MAORI MIGRATIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 August 1924, Page 7

MAORI MIGRATIONS.

EVIDENCE OE SEVERAL “WAVES” INTERESTING LECTURE BY E DR. BUCK. Hie eA T ident interest manifested in the subject of Maori tradition and lore was strikingly shoAvn by the packed audience that assembled at the Epsom In bra ry to hear a lecture delh-ered by '• */ ( Te Eaugihiroa), the Auckland Star reports. Di Buc-k emphasised the importance or those present knowing something about, the history of their own country. Children going to school had to learn about the history of the Anglo-Saxon#, and a lot of dates about kings and queens, Avhereas he deemed it Avas equally if not more, important that they should knoAv something of the country they lived in, and not leave it entirely to the Maoris themselves to take an interest in such matters. The history of the “Maori Vikings” was just as much their history as it Avas his oavu. As far as the Maoris Avere concerned they had no written language or picture Avriting, and their history had to be transmitted orally. There had been some controversy recently as to the value of these Maori traditions, many Avnters holding that, they Avere worthless. Others again held the vierv that although some points might be exaggerated—the historian, like 'the poet, taking a certain amount of license—there Avas yet a deal of truth and light in regard to past events. ill. Percy Smith had alloAved tAventyhve years to one generation, and the various Maori tribes ahvays referred to .the fact that they came from the land of Hawaiki, that they came in canoes and landed in New Zealand tAventy-tAvo generations ago, so that they could say for almost certain that the Harvaiki migration took place about the year 1350 A.D. The coming of the fleet from HaAvaiki Avas due to the turmoil and fighting in that place, and the Alaoiis on that occasion came on a colonising expedition, as Avas evidenced by the foodstuffs and plants they brought with them. When they arrived in New Zealand there Avere other people here, and for a time they lived in peace and amity, but later Avar and strife took place.

At some length the lecturer dealt with the voyage of Toi in the year 1150 m search of his grandson, and the coming of Kupe, the explorer, supposed to be about the year 950. He claimed that Kupe sailed through Cook Strait many centuries before Captain Cook, and it should rightly he called by his name. Hokianga was the turning place of Kupe, and the story of his discovery, and Avhat lie found in New Zealand, was handed down from generation to generation in the various schools of learning. AfteiAvards' Avhen Toi and the fleet came they folloAved the directions laid doAvn by Kupe. The Maoris Avere a mixed race, and originally Avere supposed to come from the south-east coast of Asia. A deal of information avhs supplied regarding traditional narratives of Polynesian voyages, and the isles of the Pacific. The Polynesian people, of Avhich the Maoris Avere a branch, had from NeAv Zealand in the south an area of about 4000 by 5000 miles of sea in Avhich to make their voyages, and sometimes ventured even into the Antarctic. The concluding portion of the lecture dealt Avith the Morioris of the Chatham Islands, a remnant of a race from the Western and not the Eastern Pacific. Emphasising the value of tradition and the importance of curios and skulls in the study of past history, Dr. Buck urged all present to take a lively interest in the history and Avelfare of their country. In Auckland they AA r ere about to build a Avar memorial museum, one of the most magnificent museums south of the line, and the main feature of it AA r ould be an ethnological collection. It should be the storehouse of all that Avas \ r aluable. They had canoes, carved houses, and curios which formed one of the most valuable collections in the Avorl'd, and they should go further. In their explorations and holiday making they should keep a keen lookout for anything that Avould add to the value of the collection. By its situation Auckland should also be the centre of a cbllection for the Avhole of Polvnesia.