THE SOUTHERN MAORI.

Otago Witness, Issue 3993, 23 September 1930, Page 67

THE SOUTHERN MAORI.

STRAY PAPERS.

By

H. Beattie.

XVI.—CREATING A LEGEND.

A question which is perhaps the most intriguing to the student of Southern New Zealand history is that pertaining to the existence or extinction, as the ease may be, of one of the most famous southern Maori tribes. This tribe, known in the North Island as Ngatimamoe and in the South as Katimamoe or Gatimamoe, had an unusually chequered career. Its tribespeople belonged to the Kai-rakau (eat trees) or Takata-whenua (men of the land) division of the Maori race who were lords of the soil before the Big Migration of 1350 a.d. arrived to seize their heritage. The last Maori invaders of our fair land drove the earlier immigrants inland or southward. After various displacings the Katimamoe were forced out of the North Island into the South Island, where they gradually became the predominant tribe, intermarrying with the peaceful, old-established Waitaha and Rapuwai peoples. The tribe known as Ngatitahu in the North Island, or as Kaitahu and sometimes Gaitahu in the South Island, originated from a chief Tahu-potiki, who settled at Gisborne after the Big Migration. Three centuries later they came down to the South Island, and then began the stormy, stirring period of southern history, and for about 50 years fighting was a constant occupation, the Katimamoe being mostly driven south to Foveaux Strait.

And here we come to the crux of the question and thus has a threefold aspect, namely, first, were the Katimamoe people entirely wiped out? secondly, were they as a general rule kept alive as slaves? Thirdly, did they preserve a tribal status ?

Let us consider the annihilation theory first, as it is a remarkable illustration of how easy it is to create a legend about any historical subject. Tuckett, writing in 1844, says: “ Tuawhaiki (Bloody Jack) was born on the banks of the Mataura (Mataii) and considers himself as almost sole proprietor. Another tribe of Maoris once occupied this (Clutha) district, and were very numerous, but exceedingly unwarlike; they were rapidly exterminated by the present power, the Kaitahu, and this within the present century.” Sir Walter Buller, in a report he wrote in 1861, says that the Ngatimamoe were almost if not quite extinct. He-further remarks that it was reported that a small remnant of this tribe was in existence at Milford Sound.

Canon Stack, in 1877, wrote:—“Having suffered so cruelly from Ngaitahu, the survivors of the persecuted tribe (Ngatimamoe) seem to be always in a state of flight, imagining that their ancient foes are still in pursuit. . . . It is just possible that a small remnant may still remain secreted in the recesses of that inaccessible region” (the fiords).

In John White’s “ Ancient History of the Maori,” published in 1887, we read:—“The doomed Ngatimamoe were attacked and indiscriminately slaughtered. A remnant fled southward . . .

they were hemmed in . . . and nearly exterminated; but about 30 escaped. These fled inland to the Lakes Hawea and Wanaka, to which place the Ngaitahu thought it inadvisable to follow them.”

Captain F. W. Hutton, in a paper on “ Moas,” written in 1891, said:—-It seems to me improbable that the .Ngatimamoe, the last remnant of whom inhabited the West Coast Sounds a few years ago, were moa-hunters.” Mr Justice F. R. Chapman in his paper “ On the Working of Greenstone ” (Trans. N.Z.L Vol. 24, p. 487) says:— “ Ngaitahu carried on their bloodthirsty war of extermination against Ngatimamoe, fighting over the district surrounding this city (Dunedin), and ultimately destroying them in Southland.” H. M. Stowell (Hare Hongi), writing in 1898, said: “Attacked and slaughtered at Otakou, the Ngatimamoe survivors fled to the mountain fastnesses surrounding the south-western lakes, where, crushed and broken by the power of the dominant northerners, a remnant found safety in utter isolation.” James Cowan in volume 14 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society wrote: “ Probably no section of comparatively recent Maori history is so deficient in recorded detail as that which relates to the conquest and final extinction of the Ngatimamoe tribe, in the extreme South of the Middle Island.” The same writer on page 337 of volume 38, Trans. N.Z.1., says of a clearing at Te Anau: “ This clearing, a perfect and safe retreat for a broken tribe, is said to have been .me of the Ngatimamoe places of refuge when that unfortunate tribe was almost exterminated by Ngaitahu, . and the remnant driven into the vast forest wilderness of fiordland, where they finally became extinct.” In the Government publication, “ The wonders of Western Otago,” we read: “ The melancholy story of the lost Ngatimamoe tribe is one of the memories of Te Anau. . . The survivors disappeared into the gloomy forests and never again man’s eye beheld them.” Numerous extracts might be quoted from the press of the Dominion to show that when any reference has been made to the warfare between Kaitahu and Katimamoe the latter almost invariably get: “ extirpated ” or “ annihilated ’’ or “ extinguished ” or “ destroyed ” or “killed out,” but only one instance will

