KAPITI ISLAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6176, 6 April 1907, Page 5

KAPITI ISLAND.

A NATIVE BIRD SANOTirARY. THE FORTRESS ISLE OF TE RALT'ARAHA. (Contributed.) Fart 11. FRO M TXTIOIIEAIO AN A. In point of scenery Kapiti ii an i.slaiid of surprises. Though of small extent tho island is so broken up into defiles and steep ridges, and so beautifully wooded, that it offers a great diversity of landscape, with countless lino sea-scapes. The outlook from the trie-station on Tileremoana (literally ’Ocean View,’’ the old-time look-out point of tho -Maoris) is particularly line. Take post hero on a summer morning when the sea-mists are rolling away before tho sun, and the green forests open out and then blue ocean and tho mainland, and few tights in Nature are more beautiful. On tho one side tho eye ranges down over wooded valleys, ablaze with flowering rata and waving with tree-terns, to tho inner sea, with tho white beaches and sand-fumes of Waikauao glittering liko chalk in tho distance. Uu tho other thero is a complete, contrast. Sheer at one’s feet tho land drops away, in high precipitous cliffs to tho boulder banks of the western coast. In sumo places tlicso dills — that just below Titcremoana. feathered hero and thero with bush, has a hohdit of 1000 or 1700 feet—are almost perpendicular, and the magnificent coast scenery for several miles closely resembles that of the boldest part ot tho Great Barrier island, where the steamer AVa.ira.rapa was wrecked in 1891. Far below, tho western swell thunders and hisses on tho shinglehanks, and a long lino of surf curves from northern to southern headlands.

Fine, too, is a storm-picture from those high places of Kapiti. Iho tremendous assault of a nor'-wcst gale on the weather side of the island seems Vo shako tho solid land, and tho spin-, drift and spray are homo far up tho cliffs. Looking to leeward, tho mainland is fringed with the white of a great surf. Black clouds gather on ■ Tho long forested summit of Kapakapanui, tho outlier of tho Tararuas •jrerlooking Waikanac, and presently, perhaps, from tho dun vapours a stroke of lightning flashes downwards on tho sacrc- peak, tho ancient “onvenmountain'’ of tho eoast-tribes. Kai-tangata”—“mcn-devouring”—they call these lightning strokes darting straight downwards —a fateful omen for the. tribal owners of the Peak of Portent. Then seawards again—a solitary ship may ho seen on tho wnito waste of Waters, a little coastal steamer, bravely plugging away into tho teeth of tho gale, away from the crashing surf that pounds tho boulders of Kurukohatu into pobblee, or running before tho wind and sea, Wellington-bound, with her smoke-blackened sails driving her along almost as fast as her labouring icrow. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF TE RAtrPARAIIA. Every yard almost of the eastern and northern shores of Kapiti is historic ground. Memories of To Rauparaha and his wild warriors of Ngatitoa and Ngatiawa are everywhere, i Memories, too, of those daring mon ’ the whalers, for Kapiti was from about 1836 to 1850 one of the most import- : ant of tho shore whaling-stations in ' New Zealand. Rauparaha and his fol- i lowers from Kawhia and Taranaki 1 captured Kapiti from tho Rangitano and Ngatikahungunu tribes about J 1820, and from that time till his death in 1849 tho great war-leader of tho 1 West Coast spent most of his time : on Kapiti. Hero, with bis savage lieu- : tenant Rangihaoata, tho sage old chief 1 To Pehi Kupe, and tho young warrior 1 To Hike, ho planned his periodical forays against the much-hunted MuaUpoko of the mainland and tho groen- - tone-owning tribes of tho South, whoso •utlying highlands around Queen Char■tte and Pelorus Sounds he could see om his cliff eyries on Kapiti. Here . 'ore his stockaded pas (some of the Ates aro still to bo seen) on the beach yr races at Ka.hu-o-te-Ra.ngi (‘Tho /-"awk of Heaven”), Taepiro (a coast- • a surrendered by the Ngatikahun■,unu to To Pehi), Rangitira ' and Whare-Kohu (“Mitsy Dwelling”). Very beautiful was tho situation of tho oldtime villages—very beautiful are some of thoso spots to-day with tho lovely forest-growth clothing tho steep hill's nlmost to tho n cky beach-side, and little brooks cascading down through tho wooded defiles; Hero tho loud call of tho village sentinel was heard, in tho midnight hours—and that time most feared by the Maori, the still ' ■dead hour just before the dawn—tho i defiant song of tho “Whakaara-pa,” 1 brought by Ngatitoa from their far i

