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Maori Agriculture

Stone Walls on Little Barrier Island. — (Supplied by Mr. H. Hamilton.)

Stone Walls on Little Barrier Island.
(Supplied by Mr. H. Hamilton.)

Certain curious stone walls of aboriginal construction are to be found on the North-western landing of the Little Barrier Island. Previous investigators have reported "stone-faced scarps and terraces," apparently as part of a defensive pa. In the limited time I had at my disposal I saw nothing in the nature of constructed wall defences.

Fig. 41a. Little Barrier Island Showing Position of Stone Walls (site marked x).

The flat on which these walls occur has long been noted as a kumara cultivation ground. As the area is subject to the effects of strong North-westerly winds at the time when the kumara grows, it seems highly probable that these stone walls were erected as breakwinds to protect the growing crop. Against this theory it may be noted that the walls are peculiarly branched page 129 Fig. 41b. Showing Form of Stone Walls, Little Barrier Island. winds. It may have been that these branchings represented boundaries or areas enclosed for some special purpose. Old Maoris, who once lived on the island, made the statement that these walls were erected to shelter habitations from strong winds. Certainly some of the areas enclosed by stones would only be large enough for huts. The materials for constructing these walls came from a natural boulder bank caused by wave action and the supply was unlimited and close at hand.

Although the site of these walls is now covered with manuka scrub—of an estimated age of at least 50 years—the general outlines can be traced fairly well. In several places the walls are well preserved and show signs of careful construction. At other
Fig. 42.

A—Cross Section of Stone Wall, Little Barrier Island.

B—Section of Boulder Bank, &c

page 130points it is evident that the stones have been merely roughly piled together.

Generally speaking the main wall extends for a distance of a quarter of a mile along the North-western beach, parallel to the sea coast and about 30 yards from the sea.

At one place there is an opening in the wall said to be the spot where canoes were hauled up in times of trouble. The dimensions of the walls are "approximately given."

Similar stone walls, rows, or heaps of stones cleared from former cultivation grounds are seen in other places, as at Omakau, in Palliser Bay, and on the Hauraki Peninsula, notably near Port Charles.

A correspondent remarks that, on the eastern side of Palliser Bay signs of former cultivation are seen over a considerable area. Much labour has been expended by former generations in clearing the ground of stones which have been deposited in hollows, while the cultivatable ground has been divided by paths bordered with neat rows of stones. See Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 13, p. 156.

On Kapiti Island also are seen old garden plots, the stones collected from which have been piled up in rows and low walls.

The late Archdeacon Walsh has written on the former native population of the North Island as follows:—"There is abundant evidence to prove that Captain Cook's estimate—(of 100,000) was far too low. This evidence lies chiefly in the marks of occupation which the Maoris have left in the multitude of fortified positions, and in the immense area of land bearing traces of former occupation. The number and size of the pa (fortified positions) throughout the length and breadth of the North Island is amazing … along the Oruru valley a range of hills four or five miles long has nearly every summit scarped and terraced, some of the works being so extensive that it would take a thousand men to hold the position…. In regard to the area of land under cultivation, practically all the open fertile country of the North Island shows unmistakable signs of agricultural operations. The clay hill-sides of the north are covered with surface drains, the volcanic plains of Taranaki are perforated with rua or storage pits, all over the Waikato delta the pumice land has been excavated for sand to spread over the kumara plantations, every narrow river valley, every little shingle patch along the coast, and every sheltered nook under the sea cliffs has been utilised; even on the rocky scoria flats the loose stones page 131have been laboriously gathered into heaps to clear the ground for the early crops."

Although we have noted signs of former native cultivation in many places, yet it seems rather far fetched to say that "practically all the open fertile country of the North Island shows unmistakeable signs of agricultural operations." Much open fertile country has certainly not been cultivated as a whole, though patches of it may have been. Doubtless the above sentence may be understood in two ways.

