Maori Upper Case

A

E

I

O

U

H

K

M

N

P

R

T

W

G

 

 

 

 

 

?

!

(

:

;

A

E

I

O

U

H

A

E

I

O

U

H

K

M

N

P

R

T

K

M

N

P

R

T

W

G

?

!

(

-

W

G

 

 

[

'

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

0

:

_

This type lay and case was that used by William Colenso in 1835, as described by R Coupland Harding in his paper ‘Relics of the first New Zealand press’ read to the New Zealand Institute in 1899 (see Transactions and proceedings Vol 32). Coupland Harding inherited Colenso's press and equipment when he died, and found the material in a damp shed in Napier. He then drew up the layout of the cases. [Colenso's lay, or rather Coupland Harding's detail, is given in many later sources, e.g. McKenzie: Oral culture, literacy & print in early New Zealand (1985)]. Because the Maori language uses less characters than English, only 72 boxes are needed, rather than the normal 98, and the case can thus include roman, small caps and italic. Colenso had two or three pairs of cases made to his own design by a local joiner, after his arrival at the Paihia Mission Station at the end of 1834, and finding that no cases, paper, composing sticks, etc. had been included in the delivery from England. Coupland Harding commented that Colenso still chose to place the capitals on the left, whereas in Coupland Harding's time they had been moved to the right, but that he had brought them down to the bottom rows. G was at the end of the alphabet, as it only existed in Maori as the digraph ng. The box above H was used for damaged letters, although the English practice was to have a separate hell box. The case seemd to omit ¶, although this was used in the Maori New Testament.

The empty case configuration is Maori Upper and was 36¾ by 16⅜ by 1⅝ inches and weighed 10lb 6oz empty. The lower case lay is Maori Lower.

Other empty cases
ie with the boxes left blank
Other type layouts
ie with characters assigned to boxes
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This page was written in 1999 by David Bolton and last updated 14 February 2017