THE SOUTHERN MAORI.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21148, 4 October 1930, Page 26

THE SOUTHERN MAORI.

STRAY PAPERS. Written for the Otago Daily Times, By H. Beattie. XVIII.—STEWART ISLAND. Considering its mild climate and its food possibilities, Stewart Island was never very much in favour with the southern Maori, yet a certain number of Natives lived there when the white man came. The Waitaha people are said to have cruised round it in their exploratory trips and to have known it as Mouterenui (Big Island). The Katimamoe tribe also examined it at various times and a few of them settled on it, but as a rule the great majority of the people lived on the north side of Foveaux Strait. The last-comers, the Kaitahu tribe, were a little more enterprising, and after subduing the few inhabitants they left a few permanent settlements on it, mostly in the vicinity of the Neck. These residents at the time of the coming of white sealers and whalers were of the usual warlike Maori type and had a few violent collisions with the white man, leaving us a record of bloodshed, reprisals, and turbulence to keep alive the memory of their presence and, characteristics.

More surprising still ; than the comparative fewness of the inhabitants is the fact of the few Maori place-names marked on the map of the island. Every headland, bay, dune, creek, bill, or other feature had its correct Maori name, but it has been left to recent yean to try and rescue a number of these from the realms of oblivion.

The writer could get no Maori names for Black Rock Point and White Rook Point, but Saddle Point bad the long name Te-timu-o-te-ure-o-te-kaha and commemorates the fact that a rock here was called after Te Kaha, an early voyager. Below Saddle Point the next boat landing is Kakahu-o-ropi and about this name a certain ambiguity rests. On the face of it the name means “the clothes of a man called Ropi ” but the explanation is given that " oropi ” stands for Europe and that the name means “ European clothes,” tradition affirming that here some Maoris first donned, or tried to don some civilised clothing left by an early ship. Somebody may be able to supply further details. The English name of Kakahiioropi was given to me as “Christmas Village,” and the Maori name of a coastal indentation a little way north of it is Hotako, according to Mr W. H. S. Roberts.

Murray River is usually known as Otaku by the Maoris, one of them saying the word meant “firm.” hut one account gives the Maori name of this river as Otukuku. The next boat landing is called Pa-nui-o-hau while Gull Rock is Pa-whaka-taka. The Maori name of Bungaree is Ka-ono-o-te-wera (the sands of To Wera). This Te Wera was a cousin of another celebrated chief, Taoka, and made a great name for himself in the fighting period about 300 years ago. Passing Otakou we come to Port William, which is always called Potirepo by the Maoris, but whether this is a genuine old time name seems open to question. If it is not, no one seems able to supply another name. While Poti might be a rendering of the word Port it cannot be maintained that repo is a Maori way of saying William, this being usually rendered as Wiremu, so we leave it an open question. Port William, according to one of my best informants, has “ a sandy bight in its south corner caller Pa-whaka-taka,” which is the same name as Gull Rock, some miles further north. Wooding Bay was Ka-one-o-Wera (the sands of Wera). This man lived about 200 years later than Te Wera, already mentioned. The Maoris were drying gunpowder thinking it was turnip seed, and it took fire and this man was badly burnt. By a strange coincidence his name from birth had been Wera (burnt). White Point Was known to the Maoris as Ihipa, and the east head of Lee Bay as Te Pani-o-hau. The next point is marked on as Mamakn, but my informants agree that its full name is Te Horo-mamaku. It is said that some-.

one Here swallowed a portion of the edible treefern known as mamaku, but the writer heard no tradition as to its naming. Before leaving Port William the writer has a note that a locality thereabouts was known by the lengthy designation of Ka-huruhuru-o-te-tara-o-puakihau, and that a waterfall near by also bore a long name commemorating another woman, but all that is remembered of, this latter name is Te Mimi. Port William is said to have been the site of a Maori village before the white people came, and this is also said of Horseshoe Bay, the kaika (village) here being called Hau-tupe. This name, if divided Hau-tu-pe, is suspiciously like how the old-time Maori would pronounce Horseshoe Bay, so it

must be added to the list of names about which there is some doubt. The north ern head of this bay is given as Hote. but the writer has no particulars about this name.

