of the Ngapuhi chiefs.
When I entered the village of Taita, I found a warm discussion going on about our "lease;" and, at the risk of being tedious, I must explain somewhat of our local politics.
Our land forms about a quarter of a very fertile block, called the Kaihu Valley, the whole of which (about two hundred thousand acres) the Provincial Government have been trying to buy for years, for the purpose of forming a special settlement. There is this difficulty, however, about the purchase. Land is not owned here by individuals, but by the whole tribe; and this particular piece belongs jointly to the Ngapuhis and the Uriohaus. Until they decide among themselves to arrange the boundaries, and also to "individualise" their titles, it is hard to know who is entitled to receive the payment. We have at present a body of ten landlords, all of whom receive a portion of the
[Inserted unpaginated illustration]
[Image of page 71]
rent, on behalf of their still more numerous clients, who established their claims to a share of it, as follows;--The lands' court gave notice, that it was agreed to lease a piece of land to us, and that, by a certain date, all claimants to the property must register their titles before they could receive a grant from the Crown as landlords.
All sorts of the most absurd reasons were advanced, according to the usual custom, by the representatives of these two tribes, as well as others from outlying districts, to establish their rights.
For instance, one man recollected landing, five years ago, to cook his food as he passed up the river; and the ashes of his fire, if they could be found, must be conclusive evidence of his occupancy. Another had eaten a piece of some celebrated warrior there, after a fight in the neighbourhood; and a title dating from the good old days of cannibalism was surely indefeasible. A third had hunted wild pigs; a fourth had thrown some peach-stones ashore, which must have become trees by this time, and you could hardly deny him his tenant-right or compensation, for had he not improved the value of the land by this scientific fruit-culture, extending over the laborious term of five seconds?
Such were some of the stories which judicial patience had to sift before we received a legal document, stating exactly to whom we were indebted for the amount of our annual rent.
When the deed was signed, Tirarau, a great potentate from the North Wairoa, made a congratulatory address to the other natives, stating that, as they had been brought into one enclosure (the lease), he hoped the close quarters would conduce to the settlement of all outstanding feuds. My brother had gone up to witness the signatures; and he told me that at the conclusion of this speech the whole
[Image of page 72]
audience suddenly retired to their huts, and reappeared again in a costume that would not pass muster in Regent Street. They had taken off every stitch of clothing, with the exception of a girdle round the waist; one exquisite had wrapped the Union Jack round his middle; and all had clubbed-muskets in their hands. He felt somewhat nervous as they rushed towards him with a kind of hoarse shout; but they stopped short within a few yards, and began a real war-dance in honour of the occasion, keeping the most mechanical and exact time in their movements. You may talk of animated clock-work or Marionettes; but here, the rolling eyes, protruded tongues, and panting gasp at intervals, gave a hideous expression to the performers, which would frighten a child out of his wits; whilst the peculiar agility displayed throughout the entertainment reminded one strongly of the song about "a yaller-girl a-kicking up behind and before."
I don't think this dispute about the ownership of the Kaihu Valley will ever do us any harm; the natives may fight each other, but would hardly be so stupid as to drive us away and lose their source of income. The dispute I myself heard when up at Taita was more especially about the question of "burnt flax." They had specified in the lease that, for every hundred acres of Phormium destroyed by gum-diggers when clearing the ground, we should be excused £100 per annum of the rent. When we held back this amount at the quarter-day, the Uriohaus turned sulky, and said that, as all the burning had taken place in a swamp of Parore's, it was only fair that his tribe, the Ngapuhis, should suffer the loss, whilst they received their full share of the rent. I don't know how they settled it; but we paid in the full amount owing to their duly-appointed agent at Mangawhare, and left him to divide it as best he could.
