EARLIEST HISTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 223, 20 September 1929, Page 8

EARLIEST HISTORY.

MAORI ORIGIN DISCUSSED

FROM KUPE TO TOI.

WHEN MIGRATIONS STOPPED.

The history of the Maori up to the time of his settlement in New Zealand, formed the subject of a diverting debate at the meeting of the Akarana Maori Association last evening.

The various epochs in this history were examined and some difference of opinion was evident as to the cradle of the racc in a legendary land known as "Iriliia." Several speakers appeared to believe that this place lay somewhere in India. The reason given for that was that the names took the Polynesian form from the original Sanscrit location title of "Scinde" (the name for India). It was pointed out that canoe navigation was from the west into the Pacific, because all along the sea routes between India and mid-Pacific were people related racially and culturally.

Tho consensus of opinion was that Tahiti was the departing point of the first Maoris for New Zealand, and that from Tahiti Kupe (the Maori Columbus) and his companion Ngaliue had come. No migration came from Tahiti, as the result of that discovery until 200 years afterwards (about 1150 A.D.), when Toi arrived to find "Atea-roa" populated. It was obvious that the people Toi found had come from the Western Pacific, since the landing of Kupe. The people were darker, used weapons, and they had the poi dance, the latter not being an eastern Polynesian dance. It was found to-day only in Torres Straits settlements, by which route the older inhabitants had probably come after Kupe's arrival.

Discussion covered the arrival of the Tainui and other canoes, of which a fleet of 20 odd are known to have arrived at different times. These migrations ceased to a large extent about the end of the fifteen century, the reason for this being not satisfactorily explained, although Polynesia was at that time at the peak of its navigating prowess.