FINE NAVIGATORS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 244, 28 September 1922, Page 5

FINE NAVIGATORS.

COMING OF THE MAORIS. DR. BUCK’S VERSION. An instructive and interesting lector was delivered at laumarunui by Dr. Duck upon he subject of “Che Coming of rue Maoris.” Hie speaker piciacSd his remarks by biasing that accurdiug to liieufies uad Alaou legends, me.Mauris caina to Auw /jcaianu in idud A..D., by hmj 1 ui the Hawaiki immigration, ine meufy ur several writers wub itmt vne aiauns < ame li<mi khe Ala Isiuudb, out that wag not so. lor tne verm Maivaiki was ueriwed irum the name given me canoee in which the uauves trussed m« t'acinc. » lhe vanuiib Lribeb were named alter Hie canoe in winch tiiey came uv< vu New Zealand. Abe Maoris came to colonise, and .lie cuiitenueU dial the weli-Mquwu picture in the Auckland -Uusgum, wliicn depicted the natives trobbiug tile uater in ilieir canoes in a starving cuiaiitiun, was nieurrect. in Mippuiv ol nib siatenieut lie pointed out Uiat m<f brought with them tho*kuinara and otner seeds, as well us dugs, they came out with the niieiiuugi ui cultivating tile laud in which dieg intended to settle. At was udicutuqs to say ilia t the Maoris had been b tar wing, lor had they been, he he was sure that Hie dugs and the seeds they bld brought with them would not have arrived, He said that no race could ve crossed such a stretch of water unless it nad had a deep and extensive knowledge ui navigation. In his opinion tlie Maoris uviu Eastern Polynesians irum laliiti and the neigiib< >uring iaiandb. The i’olynesians were recognised as one oi the greatest navigating races, and the Maoris, by f Jn?ing out a definite system of navigation arrived in New Zealand. Captain Cook and others, he said, had timed and found that Native canoes, with their sails of matting, could travel at a speed of seven knots, with a fair wind. The people in Kara tonga knew of the migration of the Maoris, and said that the journey was made in the month of November, and that they were assisted a fair wind. The Maoris arrived in New Zealand about December, when the pohuXakawa was in bloom. At th® rate the cannea were said to travel, the ypyage from Rarotonga to New Zealand would take about ten days. When the Maoris arrived hero they found other people here, known as the Tois. who were said to have arrived in 1150 AD. Prior to this race jhere dwelt in New Zealand the Pre-Tois, or Maniwis. New Zealand was discovered by Kupa, the navigator, ip 950 A.D.. who on his return told the people of the land he had discovered, ana sailing direction. Away back centuries ago, the Maoris developed a high state ot navi. \ gation, so much so that at present the people stand aghast at what they had aciomplished. The Maoris made their trips, while the civilised people had been frightened to leave the coast. While his hearers’ ancestors were still hugging the coast, the natives were making excursions from from islands to islands, and even visited the Antarctic ocean out of sheer adventure and sport. These excursions were madwe in the Stone Age, when tlie canoes had to be made with stone axes. The Polynesians came from the Malay Archipelago, where they were Indonesians, ana broke trough a Melanesian fringe into the Pacific. He considered Indonesians were derived from a mixture of a. Caucasian people from India and a Mongolian iieople from South-Eastern Asia. He said that, taking the history of all races, there had been intermarriage, and he declared that at present it would be hard to say whether there was a purebred race in the world; but the Chinese may be. Returning to the question of the i Maoris’ arrival in New Zealand, the I speaker said that there were people I interested In the subjecth. The story, however, went, he said, that the Maoris and the Toi people intermarried. and a considerable amount of fighting went on. Judging the characteristics. the Pre-Toi people deecend. from the Melanesian people, and were driven out of New Zealand. They set out to sea to escape the death that lurked there .and landed on the Chatham Islands, and were later called the Moriori. The Morion were a distinct people, and were now almost extf.net. Tn concluding his remarks, the doctor stated that although the Madtns had been of a high mentaliay when in Polynesia, they stagnated in other ways, but when they came to New Zealand they discovered other things. For instance, they found that their clothing was not suitable, and found methods of treating flax. They also had to work prepare their olantations. while they had to erect different houses from those that they had previously been accustomed (♦