The Rev. Jas. Buller, in his Forty Years in New Zealand, writes as follows:—"The kumara, the taro, and the hue, each required a different soil; on this account they had their patches far apart from each other. It was also expedient to do this, that they might save one or more, in the case of a visit from a taua, or pillage party. From one pretext or other two or three of these were expected every year. The kumara was planted on little hillocks of sheltered ground facing the sun. The ground, which was carefully prepared, was mixed with gravel, which the women carried in baskets from some pit, or from the bed of a running stream hard by. Women bore heavy burdens on their backs, because the chiefs, being tapu, could not do so. When the kumara sprouted it had to be keenly watched to protect it from the ravages of caterpillars. The ground was kept loose about the roots. Before it ripened, some of the larger roots (tubers) were cautiously removed, scraped, and dried in the sun; they were then boiled and used as a sort of sweetmeat.

Some of the best houses they built were the kumara stores. The labour in taking up this tubercle (tuber), sorting, packing, and storing it, was not small. The taro and the hue demanded a moist, but rich soil."

The kumara was certainly not boiled in pre-European days, but it was steamed and subjected to a drying process in the making of what was called kao kumara. Again, the semi-subterranean pits in which the kumara tubers were stored were not what one would call houses. The term is far too grandiloquent a one to be so applied. As for the gourd it was often grown in similar soil to that where the kumara was planted.

It was not the case that the taro and gourd were always planted far removed from the sweet potato crops, they might be grown in the same field, though not together. For instance the taro might be grown in damp soil near streams, while the sweet potato occupied the higher and dry ground. Again, although page 132plantations were often small and isolated, yet large open areas were in some cases cropped year after year, subdivisions of such land being allowed to lie fallow occasionally. Such large areas were usually situated near the villages of the owners, as at Taiamai, the Auckland isthmus, certain Taranaki and Whanganui lands, and other areas in the Bay of Plenty and elsewhere. The eastern shores of the Bay of Plenty have ever been noted for the production of kumara. The inhabitants of the scores of old hill forts on either side of the lower Whakatane river cultivated considerable areas of the fine alluvial flats of the valley, all of which crops had to be carried up the steep hillsides to the fortified villages, and there deposited in pit stores. The writer has succeeded in tracing through scrub and bush and fern some of the old well worn tracks by which the neolithic folk of yore 'swagged' their heavy pikau of kumara from the fertile flats up the hills to the old time fortified villages on the summits.

Dieffenbach wrote:—"The New Zealander has a fixed habitation although he does not always reside in the same place. In his plantations, which are often at great distances from each other, or from the principal village, he possesses a house, which he inhabits when he goes there in the planting season." These temporary houses were but rude huts, not durable, carefully constructed dwellings.

The following general remarks on native methods of agriculture are taken from Yate's Account of New Zealand, published in 1835:—"The plantations of the natives are not all in the immediate vicinity of their residences, though they always have a little plantation near at hand for present purposes, or to prevent the necessity of disturbing their main crop. Their cultivations are scattered; the kumara ground is sometimes many miles from the potato field; the early potato is sometimes many miles from either; and the Indian corn is planted any where, as it flourishes in almost any place where they choose to plant it.

Their kumara grounds are kept very neat and free from weeds. The land is prepared with a small stick and pulverised between the hands; the ground is then made up into hillocks about the size of small mole hills, in the middle of which the seed is placed. The soil to which this vegetable is partial is light and sandy; where this is not the nature of the soil, the natives make it light by carrying the sand from the banks of the rivers, having found by experience that sand or small gravel is the best page 133meliorator of a clayey soil, as it destroys its cohesive qualities, and prevents its returning to its original state of tenacity, keeping it always porous, and consequently causing it to imbibe more readily, and in larger quantities, the light showers of rain with which they are visited in the summer, or the heavy dews or watery vapours which nightly visit them throughout the year. This people have also found by experience, that burning their superabundant vegetable matter, and spreading it over the land, improves their crops, not only in quality, but in quantity; and this more particularly in argillaceous soils, which abound in all hilly parts of the country; the siliceous or sandy soils being confined to the banks of rivers, or to the sea coast. Similar plans are pursued with the English potatoes, and the winter potato is always planted in new ground, upon which nothing has ever before been planted. This ground is chosen on the side of a wood; the trees are burnt down, the branches consumed, and the potatoes placed between the roots, or upon any little bare spot that may be found. They tell us that the reason for choosing such spots for these potatoes is that the earth is all rotten leaves and branches of trees and shrubs; the only soil in which this vegetable will flourish."