[Image of page 73]
There is, however, a far more serious question looming in the future, and one which Tamati Waka, an old and trusty friend of the white man, is confident will breed trouble (and possibly war) with the colonists. It is the "Surplus Lands Act." In days gone by, when the natives bartered their land away for a mere song, kegs of nails or axes were often enough, in the hands of a cunning settler, to secure a block of eight thousand acres, or more.
When, however, a paternal government, which was not itself ashamed to bamboozle the Maoris into the treaty of Waitangi, ceding the sovereignty of the islands to Queen Victoria, came to scrutinise these early transactions between individual white men and their new subjects, it decided, with gross injustice to both alike, that no white man could purchase more than (say) four thousand acres in his own name; and that therefore all surplus lands, even though bought under the old regime, must pass to Government, not (mark you) to their original possessors, the Maoris. Now what the latter say, is: "If we were robbed or cheated of our land from ignorance, and you decide to deprive the purchasers of their bargain, it should belong to us again, and not to you. You pretend to be acting in our interests, but really are robbing both parties."
It is very like the fable of the lawyer, who swallowed the oyster, and left the disputants the two empty shells.
As I sauntered back from Taita to Mangawhare, I thought what a much happier life half the young fellows at home might lead here, instead of being boxed up in those hateful offices all their life, to inhale the grimy air of London with its November fogs, and still more trying heat in the long summer-days, when one longs to leave the four prison-walls of desk routine, and revel in the delight of the country. We have no sallow faces, or narrow chests,
[Image of page 74]
or suspicious coughs in the healthy climate of Kaihu. 'Tis true that the pioneer work of a flax-mill elicited a few grumbles from our "hands" at first starting:
"Fortunati nimium, sua si bona norint."
But in a couple of months, almost as if by the touch of a magician's wand, the features of the place were transformed. Before we go back, there will be a church and school up at Taita, where Dr.Cowie, Bishop of Auckland, paid his first visit the other day, on a tour through the diocese.
It may be that one forgets the discomforts too easily, and paints a Utopia which does not yet exist; but even in our real misfortunes there was a romantic zest, which robbed them of half their sting. "What fun it will be to talk about this when we see the old folks at home again," is a constant thought of emigrants in their distant exile.
Perhaps our hardest work at the mill was navigating rafts of timber and heavy barges, before we learnt the thousand dangers that beset us from snags, freshes, and tides; for the stream of the Kaihu, though itself quite fresh and fit to drink, is "backed up" by the flow of salt water from Kaipara Harbour. The first adventure of this sort was particularly disagreeable, and enough to dishearten anyone. T-- had brought the first load of machinery up to the mill-site with the tide; and after mooring the punt to the bank, deservedly sought his much-needed rest. When he went down to the river in the morning, he found the punt had hitched on the bank when the tide ran out, and capsized. There lay all our heavy machinery in twelve feet of water, including a ten-horse portable engine, and numerous smaller etcetera.
I should have despaired of recovering it; but T--, who was the only one up there who could dive, set to work at
[Image of page 75]
once, and spent a whole day off and on, seated on the mud at the bottom of the stream, and tying ropes to the wheels as he groped along and felt them. He's a most ingenious fellow, and never neglects an opportunity on board ship of learning from the sailors some new "hitch," or "Tartar's head," or some equally mysterious arrangements of the rope, so that one could depend on his knots when he had tied them. He stuck to his task so indefatigably that before night everything was on terra firma, and we lost nothing but a tin dish, which may have slithered along any distance down the river.
