MAORI LONGEVITY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11249, 13 April 1908, Page 6

MAORI LONGEVITY.

AN INTERESTING STORY

As considerable controversy has arisen as to the correct ages of oki -Maoris recently deceased, and the possibility of their having attained such ages as permitted a reasonable belief that they "remembered Captain Cook," a reporter of the H.B. Herald interviewed Mr A. L. D, Frasei', M.l\ The latter had an interesting story to tell of Tiopira Hau : liingo, an aged Maori, who died recently and. was' buried, at Waiinarama last Sun- .'. "In ; conversation with- Tiopira,'' - said Mr ' Fraser,; %< ; on ■• the only occasion upon which I met him, some twelve months ago," I endeavored by , inquiry into historical events "to ascertain his age. I found him kindly^ intelligent,' -anti with signs on his face that; indicated the old school of tattoo. . , He had lived the greater part of his life at Waimarama, was the* owner, oi, lands m that locality, &nd ;was -associated with the stirring time^. before : tlie- pakeha was m evidence. To" test 'his memory as to. facts;; 1^ asked him if -he remembered, Tiakitai; ; ; who, 'm his day,- "was a prominent chief of the district! and- the^grandfather^ of Mrs G. P. Donnelly. Here. l might 'say . tliat- Tiakitai'a third : wiifa was Erena, sister, .of Reriata Kawepb, one of the most rioted of Heretaunga chiefs, V, In answer to my question, Tiopira ' stated that Tiakitai was but a boy : compared to him, for he (Tiopira) had assisted m the choosing of Tiakitai's first wife. As Tiakitai. was drowned while journeying from Waimarama to a northern settlement m 1847, it is evident that Tiopira must have been then of mature age, as 'only leaders would have a voice m. choosing a wife for one of so high rank as TiaKitai. To go more than a decade further back," Mr Fraser continued, "'I asked Tiopira if he had any recollection of the, historical tigUting called Kaiuku. Kaiuku waa a fortified the pa to the north of the Mahia peninsula, occupied by residents of Heretaunga, who fled to that locality m large numbers on account of marauding tribes from the north Kaiuku obtains its characteristic name from the fact that it was besieged by Te Heuheii and his people of Ngati Tuwliaretoa and Ng'aite Upokoiri, and that before the holders of the pa would capitulate they had consumed all food— vegetable, animal, even human —and at last had to eat the clay upon which the pa was built. Kai means food, uku means clay — hence the name Kaiuku. Now, that took place m 1832. I asked Tiopira if he remembered it. He did not reply m words, but by the use of his hands and mouth, and the reminiscent gleam of his eyes, he clearly showed his recollection of eating from the ground. He then went on to explain that he was one of the besieged, and at the time a fighting man. Assuming tJhat be had been a fignting man for a number of years, it is fair to assume further that he must have been between the ages of 25 and 35. Taking him to have been somewhere between these two ages, it appears to me that at the time of his death he must have been over the century, say, 106. When I asked Tiopira if he 'remembered anything about Captain Cook, he said that when a boy he remembered the old people speaking familiarly about him, so that the visit of the great navigator .could not have been very long before his • (Tiopira's) time. The Maoris," concluded Mr Fraser, "are inclined to exaggerate the ages of their elders, but there is strong prima facie evidence m support of the assumption that at the time of his death Tiopira Haurango was well over the century."