Colenso has left us the following account of the cultivation of food products by the Maori:—"Their plantations … were, for wise political reasons, scattered, and often some were situated in half concealed out-of-the-way places. This was done on account of the danger the Maoris were continually exposed to, namely the sudden visit of a war party, often a taua muru (plundering party) of their own friends and relatives, to demand satisfaction for some offence, generally an insult, or a breach of tapu restrictions; at which time the crops, being almost the only available personal property, were sure to suffer, often being wantonly rooted up. Notwithstanding, they had large plantations also, which might be called tribal or communal; and sometimes these were a few acres in extent.

For the kumara, a dry and light sandy, or rather gravelly soil, was selected; and if it were not so naturally, it would be sure to become such, as every year they laboriously carried on to it many a weary backload of fine gravel, obtained from pits or river-beds in the neighbourhood, and borne away in large and peculiarly close-woven baskets specially prepared for that purpose only. This labour, however, was the principal heavy one attending their cultivations; as, before they knew the Europeans and for some time after, they never strongly fenced their plantations, page 134not having any need to do so; the highly laborious and additional work of making wooden fences around their cultivations in after years arose from the introduction of the pig. They did, however, put up fences and screens of reeds, etc.; this was done to break the force of the winds which blow strongly in the early summer, the young kumara plant being tender, and the taro possessing large semi-pendulous leaves.

For the taro a very different soil and damp situation was required; light and deep yet loamy, or alluvial, often on the banks of streams or lagoons, and sometimes at the foot of high cliffs near the sea.

For their valuable gourd, the hue, a damp, rich soil, with warmth to bring it to perfection, was required; this was often sown in and near to their taro plantations, and sometimes on the outsides of woods and thickets.

In those plantations all worked alike: the chief, the lady and the slave; and all, while so engaged, were under a rigid law of minute ceremonial restrictions, or tapu, which were invariably observed…. It was a pretty sight to see a chief and his followers at work in preparing the ground for the planting of the kumara. They worked together, naked, save a small mat or fragment of one about their loins, in a regular line or band, each armed with a long handled narrow wooden spade (ko), and like ourselves in performing spade labour, worked backwards, keeping rank and time in all their movements, often enlivening their labour with a suitable chant, or song, in the chorus of which all joined.

If it were a pleasing sight to notice the regularity of their working, it was a still more charming one to inspect their plantations of growing crops: 1. The kumara plants, springing each separately from its own little hemispherical hillock, just the size and shape of a small neat mole-hill. 2. The taro plants, each one beautiful in itself, rising from the plain carefully levelled surface, which was sometimes even strewed with white sand brought from a distance, and patted smooth with the hand. 3. The hue in its convex bowl shaped pits, or 'dishes,' as Cook calls them. The whole tout ensemble was really admirable! The extreme regularity of their planting, the kumara and the taro being generally set about two feet apart, in true quincunx order, with no deviation from a straight line when viewed in any direction (to effect this they carefully use a line or cord for every row of kumara in making up the little hillocks into which the seed tuber was afterwards warily set with its sprouting end page 135towards the north); the total absence of weeds, the care in which all was kept, even to the sticking into the ground, when required, leafy and yielding branches of manuka (owing to the high westerly winds, or to the situation being rather exposed), and last, though in their eyes by no means the least, were spells, and charms, and invocations, recited by their priests (tohunga) to ensure a good crop; for this purpose alone a priest of renown was often fetched from a distance and at a high price. Instances, too, are known, in their ancient history, of some of such priests having been killed by the chiefs, through some alleged, or real, oversight or fault, or omission, in the performance of their ceremonial tapu. All, however, clearly showed much forethought, and that no amount of pains, both natural and supernatural, had been spared, and that their agricultural work was truly with them a labour of love….

