MEMORIAL TREES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19133, 30 September 1936, Page 4

MEMORIAL TREES

AN EAST COAST CUSTOM PLANTED BY MAORIS There is, perhaps, more significance than meets the eye in the planting of a totara tree at Putiki, Wanganui, to commemorate the visit of Maori' carvers who, for the past two months, have been at work on the carved decorative panels .and other articles for the new memorial church. Mr. Pine Taiapa, an East Coast Maori who is in charge of the work, has planted young totara trees at Rotorua, Otaki and Waitara in accordance with an East Coast custom, and this totara will serve to mark the first occasion since 1862 that Maori carvers have visited Putiki. According to a Wanganui authority on Maori lore, the custom is not universal among the East Coast or other tribes, but lie recalled that at, the time of the birth at Wairoa of the late Sir James Carroll, a cabbage I tree (kouka) was planted at Huruiuua .to bear w-itness to the event. "There is a possibility that the custom of planting a tree to commemorate anything is linked with a noted early Hawke's Bay chieftain's act," he said- " Years ago, Taraia te Tapu (Sacred Tararia) decided to build three pas on the Ngaruroro River," he said. "Holes were dug for the two end-poles to hold the ridge-pole of one house, which he determined to make the favourite. He desired to celebrate the occasion by burying his little daughter Te Ruapare under one endpost, and ordered one of his sub-chiefs to go and fetch her, roll her in a valuable Maori mat and throw her into the hole.

"The girl's mother, however, persuaded the sub-chief to roll a big stone in the mat instead of her daughter, and this was done. It was not until the girl was married that Taraia discovered the deception, and he waged war against his sub-chief Te Areare for the insult. There was much fighting, and finally Taraia emerged conqueror of all the land and district which is now known as Napier. "The place where the chief built his three pas and where his daughter was supposed to have been sacrificed is still known to the Maoris at Te Raupare." he concluded.