A FIORD MYSTERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6322, 27 February 1922, Page 2

A FIORD MYSTERY.

LOST MAORI TRIBE. SPECULATION AS TO ITS IDENTITY. WHO WERE THE HAWEASP Mr 11. Beattie of New Plymouth, and formerly of Gore, lias an article in a late “Journal of Science” in which he discusses, from personal investigations and older records and references, the identity and fate of the mysterious natives known to have inhabited the Otago fiord district down to recent times. Traces of these elusive people, he states, have been found as late as 1874, but from that date onward they seem to have vanished from human ken. Mr Beattie reviews the evidence bearing on the existence and manners of these xieople from tire time of Captain Cook, who saw natives, whom lie called “Indians,” in Dusky Sound, and named Indian Island there in consequence. A number of old Maoris whom the

writer interviewed in this provi nee had something to say about the vanished people, and their statements are given. The'conclusion of his article is as follows ‘ll will he .noticed that the Southland Maoris in 1812 and 1852 called the wild natives "Hawea.” \Vho were the Hawea people P "A very well-informed Maori assures me that the Hawea were tlie first race to inhabit the South Island. They were not Maoris, he says, hut an extremely dark-skinned race, with thick lips, ; strong white teeth, and curly hair. . They were displaced by the Rupuwai, \ who were not so dark as the liawea, : but were, nevertheless, an ill favored lot, being ugly to look at and clumsy and awkward in their movements. The next race to inhabit (he .South Island were the AVaitaha, and they were the first propt, Maoris to arrive in New Zealand, so lie said, and they were foli lowed by the Kati-Mamoe and KaiTalm peoples. The Hawea. did not come, from Hawaii, but from a different laud altogether. "The information is interesting, but . il seems to the writer that it is not i the liawea described above who are the ; Hawea of Fiordland. Nor would be asj scribe the origion of the title 'Hawea’ as applied to 1 lie wild natives to the fact that some of the refugees apparently fled from Lake Hawea, although such a theory was promulgated by one Mao ri. Hawea is also a name for an influential sub-tribe of Kati-Mamoe, and it was some of these people who are said to have fought at Te Whare, Preservation Inlet (before Captain Cook’s annearanceh and to have re-

I’reservation Inlet (before Captain Cook’s appearance), and to have remained round on the West Coast after that event, while another portion of Ivati-Hawea remained at Otago Heads. Tin’s is the origin of the name ‘Hawea’ applied in this case, as far as the writer can ascertain. “To survey the whole evidence so far available, it seems most probable that the denizens of the wild west region of Otago were not driven there by any one event at any one given time, but were rather the refugees of various occurrences at widely separated points and periods. Some would he the survivors of the fight in Preservation Inlet, some the fugitives from AVaiharakeke and Te A nan fights, some had rlt'd from the Wanaka-Hawea district, and others were perhaps driven down from Westland warfare. They would probably be in small bands —one about Martin’s Bay and Milford Sound, another alxnit Dusky and Breaksea Sounds, another about Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri, and yet another, probably, in tlie bush region west of the Waiau river. They appear to have been timid, inoffensive wanderers and it is likely that if in hands, as suggested, they would flee at one another’s approach. There is no tradition of their having killed anyone since they fied to the sanctuary of the wilds. “It seems scarcely probable that any of these shy. harmless creatures can survive to this day. Canon .Stack in ISOS wrote:—‘lt is just possible that a small remnant may still remain secreted in the recesses of that inaccessible region.’ At one time it was thought the moa would he found there hut that dream has vanished; and so must also the dream of finding a Stone Age people in New Zealand. But what is to prevent the discovery sooner or later of their places of shelter, of their mouldering mats and baskets, and of their rude tools?