I have already alluded to the large amount of extra heavy labour imposed upon the Maori cultivators of the soil through the introduction of the pig; much also arose from the coming among them of the unwelcome European rat; their own little indigenous animal not being very harmful. I remember when at the Rotorua lakes, nearly forty-five years ago, visiting a very large kumara plantation, that neighbourhood being a principal and noted one of all New Zealand for its fine and prolific kumara crops, said to be owing to the extra warmth of its heated volcanic soil. In the midst of the cultivation was a little hut, and this by night was inhabited by two old men, watchers, who had a great number of flax lines extending all over the plantation in all directions, to which lines shells of the fresh-water mussel were thickly strung in bunches. These lines were all tied firmly together into one handle of knotted rope, which these two old men had to pull vigorously every few minutes throughout the night, to cause a jingling noise and so frighten and scare away the thievish rats from gnawing and injuring the growing kumara roots.

One striking peculiarity, however, should not be omitted, in which too, I think, they differed from all (other) agricultural races,—their national non-usage of all and every kind of manure; unless, indeed, their fresh annual layers of dry gravel in their kumara plantations may be classed under this head. But their whole inner-man revolted at such a thing; and when the early missionaries first used such substances in their kitchen gardens it was brought against them as a charge of high opprobrium. And even in their own potato planting in after years they would page 136not use anything of the kind, although they saw in the gardens of the missionaries the beneficial effects arising from the use of manure; and, as the potato loves a virgin, or a strongly manured, soil, the Maoris chose rather to prepare fresh ground every year, generally by felling and burning on the outskirts of forests, with all the extra labour of fencing against the pigs, rather than to use the abominated manure. They also never watered their plants, not even in times of great drought, with their plantations close to a river, when by doing so they might have saved their crops."

It may be here remarked that the Maori used to a considerable extent what was about the only form of manure available to him, namely wood ashes. In clearing the ground for a crop, all timber, brush and rubbish was collected in heaps and burned, after which the ashes were scattered and formed a most excellent manure. This style of cultivation is still carried on in some districts in connection with the potato crop.

Colenso also wrote as follows on the cultivation of the kumara:—"This plant is an annual of tender growth, and was one of their vegetable mainstays. Their use of this plant, as I take it, is from prehistoric times, as their many legends about it evidently show. In suitable seasons and soils its yield was very plentiful. It had, however, one potent enemy of the insect tribe, in the form of a large larva of one of our largest moths. This larva was named anuhe, awhato, hawato and hotete, and as it rapidly devoured the leaves of the young kumara, it was quite abhorred by the Maoris, who always believed that they were rained down upon their plants. Sometimes their numbers were almost incredible. I myself have often marvelled at them in their number, and where they could possibly have come from; baskets full being carefully gathered from the plants, and carried off and burnt. This job of gathering them, though necessary, was always greatly disliked. A few years after I came to Hawkes' Bay to reside, I think in 1846, the tribe of the late chief Karaitiana, who lived near me, had their large kumara planation regularly set upon by those immense larvae. The chief borrowed all my turkeys, which were put into their kumara plantations, and in a short time they cleared the whole ground of those destructive creatures.

