% A short story by Roderick Finlayson

When a Maori child is born the father plants a birth tree, which is “tabu”
. and cannot be destroyed. What happened when the white men tried to cut
down a birth tree that stood in the way of their power line is told by this
gifted New Zealand writer.

The Totara tree

acide came running from all

directions wanting to know
what all the fuss was about. “Oho!
it’s crazy old Taranga perching
like a crow im her tree because

the white boss wants his men to
cut it down,” Panapa explained,
enjoying the joke hugely.

“What you say, cut it down?
Cut the totara down?” echoed
Uncle Tuna, anger and amaze-
ment wrinkling yet more his old
wrinkled face. ‘“Cut Taranga
down first!” he exclaimed. “Ev-
eryons knows that Totara is

Taranga’s birth tree.”

Uncle Tuna was so old he claim-
ed to remember the day Taranga’s
father had planted the young ‘tree
when the child was born. Nearly
one hundred years ago, Uncle Tu-
na said. But many people doubted
that he was quite as old as that.
He always boasted so.

“Well, it looks like they’ll have
to cut down both Taranga and her
tree,” chuckled Panapa to the
disgust of Uncle Tuna, who dis-
approved of joking about mat-
ters of religion.

“Can't the whites bear the sight
of one single tree without reach-
ing for an axe?” Uncle Tuna de-
manded angrily. “However, this

tree is tabu,” he added with an ©

air of, finality, “so let the white
man go cut down his own weeds.”
Uncle Tuna hated the whites.

‘“Aie, why do they want to cut
down Taranga’s tree,” a puzzled
woman asked.

“It’s the wires,” Panapa ex-
plained loftily. “The tree’s right
in the way of the new power
wires they're taking up the val-
ley. Ten thousand volts, ehoa!
That’s power, I tell you! A touch
of that to her tail would soon
make old Tazanga spring out of
her tree, ehoa,” Panapa added
with impish delight and a sly dig

-in the ribs for old Uncle Tuna.
The old man simply spat his
contempt and stumped away.

‘3 “Oho!” gurgled Panapa, “now
just look at the big white boss
down below dancing and cursing
at mad old Taranga up the tree;
and she. doesn’t know a single
word and cares nothing at all!”
- And indeed Taranga just sat up
there smoking her evil-smelling
pipe. Now she turned her head
‘away and spat slowly and delib-
rately on the ground. Then she
‘fixed her old half-closed eyes on
the horizon again. Aue! how
‘those red-faced Europeans down

below jabbered and shouted!
Well, no matter.
oO

~ Meanwhile a big crowd had col-
lected near the shanty where
Taranga lived with her grandson,

in front of which grew Taranga’s _

¢otara tree right on the narrow

road that divided the straggling

little hillside settlement from the
river.

Men lounged against old sheds
and hung over ‘sagging fences;
women squatied in open door-
ways or strolled along the road
with babies in shawls on their
backs. The bolder children even
came right up and made marks in
the dust on the Inspector’s big
ear with their grubby little fin-

gers. The driver had to say to
them, “Hey, there, you! Keep
away from the car.” And they
hung their heads and pouted thei>
lips and looked shyly at him with
great sombre eyes.

But a minute later the kiddies
were jiggling with delight behind
the Inspecior’s back. How splen-
did to see such a show — all the
bosses from town turned out to
fight mad old Taranga perched
in a tree? But she was a witch
all right. Maybe she’d just flap
her black shawl like wings and
give a cackle and turn into a bird
and fly away. Or maybe she’d
curse the whites and they’d all
wither up like dry sticks before
their eyes! Uncle Tuna said she
could do even worse than that.
However, the older children did-
n’t believe that old witch stuff.

Now as long as the old woman
sat unconcernedly smoking up
the tree, and the whites down be-
low argued and appealed to her
as unsuccessfully as appealing
to Fate, the crowd thoroughly en-
joyed the joke. But when the
Inspector at last lost his temper
and shouted to his men to pull
the old woman down by force, the
humor of the gathering changed.

The women in the doorways
shouted shrilly. One of them
said: “Go away, white man and
bully city folk! We Maoris don’t
yet insult trees or old women!”
The men on the fences began
grumbling sullenly, and the
younger fellows started to lounge
over towards the intruders. Taz-
anga’s grandson, Taikehu, who

chad been chopping wood, had a

big axe in his hand.

