POLYNESIAN VOYAGERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 82, 7 April 1933, Page 6

POLYNESIAN VOYAGERS.

Some curious mis-information finds its way into the text books used in our schools. Here on the- first and second pages of "The Young Dominion," a history of New Zealand which is the authorised book on the subject in tho secondary schools, it is stated that the Polynesians, who made voyages of astonishing length, "even ventured as far south as the Antarctic." Indeed that could well be described as an astonishing voyage, if it were true. The authority for such a statement is not given, which is just as well. It is added- that "from their picturesque descriptions they must have seen sea lions, snow and icebergs." They could have seen all those without going to the Antarctic. This fairy tale about Maori-Polynesians turning Antarctic explorers has been given circulation by numerous careless or ill-informed writers and speakers on Maori history, including some of the younger generation of Maoris themselves, who do not know its source "but who repeat the errors of others. A lecturer waxed eloquent on tho hardihood and dauntless courage of the supposed Polar heroes, and a poem on the subject in a New Zealand magazine, now defunct, was illustrated with a drawing showing a Maori carved war canoe plunging along in a fearsome sea towards the (icy barriers of the South illumined by the Aurora's Maze. The voyages of our Maoris' ancestors were sufficiently wide in range and hazardous in character without taking them to the Antarctic Circle. The absurdity of supposing that Polynesian migrants who were looking only for comfortable lands to settle would attempt to sail into perishing cold latitudes should be apparent to anyone, who gives it a thought. The tale appears to have originated in a vague and misconstrued Rarotongan legend quoted in one of Mr. Percy Smith's books; the author, of course, did not intend to give the impression that the Polynesians reached the Antarctic. He knew well that tho old voyagers would not need to go further than the latitude of south New Zealand to see sea lions and icebergs. Indeed, ice has been known to drift as far north as the Chatham Islands. —J.C.