BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1950 HISTORIC ANNIVERSARY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 89, 23 January 1950, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1950 HISTORIC ANNIVERSARY

Celebrations held at Te Kaha on Saturday and yesterday to mark the 600th anniversary of the arrival of the Maoris in New Zealand have historical significance that cannot be too highly mephasised. For generations the actual sequence of the landings of the five canoes, Tainui, Arawa, Tauira, Nukutere and Horouta have been the cause of many arguments and discussions among tribal elders and it is possible that discussions held during the week-end by the various tribal leaders may have helped to clear some obscure points. The supposed year of arrival of the canoes is 1350, but even this is not Historians have come to agree on this date only after studying Maori legends. But can these be correct when songs and karakia (chants) even among the Maori -themselves disagree? The Arawa or Rotorua Maoris have their own story of the arrival of the Arawa canoe, but in the past it has been linked with the Matatua, which landed at Whakatane. According to descendants of the Matatua people their canoe and the Arawa arrived in the Bay of Plenty about the same time.

They say that When both canoes were en route to Aotearoa the Arawa was caught in a large whirlpool and was being carried to its doom. The commander, the famed Tama-te-Kapua, apealed to the equally ■famed; Toroa, commander of the Matatua, for assitance. This was promptly given, and the Arawa and the occupants were saved to continue their voyage to New Zealand.

Arawa people, however, disagree with this story. They say their Tohunga by his strong magical powers and chants saved them, not Toroa. This is only one of the many arguments that still exist.

Descendants of the five canoes in their discussions and speeches might solve some of these to the satisfaction of one tr’be, but it will be a difficult task to convince another.

But the gathering, possibly the last that some of the old surviving leaders will ever attend, has brought the various tribes and sub-tribes together in one meeting when all opinions and theories have been able to be aired.

It was fitting at the same gathering that the descendants of those .brave old sea wanderers should dedicate a memorial stone to their equally brave sons, the Maori servicemen who were killed in the last war.