BIRTHPLACE OF MAORI

Evening Star, Issue 18175, 16 January 1923, Page 6

BIRTH PLACE OF MAORI

HIS LONG JUMP FROM ARABIA. PHYSIOGRAPHIC SENSE. [TV, ii United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, January 16. _ Tn a paper dealing with the extraordinary physiographic sense of t.ho old-time .Maori, deliiveretcl' before the .Science Congress by Mr James Cowan, Arabia, by strong racial affinities, was given os the birtihpk'ic-o of t.ho Maori nation, their genius for seamanship and navigation being derived from their ancestry on tho Arabian littoral. Eaatwn.rd for cwnl/urics the trade winds carried tho Maori from Tahiti and Rarotonga to tho Kormadecs, which, with islands since loot, served ns steering and land marks and resting places. An example of tho Maori genius as geographers was instanced in nomenclature. Ttlio South Island is Maui’s canoe; Stewart Island is its anchor, tho Kaikoura, Peninsula is its thwart; the North Island Maui's fish, the bond of Hawke’s Bay his fishhook. Tho Maori .named the Jiving and (satinet volcanoes, and enshrouded them in mythical poesy. Tama tea Pokai Whe.mia (Tamatea, who penetrates tho land) was the trim typo of pathfinder find topographer. Six centuries ago ho traversed the whole length of tho South Island, and passed through tho Heart of the North Island to East Gape. To Puoho (1836) led a war party from Nelson down t.ho West Const to tho Haast River, over the Haast Pass to Wan-aka, thence through Otago. Love of exploration inspired tho Mauri expeditions.