Dunedin nurse in Te Urewera
A lady who was recently associated with social work in Dunedin has spent the past 15 months in a very isolated Maori settlement, and she gave an Otago Daily Times reporter yesterday some most interesting impressions of the life there.
The settlement to which she went is that of Matahi, in the Urewera Country, well to the south of Whakatane and some 15 miles from the nearest motor route.
When Nurse Doull, of the Presbyterian mission staff, went there three and a-half years ago she was the first white settler in the district. Photographs of the original whare in which Mrs Gorrie, a school teacher, and Miss Doull lived for a considerable time tell an eloquent tale of heroism and self-sacrifice. It is a little mud-floor shanty made of loose palings and thatched with raupo, with an empty space for a window.
There are some 200 Maoris within easy reach of Matahi, and a school with over 50 children in attendance was quickly established. The old people, most of whom speak very little English, understand the advantages of education, and are eager to have their children trained. The chief river that flows by is the Waimana, a broad stream of two or three chains in width, which makes many difficulties and dangers by its frequent floodings. When Nurse Doull first went to her little whare she had to ford it on horseback 14 times to reach her destination. If it is high the horse has to be swum across, and this Miss Doull has frequently done. Within the last few weeks a swing bridge which will be a great convenience, has been completed across it. The little mission staff at Matahi have found the Maori people there wonderfully kind and appreciative. Nothing is too good for their white friends, and they are the soul of generosity with everything they have. Most of them own land and make a hard living by growing potatoes, kumaras and maize. They go in a good deal for hunting wild pigs. Their dwellings are mostly little single-roomed, roughly-built whares: one for meals and another some little distance away for sleeping in. They do weaving of flax and make very fine kits and great mats for the floor. They wear European clothes now, with the exception of boots, for which as yet they have but little use. The church at large which sends out these workers has no conception of the hardness of the conditions under which they live and the real deprivations they suffer. They are often short of necessary stores and meat for them in some at least of the mission stations is an extremely rare delicacy. They themselves are too devoted to their work to think much of these matters, far less complain of them, but it is perfectly certain that if their church generally know how straitened their circumstance often were, they would promptly be put in a position to carry on with much more comfort and effectiveness. Our informant speaks with affection of the Maoris whose acquaintance she has made and looks forward keenly to another period of service among the grateful and appreciative Maori people.
— ODT, 31.12.1924 (Compiled by Peter Dowden)
