INDIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19881, 7 March 1939, Page 13

INDIA AND NEW ZEALAND

SIMILARITY OF PEOPLES BISHOP’S ADDRESS The similarity of the mythology of the Maori people and the people of India was described by the Bishop of Aotearoa, the lit. Rev. F. A. Bennett, in an address to the Hastings Rotary Club. The bishop recently returned from the inter-denominational missionary conference in India. It was believed that the Maori was descended from people who migrated from India many centuries ago, said the bishop. In the legends of the Maori were to be found stories of a great land to the north, the higher levels of which were covered with snow. The southern part was flat and the climate very hot. The name given by the Maori people to this land was similar to the word India. There were a number of points of similarity in the traditions of the countries, which provided a definite link between them, said His Lordship. According to Indian mythology the first man was made from red soil, which composed large tracts of the country. The Indians had an eel-god named Tuna, corresponding with the same Tuna-god of the Maori. Languages Similar The bishop said there were many points in the two languages that were similar, but the fact that more than f.OU languages were spoken in India made the comparison difficult. The Maori people had a very clear conception of coming from a far oil' country and in the tangi words often arose which they must have adopted in their long journey south.

The bishop’s use of the word "Arawa” aroused the interest of the Indian people, who wished to know its meaning and how it came into use. On inquiry the bishop found that Arawa was an old tribal name in India, which dated back for many centuries.