THE TAINUI TREE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9406, 4 January 1911, Page 6

THE TAINUI TREE.

INTERESTING MAORI LEGENDS.

A ROMANCE AND ITS SEQUEL. ] This plant, which was referred to in tho descriptive article on the gardens in the Square 011 Saturday, was discovered in New Zealand by the late Sir James Hector, and was described by him in 1879 as Pomaderm Tainui. * it is of special interest because of the Maori legend attached to it. When Sir James Hector was, in the Mokau district in 1878 he was informed by the Maoris that a certain tree, which had sprang from_ the preen boughs used in the flooring of the canoe "Tainui," was still growing ! in the district.

The "Tainui" was one of the 6ix famous canoce of the great Heke, and in it the ancestors of tho Waikato, Ngatimaniapotos and other tribes came to New Zealand some five or 6ix hundred years ago. Sir James expressed a doubt as to the credibility of this statement concerning the origin of the tree. Tho Maoris then offered to show him the living specimens, which were growing on a spur between the Mokau and the Mohakatinui rivers. The scientist, On seeing the tree, was forced to admit that he had not seen any tree of the kind in New Zealand before, and the Maoris considered this admission was prima facie evidence of the truth of their tale. Sir James concurred in this view, and suggested that, if we could hereafter determine the original habitat of tho tree it might give us a due to the whereabouts of the ancestral home of tho Maori in the South Seas, and so locate the place whence the Maoris originally migrated to New Zealand. But unfortunately for the lover of romance there is a 6equel to the talo. When the earthen pot of tradition, and the iron pot of science, go down stream together, it is. the former which is likely to be broken. Professor Kirk has shown that the plant is none other than the Australian Pomaderm Apetata. Moreover, tho genus Pomaderris, so far as it is at present known, is peculiar to New Zealand and Australia, and does not occur in the South Seas. It is obvious, therefore, that the stoiy has grown up to explain the tree, and that the* presence of the plant in New Zealand is no proof of the truth of the legend. Indeed, 011 examination of the tale, discrepancies in it soon appear. The species is not confined to the habitat where it was ■first found, nor wa6 the Tainui stranded near the Mokau, but at Kawhia.