BEHIND THE VEIL.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 10473, 31 December 1927, Page 7 (Supplement)

BEHIND THE VEIL.

POVERTY BAY IN PRE-MAORI DAYS. TOI FINDS DISTRICT SPARSELY PEOPLED IN A.D. 1200. WHO WERE THE TANG AT A WHENUA? HOW TURANGA RECEIVED ITS NAME.

, ft is- not known for certain how or j . when the m Id-Fast Coast districts of the North Island of this Dominion j first came- to he peopled. That mem- j bers of the race designated “Maoris” j were not the original inhabitants is,

however, stated by all investigators to be a positive fact. According to most authorities one or more types of people made their abode in these parts prior to tha major Alaori migrar’nn which, it is claimed, took place, roughly, about 1330 A.D. Kupe and Ngahue were, it seems, the first Polynesians, according to Alaori hisio:-,, to visit New Zealand. Their visit was made around 950 A.D. and, !Y m all accounts, none of their people settled in this country as a result of these voyages. Seemingly, also, neither- Kupe nor Ngahue saw any trace of any inhabitants or of any habitations. Incidentally, they 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 tlm.t the country was the home of a race known as “Mouriuri” or “.Maruiwi,’ who may, or may not, have come hero even before the days of Kupe and Ngahue. 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 iik-'lv ever to ho settled beyond doubt, but it may, with good grounds, he laid down that the various Native peoples who, in turfy, settled in this country sprang from a common parent stock which had gravitated into the Pacific in the misty past.

HOW KUPE CAME TO DfSCOYER NEW ZEALAND.

In his work “Nga Tupuna Maori,” Sir George Grey told of Kupe’s famous voyage of discovery. It seems that Kupe and one Holurapa one day went out to> fish off their island home, Hawaiki. When the canoe gained the fishing-ground Kupe lot his line down. ”0. Hotu!” he said, line is foul at the bottom. Do dive and clear it.” Hoturapa said .- “Let me have your line.” But Kupe answered: ‘‘Oh, no! You cannot get it loose unless vim dive.” (Kupe wished to slay Ifoturapa so that hemight secure his wife.) ,Hoturapa dived and, when lie was clown, Kupe cut the cable of the canoe and pulled away. On reaching the surface Hoturapa cried ont: “o,'Kupc! Bring the canoe to me.” But Kupe did not so muc h as look round and pulled on. Hoturapa swam on till he became exhausted and wa.s drowned. Kupe got cm shore and took the wife of Hoturapa, but lie was afraid lest evil should come to him and, to escape vengeance, he and his party embarked in the canoe “Matahoiu-nn.” nnu sailed to Now Zealand. Kupe crossed over to the South Island and pulled over the sea of Rnukawa and Wont on to tile French Pass, where he met the octopus of Muturaiigi. When it hoard the canoe coming, it rose to take i?, hut Kupe killed it! After four years’ absence Kupe returned to Hawaiki.

NO PRE-MAORI RELICS.

It lias not been ascertained that any traces are left to-day in Poverty Bay of settlement prior to the advent of the Maoris in A.D. 1300. Searching enquiry lias, indeed, failed to reveal a single relic of any earlier peojile hereabouts. Tradition is, of course, not silent on the matter hut ■t is vague and contv idic-torv on this as in regard to so m i.iv oilier imp. ri-

rnt matters. In sop acc.mnfs .t is stated that il.e "'igitinl N.itne sutlers were Isnkv people wall da.-i. complexion, "-ii.-r -l ines aver :nn! they wee d.irt mid v : ump a-- w.-ll as dark, .snd, :iiMi. me I- iditions alleging the existence in this country in times long past of fairyfolk. and of a light skinned race with reddish hair. Gene'.iUy. i: uhtion hath it that the “tangata wlienua” were infwio- - physically te tin- Mann 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 Ite remind the world that thov ever existed arc ’changes in the Maoris due to the in-ter-marriage of the main body or Polynesian migrants with the peoples who wore found in this land cn their arrival. Toi’s people no doubt intermarried with the '‘Mournin'’ or ‘‘Maruiwi” and, in due course, the Maoris of the A.D. 1350 migration 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.

TOT DESCRIBES POVERTY BAY.

Despite the absence of definite traces of settlement on the East Coast by an earlier peojile than the Maoris Toi is the authority for the contention that, even at the time of his advent, this district was not altogether unpeopled. This, at any rate, mav he gathered from hi.s soeeeh of farewell to Mahutonca and Popoto. who visited him at IVhakatanc and were in search of a newhome :

“Farewell!” said Toi. “ll'hen you see a hay trending inward to ihe north-west, wherein are two rivers, one at the southern end of the sandy heacli and the other at

the other end of the beach where j it trends westward, a; bald cliff south of tlio southern river, a ridge on the eastern side of the other river, the outspread (hora) j land lying between the two rivers, a range to the south west and one to the eastward—-w-hen you see this lay of the land, then that is the place where 1 stopped (halted) out at sen and inspected the place from rny vessel. Now do you make your home there, for human occupation is scattered, as it also is further south. When you enter the bay turn your face to the south, and you will see the point 01 land 1 spoke of projecting outward ; this is the place 1 speak of. : Now do you name it Turanga for j me, in memory of my turanga (halting, stopping his progress) out oil the ocean.”

Popoto consented to this request of Toi and, on reaching here, no doubt, iounil,- as Toi had advised him, that this district was already sparsely settled. The . fate of the pre-Toi Natives of Poverty Bay must, however, now ever remain a mystery.

TURANGA” A DISTRICT,

As to the original naming of Poverty Bay, Air. Elsdon Best lias this to say:—-

“Evidently the name Turanga was applied to the district, not to a place or small circumscribed area. Turanga is the gc-rundial form of the word tu, which means To, stand, to remain,’ 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 lias stopped’—as the vessel of Toi did prior to continuing, hi.s voyage. So that Turn ngn denotes the halting or stopping of Toi’s vessel as he surveyed the land of Aotearoa on his way to the ‘ants’ nest’ of Tamaki, and his final home on the bold cliff brow at Whakatane. The name of Turan-

- ga-nui-a-Kiwa 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-n-Kahu. Another name, that of Turanga-nui-a-Rua, had probably a similar origin, but I know not as to which llmi to assign the connection. It may have been Rua-te-hohouu, a reputed ancestor of Itongo-whakaata of Turanga of that ilk, or Ruapani, the eponymie ancestor of NgatiKuapani. or any other old Rua who porvude.cl the land in the dim days of yore. Waimaha-mii-a-Rua is a place at To Papuni; Tamaki-iiui-a-Rua is the Sevenl.v Aide Bush region. One thing is fairly certain, that the Kiwa connected with Turangsi was not the Kiwa after whom the far spread ocean was nameu the Great Ocean of Kiwa. (Te Aloa-na-nui-a-Kiwa). This 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.”