THE FIRST MAORIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21492, 16 May 1933, Page 8

THE FIRST MAORIS

The Fatea memorial to Tuii, one of the famous Maori pioneer navigators, will stimulate the imagination of both peoples, and, maybe, quicken the historical sense of many pakehas in regard to their adopted country. It is to be a replica of the Aotea canoe, one of the craft which carried Polynesians to New Zealand about 1350. ' According to Mr. George Graham, who contributed a chapter on the Maori history of the Tamaki isthmus in John Barr's book, "The City of Auckland," the Aotea canoe, which was commanded by Turi, came to Tamalfi, its people eventually settling at Patea, where some of their descendants still remain. Turi's son, Turanga-i-mua, came back to Tamaki with a war party about,l4oo. There, after wanderings to Hauraki and other places, he came into conflict with the local people, defeating them in a battle at Waitaramoa, the creek at the head of Hobson Bay, and then occupied the pa on the Orakei headland known as Onepuwhakatakataka. "There he lived for some time," says Mr. Graham, "and again left for the south, leaving a kirge number of his people in possession of this locality, where they occupied Eeveral villages. By intermarriage the Aotea people appear to have soon lost their tribal unity, and from them the Tamaki chiefs of a later time were proud to claim an ancestral descent." Auckland thus has a special interest in the memorial which is to be placed in front of the municipal buildings at Patea, but it will have a national appeal. It will be a source of gratification for the Maori people and for the pakeha, who fully understands the hazards faced by the great ocean voyagers, an inspiration. Other communities, occupying the sites of other famous landings, might well follow the example; Museums contain many notable relics of these ancient days. The New Plymouth institution, for instance, is the repository of the anchor stone of the Tokomaru canoe and also of the axe with which it was carved. But a memorial in a public place, even if it takes the form of a replica, will have a wider message. Well may the Maori people say in the words of the recent Waitangi address, "Our weaponed ancestors salute you."