PUKAPUKA HAS VISITORS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21457, 26 April 1935, Page 8

PUKAPUKA HAS VISITORS

.—* Most Isolated of the Cook Islands SOUTH SEA GENEROSITY (specially v. - kitten* rtn: iue i'jiesh.) (By R. K. PALMER.) XV. Raumati was a great Polynesian • navigator of centuries ago, one of those Maori sailors who settled New Zealand. His name is well known in the history of his people, for it was he who burned the Arawa canoe. Raumati had a brother, another chief who came to New Zealand in that great migratory wave, and this brother took three wives from the Maruiwis, the people found living in New Zealand. For a time he lived in this country, but one day his wives laughed together at a physical peculiarity of their master, and he, in a fit of anger, took his people and set sail for Rarotonga, whence ho had come. The journey was not at first a lucky one. Westerly winds blew the canoe from its course till Rarotonga was behind it. Food must have been getting low, and probably the confidence of the crew in their leader was ebbing, when an island came into sight. On that island, Pukapuka, the most westerly of the Cooks, nearly halfway from the rest of the northern group to Samoa, the descendants of those temporary New Zealanders live to-day, cousins to Raumati's people in Taranaki. Not Ion;' after Pukapuka had been settled the gods placed various obstacles in the way of further voyages Did a canoe set out for some other island, a god in the form of a huge shark would appear and swallow it at one gulp, or another god would drop a waterspout right on top of it. This discouraged the people, and they gave up voyaging. There are those who discount the second part of that small chapter of Polynesian history, contending that the vindictive habits of the gods, so far from being the cause of the Pu'kapukans forsaking the ocean, are merely a more recently invented excuse to ex-plain a sudden change of habit. But whatever the truth of that, it is certain that voyages stopped while the people of the other islands were still skilful navigators. Anthropologist at Work For this reason the people of this island are of particular interest to the anthropologist. Their houses arc different from those seen in the rest of the group, they have certain habits and arts that the other islanders have forgotten, and they do not have some that are common elsewhere among islanders of the same stock. That is why Dr. Ernest Beaglehole, of Wellington, and more recently of Yale University, and his wife, were at Pukapuka when the Matai called there. They had done several months' research work, and would do several j more, for the Bishop Museum, before ' leaving. | Outrigger canoes raine out hi the i -hip to lake the visitors ashore and a boat arrived to work the cargo' The | canoes, outwardly similar to those of I the other islands, have certain differ- \ enees. Instead of being carved from , two tree trunks and sewn amidships : with sennit, as are those of Manpaia, j where there are no very tall trees ! the hulls of these were carved from j one long but not very thick tree, and j miiwarks were sewn to the hulls And l they have a fish-like nose and tail. ! Differences of this sort, of course are j ol no concern to Iho passenger except I as an illustration of Polynesian ingenuity. All the canoes seem at first to be dangerous, but all are handled so well that even the limid soon have confidence in them. ; Isolation from Cooks I The isolation of Pukapuka lias perI siated even since its annexation to : iNCw Zealand. In Rarotonga there is i a cured leper from Makogai who has : been waiting for five years for a chance i to Kc t to her home in Pukapuka The resident agent in Pukapuka, Mr Geofj h'ey Henry, and his wife, natives of j Aitutaki. have been in the island nine

