OUR FIRST SETTLERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR FIRST SETTLERS.

HOW LONG AGO?

PRE-ARAWA OCCUPATION.

(By J.C.)

It is many years since the fact was well established by inquiries into Maori traditional history that there were Polynesians and part Melanesian inhabitants in New Zealand long before the era of the celebrated sailing canoes Arawa, Tainui, Takitimu and their contemporaries which arrived on these shores six centuries ago. Tribal history and genealogies and folk-stories without end have made it evident that those canoes found many of the most inviting places along our coasts already occupied by the "tangata-whenua," or original people, predominantly Polynesian like themselves, and so had to search for more sparsely peopled parts before they could make permanent homes in the country. The early writers on New Zealand, not so well informed, imagined that the country was comparatively recently peopled. In a recently published book of missionary reminiscences, the late Canon J. W. Stack's early memories and stories, there are references to the probable antiquity of man in New Zealand. It is strange to find that Stack declared: "From inquiries here (Canterbury) and in the North I am persuaded there is not a shadow of evidence to prove the existence of an aboriginal race when the Maoris arrived five hundred years ago. If any race inhabited these islands prior to the Maori occupation of them, that race was extinct and left no visible trace of its existence." This was in a letter written in 1867 to Sir Julius von Haast, the geologist and archaeologist. Von Haast was of a different opinion; in his explorations on the West Coast he had discovered uridence of very ancient pre-Maori occupation. In 1885 Stack expressed an opinion in line with his first letter. His limit was 500 years. Perhaps Stack may be excused for holding to that long-obsolete view; he was a missionary, and that class was not as a rule admitted to the inner confidence of the tohungas, who held to tiie old religion and beliefs and kept the traditions of the tribes. But it is remarkable to find, at this time of 'lay in Maori-Polynesian research, an archaeologist of the younger generation supporting the really untenable views of Stack. Mr. H. D. Skinner, lecturer in ethnology in Dunedin University, in a note in the book, praises "the extraordinary soundness of his (Stack's) judgment on the basic historical problems relating to South Island history," and adds that archaeological research in recent years, much of it still unpublished, demonstrate the accuracy of Stack's judgment, in opposition to yon, Haasfs. ' 1

This denial of facts now thoroughly well established seems ill-judged, for it runs counter to many investigators specially qualified to discuss the problem of pre-Maori races. Mr. Skinner is an eminent archaeologist, and regards the question chiefly from that point oi view. But the wider and more complete scope of inquiry by Maori-speak-ing investigators during the last halfcentury or so must be given greater weight; and in the face of the immense amount of data gathered it is not reasonable to contend that there were no human beings here earlier than five centuries ago. Our principal investigators versed in the Maori tongue and history who have published the results of their inquiries since Stack's day found themselves in general agreement on the fact that there were Polynesian voyages to New Zealand at a remote period, probably a thousand years ago or more. Such inquirers as S. Percy Smith, Judge Wilson, Colonel Gudgeon, Elsdon Best, C. E. Nelson, Hare Hongi, the Mair brothers, Dr. Peter Buck and several others who combined long knowledge of the Maori with a diligent search for facts, have placed on record a very large amount of evidence showing that there were numer-' ous tribes of aborigines here before the Arawa, Tainui, Mataatua, Takitimu and other historic canoes arrived from the eastern Pacific. Mr. Percy Smith came to the conclusion that there were visits of Maoris, or proto-Maoris, to this country probably thirteen centuries ago. One famous ancestor mentioned in many traditions lived in New Zealand SOO years ago, as stated by traditional history and genealogies. Why Tainui Went On. Mr. George Graham has shown—and his collected evidence is supported by others—that the reason why the Tainui crew did not remain in these desirable parts on the arrival from Tahiti was that the Tamaki isthmus was already populated by a warlike race, and so the Tainui people crossed to the West Coast and explored it until they found room at Kawhia to settle and expand. In my own search into the unwritten history of many parts of both islands I collected a great deal of evidence from the old learned men satisfying me that there were people of Polynesian ana mixed Polynesian and Melanesian origin a thousand years ago, and probably earlier. Even in the South Island, where one would have imagined there would be comparatively little of the past preserved, I found traditions quite unknown in the North, with ancestral lists, handed down by word of mouth, tending to impress me with the view that the South Island was settled as early as the North and possibly earlier. One genealogy I took down from a recital at Moeraki over thirty years ago is an example; it gave the direct line of descent of Rakaihaitu, chief of the Tairea canoe, which came from Hawailci forty-three generations ago. That placed the coming of Rakaihaitu, who explored cho S">uth Island and remained there al>o-' V. \ The narrator, end >/—* ' -pers-of-tho-Ngai- i

Tahu and Ngati-Mamoe, at various places, gave traditions showing that there were other very early arrivals in the South Island, some evidently part Melanesian in type, from the descriptions handed down. Their colour and hair were described. There was one crew of Polynesians, name of canoe and principal chief given, who, according to the genealogy down to the narrator, lived fifty generations ago. Archaeology is of less importance than the comparative study of tribal history and traditions in assessing the durations of Maori and pre-Maori occupations of New Zealand. One wave of primitive race migrations after another might pass and leave little or no material trace behind except the fortified hills, mostly of the later settlers. But the general reliability of genealogies and other traditional recitals is agreed upon, after long and careful comparisons of the various tribal narratives. We have the names of scores of "tangata whenua" tribes who peopled the coast and many parts of the interior. The Volcano Traditions. There is one class of tradition which lias a certain value in relation to man's occupation of this country, and that is the very numerous legends of the volcanic mountains. It is likely enough that many now extinct volcanic cones and peaks were active in ancient Maori times, and that eruptions of such mountains as Edgecumbe, Tauhara, Pihanga and Kakepuku, perhaps Rangitoto Island, and the cones around Lake Omapere, in North Auckland, were witnessed by the very early inhabitants. The folk tales relative to such volcanoes are probably the dim memories of actual eruptions, handed down through the several races which blended into one. As with the Pacific Islands, we must assign a much longer period to man's occupancy of New Zealand than that so confidently fixed by the earlier writers. As for the Arawa-Tainui canoe immigrants, they were practically the last Polynesian settlers in this country, not the first. A few return voyages were made to Rarotonga and Tahiti and back again, but to all intent the communications ceased probably before 1400 A.D. By that time there must have been many thousands of people in these islands, a blend of many scores of Polynesian migrations, with a touch of Melanesian tarbrush. The reason why more was not heard of the early races is that the Maori took greater pride in his Tahiti and Earotonga origin of six centuries ago and was not disposed to make much of his more ancient line of descent. In the Land Courts, th-? genealogies chiefly relied upon only go back to the Aotea-Arawa-Tainui-Mata-atua-Takitimu crews. But the wellinformed Maori of the older generation could, if he liked, recite a much longer pedigree, men like the late Te Heuhe'J Tukino. Such men, too, as my old acquaintances, Ira Herewini, of Moeraki, and Te Maire, of the Waitaki, who could recite their family-tree names from that wonderful adventurer, Rakaihaitu, who crossed the Pacific in an outrigger sail-ing-craft five centuries before Columbus yen'-ured-out upon the Western Ocean.