All my informants agreed that the Maori name of Halfmoon Bay was Kairakau, and the writer was also given the name Taki-rakau (sounding wood), as the name of the bush behind it. The Maori name of Akers Point seems forgotten, but the next conspicuous point south of it is the well-known Ringaringa, or, as the Southern Maori pronounces it, Eikarika (the hand). The bay at the back of Mr Traill’s house facing Ulva had the olden name of Here-wae-kahu, after a man of a bygone day. The name Kaipipi (eat shellfish) is given to the whole district from Ryan’s.to Price’s, and where Paterson’s Inlet divides into two arms has still the name Ka-moana-erua (the two seas). The name of the Freshwater River, Ohekia, is often applied to the whole inlet right to the sea. Caerhowel Arm and the big mountain behind it are both called Orakiahua, and the olden name of Flat Island was partially remembered. It has a burial cave on it, and was called Te-ana (the cave), of a man who was placed in it, but whose name my informant forgot. Along the south shore of Paterson Inlet Hapuatuna (eel lagoon) is said to be a recent name and the Maori names given for South-west Bay and Glory Cove, Okerere and Otekia, are somewhat doubtful until there is fuller confirmation of their orthography and meaning. Now we have arrived at the great centre of .Maori activity on Stewart Island, the Neck, and here Maori names are more plentiful. The western point of its northern extremity has the name Korako-wahine (an albino woman), while a rock off it is Wharc-tatarn. The point marked on the map as Anglcm Point, but called Bullcr Point by the “ old hands,” was to the Maori Hu-pokeka, and a reef off it, Kai-aho (the eaten fishing line). This was so called because a fish carried away the line of a fisherman of the olden times.

The peninsula on which the lighthouse stands is Pukuheke, and the beach below the lighthouse on the ocean side is Takipakake, the next bay is Te-ara-kaki, the next,little Bay Ka-ono-o-pukerehu, while the next, a boat harbour, had no Maori name as far as my informant knew. Down the west side of the peninsula the only names collectable were Papatiki, the name of a bay, and Mariri, the name of a rock off the coast. Arrived at Kaiarohaki we are Off famous ground in Maori estimation, for in this vicinity stood two old-time pas, or forts, the one on the mainland being Touuoa, and the other being on what one old man described as “ a sort of an island ” —it appears it is only an island at full tide. My first informant called

this pa Turi-o-hoka, my next Ka-turi-o-hoka (the knees of Hoka), and the other two old men said Turi-o-whako (knee of Whako), so whether the owner of the knees was colled Hoka or Whako is not yet fully decided. The famous chief Te Wera built both these pas, but there is no fighting history connected with either traditionally. It was at Kaiarohaki that Te Wera first met a sea lion, and he who had never feared any human foe turned and fled from this terrifying creature, Wa can imagine his laughter in after years when he had become more familiar with the denizens of the southern ocean. My friends call the spot Ka-ara-a-te-wera (the paths of Te Wera), and the incident is alluded to as the wehi, hopo, or mataku (these words denote fright) of that chief. My informants did not seem to know any place called Te-wehika-o-te-were (the fright of Te Wera). The next bight south of Kaiarohaki is called Ka-one-o-huka (the sands of Huka). Huka usually means “snow” and in this case was the name of an 1 old-time Kaitahu chieftainess.

Then we come to what my informants called Tauraka-o-te-kaha, but which is on the map as Tearatekaha boat InndingThis Te' Kaha must be distinguished from the much earlier explorer of the same name, as he only flourished in the sealing period. He was the son of Te Paihi, grandson of the famous Hau-tapu-nui-o-tu and uncle of the still more famous John Tuhawaiki. He never fought, but when fairly young was drowned with Ruatapu. and a whole canoeful of people en route between Codfish Island and Ruapuke. (My informant did not appear to know it, but Te ■ Kaha was one of the victims of an act of revenge by the sealers.) The Maori name of the next boat landing is forgotten, and .then comes Ka-one-o-tu (the sands of Tn), better known as Chew Tobacco Bay. AH my Informants named Hast Cape without hesitation as Hine-wai-karara, and gavexKoromere as the name of the islet near it. The next boat landing is Pi-karoro (young seagulls), and then we continue on round Starling Head, Puke-weka (woodhen hill), into Port Adventure. This has been known so long—about a century—as Potiweta, which one of my aged friends drily called a “ conglomeration name,” that its original Maori name has been lost.

