---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Taylor, Apollos B.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 8
number: 12
published: 1905-10
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Apollos B. Taylor, "An Incident and Its Lesson," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 12 (October 1905): 932.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0812unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0812unse
start_page: 932
end_page: 932
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-10)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0812unse
  publication_year: 1905
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# An Incident and Its Lesson

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—




               AN INCIDENT AND ITS LESSON.
                      BY ELDER APOLLOS B. TAYLOR.



       In    many places, among the native inhabitants, or Maoris, of
New Zealand, there is an interesting custom, and one that illustrates
their most striking characteristic, which is love and hospitality for
all men; or,    to use their own word       aroha.
       Whenever a visitor arrives    at their kainga, or place of resi-
dence, they feel it their duty, and I dare say it is a pleasure to them
on account of their great love of talking, to hold a sort of inform-
al   meeting in the evening after supper.        The proceedings of this
meeting are speeches of welcome by the           male hosts and replies by
the visitors.
         The speech of welcome is called a mihi. The mihi consists of
speaking and singing,      in which the speaker assures the visitors

that they are welcome, and of their love for them.             Any other
matters that the speaker deems appropriate are spoken of also.
The women tak* no part in the speaking, but help in the singing.
The visitors then make an appropriate reply.     In all of their
speeches and songs of welcome and reply, the subject most promi-
nent is love, and they seem to be very proud of this character-
istic.

       was a witness of a most pathetic incident, and the recipient
         I

of a most affecting welcome, recently.  I was traveling among the

Maoris  doing missionary work, in company  with a companion. We
called at a   Maori  kainga  where  we were received hospitably.
There was a man about twenty-five years of age, who had been a
helpless cripple ever since he was ten years of age, and, conse-
quently,      had no use of his body below the chest.       He could not
sit,   so he had to recline on the ground, and rest his head on the