THE NAME "AOTEAROA." WHAT IT MEANS AND HOW APPLIED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 128, 26 November 1907, Page 4

THE NAME " AOTEAROA." WHAT IT MEANS AND HOW APPLIED.

(By Henry M. Stowell.) The present discussion affords opportunity for the fuller investigation of a subject which is manifestly open lo further enquiry and elucidation. In the statement : "In fact, the natives had no 1 name for tho group, though they had names for the separate islands," your reviewer has the support of the best available historical evidence. This peculiarity is not confined to these islands, but is characteristic. The names of Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Rarotonga, and Hawaii are not applied to island groups, but raiher to each of the most important islands of those groups. In a somewhat lengthy article, Mr. J. Cowan has striven to show when, by whom, and under what circumstances our North Island became known as Aotea aud Aotearoa. In this he appears clearly to have attempted too much. He ascribes its naming to, most particularly, two navigating ancestors known as Paikea and Tamatea, He refers to Paikea as "sailing on" and discovering first "the Great Barrier Island — which h£ named Aotea," then the "mainland, wlpc-h he named Aotearoa." If -the many, Paikea legends (sep White's. "Maori Hi6tpry," vol. 3) show unanimity in any one particular it is in the teaching that Paikea, did not "navigate" his way here, "that he had no navigating canoe in, which- tty "sail" on," and that this island was known as Aotearoa (see page ,sS)"before bis time. Tliis widely recited anijl accepted- old;tjme testimony cannot now. be lightly d.ispijted. - Now, Paikea ,and' his brother Jtuatapu occupy the geneajogicaj plane of twenty generations. Of the second "navigator" ancestor, namely, JTaraatea, it is sufficient for the moment to state .that traditionally his father EongoJjaka' and uncle Uuawharo '"na-vi gated" the Takitmu canpe, he himself being a mere boy at the time ; indeed it is claimed with some force that he was born near the North Cape of this island shortly after the Takitmu canoe arrived. Apart, from that he occupies a plane in genealogy of' eighteen generations, which is more recent that that of Paijiea, in whose time the island was already named Aotearoa. Haying so far disposed of the claims in favour of these two having named, it, we may proceed to consider, th.e t circumstances under which, accor,djqg' to Jliv Cowan's authorities, the n^me ( Aotearoa was descriptively applied. The plea for brevity may here be urged on the ground that the claims on behalf of hjs discoverers and naniers are already shown to be falhjcidus. $Jr. Cowan, and Judge Wilson, whom he quotes, tells us that certain early navigators "caljed. it AoJ^aroa because of the long white cliffs (pari-tea, pari-karapa), which belted the land Ao (?) as far as the eye copld see." And that "the Maoris bestowed this name upon the new country because they" were so much .' impressed wjth' its extent and i|s white appearance." .However proper such explanation might be to a discussion of the /white cliffs, pf Old England," this introduction ,here as showing the aptness of the naming, and the nieaning.of A6-tea-roa, is not supported by acceptable tradition. If is obviously futile to urge that the "tea" of such widely known and ancient names as Tort ga-a tea, Wawau-afce^i-Mangi-atea, and Hawaikiatea refers itself to the "white, cliffs" or ,tp the "extent an,d white appearance" of those islands ! And so of Ao-tea. The tea distinctly refers itself to the sky of i this Southern hemisphere, to the clearsplendour of Jts sunlit days, and the sparkling brightness pf its' starlit nights. Descriptive ? Yes, nothing could be, more so. Ao-tea! Eangi-atea ! .Tonga-atea ! It was in those admiring accents that the ancients referred to the bright skies of this Southern region, world, or hemisphere. Finally, and by a natural process those valued expressions apparently assumed ,the forms of place-names as we now find them on the various islands of the South Pacific. , The Ao-tea, of our own group, Tonga-atea of the Tonga group, Hawaiki-atea of the Samoa group, and-JJangi-atca of the Tahiti group. The Maori had a very comprehensive system of star nomenclature, and a perfectly well defined zodiacial belt. Stargroups and clusters, both conspicuous and faint, were identified by name. Among tliese we find the so-called JMag--eljan Clouds, It appears to bo a wellestablished' traditional fact that from time immemorial the brighter one of this pair of 6tar-clusters has been known as "Ao-tea," and the fainter one as "Aouri." (Uri is the converse of tea, as brilliance is to, dulness, or brightness to gloom.) Tradition claims, with what truth need scarcely concern iis, not only that the name Ao-tea properly belongs to the brighter Magellan Cloud, but that it was transferred from there to give a name to" this North Island. - "Whether that be so or not, it is historically ccr r tain that tho island hag been variously known as Ao-tea, Ao-tea-mua, Ao-tea-mii, and Ao-te-roa for over twenty generations, or over 560 years. Evidences of that traditional fact are not alone common to Maori history, but are confirmed in a startling way by the Mooriori of the Chatham . Islands. The value of Moorir ori testimony is emphasised in the fact that they were apparently driven out from our islands some 28 generations ago, and that their isolation has been unbroken and , complete. Now, among tho ancient ritualistic charts of these people, distinct reference is made to this North Island as "Great Aotea," and to the South Island as "Great Ara-paoa." (Pol. Jour., vol. iii. p. 124, and vol. v v p 15). So that for some 28 generations these islands have been known to the Mooriori by names equally well known lo the, Maori. With such first-class evidence before us, we may well decline to bo' influenced to the contrary by the claims; as to naming and meaning alike (white cliffs), now urged by Mr. Cowan and Judge Wilson. As to the correct translation of the term .Ao-taa, it is useless to deny that Ao speaks of world. There is probably not in tho language a more perfect equivalent for world, in its fullest sense, than Ao. A/) primarily bpeaks of world, atmosphere, region, light. It is equally futile that tea- speaks of brightness and clearness (not of whiteness, which is rua). Tho atmospheric brightness of this Southern hemisph'ero can scarcely bo better enforced than by the term Aofcea. Your reviewer makes a very rash assertion in declaring to the contrary. From all of which we may gather that : the term Ao-tea is highly descriptive : it is proper to the Southern skies ; for ages it has been the name of tho brightest Magellan Cloud ; for some 28 known generations, or, 784 years, it has been a name of this North Inland; it properly belongs to a class of names .which include Eangi-atea and Tonga-atcsi ; it never did embrace the whole New Zealand group; and that history, therefore man, can not inform us. as to the exact peiiod of tho remote past, when any one of these terms was first applied to a particular inland, much less as to an individual or group of individuals who, or which may, have givon a particular island this one particular name. And there we leave it.

Tho Mayor of Napier favours «i compulsory Saturday half-holiday, aud &ays it will assuredly come. Tho swimming clubs formed in Auckland hiit year arc ihowinjr no activity owing lo want of baths. Th'io is only oiip hath in the city. Tljtt cyeliuy --oason -was oy>pnccl at Auckland on S.durtl«y aftcinoon. when "two of lh» clubs held a procession