POLYNESIAN VOYAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18772, 28 July 1924, Page 9

POLYNESIAN VOYAGES.

HOWf THE MAORIS CAME. THEORY SUPPORTED, analogy of th£ vikings,. ; BV FBANK E. BODLS. There should be no need for W.B. to apologise for his attitude toward the 3 laori. His work in collecting and ccllat'ing Maori lore and customs will ba gratefully remembered when all who read this have passed away. Yet it doei; not follow that he must always be right, as for instance, when he relies on that attest unreliable thing, tradition, something to be avoided by all true sceptics. Because the Chatham Islanders have preserved a tradition of Hawaiki and other islands, and these, when sought by Maoris who joined a whaler, could not ba found, it ia accepted that the islands once existed, but' have now sunk. Why accept the traditional islands, then declare that they have sunk below the waves, even though the Admiralty chart before me gives, deep water where they must be placed' to suit the island chain theory? Let us rather sweep aside all tradition and meet on the common ground of undisputed historic fact. The proposition is: Can man, unaided by modern science, without chart-, compass or sextant, unguided by this loom of land, leap out across the ocean, making long sea voyages to a definite goal? It is claimed that the ancestors of the Maori could not havo done this. The Bounty's open boat in its 3600 miles Pacific traverse had little help from science, for Bligh had absolutely no chart; and without chart, sextant, and compass are comparatively useless. The voyage vvas a great achievement, and to ray msr.d destroys the contention that tiny openboat voyages are impossible Then thsre is the 7tK)O-mile journey of Captain Joshua Slocum (of Spray fame) and his wife in a small open boat from Brazil to Philadelphia. Before Compass .3d Sextant. It will b® objected thai these journevings were guided by men with a knowledge of navigation. Let us then consider the sea-farings of folk before the compass and sextant were known. The compass first appeared in Europe in the twelfth century A.D. About the vear 800 Iceland was discovered by Irish and Scottish fishermen. Seventy years later it was settled by refugees from Norway. The distance from Norway to Iceland iu 600 miles, the Norse boats were glorified Maori canoes. A typical Norse boat found in a mound in 1880 is now in Christiania Museum. .It is 78ft. long, undecked sft. 9in. deep, and under 4ft. draught, loaded. In such boats, without compass, chart or sextant, tlys kinsmen of our ancestors voyaged across 600. miles of tho stormiest sea in the world—the North Atlantic—to a definite goal, for history records that this was a carefully-planned expedition to a known objective. Iceland was not tho limit of Norse wanderings. Erik the Red, in an open boat, such as has been described, sailed 3QO miles from Iceland, beyond (til sight of land, till ho reached the Greenland coast. He returned to Iceland (without cha,rt, sextant or compass), in 986 A.D. and again voyaged to Greenland with colonists whom he settled in two localities there. It is now recognised as a fact that Norsemen, reached the mainland of America, making even longer voyages than those mentioned. This could not be done according to the moderns, since ocean voyages are impossible* in open boats, especially without cpmpass (a 12th century invention), and sextant (invented by Hadlov in 1730). Despite the.se contentions, the" Norse searovers undoubtedly came and went over long sea distances to any land they chose. Vikings of tho South. • If the Norsemen did this, then why not the Polynesians? It will be objected that hero the distances are greater, but actually they lare not mtich more. If it be possible for a semi-savage people to navigate over 600 miles of empty ocean, and the Norsemen have demonstrated this, it is possible for an equally skilful folk to navigate double that distance; the difference is merely a matter of endurance, and in this respect Bligh's 3600-mile journey trebly eclipses the Maori voy&ge to New Zealand. From Suva to Auckland is 1140 miles, and from Rarotonga to Auckland 1638 miles, with the scattered Kermadec group, with one 1600ft-. peak as a landmark, about 600 miles from Auckland as a half-way resting place. For untold centuries the godwifcs, obviously -land birds; haVe come down■ from the north each year, returning again to the northern summer. The knowledge of this annual migration and the clear inference of a land to the Bcuth must have ■ spread tlirough all the island world msny centuries so that it is reasonable to assume tnere were many attempts to find thi3 southern land. The discoverers of Iceland and Greenland had no such obvious hint to guide them through the stormy wastes of northern mists. : Inherent Probabilities. Aside from tradition, the inherent probabilities are entirely on' the side of thj accepted migration theory. - Here in this country Is a branch of the Polynesian race. Cook'; sb admired the sea-skill of this race' thai; ha called one of their island groups the Navigator Islands. Tupia, the Tshitian, who described to Gook the position of all the scattered islands, proved with his rough chart the sea,-know-ledge and skill of his race. Tupia camp with Gook to New Zealand as interpreter, thus demonstrating that the tion of ' the island and the New Zealand branches of the race was recent < and not remote, since an unwritten language changes quickly. " The whole truth of the matter is that the increased iiits and speed of ships and the mystery, to the layman, of surely finding a path across the deep have made us all forget how small were the . ships of our forefathers and how liitle scienco aided their splendid gropings in uncharted seas. Says Jack _ London, who sailed across the Pacific in the 43ft. Snark, with no previous knowledge of navigation: ''Navigating by the sun, imoon and stara . . . is child's play. Any average young fellow can teach nimself in s week . . . He can get into a staunch sail-boat and put out across the ocean, without knowing anything of navigation and in a week he will know enough So know, where he is on the chart." London wrote from experience: our forefathers did this same thing without' chart or compass. ■> SeawortSUnesS of Small Graft, - In regard to, the seaworthiness of small craft, I quote a naval writer in a recent issue v of Chambers' Journal. He says: "So many have accomplished the Atlantic crossing in small boats that one is forced to the conclusion that it :s not so dangerous as is generally supposed. It is not the size of the waves so much as their character that renders them dangerous, for, provided that they do not break, they. are comparatively harmless. Indeed, a little boat will often snake .far better weather of it than a large vessel, as her short length enables her to lie comfortably upon the side of a wave through which a large ship would have to plunge. The seas in mid-ocean seldom, if ever, break. The mostj dangerous stage of an ocean journey for a small boat is when she reaches soundings, for in shoal water the seas are apt to become steep and breaking." THTs last explains why W.B. remembers the savage swell around the Chatharaa that taxed the strength and skill of- six stout oarsmen. The conditions he visualises are not those which the Polynesian migrants faced in their ocean traverse (as the above quotation indicates), consequently his doubti on this score are without basis. • ; > _ The precedents are all against, the sceptics and confirm despised tradition. Giving due weight to all objections, I can see no valid reason for hoi acclaiming the Maori as skilful - a navigator, asmy ovrn Forefathers, so .that I sincerely that the Polynesians came to this land we all Toyo, not by a lost chain of isle 3, but as ocean migrants to a knenyn and .desirable 'country, jj ;• *; > . , j ' . ... ; rr -v