FIRST AIR CROSSING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21962, 20 November 1934, Page 10

FIRST AIR CROSSING

ARRIVAL IN NEW ZEALAND AN OLD MAORI LEGEND A Maori legend told at an old settlers' reunion at Gisborne last Week camo at an appropriate time. It was told by the Mayor, Mr. .7.' Jackson, who said it was a story of the first aeroplane ride across the sea to New Zealand, and was all the more interesting because it was retold on the day following the latest Tasman flight from Australia.

The legend purport-d tc explain the origin of the white pine or kahikatea trees. A chief of one of the Maori tribes was blown out to sea in his canoe, and was cast ashore on a strange island, which proved to be Hnwsuiki, the fabled origin of the Maori. After a stay of some time, he asked a great bird Tawliaitari do carry him back to New Zealand, and the bird agreed to do so. AVlum they were close to the mainland, he stretched his hand under the bird's wing, pulled out some of the downiest and best feathers, and threw them into the ceean. A lofty tree sprang from the feathers. A branch' was broken from it oy the wind, and was thrown up on the shore, from it rising the white pine forests in New Zealand.

The origin of many of the great fighting chiefs on the coast formed another legend told by Mr. Jackson. It concerned a Maori named Taka, of Tauranganui (Gisborne). The maiden he loved left him to live at Opotiki, and Taka was sad. He took up a cockle shell, whistled a karakia, or love song, and threw it into the ocean currents, which bore it to Opotiki, where it haunted tlie Maori maiden when she was fishing from the rocks. She tried to avoid it, and, failing to do so, decided to put it on a fire. With the heat, the cockle opened its lips, and sang the karakia of the loyelorn boy. The girl's heart was overcome, and she returned to become the ancestor of the great fighting chiefs of the East Coast.