THE REMOTE CHATHAMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20931, 22 July 1931, Page 6

THE REMOTE CHATHAMS.

FASCINATING HISTORY. --111 l SURVIVOR OF MORIORI RAC£, EFFECT OF MAORI INVASIONS/ by tangata-whenua. Only on rare occasions is there nenj from tho Chatham Islands. Then it-jj generally of an alarming nature, such as the disappearance of the launch Te Aroha with 11 islanders on hoard. Yet group is steeped in history of the greatest importance to New Zealand. In other respects the islands—bleak, isolated, and, to all intents and purposes, fragments of South Island hill country set in a for, bidding sea—possess few attractions.- • Iri a consideration of the history of the Chat hams the name which inerit, ably occurs is that of 'lame Horomoni,the surviving full-blooded member of tlia ancient Moriori race. He is a successful sheepfarmer on Re-kohu, the principal island of gronp. It would be though the realisation of oneself as the last of a race of the most pathetic history would bo depressing. No such impression seems to influence Tame. A huge man, in appearance totally different from his lean ancestors wasted through hunger and fear, on the few visits ho lias paid to New Zealand he has been notable principally for his tremendous geniality. C ; Perhaps it is as well that, Tame shoivi no distress in a position which is in this ago. The story of his people i$ sufficiently tragic and no one would te, grudge the last of the Morioris his contentraent. Associations of Morioris. It has been contended that the Moriorij were in no way allied to the Maoris. From the knowledge which has beta gained from the few traditions preserved, however, it has been reasonably well established that the Morioris belonged to the diyerse Polynesian family of races* It .has to be understood that the Poly, nesians entered the Pacific Ocean after; their journeyings from India in well, defined waves. The Samoans, for instance, are of a much earlier stock than the Maoris, the Tahitiaus, the Jlaro, tongans and the Hawaiians. Although their precise origin is necessarily obscure, it is conceivable that the Morioris wers an offshoot of the original Polynesian voyagers in the Pacific. They mentioned Hasvaiki as their homeland, in common with most Polynesian peoples. Unfortunately, Hawaiki cannot be regarded as a specific term and there are numbers of islands in the Pacific -which are known by the name. Admittedly, the distinctive Moriori dialect has largely been lost, and it is reason, able to assume that many of the words which have been preserved have been influenced bv Maori. Even the place-names of the ChathamS are principally Maori-i a heritage from the Ngati-Tama and Ngati-Mutunga tribesmen of Taranaki, who invaded the group in 1835 and dedi mated the Morioris. - • Survival of Ancient Name. Considering this, it is curious that tha Moriori Re-kohu, which would be Eangikohu in Maori,.has survived as the name, of the largest island. It refers to tta discovery of the Chathams many centuries ago by Kohu, the illustrious voyager of this almost forgotten race. Kohu is said to have found an aboriginal people cai/ed Hiti in the islands,, and. there;:certainly; remains the evidence of pecitfiar matta" - ings on the rocks in the Chathams to-day* Three canoes of colonists are mentioned in the Moriori traditions—Oropuke, BangW houa and Rangimata. It seems certain that the Morions, who on to New Zealand, exerted no small influence on the ultimate culture of the Maori tribes, as did the Mouriuri, the Melanesian raca which peopled the Auckland Provinca eight or nine centuries ago. Generally, however, the Moriori customs differed _ from the Maori. They did_ not tattoobut the art could quite easily have been, forgotten as the race declined. They had a marriage ceremony. The cause of the decadence of tlia Morioris is attributed to a decreo of iha high chieftain of early times,_ Nucub. It appears that these primitive . Polynesians were formidable and intrepid warriors when they first came to these shores. They" practised inter-tribal war< fare, as the Maoris did centuries later* with terrible consequences. Nunuku, who must have been something of a states-" man, ordered that no combat was to bs to the death. _ Easy Conquest by Maoris." There was excellence in this command at the time. But it did not mean tie salvation of the Morioris. _ When tbs Maori rovers came the earlier race was utterly unpractised in warfare and was easily slaughtered by the skilled invaders The carnage at the Chathams at tb« hands of the Ngati-Tama and Mutunga was typical of the loss of Spin in the unfortunate Morioris. They wer simply herded together •_ like cattle, an their captors selected victims for cannibal orgies at leisure. It was the dea knell of a doomed race. ■ ~ Another interest New Zealand has the Chathams is that To Kooti, the redoubtable rebel whose Hauhaus_ terro ised the East Coast in the sixties, was once exiled at Waitangi, on Re-koto-was at Waitangi that he escaped ir prison and led his Maori followers an expedition which resulted _in commandeering of the schooner Kitten Te Kooti sailed the vessel to New. . land and his prolonged campai-,