Mahoe Leaves - A Selection of Sketches of New Zealand & its Inhabitants & Other Matters Concerning Them

An amusing description of adultery proceedings in a Maori Court which led to an immediate divorce being granted and ended with the Clerk of the Bench finding the divorced couple asleep under their only blanket watched over by an unperturbed co-respondent, is but one of the situations delightfully related by Thomas Moser.

Moser's MAHOE LEAVES are in fact warm hearted sketches involving supposedly fictitious Maori characters in situations reflecting the effects of European civilisation and missionary influence. These were gathered during a posting as Private Secretary to Governor Eyre.

First among characters featured are Jeremiah and Ezekiel, whose house provides comfortable lodgings for a colony of fleas of the most sanguiniverous proportions. By contrast, Parnapa has forsaken his kin to imitate European ways, and daily performs a comical hair-combing routine before pulling on his oversized boots which have been cobbled with flax and nails.

Culinary delights introduced include ko paki paki - corn soaked in water until it putrifies - and a thitry foot canoe filled with baked rice and sugar mixed with a paddle, the centre point of a hangi.

MAHOE LEAVES appeared first in issues of The Wellington Independant between October 1862 and January 1863. Its reprinting will undoubtedly provide a worthwhile addition to any collection of early New Zealand material.

- from the inside cover.

Reprint published by Capper Press, Christchurch, 1974 (original published by William Lyon, Wellington, 1863)
Very good 2nd-hand condition.