A TRADITION OF MOUNT EDEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8082, 24 September 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

A TRADITION OF MOUNT EDEN.

The Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, has been for some time publishing a series of artlolea entitled " Wild Life in the South Paoifio." The writer has evidently travelled, but in many instances he exerts his imagination and takes advantage of the ignorance of his readers. In the issue of August 6he thus speaks :There is an extinot voloanio crater whioh stands almost in the heart of the oity of Auckland, the original capital of New Zealand. Its native name has been suppressed for that of Mount Eden, a name bestowed upon it in honour of Lord Auckland's place in Yorkshire. Some of the most strange and revolting superstitions amongst the Maoris are connected with this famous old mountain. '

I paid a visit to the crater in 1885 in the company of an old warrior who had led his tribes against our troop? in the disastrous campaign in the Waikato twenty-two years ago. From him I learned that the strongest pah (redoubt) in New Zealand in the old days was perched upon the summit of Mount Eden. The Government have thoughtfully reserved this and other historio spots, and have converted them into parks for the people's recreation. Daring oar visit the gardeners were busily engaged cutting pathways, and laying oat gardens along the face of the hill, and human bones and skulls were lying about in all directions. The old man went on to tell me of the strange and horrible customs whioh were observed by the old Hauraki and Manukau tribes before the advent of that blood-thirsty imitator of Pizarro, Hongi-Hika, of the Bay of Islands, who forced a comparative kind I of civilisation npon them, by reducing the | national custom to simple massacre and cannibalism. From Hongi-Hika's time forward the; were to be satisfied with plain, i unadulterated slaughter, without any of those elaborate and delicate methods of torture whioh had grown to the dignity of a science among the people. When a battle had been fought in the neighbourhood of Mount Eden, the victorious warriors carried the bodies of their fallen enemies to the highest terraoes of the' mountain, and personally consumed them. But the burning crater—"the mouth of hell" —demanded a tribute from the victors. The body of a despised enemy was not fit sacrifice to offer either. The victims were selected from the ranks of the conquering warriors. Tbe old Maori graphically described the process of catapulting the unfortunate viotims into the mouth of the fiery orator. I could not restrain a little inquisitiveness.

" Possibly some of your ancestors attained martyrdom In the old crater ?" I suggested. The old rangitira hastily palled bis pipe from his mouth and looked at me seriously. Then he spoke with some dignity. " Since the great war canoes came over the waters from Hawaiki, my people hare t been big;, big rangitiras." 1 had offended the dignity of my good ciceI rone. - Social ethics are pretty much the same amongst all peoples. Why should a rangitira Maori allow himself to be sacrificed? Martyrdom is for the poor, plodding sinner the plebeian—not for the highly-born. The pride of this old Maori Ceoil had been grievously touched by the bare suggestion that any of his forefathers could have possibly descended to the vulgarism of a martyr's death 1 The old active crater of Ikoraagi, nearly in the centre of the North Island, contains the grave of the god Maw<, who is credited by many Maori authorities with the original creation of New Zealand. This mountain is of course tapu, or sacred, and no white traveller dare trespass on its huge scoriaecoated sides without incurring considerable risk from the attacks of the natives whose duty it is to keep & watchful and protective eye upon it. Ma came over from the Hawaiki direction in a large oanoe. According to the generally acknowledged description of the dimensions of this canoe, it seems that i! such a vessel as the Great Eastern had existed in the days of Maw<, that portly navigator could have swung it up on the davits alongside his canoe, and made use of it for such purposes as paddling ashore when the water was too shallow for the canoe. When Mawe came over, however, on his voyage of exploration, there was no such place as New Zealand in existence. Maw 4 appears to have had a considerable quantity of the " man" element in his composition, in addition to his godly attributes, and thus it came to pass one day that, having run out of that mundane requisite, yclept " tucker," he hungered and was athirst." Matters went from bad to worse. He had consumed all his bait, and his position was fast becoming desperate. At last he hit upon the expedient of clipping off a piece of his ear and baiting a hook with it. The line was not over the side ten minutes when he seen red a most vigorous bite. He.palled and haaled in the line, and after tremendous exertion succeeded in landing suoh a fish as has never been landed before or since. The hook had got foul of the chain of rocks at East Cape, and it was neither more nor less than the splendid country of New Zoaland which came to the surface I

Thus did the great M*w4 accidentally and in the simplest manner immortalise himself and confer a lasting benefit upon posterity.