MOTUIHI ISLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22860, 15 October 1937, Page 16

MOTUIHI ISLAND

OLD MAORI HISTORY PURCHASES BY EUROPEANS A - useful contribution to local history has been made by Miss Lorrie Walsh, a graduate of Auckland University College, who has gathered into an illustrated booklet the principal facts relating to Motuihi Island, now a summer resort for thousands of Auckknders. The correct name of the island, Miss Walsh states, is Motu-ihenga. According to Maori tradition, it was inhabited originally by the Maru-iwi, an aboriginal people, who were dispossessed by descendants of Toi-to-huatahi, who arrived from Polynesia in 1150. They, in turn, were conquered by the Arawa people, who reached New Zealand undor Tamatekapua about 1350, and the island was appropriated by that chief's son, Ihenga. The name, however, seems to have been abbreviated to Motu-ihe in pre-European times, and the present incorrect spelling originated more than half a century ago. The pamphlet traces the European ownership of the island, which was charted by Dumont d'Urville as early as 1827. it was purchased from three native chiefs in. November, 1839, by W. H. Fairburn for a heifer, 20 blankets and a quantity of clothing and tools. The purchaser sold it for £2OO to Henry Taylor, who obtained a Crown grant title and sold it for £220 to John Logan Campbell and William Brown. After holding the property until 1858, Messrs. Brown and Campbell disposed ol' it for £2OOO to John Graham, and in 1872 the island was acquired by the Crown for £2500 for a quarantine station. The pamphlet is published by the Walsh Printing Com- j pany.