My turn came next, as follows: We started down with the tide at ten p.m. in the heavy barge, to bring up the flax machines and scutches, which had just come round in the schooner from Auckland; and I was steering. I forget whether I was drowsy at having to leave a warm bed at such an uncanny time of night, or whether I was watching the weird blue eyes of phosphoric light in the water, which the Maoris say are those of the taniwha, or monster who devours men. They are dreadfully afraid of this fabulous creature, and you can hardly get them to stir out after dusk, for they see him glaring at them from the eddies of the whirlpool as the canoe passes rapidly by. But whatever my thoughts were, we had made about six miles with the aid of the strong "fresh," and I was congratulating myself that I soon would be warming before a good fire, when suddenly a queer grating sound was heard, as the punt half slid over a hidden snag (which I ought to have known), then swung round to the stream, and finally settled hard and fast in her berth. We rocked her about, and pushed and hauled, but with a rapidly falling tide all our efforts failed to make her budge one inch; so there we were for the night. I wrapped myself in my plaid, lay down on the sloppy planks, and dreamt fitful dreams of home, till I
[Image of page 76]
wakened up in the grey dawn to a weary task of rowing the remaining three miles against the tide, whose flow had lifted us off the snag at last.
I was determined to have no more of these midnight plaisanteries; so, as day broke, and the sun rolled back the heavy white banks of fog from the hills, I loaded the old punt at the Kaihu wharf with about ten tons of ironwork, and to within half an inch of her leaky seam through which I could see the ripple of the waves. But, sink or swim, I was determined to take the lot in one trip, and have no further worry. We worked hard on our return, and got up to the mill in one tide; but I was very nervous about another capsize, and moored the punt stem and stern in the middle of the river till next morning. This heavy rowing is not quite congenial to me, after being accustomed to a light gig from Searle's or Salter's; and it cramped my fingers so that I could not close my fist for a full fortnight afterwards; but muscular Christianity, with all its crosses, is better than that perpetual quill-driving, whether it be in law or commerce.
Much as I should like to write something more practical about the Phormium industry before I leave my hobby of "our flax mill," I am afraid to damp the romance of life at Kaihu by statistics and dry facts; but I have gone thus far because so many people have asked me in England, what there is to do in New Zealand besides taking a "sheep station;" for though the "squatters" have their good years, I really don't think many of them clear much money in the long run. Last year, the exceptionally high price of wool brought them on the right side of their bankers' books; but, as a consequence of this, they have doubled the value of their "runs," and a young beginner would find it very hard to buy in now at at all a safe price. Of course, if I were asked about the pleasures of such a
[Image of page 77]
life, I should tell any one that, with a good horse, comfortable house and food, all the latest English magazines and papers, and such society as Canterbury Province affords (where every second man is from a first-class English school or University), he must be very exigeant if he were not pleased. A man can have no fairer sketch of both sides of the question, than you find in Lady Barker's Station Life in New Zealand. I think, however, that perhaps people starting in this line now would be able to invest their money more economically, by taking up some of the new lands in the Waikato districts of the North Island, where there are no severe winters or snowstorms to kill their flocks, and towards which already a tide is gradually setting of the more adventurous squatters from Canterbury and Otago.
The next and most alluring occupation to new comers who cannot afford a sheep-run is gold mining. I cannot call it an industry, though there is plenty of hard work to be done at the "diggings." What I mean is, that beyond drawing population to uninhabited lands, and benefiting a lucky few, it does no good at all; it rather draws men from permanent and productive industries, which do far more for the country at large. I have been told that every pound's worth of gold from the field costs twenty-five shillings to extract it, if you set the total costs against the total expenses of the diggings. Gold mining is a kind of gambling; and the temporary excitement of a great find like the "Caledonian" at the Thames, where they obtained half a million in two months, seems to set men's minds ablaze. The feeling is as unhealthy for the neighbouring towns, as it is for the individuals actively employed on the spot. Take the case of Auckland: I can almost count on my fingers the men there who confine themselves to steady, commercial work; the rest of the beings, who haunt the
[Image of page 78]
New Exchange or the lower end of Shortland Crescent, are "spiders" or sharebrokers, who make their living by the feverish rise or fall of the market, dependent as it often is on vamped-up reports from Coromandel or Grahamstown, where the favourite mine suddenly turns out to have been "salted" with gold as foreign to the spot as imported diamonds to Arizona. All these fellows manipulate money; but they don't make it.
