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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 14, Issue 5 (August 1, 1939)

The Maori As A … — Tracker and Signaller

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The Maori As A …
Tracker and Signaller

When I was a boy I used to read of the cleverness of the North American Indian in following the footmarks of animal or man, in keeping in touch with one another by imitating bird notes, and in sending messages long distances by smoke signal; and I used to wonder if a similar cleverness could be attributed to the Maori.

As I grew older, and my reading extended, I found that many other savage races were as proficient as the Red Indians at reading signs in the forest or on the plains, and at transmitting signals.

The skill of the black trackers of Australia has received world-wide publicity, but experts say that the natives of the Rajputana desert, in India, are just as skilful in following faint signs, while the tracking abilities of the dwarf Bushmen in South-West Africa place them among the foremost in the world, and even the keen-eyed Zulu is a past-master at following spoor.

“Uncivilised Wireless.”

In sending news across wide spaces the “moccasin Telegraph” of North America is equalled, if not excelled, by the smoke signalling feats of the Australian aborigine, particularly in the northern portion of the island continent, but there is one marked difference between the two countries, in that while quite a number of pale-faces learned to read the redskin messages, there is not a genuine recorded case of any white man having been initiated into the mysteries of the blackfellow's smoke code.

In the speedy transfer of information in primitive portions of Asia and Africa the human voice has been employed in high-pitched calling from hilltop to hilltop, and most people have read of the African and Papuan use of drums to tap out intelligence through forest, swamp and jungle areas.

The conveyance of communications by these means over long distances in surprisingly quick time has received much notice from white travellers, but little has been recorded of what may be named the short distance calls for local reception, although these must have been of frequent occurrence in many lands. When on the war-path the Red Indian advanced through the forest behind a network of scouts who kept in touch with one another by preconcerted signals such as bird notes and cries of animals, and no doubt many other savage races followed a like procedure. These calls, of course, were only of use within the limited range of the human voice.

Three Questions.

Was the Maori a good tracker or did he ever employ the art at all? Did he ever communicate with his friends by bird calls? Could he send messages or reports over wide distances by some “wireless” method of his own?

In regard to the first of these three points I do not think the Maori was ever a tracker. He did not need to track to gain his dinner; indeed there were no indigenous animals that one could trail; and he does not seem to have used the art in warfare. Like all savages he had good eyesight and no doubt observed things quickly, but that he ever deliberately traced the footprints of a foe through bush and over moor and fen seems foreign to the genius of the race, although he may have done so in isolated cases.

He Dwelt Near to Nature.

At the same time the Maori was an expert at bushcraft and at bush-fighting. He could lay ambushes with anyone; he could exercise patience where needed, and he could move through dense bush and fern with stealth and silence. I well remember the description two elderly men gave me of the way shags were caught in Canterbury in the early days, and it reminded me of the accounts of Redskins creeping through the long prairie grass to attack an enemy. Briefly put, the description was as follows:—“The mapua, or big black shag, had his home in the cliffs, but if a wind like a sou'-wester blew hard into his home he betook himself to the patiti (tussocks) and camped there for the time being. This was our chance and we took it—if it was moonlight. The man who saw where they had settled would say to his companions, ‘Haere mai ki te patu koau' (come to the shag-killing) and off we would go. One of us would creep forward and reconnoitre the position to see if the tutei (the sentry bird—a human scout is a tutoro) was watchful and ready to give the oho or alarm call. If he was he would wait patiently or crawl back to the others and have a nap, but if it was asleep or nodding he would stealthily sneak up to it and grab it quickly and silently in such a way that it could neither utter its cry nor flap its wings. Then he twisted its neck. Upon receiving this information we all crept and crawled toward the sleeping birds. If this was silently done and each man took his bird skilfully we would get a good hauh Like most web-footed birds, the shag sleeps wit its head under its wing, and the art was to quietly overpower it without disturbing its neighbours, and then to move on to the next one. If any man's
(Theima R. Kent, photo.) On the Haast Pass Road, near Cameron's Flat, South Island.

(Theima R. Kent, photo.)
On the Haast Pass Road, near Cameron's Flat, South Island.

page 42 page 43 hand slipped or he was awkward or fumbling, the bird would let out a squawk (which my informants imitated) and the flock would take flight.” Other instances could be given of the Maori ability for secrecy of movement, but I can recall no instance of tracking.

