REMINISCENCES OF SIR GEORGE GREY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12758, 7 January 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

REMINISCENCES OF SIR GEORGE GREY.

MAORI AND ENGLISH WORDS

[BY 31. ,T. GANNON'.]

Till', recent ceremony in the city in connection with unveiling the marble statue erected to the memory of Sir George Grey recalls to mind an incident or two of the past. About 1881. after a short visit to Auckland, I returned to the East Coast by the Penguin. A number of passengers were. on board, among whom was Sir George Grey. Late in the afternoon the steamer left the wharf. The- weather being had wo put in for a few hours at Trypheruc liar. During the night, the vessel, wu i again on its southern course. About--the peep of dawn 1 went on deck. Immediately afterwards Sit George Grey appeared on tho gangway. 7 was surprised to see the venerable statesman on deck at that early hour. The outlook was cheerless and stormy. The few men on duty, with their oilskins and sou'-westers firmly hitched on, had a weather-beaten appearance. We experienced one of those bad nights not infrequently met in steering across the .Bay of Plenty. The sea-birds, as they hovered around in their aimless flight, seemed to bear a dissipated appearance, as if they, too, had' had a biu". time.

Sir George, holding on to a. rope of the rigging to steady himself on deck, without any preamble, addressing himself to me, said: "As long as I have been in the colony I have never been able to discover the origin of the term pakcha." Now, to be frank. 1 did not go up on deck at that early hour of the morning to ruminate upon the origin of any word. Replying, however, to Sir George Grey's remark, I said I. 100, had made many inquiries from natives with whom 1 had come in contact as to the origin of (lie. term. The. only explanation I ever received, bordering on the derivation of the word, was obtained from an old chief of the Rongowhakaata tribe. This chief lived at Oweta, near Orakaiapu, in the Gisbornc district. From Oraikaiapti the first. Maoris went to meet the boat, sent oft' by Captain Cook on the occasion of his discovering that fertile part of New Zealand he named Poverty Bay.

T had heard that the Rongowhakaata chief wore, with ancestral pride, as an heirloom of the family, a bend suspended from Lis ear. This bead, it was .said, had been obtained by his father from Captain Cook's ship. Hearing of this gave me the idea, that this chief might be able to throw some light on the origin of the term applied by his people to the first Europeans they had ever seen. I called on the old chief one afternoon, and asked him to tell me about Captain Cook's arrival, as he himself had heard of it from his elders. His story corresponded will: the generally-re-ceived account. The .Mauris' first impiessiou, he told me. < as they saw the. ship far away in the offing, was that a gigantic bird had made its appearance upon the ocean, and that the sails were its stupendous wings. While lie related the story as he hud heard it we were looking out upon the waters where Cook's vessel had (at that time) anchored about one hundred years before. Stretching away on our rightwas Young Nick's Head, the land first sighted by the great navigator. When the chief had .finished his story, interestingly told, I asked him why his old people gave the name pakoha to the strange human beings they had seen for the first time in their lives. Why, I asked him, did they not choose to jail them by some other name? My object was to get at the bedrock. After a slight hesitancy, but with quite a matter-of-course air, he said, He mea pakewhakewha." 1. had never heard the word pakewhakewlia used before. From the chiefs narrative, however, and the beckoning attitude he had assumed, as with taiaha—spear, that ancient emblem of authority—he, indicated with it. as he used the words the approach of Cook's ship. I took the phrase "He mea pakewhakewlia" to signify "A thing wafted from the ocean to the shore."

On my remarks being concluded Sir George, leisurely encircling bis arm round a rope of the rigging to preserve his euuilibrium on the rolling deck, drew it small notebook from his pocket. With pencil in hand lie appeared to make a careful record of what, had been staled, asking me at the finish, to repeat the. phrase used by the chief, checking, as it seemed, the. note he had already made in his pocket-book. May f be permitted to somewhat digress? The reduplication of syllables, as in the word pakewhakewha, mentioned above, is common in Maori, as in all primitive languages. Reduplication denotes plurality. In some words in Maori the double u (w) may be (owing to dialectical differences) omitted without affecting the meaning of the word. This omission often happens in such words as pewhea, nowhea. kiwhea, and many others. From the word pakewhakewha, (he word pakewha may be readily evolved, and from the word pakewha the transition to the word pakeha is easy.— Q.K.I). There is nothing, so far as I am aware, inconsistent with the .structure of tin' Maori language for the word pakeha to be derived from pakewhakewha. The pleasure of listening to Sir George Grey's remarks now came. I. was rather glad of the change, and to have the notebook incident brought, to a close. One would not, feel altogether on terra firma if drawn into a philological discussion with His ex-Excellency. About, live weeks after Sir George (then Captain) Grey assumed his first Governorship of the colony he was with the Imperial troops in their attack on the Ihiapekapeka. pa. In connection with this military movement the incident he related to me occurred. Short!v after operations began a shot, a shell fired at. the fortifications, took effect. The Maori chief by His Excellency's side at the time renuuked "V. pai ana!" The Governor asked' what the chief said. The words are usually translated "It is good." "l'ai." His Excellency was informed, was the word in. Maori for "good." "And what," he asked, "was the meaning of 'e' and ' ana.'.'" " A difficulty now arose of which His Excellency had no conception. "E" and 'ana" are grammatically known a.s particles. We are told on excellent authority that the acquaintance with the particles, "the winged words" of most languages, is difficult of attainment, and in no language, for various reasons, more so than in Maori. For the casual reader, however. it may suffice to say thai. "e" anil "ana" generally—nob always—denote the present tense. Thus, c kata ana—laughing: e tangi ana—weeping. No explanation, however, was given to His Excellency, who remarked to the chief who had used the words, " Very strange. In our language we have a meaning for every word we use."

Later in the day, a.s 1 lie attack proceeded, by continual filing, an opening at last was effected in the palisading- of the pa. The soldiers charged, and the pa, was captured. Victory achieved ! "Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!" rang forth from every throat. For the first time in his life the Maori chief heard the welkin ring with a. true British cheer. What, thought he, can these strange words mean'.' What are the soldiers saying? he pondered. The joy of victory was manifest, but what did the soldiers mean by the words they used? That was what he wanted to know. Turning after some time to His Excellency, and as ii to reassure himself as to a former remark made by the Governor: '• You tell me." he said, "you have a meaning in your language for every word von use':" "Yes," replied His Excellency, and as if to add emphasis to the statement repeated, "For every word we use in the English language we have a meaning.'' With a soft, inquiring glance, and looking Up to Hi.-; Excellency, the noble savage _ said. "Then tell rive," 0, Governor! what is the meaning of hip?''