MAORI NATURE NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 192, 4 August 1930, Page 7

MAORI NATURE NOTES

FOR TRIBUNE READERS (Copyright—J.H.S.) Readers of the “Tribune” who are interested in the Hora and bird life of New Zealand, by cutting out these Maori Nature Notes each day as they appear and filing them in a suitable scrap book, may compile a book of reference which will be to them » source of pleasure and instruction in the years to come. TAINUI, probably a name associated with its legendary arrival here (a great sea). A small tree grown readily from seed., but seen only in a few localities. A pretty story from the pen of Sir James Hector says the great Maori sailor Heko brought the branches as soft bedding for his canoe about A.D. 1400 _ from Hawaiki, and in confirmation of this he was shown the only clump of Tainui in New Zealand growing near Mokau. But the Maori loves to build up a romance. The privilege of age is to recite wonderful stories which none living can refute. Nor had they any ruthless writers to interfere with their romances. One writer points out that in none of the South Sea islands from which the Maori came, is the Tainui to be found. Moreover, Heke hinder! at Kawhia many miles from Mokau. Then he adds this comment, “When the earthen pot of tradition and the iron vessel of science go down the stream, together. the former is apt to be broken.”