THE MAORI’S ORIGIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18763, 17 January 1923, Page 6

THE MAORI’S ORIGIN

THREE-FOURTHS ARYAN, PHYSICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 16. At the Science Congress to-day, early Maori migrations, as evidenced and illustrated by a diagram of the ocean currents and prevailing winds of the Pacific Ocean, and by Maori and Polynesian names of plants, birds, colours, metals, places, etc., were dealt with in an interesting paper by Mr F. W. Christian. The question of the origin of the Maori and of his Polynesian brethren, said Mr Christian, was bound up with a wider and deeper one —the possibility that South America was discovered by voyagers from the Indian Archipelago. From the testimony of physical geography, and of Maori and red men’s traditions, and by the cumulative and mutually supporting evidence of language, a strong case seemed to be mado out for the claim that early Indonesian voyagers crossed the Pacific, following a course some 15deg above the equator, ■ami discovered Hawaiki (or the Eight Islands of Hawaii). Some of them stayed there, and became the ancestors of the light brown Polynesian races, ultimately reaching New Zealand by a circuitous course, via the Marquesas, Matigareva. Tahiti, and Cook Islands. Some of them appeared to have gone on till they struck the coast of South America at Guayaquil harbour. They not only brought the kumara from Java into the wide Pacific, but also brought it to Peru and Ecuador, where the Inca, the red men of Peru and of Quito culled the white potato kumar to this very day. The lecturer demonstrated from a skilfully drawn map the influence exerted by the mighty parallelogram of forces formed by the ocean currents and the trade winds in carrying forward and scattering flotilla upon flotilla of emigrants from Indonesian in their groat sea-going canoes, until they occupied the islands and archipelago up to the very shores of the great continent. In support of the testimony of physical geography and native tradition, the lecturer quoted many tree and bird names, together with the names of reptiles, insects, fishes, colours, and metals, to prove the far northwestern origin of the Maori in Java, and the neighbouring islands of the Indian Archipelago. He then traced their great migrations outward, past New Guinea, and the great duel between the black man and the brown man for the possession of the archipelagoes and scattered islands. The lecturer showed that many New Zealand plant and tree names, such as totara, kahikatea, karapnu, mire whara, hinau, kuiakuta, etc., were Indonesian and Indian names, some of them being even ancient Semitic, dating back to far-off days when Southern An»b and Phcenicean sailors visited Java and the Malay Peninsula. The name of kotare, or kingfisher, was traced ■back through Tahiti to the Carolines, and thence to Flores and Java, and the names of the frigate or bo’sun bird, and other birds, to the ancient sacred language of India. The ngarara, or monstrous maneating lizards of Maori tradition, were shown to be identical with the Sanscrit name of the crocodile of the Ganges. Maori colour names for white, black, red, green, yellow, and blue were carefully analysed, and were shown to have ultimately belonged to India and South-Eastern Asia, where the forefathers of the Maori had a very fair knowledge of dyeing and of dyestuffs. The lecturer claimed that out of some thousands of words in Raratongan, 60 per cent, to 65 per cent, were of Aryan origin, either quite pure or slightly modified from contact with Malay, and that 25 per cent, represented a very early Semitic element, which was acquired from some language akin to early South Arabic or Phoenician. Only about 10 per cent, of the words suggested were deeply submerged, and almost entirely buried in a sub-stratum of the black Melanesian clement. “ The evidence now available,” ho concluded, “seems to prove the Maori to be about, throe-fourths Aryan, and to support and vindicate the theory of Forrnander, and the latter date views of Mr B. TVegear and the late Mr Percy Smith.” A PRECEDING P APER. In a paper dealing with the extraordinary physiographic sense of the old-time Maori, delivered before the Science Congress by Mr James Cowan, Arabia, by strong racial affinities, was given as the birthplace of the Maori nation, their genius for seamanship and navigation being derived from their ancestry on tho Arabian littoral. Eastward for centuries the trade winds carried the Maori from Tahiti and Rarotonga to the Kermadecs. which, with islands since lost, served as steering and land marks and resting places An ex-ample of tho Maori genius a geographers was instanced in nomenclature. The South Island is Maui’s canoe, Stewart Island is its anchor, the Kaikoura Peninsula is its thwart, the North Island Maui’s fish, (he tend of Hawke’s Bay his fish-hook. The Maori named the living and extinct volcanoes, and enshrouded them in mythical poesy. Tamatea Pokai Whenua (Tarnatea. who penetrates the land) was the true type of pathfinder and topographer. Six centuries ago he traversed the whole length of the South Island, and passed through the heart of the North Island to East Cape. Te Puoho (183 f) led a war party from Nelson down the West Coast to the Haast River, over the Haast Pass to Wanaka, thence through Otago. Love of exploration inspired the Maori expeditions.