BEHIND THE VEIL.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10392, 9 May 1927, Page 7 (Supplement)

BEHIND THE VEIL.

! POVERTY BAY IN PRE-MAORI ■ DAYS. .... j' TOI FINDS DISTRICT SPARSELY PEOPLED IN A.D. 1200. j WHO WERE THE TANGATA j ’ WHENUA ? ; HOW TURANGA RECEIVED ITS ' ! ' NAAIE. b ' It is-not known for certain how or | when tlie mid-East Coast districts of j the North Island of. this Dominion; J first came-to he peopled, That mem-; i hers of the race designated “Maoris”; ! were not the original inhabitants is, 5 however, stated by all investigators Ito be a positive fact. According to most authorities one or more types of people made their abode in these parts iprior to thof major Alaori migrafc’cn which, it. is claimed, took place, roughly, about 1350 A.D. Kupe and Ngaliue were, it seems, the first Polynesians, according to Alaori' history,' to visit Now Zealand. Their visit was made, around 950 A.D. and, from all accounts,- none of their people settled-in this country as a result of these voyages. Seemingly, also, neither' Kupe nor Ngaliue saw any trace of any inhabitants or of any habitations.. Incidentally, tlie-y. found greenstone on the West Coast of the -South Island and both returned to Hawaiki with glowing stories concerning great birds they had seen. Whether or not they actually killed a moa is not clear, although certain traditions credit them, rightly or wrongly, with having done so. In due course, the coming of the Toi people followed. That event, it is laid down, occurred about 1200 A.D. Toi and his people found on their arrival that the country was the home of a race known as “Mouriuri” or “Alaruiwi,’ who may, or may not,, have come here even before the days of Kupe and Ngaliue. If they did, those famous sea, strollers did not, as has already been mentioned, see any signs of them. Whither the aborig-

inals came, and when, is not now likely ever to be settled beyond doubt, but it may, with good grounds, be laid clown that the various Native peoples who, in turn, settled in this country sprang from a common parent stock which had gravitated into the Pacific in the misty past.

PIOW KUPE CAME TO DISCOVER NEW ZEALAND.

In his work “Nga Tupuna Alaori,” Sir George Grey told of ■ Knpe’s famous voyage of discovery’. it seems that Kupe and one Hoturapa one daj- went out to- fisli off their island home, Hawaiki. When the canoe gained the fishing-ground Kupe let his line down. “0, PJotu!” he said, “my line i.s foul at the bottom. Do dive and clear it.” Hoturapa said: “Get me bare your pine.” But Kupe answered: “Oh, no! You cannot get it loose unless vou dive.” (Kupe wished to slay Hoturapa so that he might secure his wife.) Hoturapa dived and, when lie was down, Kupe cut the cable of the canoe and pulled away. On reaching the surface Hoturapa cried out: “O, ’Kupe! Bring the cam e to me.” But Kupe did not so much as look round and pulled on. Hoturapa swam on till he became exhausted and was drowned. Kupe got on slioi’e and took the wife of Hoturapa, but he was afraid lest evil should conic to him and, to escape vengeance, he and his party embarked in the canoe “Alatahoiirua” ana sailed to New Zealand. Kupe crossed over to the South Island and pulled over the sea of Raukawa and Went on to the French Pass, where he met the octopus of Muturangi. When it heard the canoe coming, it rose to take it, but Kupe killed it! After four years’ absence Kupe returned to Hawaiki.

