THE HONGI-HONGI STREAM, MOTUROA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13, 11 May 1906, Page 6

THE HONGI-HONGI STREAM, MOTUROA.

Mr \V. H. Skinner writes :— A paragraph in .the Herald of Wednesday bearing on the Maori derivation of this name and its connection with the strong smell of - peltroleum that is visually noticed in this loca,ity is soiriewhat misleading. J<hv> Maori .tradition is that seme generations ago a school of sperm whales got stranded on the. beach at this point and set up a '"smell" that has living around ever, sinea., Ylour correspondent is evidently mixing up throdour arising during the late iidvng season from the rows upon rc<vvs o. shark drying in the sun, preparatory to their being stored "away for win ter food.) Thfe smell was certainly a tall one, but not sufficient- to l.c palmed off as a dlassic in the way of smells, as the genuine "Hong<i-<hon-gi" of ancient Maori story anust be considered. The first written, notice we have of this '"h'ongi" is given by Dieffienbach in his "Travels in W«iw Zealand.-" L a nding, at Moturoa on 28th November, 1839, he writes .r-"A strong smell of sulphuretted hydrogen g i as may also be observed above high water mark. The natives have a •\vhvmsioa^i story of an "Artuta" (spirit), wivo, they say, was drowned here, and, is still undergoing deJOomposition." Dieffenbaoh, who got his information first hand from the natives th^n livtalg around the Sugar Loaves. \v a^ right. The story, told briefly, is ■that in tile dim long ago a ianewha (sea monster) .called "P«*a" h-aunfcsd the depths around the Sugar Laaves T Tn course of time Bera : died, and, sinking to the bottotai, itte d^pofmißoaitron Rtill goes on giving; off "the that is so very noticeable near the Breakwater, especially about midway between the Breakwater and the outer Sugar Loat — M'oturoa. When the oil bubbles rise to the surface of the sea. and spreads over its bosom in varying shades of . colour the older naitjves still oxclailm *''te hinu o Pera" —•see the oil from, Pera. .Hongi4iongi,— to smell— iwas the name given by the Tuxi, one of the famous Polj>nesian discoverers, to the small stream and lajg-oon near Mr James Honayfield's. residence. Travelling down this coast about the year ]350, he noticed the peculiar ' smell and called the* looaliiity "iLong-Hion-g«i,," which name it has rotaiaied to the present day. Sir George Grey, in his "Polynesian 'Mytho-liogy," says ?hat Tiiri, taking Tip a handful of earth at this spot and smell-ing it, pronounced it as ' very good, an»d f rom this- jn«k}«nt the place- was CaJl©4 Tl'ongi-hongi.' " •■