Taranga may be mad but after
all it was her birth tree. You
couldn’t just come along and cut
down a tree like that. Ae, you
could laugh your fill at the old
woman perched among the
branches like an old black crow,
but it wasn’t for a white man to
come talking about pulling her
down and destroying her tree.
That smart man had better look
out. .

The Inspector evidently thought
so too. He made a sign to dismiss
the linesmen who were waiting
with ladders and axes and ropes
and saws to cut the tree down.
Then he got into his big car, tight-
lipped with rage. “Hey, look out
there, you kids!” the driver
shouted. Amd away went the
white man amid a stench of burnt

benzine, leaving Taranga so far
victorious. t

O

“They'll be back tomorrow
with the police all right and drag
old Taranga down by a leg,” said
Panapa_ gloatingly. “She'll ‘have
no chance with the police. But
by korry! Tru laugh to see the
first policeman to sample her
claws.”

“Oho, theyll be back with
soldiers,” chanted the kiddies in
great excitement. “They'll come
witht machine guns and go rrr
at old Taranga, but she’ll just
swallow the bullets!”

“Shut up, you kids,’ Panapa
commanded.

But somehow the excitement of
the besieging of Taranga in her

tree had spread like wildfire

through the usually sleepy little
settlement.

The young bloods talked about
preparing a hot welcome for the
white men tomorrow. Uncle Tuna
encouraged them. A pretty state

of affairs, he said, if a tabu tree -

could be desecrated by mere
busybodies. The young men of
his day knew better how to deal
with such affairs. He semember-
ed well how he himself had once
tomahawked a white man who
broke the tabu of a burial ground.
If people had listened to him
long ago all the whites would
have been put in their place, un-
der the deep sea — shark food!
said Uncle Tuna, ferociously. But
the people were weary of Uncle
Tuna’s many exploits, and they
didn’t stop to listen. Even the
youngsters nowadays merely re-
marked: “oh yeah,” when the old
man harangued them.

Yet already the men were danc-
ing half-humorous hakas around
the totara tree. A fat woman
wich rolling eyes and a long
tongue encouraged them. Every-
one roared witht laughter when
she tripped in her long red skirts
and fell bouncingly in the road.
It was taken for granted now that
they would make a night of it.
Work was forgotten, and every-

one gathered about Taranga’s

place. Taranga still waited quiet-
ly in the tree.

O

Panapa disappeated as night
drew near but he soon returned

with a barrel of home-brew on a

sledge to enliven the occasion.

That soon warmed things up, and
the run became fast and more

' furious. They gathered dry scrub

and made bonfires to light the
scene. They told Taranga not to
leave her lookout, and they sent
up baskets of food and drink to
her; but she wouldn’t touch bite
nor sup. She alone of all the
crowd was now calm and digni-
fied. The men were dancing mad
hhakas, armed with axes, knives
and old taiahas. Someone kept
firing a shotgun till the cartridges
gave out. Panapa’s barrel of
home-brew was getting low too,
and Panapa just sat there propp-
ed against it and laughed and

laughed; men and women alike

boasted what they’d do with the
whites tomorrow.

ef

Old Uncle Tuna was disgusted
with the whole business though.
That was No way to fight he said;
that was the whites’ own ruina-
tion. He stood up by the meet-
ing-house and harangued the mob
but no one listened to him. —

The children were screeching
with delight and racing around
the bonfires like brown demons.
Thy were throwing fire-sticks
‘about here, there and everywhere.
So it’s no wonder the scrub
caught fire, and Taikehu’s house
beside the tree was ablaze before
anybody noticed it.

Heaven help us, but there was

confusion then! Taikehu rushed -

in to try and save his best clothes.
But he only got out with his old
overcoat and a broken gramo-
phone before the flames roared
up through the roof. Some men
started beating. out the scrub
with their axes and sticks. Others
ran to the river for water. Uncle
Tuna capered about urging the
men to save the totara tree from
the flames. Fancy wasting his
breath preaching against the
whites, he cried. Trust this sense-
less generation of Maoris to work
ae own destruction, he sneer-
i ’

Ht seemed poor old Taranga
was forgotten for the moment.
Till a woman yelled at Taikehu:
“What you doing there with your
old rags, you fool? Look alive and
get the old woman out of the
tree.” Then she ran to the tree

wind ©

_ members all appla

| Prairie”

4 catia You'll not find Alberta’s lore
in maps or printed books; —

Nor will you find her glory tower

In quiet office nooks.

