COOK’S LANDING

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6442, 29 January 1924, Page 2

COOK’S LANDING

’ OPINION OF NATIVES

Some interesting statements regarding the beliefs of some of the older natives in the Bay in regard to the original outlet of the Waipaoa river, and also as to the landing place of Captain Cook, are contained in a letter which has been received by the Gisborne Harbour Board.

“It may be of interest to you to know that some of the older native residents in the Bay are firmly of the opinion that the Waikanae lagoon was formerly part of the Waipaoa, or Big River,”, states the letter, “and that at one time the present entrance to the western end of the bay did not exist. The late Mrs Pimia Mills recently informed me that she had on good ancestral authority that at the time of the landing of Captain Cook the Big River ran out into the bay at the end of the present Abattoir road, where it now stops, and that the present entrance was made by the Maoris themselves to prevent the then Big River waters from flooding over the flats at Matawhero and round about Te Arai and Pakiriki. Mrs Mills also stated that the place where Captain Cook landed was not at the mouth of the Turanganui, but at the mouth of the Waipaoa, then about three miles west along the beach.”