Long before the roots or tubers of the kumara were of full size, they were regularly laid under contribution; each planted was visited by old women, with their little sharp pointed spades or dibbles, who were quite up to their work, and a few of the largest young tubers selected and taken away, and the earth around the plant page 137loosened, when it was again hilled up, at the same time they took away every withered leaf and upper outlying rootlet, and weak sprout. Those young tubers were carefully scraped and half dried on clean matting in the sun, being turned every day and carefully covered from the dew, and when dry either eaten or put away in baskets as a kind of sweetish confection or preserved tuber, greatly esteemed by them, either raw, or soaked and mashed up with a little warm water, and called kao. In an old work on. Gardening and Botany I find the following:—"The sweet potato, Sir Joseph Banks observes, was used in England as a delicacy long before the introduction of our potatoes; it was imported in considerable quantities from Spain and the Canaries, and was supposed to possess the power of restoring decayed vigour. The kissing comfits of Falstaff, and other confections of similar imaginary qualities with which our ancestors were duped, were principally made of these and Eryngo roots."

At the general digging of the crop in the late autumn, but always before the first frost, great care was taken in the taking up of the roots, when they were carefully sorted according to size and variety, if of two or more varieties in the one plantation, all bruised, broken or slightly injured ones being put on one side for early use; then they were gathered up into large flax baskets, always newly made, and in due time stowed away in the proper store, taking great care of doing so only on a perfectly dry sun-shiny day, as they had to guard against mouldiness of every kind, which was destructive and dreaded.

It is impossible to estimate, even approximately, the immense quantity of this root which was annually raised by the old Maoris; especially before they took to the cultivation of the introduced potato….

But, in my opinion, one of the most remarkable things pertaining to this useful root or tuber, has yet to be noticed; namely, its many marked varieties, which were also old and permanent. I have, I think, known more than thirty varieties; … and have also heard of others … while some old sorts were known to have been lost. In this respect the tubers differed just as potatoes do with us. Some were red-skinned, some purple, and others white; some were rough-skinned, and others smooth; some had red flesh, or were pink, or dark purple throughout, others were white; some were even and cylindrical, others were deeply grooved or regularly channelled; some were short and thick with obtuse ends, others were long and tapering with pointed ends; and I never once noticed page 138that there was any mixture of the several varieties; all came true to sorts planted, as in the potato with us; their only sign of degeneration through soil or drought was in size. Now all those several varieties were of old, and only handed down by the strict preserving of the seed (tuber); and the question with me has ever been—How were they first derived? From the Maoris themselves I never could learn anything satisfactory respecting them, save that they had them of old from their forefathers."

In another paper the same writer has given us the following:—

"The kumara, or sweet potato, was planted with much ceremony and regularity in little hillocks in sheltered dry ground facing the sun, carefully prepared, and heavily gravelled with fresh gravel obtained from some gravel pit, or from the bed of a neighbouring stream; this annual gravelling of their kumara grounds was alone a heavy service.

Among some tribes, as at Rotorua, the kumara root was not planted until the sprout had gained some length, which caused additional care and labour. It had to be constantly watched when in leaf, or it would be destroyed by a large caterpillar which fed on the plant, and which was continually being gathered and destroyed in great quantities. It was also carefully weeded, and the ground around its roots loosened. When about two-thirds ripe, a few of its largest roots were carefully taken away by an experienced hand; these were scraped and dried in the sun, and called kao, and were reserved to be used as a kind of sweetmeat, or delicacy at feasts, boiled, and mashed up in hot water. And when the kumara was fully ripe the labour in taking it up, sorting and packing it into its own peculiar baskets for store, including the weaving of those baskets, and the half digging, half building of the stores supposed to be absolutely needful for effectually keeping it (and which were often the best built houses in the village, and often renewed)—was very great. The taro (of which the leaves and stems were also eaten) required a moist, and the hue and aute, a rich soil, with much less care, however, in raising them; but the manufacture of the bark of the aute into cloth-like fillets for the hair of the chiefs (it never was made into clothing in New Zealand) was also a tedious work."

