INGAHAPE OR MANAWAPOU.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 July 1924, Page 8

INGAHAPE OR MANAWAPOU.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I am afraid your Whareroa correspondent has not improve)}, his position in his latest contribution re the so-called naming, pf the river. In his first letter hq says: “I had long wondered at the of the name ‘Manawapou,’ but I notice that the late Mr S. Percy Smith in his ‘Maori History of the Taranaki Coast’ explains it thus: When the[ original canoe conveying the Ngatiawa tribe landed at the Waitara river some six centuries ago. an occupant a valuable tiki (ornament), from a high chief of the party, and made off down the coast with it, hoping to reach safety at Patea among his brethren, -of Turi’s migration settled there. Exhausted he fell, asleep on the banks of the Manawapou stream, and being pursued by the chief from whom the heirloom was purloined, he suffered death lat the hands of the latter, who, cutting out his heart, placed it on a prominent post, thus giving the name Maiiawapou (‘heart on the post’) to the stream ever since.”

It will he noted that the. word “stream' 5 is used in the last ..sentence, and it was the rise of that word that brought me into print. Now your correspondent again quotes Mr Percy .Smith, using his exact words as follows: “Poupoto .... stole from Ngakura Matapo. one of the principal men of the kurahaupo (canoe) passengers. a valuable greenstone ornament called hurakiko. Poupoto came to Patea with Turi; and. after a time Ngakura Matapo came overland by the N West Coast, following up in Turi’s footsteps, determined to recover his lost treasure. One night he arrived very tired, at the banks of the Manawapou river, .about 10 miles north of Patea, and laid himself down to sleep. . . On ascending the hill next day, Ngakura Matapo there found Poupoto, whose head Jve cut off, and stuck his heart on a pole, hence the name of the place Manawapou, which it bears to this day.” Note " again that Mr Smith uses, the word “place’’ and not “stream.” If your Whareroa- correspondent will reread the paragraph carefully, he. will have to admit that Mr Percy Smith did not infer that in consequence, of a certain act by a. Maori the name Manawapou was given to the stream. Mr Smith says: “On ascending the-; hill next day, Ngakura Matapo there found Poupoto, whose head he cut off, .and stuck his heart on a, pole, hence the name of the place (or site of the village, as I put it) to this day.” It must be admitted, however, that the river is generally known as the Manawapou. Even Mr Smith, “who was perhaps the most erudite of all those who have written on Maori lore,” made the mistake when he said Ngakura Matapo slept on the banks of the Manawapou river; but he contradicts himself when he says— “hence the name of the place Manawapou.”—l am, etc., PREVIOUS CORRESPONDENT.