be quoted here. When the Scenery Preservation Commissioners inspected the site of Horekore pa at Takapau, Hawke’s Bay, we read: “ This ancient pa was the great stronghold of the Ngaitahu tribe before its emigration to the South Island to annihilate the then peaceful bnt now extinct Ngatimamoe tribe.” The foregoing short extracts show the origin and growth of a seemingly formidable legend, but before any attempt is made to topple over this paper erection the second phase of the subject can ...briefly presented as it is more insidious and harder to combat than the first, and then the two phases can be answered in our consideration of the third section of this inquiry. Sir Walter Buller in his 1861 report remarks: “ A partial amalgamation with the conquerors may be inferred from the existence of a hapu among the latter bearing their name (Ngatimamoe) ; but I have been unable to obtain anything like an authentic account of their previous history.” Sir Walter apparently depended on Canterbury sources of information. Mr Justice Chapman, writing in 1891, says pf the Ngatimamoe: “ They then became extinct as a tribe, but some hapus or sub-tribes incorporated with the conquering Ngaitahu still trace their blood to Ngatimamoe ancestry.” James Cowan writing in 1905 observes: “My chief informants were-members of the Ngaitahu tribe living at Colac Bay. . . . They are also in part descended from the ancient Ngatimamoe, wno ceased to exist as a tribe probably over a century ago.”

In 1906 Ro. Carrick wrote to the Otago Daily Times taking Alexander Bathgate to task for statements the latter had made in dealing with the “subjugation and final overthrow ” of Ngatimamoe. In Mr Bathgate’s reply he says: “I never assented that the Ngatimamoe were exterminated by their foes, but from all I have heard and read I concluded that after much fighting the Ngaitahu became the dominant tribe, though undoubtedly a remnant of the Ngatimamoe was left, and intermarried with their conquerors. A gentleman who takes an interest in such matters informed me that when at Riverton many years ago he learned that there were a good many pure-blood Ngatimamoe in that neighbourhood, and that in conversation with them they admitted the fact with evident reluctance—the attitude of a subdued people. . . . After the battle at Aparima their existence as an independent tribe ceased, though many of the tribe survived as slaves or otherwise submissive to and dependent upon the conquering Ngaitahu.”

The last four opinions quoted abo all give recognition to the fact that the tribe of Ngatimamoe was not completely wiped out, for people of this descent were still living when the opinions were p-.nned, and some are still in the land of the living now. But each of these opinions maintains that the Ngatimamoe had ceased to exist as a tribe, although some of its former constituent parts had been preserved by absorption into the victorious Ngaitahu ranks.

Before proceeding to deal with this subtle suggestion and with the whole intricate problem generally the present writer may be excused if he explains that his first acquaintance with this subject dates from an issue of the Otago Witness in 1892, where it is stated that a story about “ the defeat and extirpation of the once famous Ngatimamoe tribe is based on actual tradition.” The writer, then a boy, accepted this statement at its face value, but some years later doubts assailed him when he read in the Otago Witness a controversialist, who said: “While on the subject of the Native race, a matter that could stand clearing up is the debatable question of the extinction of the famous Ngatimamoe tribe. The generally accepted theory that they were vanquished and exterminated by the Ngaitahu has several opponents, and I have seen various writer combat the truth of the statement in the press. They aver that the conflict between these two tribes was indecisive, after many years’ fighting, and finally both tribes allied to resist Te Rauparaha, whose name and reputation was a terror to all the South Island. I am inclined to think that the Riverton, Ruapuke, and Stewart Island Maoris are of the Ngatimamoe tribe.” And again he read in the Otago Witness of July 15, 1897, a historian who stated that the two tribes strove long and hard to conquer one another in Otago, and that both sides became weakened. The article proceeded: “ Meanwhile the Te Rauparaha\ scare reached the far south and the two belligerents joined issues against the common foe, and thus became an amalgamated tribe. I am aware that this is not the accepted version told of- the tribes. The Ngatimamoe are represented to have become a conquered if not exterminated race. That story comes from a purely Ngaitahu source. It was gleaned by the Rev. J. W. Stack, .of Kaiapoi, where the chief men of the Ngaitahu reside. Between the two tribes a variety of territorial complications have arisen, which ought to have been decided in accordance with tribal usages. Sums of money were paid in respect of a certain Native right known as Princes Street Reserve, and it might be inconvenient to inquire narrowly into the appropriation. Still there is no valid reason why spurious history should go unchallenged.” ' It is because erroneous history should not go uncorrected that the present writer has devoted so much spece to a record of its origin and development in this case, and will further continue on this subject in another article. (To be continued.)