NO PRE-MAORI RELICS. It has not been ascertained that any traces are left to-day in Poverty Bay of settlement prior to the advent of the Alaoris in A.D. 1350. Searching enquiry has, indeed, failed to reveal a single relic of any ear her people hereabouts. Tradition is, of course, not silent on the matter but it is vague and contradictory on ibis as in regard to so many oilier imp.-ri-ant matters. In smi ? accounts <t is stated that, i l.e original N.Rive Mailers were Ihiikv people wall Jari complexion, .'’her 'tones aver tna! they wee ri.ort and flump n< well as dark. .Mid, rami - ' •li-te me traditions alleging the existence in this country in times long past of fairy folk, and of a, light skinned race with reddish hair. Generally, tradition liatli it that the “tangata whenua” were inferior physically te. i!-‘- Main And so it would appear, for the predecessors of the Maoris, in this as in other parts of the country, failed in the race, for the survival of the fittest. They were killed off or died out and all that remains to tie‘remind the world that thev ever existed are 'changes in the Alaoris due to the in-ter-marriage of the main body ot Polynesian migrants with the pecftl.es who were found in this land on their l arrival. Toi’s people no doubt inter-; married with the . “Alouriuri” or '* “Maruiwi” and, in due course, the I Alaoris of the A.D. 1350 migration J amalgamated with both earlier races. Melanesian castaways,' it is also! known, reached this country from time to time, which state of affairs is held to account for such strong traces of darker blood in some localities, notably in the Bay of Plenty.

TOI DESCRIBES POVERTY BAY. Despite the absence of definite traces of settlement, on the East Gtaast bv an earlier people than the Maoris Toi is the authority for the contention that, oven at the time ot his advent, this district was not altogether unpeopled. This, at any rate, mav he gathered from Ins speech of farewell to Alalnitoncra and Popoto, who visited him at .AVbakatane and were in search of a new ■home :—. ■ ..." - “Farewell!” said Toi. “When you see a bay trending inward to the north-west, wherein are two rivers, one at the scut-hern end of the sandy beach and the other at

the other end of the beach whore it trends' • westward, bald cliff south of the southern river, a ridge on the eastern side of the other river, the outspread (bora) land lying between the two- rivers, a range to the south west and one to the eastward—when you see this" lay of the land, then that is the place where .1 stopped (halted) out at. sea and inspected the placo from my vessel. .Now do you make your home there, for human occupation is scattered, as it also is further south. .When yovt enter the bay turn your face to the south, and you will see the point of land I spoke of projecting outward; this is the place i speak of. Now do you name it- Turanga for m§, in memory of my turanga (halting, stopping lii.s progress) out on the. ocean. 7 ’ Pop'oto consented to this request of Toi and, on reaching here, no doubt, found,- as Toi had advised him, that this district was already sparsely settled. The . fate of the prc-Toi Natives of Poverty Bay must, however, now ever remain a mystery. “TURANGA” A DISTRICT. As to the original naming of Poverty Bay, Mr. Elsdon Best has this to say:— “Evidently the name Turanga was applied to the. district, not to a place or small circumscribed area. Turanga is the gerundial form of the word tu, which means ‘to, stand, to remain, 7 but in connection- with any person, animal or object in movement it carries the meaning of ‘to stop, to come to a. standstill, to halt.’ Of a train halting at a station a Native will say ‘Kua tu’—‘lt has stopped’—as the vessel of Toi did prior to continuing. his voyage. So that Turanga . denotes the halting or stopping of Toi’s vessel as he surveyed the land of Aotearoa on liis way to the ‘ants’ nest’ of Tainaki, and his final home on the bold cliff brow at Whakatane. The name of Turan-

ga-nui-a-Iviwa is probably of later origin, the name of a prominent chief being connected with the old name, as we see in Taupo-nui-a-Tia, and Rotorua-nui-a-Kahu. Another name, that of Turanga-nui-a-Rua, had probably a similar origin, but I know not as to which Rua to assign the connection. It may have been Rua-te-liohovra, a reputed ancestor of Rongc-whak.uata of Turanga of that ilk, or Ruapani, the eponymie ancestor of Ngat:Ruapani, or any otlier old Rua who pervaded the land in the dim days of yore. AA'aiinaha-mii-a-Rua is a place at Te Papuni; Tamaki-nui-a-Rua is tlio Seventy Mile Bush region. One thing is fairly certain, that the Iviwa connected with Turanga was not the Kiwa after whom tiie far spread ocean was nameu the Great Ocean of Kiwa, (Te Moa-na-nui-a-Kiwa). Tin's latter Kiwa was one of the mythical offspring of the primal parents, the Sky Father and the Earth Mother, and lie was appointed as one of the_ poutiriao, or guardians of the universe, his particular charge of realm being the great ocean, hence the full name* of the ocean.”