COMING OF THE MAORI

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 33, 9 February 1927, Page 3

COMING OF THE MAORI

TRADITIONS OF T«€ RAGE

ADDRESS BY DR. BUCK

One of the'most enjoyable'functions M connection with the sessions of the Australasian Medical Congress at Dunedia was a lecture by Dr. Te Rangi Hiroa; better known as Dr. \Peter Buck, who spoke in Burns Hall on Saturday night on the'subject of the coming of ths Maori (states the "Otago Daily Times").

. Dr. Buck expressed the opinion that the Maoris originally belonged to the Caucasian race and migrated from South Eastern Europe towards the Bast Indies, then proceeding to the South Seas, and eventually coming to New Zealand. The date of departure of the last colonising group of canoes from ■ Hawaiki (Tahiti) to New Zealand has been approximately fixed as 1350. This had been calculated from the average number of generations from various ancestors who came in those canoes. The time of the year in which the canoes set sail was of great traditional interest. According io the version from the Takitimu canoe, th« branch or division of the year was Tatau-uru-oira. From the Maori, calendar, thiii corresponded roughly with. November. The Polynesian months were divided into nights,, and not. days, as with Europeans. The night of .tile month on which .the canoes left was the Orongonui. This inmost Maori' tables ;wat the 28th, but in some it was the 27th.

Further confirmation of the date of! sailing came from tradition supported by botany. Early European navigators, in observing the sailing powers of Polynesian seagoing canoes was a fair wind, had stated that seven knots an hour was easily accomplished: Froni this Mr. Elsdon Best showed that the journey from Raro tonga would take about 15days.;I£ the canoes left, for New Zealand toward the end of November they must have reached their destination by the middle o£ December. Various canoes of the fleet shared the common tradition that whea the fleet made their landfall at Whangaparaoa, in the Bay.of Plenty, the shores were ablaze with the scarlet blossoms of the pohutukawa. This was stressed,in Maori tradition by the fact that one of the chiefs cast his red head-dress orkura into the sea, saying: "There are kura in abundance in the new land that life* before us." The pohutukawa was in'roll bloom during December. Thus Madri and Rarotongan traditions ' supported,each other, and were further confirmed • by; the flowering of the pohutukawa.

. Dr. Buck concluded by stating that the arrival of the Maori was part of the history of New Zealand, and that the Maoris and New ••■ Zealanders , were., one. The .Maoris were proud of the-traditions that had been handed do^^:n to! them, and the residents of New Zealand should;be '■proud of.any traditions that would add. to the common store of knowledge. . The history of the Maori and of the Polynesians should be taught to: the children in the public schools so that they might, -understand something about the . raca from which the Maoris had ■ descended, and realise that they, were worthy citizen* of this country.

Dr. Harvey Sulton-(New. South Wales)' proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Buck for his address, and referred to the value of such an address as they had heard that night and the investigations by Profeßeoi* MaeMillari Brown in regard to the Pacific. He felt sure that the new professor of anthropology' at the Sydney University' would throw some new light; on the problem. The,evening had been•• memorable one for all present, and ihef address' had been of real scientific value.