The Resourceful Scout.

Of using bird notes when scouting in warfare only one illustration leaps to my mind. Before the fall of Para-kakariki pa, on Banks Peninsula, Whakuku said: “If you hear my voice sounding from high up on the hill, then you will know the pa is guarded; if my voice sounds low down, the pa is not guarded.” He imitated the male and female voices of a pair of wood-hens, and his comrades heard the signals and acted on them.

Scouts used other devices besides bird calls to let the main body know what to do. The river Manuherekia (“the tied bird”) is said to have received its name because a scout (or scouts) tied a wounded kaka (brown parrot) there to mark a crossing place. Other contrivances to guide those following, were to break branches and let them hang down, or to pluck fern fronds and place them on the track to indicate direction. Another way in open country was to use the arms as a human semaphore, while in the war-fare on the Otago Peninsula the famous Tarewai used a weapon as a sort of heliograph.

Simple Signs.

One of the earliest white men at Albertown noticed a row or two of white stones near the Molyneux River and years later inquiry was made about them. The Maoris told me that these stones were placed there to let succeeding parties know how many of the first party went to Lake Wanaka and how many to Lake Hawea. Sometimes a year or two would be missed, but the arranging of the stones was usually an annual affair.

Tradition says there was a Maori village at Croydon which used to signal Tuturau in a novel manner. The villages were twelve miles apart, but within sight of each other, and each had a big white flax mat to hang up to let the other know to expect visitors.

The ability of the human voice to convey a message over a relatively long distance is also noted in tradition and it is averred that Te Rakiihia, the celebrated KatiMamoe chief had a voice so clear and powerful it would carry two or three miles.

Smoke Signals.

Now coming to smoke signalling, Elsdon Best says it was called whakapua, and a writer in “Jacobson's Tales of Banks Peninsula” says it was the Maori telegraph. There is no doubt smoke was used to a fair extent to let parties indicate their whereabouts to keep in touch with one another, and as an invitation to anyone to come and see what it was about or who was making it. In the former case we are told that a party of bird-snarers on the Blue Mountains would make a big column of smoke to let a party on the Hokanui Hills, 25 miles away, know where they were. In the latter case history records a smoke signal at Lake Wakatipu over two centuries ago, and another near the Bluff a century ago. I was also told of smoke having been used to lure an enemy in warfare in Canterbury.

Although I have used the term “smoke-signalling” for these columns of smoke, a better definition would be “smoke-sign,” for they could not be compared with the wonderful “smoke language” of the American Indian or the Australian Black, whereby long and complex messages and descriptions could be repeated from point to point and carried on for hundreds of miles. Apparently this was a sort of Morse code in smoke. Instead of the dots and dashes of the telegraph operator, the expert use of a blanket sent forth long and short puffs of smoke which conveyed a world of meaning to the initiated.

A Question to Answer.

Some might say, perhaps, regarding the case I have been building up: “Dismissed for want of evidence,” but I still think there is a case to answer. How did the Maori so rapidly disseminate news?

Dr. Hocken, in his “History of
(Photo., Theimu R. Kent.) View looking towards the head of Lake Hawea and Hunter Valley, South Island.

(Photo., Theimu R. Kent.)
View looking towards the head of Lake Hawea and Hunter Valley, South Island.

Otago,” writing about Port Chalmers in 1844, says: “Several natives had also arrived from various quarters, for, in the wonderful way in which news spreads among them like wildfire, it was known far and wide that the pakehas wished to purchase a large block of land in the district.” Speaking of some of those who rolled up from Stewart Island and elsewhere he writes: “Some were wild-looking fellows, decked with albatross down and feathers stuck in their nostrils.”

An early settler on the Taieri told me that the Maoris at Henley during the Maori Wars of the ‘sixties in the North Island always knew the result of each fight long before the white settlers round them had received word per the newspapers. ‘I was told the same thing in the Kaiapoi district, and I was asked the reason. This I could not answer, and my interrogation of the Maoris (forty years later be it said) resulted in no definite information. Most of my informants agreed that the older tohungas could send word to one another by witchcraft or magic, but that now the tapu has been broken and the mana of the Maori has departed, the method whereby they did so has been forgotten or lost. A friend has suggested it was done by a system of thought transference unknown to the pakeha, but I leave the question an open one.

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