av.-fiv Northern hirth-lands. 9ho ro-eentlv-deceased old chief of AA aikanao, AVi Fa rata, heard it many a iimo as a hoy in tho great palisaded pa at tho AVaikanao river-mouth: “E ara ! E ara I R tenei pa! R tenei pa! Kri apitia l:oo ki to toto. AVhakapuru tonu, Whaknpuru tonu, To tai ki Harihari. Ka tangi tiorc To tai ki Mokau. t Kaoro ko an K kimi ana, I'j hahau ana 1. nga pari ra I’iri nga liakoakoa, E kau-oma tora. Ka toa atu tero Kia tua I J'-'-i-a ha-ha.'” ! ["Arise I Arise! O soldiers of tho fort! Lost yo go [lown to death. High up, high up, tho thundering surf On llarihari’s cliffs resounds, And loud tho wailing sea Heats on tho Mokau Coast. .rod hero am I, on guard, Seeking, searching, peering A v on those ro-'-y crags Tho sea-hawk sits Ami watches lor his prey, Or restless flies from lodge to ledge. O d-M|ntless be And outwards fing tho fool -\li—ha—hu rj The Maori was a toiler as well as a warrior in those days. The Kiirukohatii flat, just norlli of AVa-iorua, is remarkable Jn that it is covered with hundreds of cleared rectangular pick —-the old kumara- gardens—from wdiich tons and tons of stones aml boulders have been carefully gathered and piled up in regular rows and low- walls. This was tho work of many hundreds of hands, in tho days of Ranparaha's occupancy of tho island, and also of his Conquered predecessors— a notable reminder of tho ancient energy aml industry of tho Maori communes. A BATTLE ROYAL.

To Rauparaha was always on tho alert oven in his island-hold. Indeed, ho and his people had to withstand a most fiorco invasion hero in 1822 an armada of war-canoes, manned by nearly 2000 warriors of tho confederated tribes of Whanganui, Ngatiapa, Ngatikahungunu, Rangitano, Ngati. kuia, and in fact every tribe, from Wanganui southwards, with a contingent from tbo South Island; Tho groat flotilla, in two lines, started from Waikauao and Otaki simultaneously ; “tho sea was covered with canoes.” To Ratu, a Muaupoko chief who had boon enslaved by tho Ngatitoa, but who had escaped and organised this attack, was ono of the leading warriors. The invaders landed at Waiorna, whoro tho bravo old chief To Rang! Hiroa (To Pehi’s younger brother, and grandfather of Wi Parata), with a small force of Ngatitoa, : boro tbo brunt of the fight, but was driven by force of numbers to the . extreme north ond of the island, noar ' the lagoon Okupe. To Rauparaha and his hapu, Ngati-kimihia, wero away ' at 'Wharekohu, at tho south end, at ! tho time, and he himself did not take { part in tho fight. His men, however, 1 arrived in time to change tho current ! of tho battle, and fell upon the enemy with tho utmost fury, utterly defeat- ‘ ing thorn and killing, it is said, 170. | Many of the bodies wero thrown into ' Okupe Lake (human bones aro to be, seen to this day around the shores of this half-mile lagoon). Many others, including that of To Ratu, tho ex- , slave, were thrown into a hngo oven < or hangi, dug on the flat near Waio- ] rua, and tho victors feasted mightily i on tho flesh of tho slain. So many ( were there that they could not all bo eaten, and tho hangi was their tomb, i To this day an old song of triumph, I composed by the chioftaincss Oriwia, i in memory of this episode, is current , amongst tho peoplo of tho Ngatitoa , and Ngatiawa tribes. A fragment j runs:— ; “Tera ano ra ! Taku umu —paka—roa j Kei Waiorua, ( E tuwbora ana. ] E tabu nei ra I s To Ahi —a —Tamatea 1 i E—i 1” j [“Yonder see you ' My great scorching red-glowing oven, ■ At Waiorua, Gaping open for you 1 . Blazing yonder T Are the Fires of Tamatea!”] 1 This was a popular “jeering-song” 1 amongst 'the bumptious Ngatitoa in * past years, and even now it is not ex- 1 actly polite to quote it to a descend- c ant of any of the conquered tribes. s A SWXM FOR A HUSBAND. | A hitherto unrecorded incident of t this battle of Waiorua is noteworthy j i ns illustrative of tho “masterful” na- j i turo of tho Maori wahine. A woman; t named Hine-wairoro. who had fought ji