If a man is fond of city life, which is at best a second-rate imitation of England, he may choose three lines here; either the professional career of a clergyman, doctor, or barrister (and I don't think he would find any special advantages in New Zealand); or secondly, commercial life, where the rivalry is greater than at home, because nearly all are struggling for a name, and few are so established as to feel out of reach of competition; or lastly, engineering. I think the last decidedly affords a good opening at present.
We have borrowed ten millions, of which a great portion will be spent on railroads already surveyed. Coalfields are springing up in myriads; and I saw quite lately specimens, from the Miranda Redoubt, near the Thames, fully equal to the cannel-coal used here in gasworks. The Taranaki iron-sand has been at last actually used, after repeated failures; and there are miles of it on the beach at New Plymouth lying idle yet. In fact, there are few countries so naturally gifted with materials for engineering, and fewer still where such a rife opportunity for their development exists.
Those, however, who prefer the country, and are unable to raise capital enough to "squat" on a sheep-station, where, like the patriarchs of old, they may count their flocks and herds by thousands, would probably choose either a farmer's or a flax-planter's life. Now, a propos of the former, I have heard poor people at home run down
[Inserted unpaginated illustration]
[Image of page 79]
the Australian and New Zealand preserved meats, which no doubt may suffer a little from packing and transport; but let me assure them that out in the colony, Invercargill beef, merino mutton from Canterbury, Stilton and Cheshire cheeses made in Rangitikei and the Waikato, can fairly hold their own against anything from the old country. A farmer who is ambitious enough to extend his operations beyond the dairy or root-crops, can now easily find a sale for his "beeves" with the meat-preserving companies, whose trade is assuming proportions beyond all previous expectation. But, in my opinion, the flax-planter's life presents even more attractions than farming, if you look at it from a pecuniary point of view; and it derives an additional interest from the vast number of uses to which the fibre can and will be shortly put by those who are devoting themselves to the industry. The fact that the plant is only found in full perfection in New Zealand, though indigenous also to the Scilly and Channel Islands, makes the manufacture quite a specialty of the colony, which we are wisely taking pains to encourage, by means of premiums, exhibitions, and the labours of a permanent "Flax Commission."
I have heard lately of the erection of immense rope-walks at San Francisco, which will depend to a great extent upon our little island for their material. The supply of Manilla hemp cannot meet the increasing demand at home and abroad for strong fibres, and I confess I heard with selfish satisfaction, the other day, that the crop there this year has been seriously damaged by some little insect, which, from its evident partiality for us, in thus encouraging our Phormium of New Zealand by the destruction of its rival, deserves at once to be idolised like the sacred beetle of the Egyptians, and placed among the household gods of Kaihu.
[Image of page 80]
Among other uses of the flax (not to mention that a mere strip of the green leaf will mend a stirrup-leather or girth, or do for a shoe-lace, more especially if it he slightly heated at the fire first to melt the gum), I found that the refuse, when fresh, is an excellent febrifuge and tonic, with a not unpleasant bitter taste.
But as we seldom get sick in New Zealand, and the medicine would be apt to accumulate on our hands, it is also worth mentioning that, when boiled, it forms a rich brown dye, and in conjunction with the peaty water of swamps, is used to colour the beautiful little hand-bags, kits, and mats, which the natives plait for sale in Auckland and New Plymouth.
Our fibre has already survived the antipathies and jealousies with which manufacturers always regard anything which necessitates a new adaptation of their machinery; it has ceased to fluctuate between extremes in the market, and is now steadily rising in price, as its too little known capabilities become realised at home, whilst in New Zealand the first "rush" into the new industry has slackened; and instead of clergymen, schoolmasters, and small capitalists with less knowledge than capital, who burnt their fingers over this, as their prototypes did in the first days of the railway mania at home, we have now men of experience and energy, and sufficiently prudent to maintain a uniform standard of excellence in their shipments, which of itself will materially develop the trade in our new "staple."
[Inserted unpaginated illustration]
