THE MYSTERY OF THE MAORI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14235, 4 December 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MYSTERY OF THE MAORI.

Mk. S. Pkrcy Smith is guilty of laying upon the Maori the stigma of Asiatic origin. His book " Hawaiki," which, by the way. is so full of interest that every New Zealandcr who has not read it should be taxed, conclusively proves that Henare and Wiremu, to say nothing of soft-voiced Maira and Akehehi, claim blood relationship with Subadar Akhbar Khan and Rajput Singh. This relationship, it is true, dates back to such remote antiquity that we may be excused for considering the Maori as a race apart. Yet the Rarotongan genealogies, of which the Maoris are an offshoot, trace back the origin of the race to Atia-te-varinga-nui. where Nga-taito-ariki lived about 450 B.C. The location of this country as India is ingeniously proved by the etymology of the word Ati<i-te-varinga-nui, which means Atia-the-be-riced, or where plenty of it grew. There is not space to explain why India should be chosen in preference to China or Japan, but there are inconfutable arguments in its favour. It must, of course, be understood that the India referred to does not imply Continental India, where the Hindu has a horror of the sea, but maritime India, extending to the Malay Archipelago It is here that the Lascars arc recruited for the P. and 0. Company, and an opportunity will be given of marking a facial resemblance to the Maori wncn the boats call at Auckland. The facial, resemblance is the only one, their physique being infinitely inferior to the burly figures wo know so well.

We can accept such an origin for the Maori with equanimity, but to realise the difficulties of traversing thousands of miles of ocean, without compass or sextant, reqiiireo something out of the ordinary in. the way of imagination. The Season generally given for these amazing migrations is that of war in the mythical Hawm'ki. This may, in part, be true, but tradition distinctly states that curiosity was the cause, in one instance at least. That instance was the voyage of Te Ani-tanga-nuhu, who was consumed with a desire to see the wonders met by the canoe Te Ivi-o-Atea in former time*. These cryptic wonders have been translated as follows :--" The rocks that grow out of the sea, in the space beyond Rapa (located as an island in latitude 28 south, about 1100 miles S.E. of Rarotonga); the monstrous seas; the female that dwells in those mountainous waves, whose treases wave about in the waters and on the surface of the sea ; the frozen sea. of pia, with the deceitful animal of the sea who dives to great depths—a foggy, misty, and dark place not seen by the sun. Other things are like rocks, whose summits pierce the skies; they are completely bare and without vegetation on them." Briefly, we are to believe that these ancestors' of the Maori took a. pleasure cruise down to the Antarctic regions for the purpose of looking upon icebergs, seaweed, and the deceitful'' sea lions, over a thousand years ago.

There must have been many a canoe put out to sea that never made a land fall. Yet-just as many were successful, and their records remain. They had an intimate knowledge of the stars, and even went so far as to make charts by stretching* strings on a frame, with little pieces of wood to represent islands. The strings were to indicate the direction of currents and the regular roll of the waves before the trade winds. The result was more like a spider's web than a chart and would bo quito incomprehensible to a modern master mariner. v .

Travelling, as a general rule, in fleets of several canoes, they were able to spread over a considerable surface and so minimise the risk of missing any low-lying land. A record remains, however, of one of TangiiaV voyages in which he missed the island of Rarotonga, passing much too far to the south. He realised his mistake by the great coldness of the water, and, turning about, sailed north again till he reached his destination^. - ?