by side with her tribes- , people of Ngaiitoa. swam out to sea i after a fugitive chief, one Ritihono, a who took to tho water when tho fight was lost. -She raptured him in the sea, towed him back to tho Kurukohatu flat, and triumphantly claimed him as her slavc.lmsband. (The lathes hunted for hut-hands oven in llmst, primitive daysll. fiomo hungrv warrior, however, marked out for tho oven tho lady’s “mokai” mate. Ho tied a piece of flax round one of tho legs of tho captive, in accordance with the pleasant custom of tho Maori, to signify that that was the tit-hit ho wished to eat. That evening poor Pitihono was knocked on the brad, cooked and eaten, and Hine-wairoro lost tho tamn .husband sho had been at so much trouble, to catch. THE STORIED COAST. Travelling along tho beach track from AVaiorua to tho southern end of tho island, and clambering along the rocky cliffs, ono pisses many spots with legendary and mythological associa- . tions. Ono of these, just to tho south of the Maraotakaruro stream, is an isolated rock called “Kai-tangata,” a Lsaereu place in Maori eyes. It was tho labotlo of tho tutelary spirit of tho diritrict, tho shrine (“uru-uru-whonua), of it ho genius loci. At its foot passers-by .were accustomed to cast handfuls of green lea vos, of tho raurckau or some ether shrub, and repent incantations . to propitiate tho unseen guardians of the land (‘’ho whakaautanga, howhakaaoo to tipua”). Off-shoro are three 'small islands, Tokamapuna, Motuugarara ('“Lizard Island”), and Tahorai niaurea. On tho two former were wha- - png-stations. On Motu-ngarara To > Rauparaha had a pa, and it was from 1 hero that, ho started off in his war- : canoo when ho saw tho battle of tho i “Kuititanga” fought on tho AVaika-nu' i boacli in 1839 between tho Ngatiav a 1 and Ngatiraukawa tribes, i “Nga Kuri-a-Kuiapoupou” (“'Tho Dogs of Kuia-poupou”) aro two re- ' markablo cliff-rocks at tho extreme ’ south.ive.st corner of Kapiti. A Maori ' legend has it that a woman named ' Kuia-poupou, from Arapawa Island, Queon Charlotte Sound, who had been marooned on Kapiti by her husband, throw herself into the sea here and, 1 aided by friendly “taniivhas,’’ swam across Cook Strait to Arapawa—a triflo of thirty miles or so. This feat (which tho sceptical pakolia may bo excused for doubting) was rather more ' than oven Hinemoa or Hinowairoro would have attempted. Kuia’s two dogs descended tho cliff after her, but wero afraid to enter the water, and remained howling near the beach. The gods apparently became weary of the canine lament, for they speedily turned tho dogs to stone, and there they remain to this day, one behind _ the other, gazing seawards, tho petrified pots of Kuia-poupou—in testimony to the bona-fides of this tale of the Maori. According to a hitherto imprinted story, Sir George Grey once sot his fancy on Kapiti. It was about 1852, during his first term as Governor of New Zealand, and he endeavoured to buy tho island, as a homo. It is said that ho offered £SOOO for ft to the Ngatitoa and Ngatiawa tribes, but the offer was refused. In those early days Grey also unsuccessfully endeavoured to purchase -Mokoia Island, in Lako Rotorua, from the Arawa Maoris. Subsequently he bought Kawau Island, in the Hauraki Gulf, and established ills homo there. Somewhat reminiscent of tho Raupa.raha this—tho soldiorstatosman’s craving for a lone little Islo of his own.