Go seek her in the prairie wind
That whistles o’er a lonely grave;
Ask softly of the crumbling mound,

"For what this life you gave?”

Then lift your eyes upon the field
Where yesterday dark forests grew, —
In great expanse of ripening grain,
The answer comes to you. :

Now turn towards tthe many towns
Where brick and smoke and steel abound;

. Remember those who fou:

And think that but decades ago,

. Wild bison grazed upon this ground.

Go into a mountain valley,

Let your mind push ito one side

The million tons of cold grey. rock
That hold the martyrs of Frank Slide.

Follow roads and churning riverss, j
Where our people froze and bled —

_ To work from coal and grain and lumber,

Sustaining but reluctant bread.

Traveller! When you see Albesto:
Where prairie winds and sun range free;

Think of what she yet will bel

GEORGE RYGA
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 9, 1955 — pace

nd and built her —

and called, “Eh, there, Tarane —
don’t be mad. Come down quick, —
old mother!” Se

But Taranga-made no move.

Between the woman and Taike-
hu and some others, they got Tat”
anga down. She looked to be
still in meditation. But she was
quite -dead. ' Cate

“Aie! she must have bee® dent
a long time—she’s quite cold an
stiff,” Taikehu exclaimed. ‘Song
couldn’t be the fright of ithe fire
that killed her.” ;

“Fright!” jeered .Uncle Tuna
‘} tell you, pothead, a wom
who loaded rifles for me UM
the cannon shells, of the whites
isnt likely to die of, fright @
rubbish fire.” He cast & eee
ing glance at the smoking raat
of Taikehu’s shanty. “No!
tell you what she died of, i
Tuna exclaimed. “Taranga Wi
just sick to death of you and mY”
white man’s ways. Sick to death
The old man spat on the aes
and turned his back on Taike i
and Panapa: and their compa
ions.

ed, and the men had beaten as
the scrub fire, and the tovae
tree was saved. The fire
old woman’s strange death 7
Uncle Tuma’s harsh words

ancholy and a kind of an
ious awe. Already, some Pee
had started to wail at the ™

ing-house where Taranga | 2
been carried. Arrangem,
would ‘have to be made’ 40) amas
burying.

” e
» “Cone here, Taikehu, oe
Tuna commanded. “I ee bury

show you where you mus
Taranga.”

Oo

Well, the Inspecto
grace to keep away
burying twas on. ee ra
O’Connor, the chief « at
polio and good friend of
anga’s people, advise\ ".. was
spector not to meddle: till #
over. “A burial or a wal aid
it’s just as sad and holy, o inter”
“Now I advise you, dom
fere till they’ve finished.

0. 4
But when the Inspect? es |
out to the settlement told
—well! Panapa gloatingly jatel
the story in the pub in t me ay
“O boy,” he said, “you S00
have heard what plurry
spector called Sergeant
when he found out they
the old woman right 1 tH
roots of the plurry * spoug?:
O’Connor liked the joke Herd
When the Inspectol | yim:
cursing, O’Connor Baye un
‘Sure the situation’s 14
changed then. TaranB@S"
her tree’.” ee

yr had De,
while tha”
ther SB

ocal

fo

t

Well, the power lines ei me
layed more than ever an irs as
this strange state of aH?) —. of
even mentioned in the ™ jem
Parliament, and the Mai s yttel
bers declared the Ma0tls stot
refusal to permit the io |
of burial places, ne d chess i |
orations. So the - a Jast *
was brought to the pee conorel® i
having to build a specia a
foundation for the PP: eg CO
river bed so that the ee grand?” go
be carried clear ob ee

ot |

tree. : ee
“Oho!” Panapa chuckles, who i
oneal

e

ing the story to strang tb
stop to look at the tom Bae
the totara on he 708 tree
anga dead protects her ives PY

better than Tarang bite mer

korry she cost the "nds

thousands and t0Uas ii’

pounds I guess!” eee
urtesy, of

@ Reprinted by COUl ” ¢oci@ll’
Australasian lia.
Melbourne, Austra