MAORI TRIBE NAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 139, 14 June 1932, Page 8

MAORI TRIBE NAMES.

UNIQUE MAP RECORD. FOR i AUCKLAND PROVINCE. AKARAXA ASSOCIATION'S WORK. In compiling a map of the Auckland Province showing the localities of the various tribes ; arid their factions, the Akarana 'Maori Association has received help from ihany sources, indicating the wide interest the undertaking has eauscd, not only among the natives themselves, but. among many pakehas. The latest offer of assistance comes from the Rev. H. J. Fletcher, "of Opunake, Taranaki. He lias written to say that he has compiled an index of over 30,000 Maori names, including 600 names of tribes, and his offer of a copy of the latter names has been accepted with thanks by the association. Although there are one or two old j maps of parts of-New Zealand showing a few tribal names, there is no complete record such as the Akarana Association set out to compile for the Auckland Province. ■ Three- years' work has resulted in the collection of between 80 and 90 main tribal names and some 200 sub-tribal names. These names when ti ansferred to a suitable map will be deposited in the Maori section of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. In its researches the association has worked on the assumption that every written or printed reference to the subject must be cheeked, and every name on, the map has been got through the natives themselves. Naturally the°names include a number that no longer exist as a people. For instance there is the Ngati-kahukoka, formerly living in the vicinity of the Manukau Heads, from about Piha down to below Waiuku. Although they no longer exist as a people there are still living. natives of almost pure Ngati-kahukoka blood, but tlicv are merged with other tribes of the Manukau and Waikato. Scattered Relations. Another interesting point about the sketch map that has been prepared by the association in the, course of its pre-liminary-work is-that sections of certaii tribes are found in very widely separatee

localities. The Ngati-tai, people , living on the mainland opposite Waiheke, at the north-west corner of the Firth of Thames, have, or rather had, also a faction living as far south as Torere, on the "East Coast, north of Gisborne. There is an interesting story of migration behind this fact, and it concerns the whim of a woman named-Torere, one of the passengers by the Tainui, who remained ashore when the vessel made a call at the placo now known by her name, took a husband from among the aborigines and so founded the Ngati-tai, whence migrants afterwards travelled north and settled on the shores of Hauraki. Then again the Ngatiporou, so definitely identified .with the Poverty Bay district, are represented by a faction on 'the Coroniandcl Peninsula. The Maori has a close affection for his ancestral home and, speaking generally, the natives of to-day live in their original tribal districts. The association has been able to amass a very large volume of information.