years, and have never been able to make the trip to their own island. This is because the only trading firm operating there send? its occasional ships from Apia, and never touches I the other Cook Islands. The Pukapukans dislike this arrangement. Not only do they want to be connected , with the people of the other islands, j ■ but they are frightened that the coco-1 nut beetle will reach them from Samoa. Possibly 'because the island is so isolated, possibly because, as we felt at the time, the people have a special charm of their own, the welcome we were given was the most enthusiastic we had on the whole tour. The captain and the chief officer went ashore first, to see if it would be possible to get the ship's surf-boat through the passage in the reef, to expedite the handling of cargo. It was not, so they stayed ashore, the captain the prisoner of a band of children who led him off to see the sights and to tell him all about them —in Maori. j The rest of us followed with Mr i Henry, and after we had shaken hands with everyone on the beach, went across the island, over a causeway that gives "a view of the lagoon that ' would satisfy any South Sea artist, to the village where the courthouse and | the residency are situated. i It was a very hot morning, even in the shade of the verandah, and % wo were grateful, as we sat there recovering from the walk, to the women who fanned us and the boys who brought coconut after coconut for us to drink. While Mr Henry and Mr Smith talked Cook Island business, and the doctor examined the very few sick people of Pukapuka, the islanders crowded round and asked questions of the rest of the visitors till they knew every detail of where the ship had been and of the effect of the hurricane. Polynesian String Games Then Dr. and Mrs Eeaglehole arrived, and Mrs Beaglehole, one of the Maori members of the ship's crew, and an old woman of Pukapuka entered into a discussion, with illustrations, of Polynesian string games, while the people looked on. Mrs Beaglehole was almost as skilled as the old woman, and the intricate cat'.; cradle designs she made with quick movements of her fingers drew their admiration. But when they found that the New Zealand Maoris made the same figures, and that they had the same meaning, they were delighted. The only other white resident of Pukapuka, Mr R. D. Frisbie, an American novelist, who has lived ; there for years, talked to us about the traditional voyages of the Polynesians. '■ Mr Frisbie knows ships, and he knows • the stars, and he told us how he had checked the star courses which the , i Pukapukans have remembered through ■ the generations since they were practical navigators, had checked them. : and had found that they made perfect : great circle courses to the islands to which the traditions of the people > said they would lead. News Wanted \ Then it was our turn to be put. in \ the witness-box. On the cruise of the Matai we had deliberately ignored j the radio news sessions, partly because we could not satisfy the appe- '' tile for information which they whetted, partly because we had wanted to forget Hitler, the New Deal, and the price of butter-fat. We had not s regretted it till that morning at j Pukapuka. In the other islands cither - someone had a radio set or else there f was no time to discuss news with us. u Here there was no radio, but plenty 2 of time. The last ship had called in 2 November. , "Who is the new governor of Cali--5 fornia?". asked Mrs Beaglehole. That _ was an easy one. "And Wisconsin?" , Harder. "Have the Blackshirts and j the Reichswher clashed yet?" from ~ her husband. They had not a month , before, we told him. "Is Ihe new 200 ' inch telescope at Mount Wilson work--1 ing yet?" asked Mr Frisbie. "What's e happening now?" one asked for all of them. We will probably go down in e Pukapuka history as the worst-in-d formed visitors that ever came to (lie e island. >f Plilcapuka. Presentation '"j Suddenly, as we were talkine. a n procession appeared down the avenue ,s to the courthouse, men and women I' carrying mats and hats and paddles *' and baskets and fans-everythin:; the d Pukapukans make. Once again there d was to be a presentation. The village j wit led the party, called each visitor 0 forward, and handed the fhfts to him. ,{ As he passed a mat over he gave a i- few directions about how it. was to be ; t laid so as best to inspire frequent ( j thoughts of Pukapuka. Before he e gnvo the paddle he showed how it should be used to make it sing as if I passed through the wafer, as the paddles of this island do, because.' of .. the queer knob on their ends. The „ hats he put on the visitors' heads, s With a coil of sennit he showed that. :; it should be used for fishing, and then 8 he produced another pile of presents e ior those who had been unable to come !- ashore. It was a delightful, laughine, if | ceremony, with every New Zealander ei leeling as cheerful as a Polynesian.

Then there was the feast. The ' islands provide an appetite, and even the two unnamed gluttons who had drunk six coconuts each in the hour they sat on the verandah, were ready for the several kinds of fish, the taro, the yams, and the coconut sauce. The [-island is not a fertile one, the only foods that can be relied on being coco- | nuts and fish. But with care taro and yams can be produced, and we saw holes dug in the coral, coconut husks thrown in to form soil, with bananas growing fairly well from this. Half-way through the meal, Mrs Beaglehole whispered that that day was Mrs Henry's birthday, and that the food had been prepared before the Matai's unexpected arrival for that occasion. We protested at this generosity. "This is the best birthday 1 have had," Mrs Henry declared, and in an island where visitors are so rare, she meant it. Later the party came aboard the i ship, and there they drank tea with j fresh milk in it, ate fresh butter and cheese. Mrs Henry was gazing across I a table at something far beyond the | walls of the saloon. Someone spoke to j her. "I beg your pardon," she said. "I was just thinking how happy I am." Some fresh meat was found for fhern to take ashore, and some tobacco, small things that made the Matai's visit to Pukapuka as pleasant for those charming people as it had been for the Matai. Someone had told Mrs Henry of the splendid voices of the Maori members of the crew. "I do wish I had heard your Maoris sing," she said, just before they went down the gangway. An officer heard her, and told the crew, and as the anchor came up the Maoris lent over the rail and sang some of their own songs, far more musical than those of the islands, while the canoes waited beside the ship. It had been a good birthday, we decided, as the Matai headed for Apia, the last of the Cook Islands behind it.