Mr. White's account of the making of kao differs somewhat from the above:—

"The tubers were kept in the store pits until they had become dry, then the skin is scraped off with a shell. They are then placed on a stage (paparahi) to dry, exposed to the sun, but were taken page 139under cover at night. When well dried they were cooked in a steam oven, the leaves and twigs of the para-taniwha being used as retao or covering, then again dried in the sun until quite hard. It was then packed in small baskets lined and covered with mokimoki, a fragrant plant, then put away for winter use; also used on expeditions, and as food for invalids, for which purpose it was made into a gruel or thin porridge like mess, heated with hot stones.* On other occasions the mess seems to have been eaten cold."

The European turnip known as rearea, nani, keha and pohata was dried and used in a similar way, while the leaves thereof were used as greens and cooked in a steam oven with other foods.

The cooked and dried kumara described above were highly appreciated by the natives. The method of preparing them on the East Coast was to scrape them lightly so as to remove the skin, after which the tubers were laid on a platform and exposed to the sun for about four days. They were then cooked by steaming them in the ordinary umu or steaming pit, a process that covered some twelve to sixteen hours. The pit was lined with a paepae umu, a plaited band of Phormium leaves, and the bottom covered with leafy branchlets of papa (Geniostoma) and of puriri, on which the sun dried tubers were placed. Alternate layers of leaves and tubers were so arranged until the pit was full. A stout stick was then inserted in the middle of the heaped tubers, being thrust down through the contents, or it was placed in position ere the pit was filled. Plaited Phormium mats were then arranged over the contents and against the protruding stick, and earth was shovelled over the mats so as to thickly cover them. Prior to the removal of the stick, water was poured in close to it, so that such water found its way to the hot stones at the bottom of the pit, thus producing the necessary steam. Only a small quantity of water was used. The stick was then removed and the central open space covered. The tubers were sun dried again after this steaming process, or were dried on a form of grid made of green rods and erected over a mass of glowing embers; this rendered the kao dry and hard. This comestible would keep for a considerable period of time. It was heated at a fire in order to soften it, also sometimes crumbled up and mixed with water so as to form a kind of porridge or gruel-like mess.

Regarding the situation of plantations, Archdeacon Walsh wrote as follows:—"In choosing a site for the plantation, other, beside agricultural conditions, had to be considered, especially in the page 140case of a small or weak community. The crops being almost the only available personal property of the Maoris in the growing season, it was necessary to secure them as far as possible from the sudden raid of a taua or war party, which might happen at any moment. This was generally done by scattering a number of small plots over a wide area, and placing them as far as possible in unlikely situations. In the case of a powerful tribe occupying a strong pa (fortified village) such precautions were unnecessary, and the cultivations were generally quite open and frequently of large extent." The above is a much more correct statement than some made by early writers, who give the impression that plantations were always scattered and distant from the village home.

The following remarks are culled from a paper on The Agricultural Maori, by W. B., published in the Maori Record of October 1st, 1906:—

"What after all then was the farming we are told the Maori so excelled in? Whose is that field of 200 acres, may be less, in one block of beautifully serried lines, so that from whatever angle the spectator views it the lines and spaces are trigonometrically exact, clean and weedless, a delight to the beholder? It is the tribe of perhaps 200 souls, of which each family has, at most, two taupa staked off in widths of from ten to twenty feet, and the whole length of the field from four to six chains, or any length, to which each owner, chief or common man, strictly confines himself, neither touching a weed nor raking up the earth around one hill upon his neighbour's boundaries; and because the pride and custom of each to keep his taupa in as forward a condition as that of his neighbour, it became that during the tou, waere taru and hauhake (planting, weeding and crop lifting) the scene was one of industry worthy of the historian's commendation."

Herein the name taupa is applied to a division of a cultivation, apparently a Waikato term.

* Invalids sometimes took this gruel through a reed tube.