LAKE LORE.

Auckland Star, 2 September 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

LAKE LORE.

SOME NAMES AND STORIES. ORIGINS AND DISCOVERIES. (By J.C.) The chase of the origin of a placename, English or Maori, is an often fascinating quest. Some people take a short cut to the solution of Maori ! derivation puzzles by consulting Williams' Dictionary and arriving at a conclusion which in most c&6es ie wrong. Place nomenclature is full of traps for those who do not know the language, and even for those who do the only safe course, usually, is to consult Maoris living in the district. There are descriptive names the origin of which is obvious, such as Pukctapu, Wairoa; but this story is an illustration of the iicceseit3 r for careful inquiry into the history of a name before venturing on its translation. The namo Monowai is tho example. Lately there has been somo Southern newspaper controversy as to the meaning of this name of a lake on tho eastern border of the fiordland country, after which one of our large liners has been called. Some curious dashes at a translation have appeared in print, based on a search of the dictionary and (eome of them) on improbable legends of tho "lost tribe" Ngati-Mamoe. When I was in the Southern lakes country in 1903 the name puzzled me, it was not good Maori; and I made inquiries from tho few old people surviving in Southland. At the little settlement Oraka (Colac Bay on the map), on the shore of Foveaux Strait, I found two old men, Hemi Kupo and Hono To Paina, veteran whalers and sealers, who -were in part descended from the ancient Ngati-Mamoe. They were well acquainted with the Southland lakes as far up as Te Anau; in their young days they had been accustomed to travel up there with their elders annually hunting wekas, and they had searched for that elusive, rare bird the takahea, or notornis. They had been on the shores of tho little-known lake of the forests, Monowai. "Manokiwai," said Te Paina, "is the original and correct name of that lake. It ie a personal name. Monowai is a mangling of the old name; it is neither ono thing nor the other." The Coining of " Monowai." But even that old Maori did not know tho circumstances of the modern namegiving. That story 1 obtained, not from the Ngati-Mamoe, but from a member of a very different class, that eminent Scottish tribe the Ngati-Kerrow. After returning from the South I put the question to Mr. James McKerrow, former Surveyor-General, who was thej first man to survey the lake and place' its name on the map. In reply, he narrated that in September, 1802, he was engaged in the reconnaissance survey ot" tho country drained by tho Waiau River (which carries off the overflow of Lakes To Anau, Manapouri, Monowai, and other lakes), and on his way to.the-

then unknown borders of fiordland he made inquiries atiout the various lakes from an old Maori who lived Avhere Riverton is now. He learned from him that there were two lakes deep in the bush west of the Waiau. Their names were, as near as McKerrow (who did not know Maori) could make out from the old man, "Howloko" and "Monowai." " Howloko " has since been corrected to Hauroko (Hau-rongo); the version Hauroto is not correct. Mr. McKerrow, on being told that the Maoris said ManoIdwai was the original name, said that probably that was what the old Riverton Maori gave him, but he was unable to get it correctly at the time. But he knew that " wai" meant water, and he decided on Monowai as a euphonious and easy name. He did not know what " mono" was in Maori, but he remembered his Greek, and he coined a hybrid namo for his map, from the Greek " monos," one, and " wai" water. That designation, he said, was really not inapt, as the lake was mainly fed by one river. So Monowai is a half-caste blend, Greek and Maori. Lake of Many Islands. This reference to the great lakes of the south-west country leade on to a consideration of the name Manapouri. Here again I quote my old acquaintances of the foggy shore of Fovcaux Strait. Manapouri is a name of beauty, and each of its component words is Maori, but neither word is in the original name, which is Moturau, meaning "hundred islands," or "many islands." No more appropriate name could have been given to this loveliest of New Zealand lakes. Thirty-seven islands, large and small, are strewn over its glistening waters, where the many calm arms and reaches, glancing like quicksilver, are walled in by wooded heights or sprinkled with islets"like dark green tree groves. Some of those, islands, said Te Paina, were camping places of the Maoris in tho old days. They took eels by torchlight in the sandy bays, spearing them with the many-pronged matarau, an improved trident of sharp wooden spikes; caught wild ducks in the narrows and lagoons, and enared birds in the bush, especially the k&ka parrot, which abounded everywhere, and the weka. How did "Manapouri" come to be giyen to Lake Moturau? was the question. Te Paina'e explanation was that it was a blunder made by some early surveyor, who did not know the Maori language and was not abJo to obtain exact descriptions from the few natives I of the inhabited parts of the interior. This surveyor, he said, was probably at Lake Wakatipu when he made inquiries about tlio lakes further west. He was given the name Manawa'-poporo as that of a lake in the direction indicated, and when eventually Moturau was reached this name, simplified or t'llcred to "Manapouri," was bestowed on it. But Manawa-popore (meaning panting for breath or violent throbbing of tlio heart, after great exertion) is really the name of one of the two s nail lakee | named on the map.* North and Smith! Mavora, in the hills beyond Wakatipu;! the other is Hikuraki. Many a sentimental legend accounting for the origin of Manapouri lias been j invented by Southern yakchajs. The;