Even the name of the old Native village and cemetery in Port Adventure was forgotten by my informants, but one of them remembered that the beach east of it was called Ka-one-o-Miromiro, Shelter Point was Orokiroki, and the bay west of it Oraukawa. Others of my mentors mentioned that Wreck Reefrf Maori name was Orukeruke, and they rather gleefully recalled the fact that a Maori they knew personally had been almost wrecked on it and that be returned to the mainland and composed a song about it. Leaving Tiko-tatahi Bay we now pass a point Hine-wal-ariki, a bay called Kuri, and round into Lord’s River. One aged man who supplied me with much valuable information said he' had never heard a Maori name for Lord’s River, another said it was Potapa, another Rotapa, and still another Orotapa. Only one appeared to know the correct old name, Tntae-kawetoweto, The Maori name of the pilot station reserve near Owen Head is Ka-one-o-whitiora and brings to light a. story of bloodshed. In the sealing days Scotch John was building a boat here and was assisted by' three North Island Maoris. An Otago chief was killed up at Kapiti Island and in revenge the Stewart Island Natives sought to kill the three Maoris helping Scotch John. One escaped, but two were killed, one being Whitiora, and the other his brother Uekanuka. When the Pax Britanniea arrived their father came down to -Otago Heads and received some greenstone oa utu or payment .for the death of his two sons.

The Maori name of Misery Bay, Pupuri-kautaua (holding the flipper) recalls the interesting fact that it received its designation long ago when a big, powerful chief named Kahu (hawk) surprised a young whakahau (sea-lion) . and held on by its flipper until his companions came up with weapons in hand and killed it. The next bay is Tutaepawhat), the next Te Kuri and the next Whaka-a-toitoi (the harbour of Toitoi. Toitoi was a chief, and my informant said that toitoi meant “to tear up ” and that the next landing was Kopeka, a word he translated as meaning “ to call upon.” Seal Point had the name Ka-ara-a-haereroa (the tracks of Haereroa) because a man named Haereroa there found the tracks of pakake (hair seals) and made several trips to kill them. Pegasus has been Maoricised into Pikiata for a century, and its real name is forgotten. After much interviewing without result the writer met a very old couple who said that the big waterfall in Pegasus was Waitai-rere, the Pegasus Creek was, they thought, Waikoura, and another place near (probably Basin Creek) was Roto-rere. On the inside of Port Pegasus there was a place with a name which was either Tahi-bo-wai or Tai-o-wai,

All 1 the “old hands” call South-West Cape the Flour Cask, and its Maori name is Puhi-waero (bushy tail). South Cape was given to me as Opehia, the same name as Nichol Harbour. Going northward up the west coast the boat landings are given as Merere, Whakatokoweka (means “kiwi harbour”), Okuri, and Easy Love’s Maori name is Tuparu-tutae. Weather Point is Paterc and Doughboy 'Bay Wainaua, and between them are two boat landings called Otaraki and .Whakaitu. Mason’s Bay is Te One-roa (the long beach), and the Maori name of Mason Head happens to be Te-upoko-o-taepu (the head! of Taepu). North of Mason’s first landing is West Raggedy or Waituna, Red Head is Patere, aiid Rugged Point Putataraiiika according to one man, but Putatara according to all the rest. The next bay to the east is Orautahi, and here a trig, the Workington, went ashore in the ’fifties. Long Harry, a noted whaler, lived at Smoky Cave (Maoricised into Te Moko Kewa) and now we arc back to our starting place, Black Rock Point, having circumnavigated the island. (To be continued.)