Its almost miraculous effect on George Nepia, an All Black rugby player
whose leg had been so seriously damaged that it seemed that amputation
might be the only treatment, is vividly described in his biography:^38
What a contrast, I thought. A pakeha[European] doctor had told me
that I would not play again during the season. The injury was too
serious, he said. A Maori woman, using Maori treatment had cured
me. Play soon, she said.And he did, 10 days later.
Captain Cook used the dried leaves of manuka (Leptospermum
scoparium) to make a tea, ‘which has a very agreeable bitter taste and
flavour when they are recent’.^29 Not surprisingly, therefore, this plant is
known popularly as tea tree although it is quite different botanically and
chemically from its Australian namesake. The leaves and bark of manuka
were used as a decoction to treat urinary problems, and to reduce fever. Infu-
sions of the inner bark were used to promote sleep and ease pain, and its seed
capsules chewed to relieve colic pains and diarrhoea. (Today, in Europe as
well as New Zealand, manuka honey is prized – and priced above all other
honeys – for its antibacterial properties, which are utilised in wound treat-
ments and for peptic ulcers.)
Another plant used to treat pain was horopitoor pepper tree (Pseudo-
wintera colorata), known to the early European settlers as the ‘Maori
painkiller/bushman’s painkiller’.^28 Leaf extracts were used to treat the skin
rash known as ‘paipai’, stomachache and sexually transmitted infections,
while whole leaves were chewed for toothache. Bark extracts were used as
a quinine substitute (tonic) and also to treat burns.
Harakeke(Phormium tenax), the New Zealand flax, was used for shelter,
clothing, baskets, mats and general healing.So important was this plant to
nineteenth-century Maoris that they were reported to have been astonished
when they discovered that it did not grow in England and to have asked how
the English managed to live without it. (Now of course they do not because
the New Zealand flax has become a striking, exotic addition to many a
British garden.) Leaves were used by Maoris as splints and bandages and,
after boiling, as a poultice for skin problems and general aches and pains.
The boiled liquid of both leaf bases and roots were used internally as a
purgative.
Present day
In New Zealand, as in the other three countries discussed in this chapter, more
recognition is being given to the therapeutic value of traditional medicines,
including the use of medicines derived from local flora. Although some knowl-
edge has inevitably been lost over time, the increasing interest in Rongoa
Traditional medicines in the Pacific | 289