facts here given were confirmed bj r other Maoris of the older generation, whom I saw in Southland or at Moeraki, in North Otago. Even those who had not seen the lake knew it ue Moturau. Nevertheless, Manapouri is a name of beauty, and it will remain. The Explorer's Magic Spade. In these southern parts of New Zealand one gathered traditions and wondertales never heard in the North Island. The legend of Rakaihaitu, the explorer, is an example. The word-of-mouth historians of blended Ngati-Ta.hu and Ngati-Marnoe, in South Canterbury, Otago and Southland, could give the J names and number of generations from Rakaihaitu; these showed that he came to New Zealand froin Polynesia approximately a thousand years ago. His sailing canoe was called- the Uruao. He travelled through the South Island from north to south, giving names to many places.. With his enchanted "ko," or sharp-pointed digging implement he scooped out the bode of numerous lakes, beginning with Rotoiti and Rotoroa (in the South Nelson country), then forming Wairewa. (Lake Forsyth, Banks Peninsula), and, going on southward, making lakes where they appeared to be needed. His crowning exploit was the making of Lake Wakatipu (correctly Whakatipu, meaning to grow), whose great deep serpentine' ho hollowed out with mighty scooping and fervent incantations. This combination of hero-tale- , and nature-myth carries its clear explanation. Rakaihaitu's powerful "ko" was the ice-plough of the Alps, at any rate so far as Wakatipu was concerned. Its glacial origin was understood by the observant Maori. The conformation of , the lakes, long and narrow, naturally led tho imaginative mind to ascribe to them a dug-out origin. Wairewa was so named because its surface seemed to be uplifted, to float in the air, due to a condition- of the atmosphere in calm, still weather. Pukaki, that long turbid lake which receives the glacier-fed Tasman River and discharges that great power-source, the Waitaki, was singularly well-named by the ancient Maori. The name means a river-source, the fount and origin of waters. Pukaki is the great (sottlingtank of the silt-laden streams that drain the central region of the Southern Alps. The contrast is great between the furious feeding steams and the strong, clean bhio AVaitaki ltiyer, cleared of all its muddy load. Pukaki is slowly but certainly silting up. Taupo's Meaning. Crossing to the North Island, there is a lake nanio which has been explained by uninformed people in a variety of imaginative ways. The authentic tradition goes back about six hundred years to an exploring chief named Tia, who, when travelling along the eastern shore of the lake, tied bis rough mat, of flax or cabbagc-treo leaves, called a "taupo" (a garment-name now obsolete), to a post which he set up on the beach. This was his altar or place of prayer, and placation of the genius loci. There is a volcanic clilT at that place which is curiously variegated somewhat resembling the ancient type of shoulder mat. And both cliff and lake are known to-day as Taupo-nui-a-Tia.