A DAY WITH THE PAST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLI, Issue 20312, 10 January 1936, Page 10

A DAY WITH THE PAST

HAUNTS OF MOA HUNTERS

MAORI PILGRIMAGE TO WAITAKI OLD RUINS INSPECTED To tread the ground which their ancestors many hundreds of years ago trod, and to acquaint themselves more fully with a settlement which is rich in the tradition of a fascinating race, members of the Arowhenua Maori Women’s Institute, accompanied by others interested, made a pilgrimage to the mouth of the Waitaki yesterday, where they spent a memorable day in the haunts of the moa hunters of years ago. The old camping ground of these hunters, which extends over a wide area, is still, after all these years, a rich storehouse of the relics of he Maoris and their predecessors, and provides the student of ethnology with wide scope for research.

The expedition arose out of an address given to the Institute recently by Mr H. S. McCully, o: Peel Forest, who is a noted authority on the Maori race in South Canterbury. He offered to take the party to the grounds and his suggestion was readily adopted. His leadership of the party yesterday was largely responsible for the success of the day as his knowledge of the area was freely given and every point of interest was explained. Accompanying the party was Mr N. Waaka, chairman of the Arowhenua Maori Runanga, Mrs P. Meihana (West Coast), Mrs P. Paipeta, president of the Arowhenua Maori Women’s Institute, Mrs E. Gillum, secretary of the Institute, Mrs P. R. Woodhouse, and Mr A. Hornsey, a wellknown collector.

The party alighted on the property of Mr J. B. Chapman close to a Maori settlement of the late sixties, which also embraces the former habitation of the ancient hunters of the moa. The reserve was known as Korotuaheka, and derived its name because of the long lagoon in the vicinity. An interesting link with the settlement was Mr Mital Tuture, one of the party, who was bom there, and who now resides at Arowhenua. His people were amongst those who were evicted in the sixties from Omarama and settled at Korotuaheka for several years before they departed for Moeraki, Morven, Kaiapoi and Temuka. The only occupant of the settlement to-day is Mrs Mere Matenga, who has lived there all her life. Of the 300 of the race who came from Omarama, only five others survive, Mr Hemi Tano Paiki and Mrs Hana Waaka of Temuka, Mrs T. Wesley, senr., and Mrs Taina Te Ururaki, of Glenavy.

In true Maori custom Mrs Mere Matenga, who was delighted at the invasion of her hapu, invited the whole of the party to partake of her hospitality, but because of the large number—between 50 and 60— the Arowhenua visitors fulfilled the invitation by paying their respects and invited the lone inhabitant of the settlement to partake of picnic kai with them.

Former Settlement Inspected

There was a tinge of sadness about the inspection of the ruins df the settlement which was a prosperous pa many years ago. Many of the visitors realised that it was on this block that their fathers romped as boys in some of the happiest days of their lives until they migrated to wider fields. To-day only outlines of sod hutments, of the church and the meeting house are there as shades of the past, and only those well versed with the locality could, with word pictures, transform the area of to-day into what it was. Especially helpful was Mr Mital Tuture, who recalled with enthusiasm the house in which he once lived. To the casual observer, however, it was just a heap of weather-worn sods. To Mr Tuture it was home.

Recently a part of the land was ploughed and, it is stated that in places where the Maoris had danced their hakas the ground was still hard from the stamping of their feet. It is a strange coincidence that the area reserved embraces the whole of the camp occupied by the moa hunters. The place may thus be said to have seen the coming and going of the Maori, for the “hike” or migration to this Maori settlement was the last concerted stand of the natives against the pakeha. While at Waitaki a number died and a cemetery near the centre of the moa hunters’ camp contains their remains, each grave being marked by a fencing standard. The cemetery is situated on what is thought by observers to have been a sacred place of the moa hunter. The evidence of this is that no signs of occupation are nearby. Recently the present owner of the property found a mass of consolidated ash near the cemetery, and it is possible that this mass represents the accumulated ashes of periodical sacred fires. The Maori was very careful of the ashes of a sacred fire, and apparently the same applies to the moa hunter. The ash was inspected later in the day.

Ancient Haunts of Hunters

A walk across the brown tussocks and the scene changed. The party found themselves on ground on which their earliest ancestors camped, where they destroyed the moa for food, chipped the stone Into axes and ancient weapons, and where they have left many traces of their occupation. Mr McCully provided a wealth of interesting information amassed as a result of a thorough combing of the area on many previous occasions.

The earliest inhabitants of New Zealand are spoken of as "Moa hunters” —the men who hunted the great bird. This name was given by Sir Julius Von Haast, an early investigator and one time curator of the Christchurch Museum, on account of the large quantities of moa remains found in ancient kitchen middens. How long the moa has been totally extinct is not known, and Maori tradition throws no light on the subject. On the moa becoming scarce the population would naturally decrease or go elsewhere, and on its becoming extinct its remains would be absent from middens. No other camp in the Dominion, It Is claimed, offers such scope for investigation of the earliest inhabitants than that situated at the mouth of the Waitaki, for here the midden refuse is almost entirely moa. The river is the boundary between Canterbury and Otago, and its watershed was the area from which food supplies were drawn and transported in raupo canoes down the river to the camp on the coast. There is evidence of considerable change in the coast line, river level and plant life of the adjoining country since the place was first occupied. There is now no native bush within many miles, yet in an oven used for Vhe production of charcoal, logs 18 Inches in diameter were found some

time ago. To furnish firing for the great number of ovens occupied by the camp much wood was required, but its source has not yet been ascertained. It is possible, according to authorities, that Waitaki was a seasonal moa hunting camp and not the headquarters of a tribe, for three reasons, the first being the rigour of an inland winter, the second the exposed position of the camp, and the third the convenient situation of the camp for transport of goods by sea. There is evidence that work was carried out which was not directly connected with hunting, but the almost entire absence of other than moa remains in the middens and the scarcity of ground and polished stone (compared with other places more favourably situated) seems to point to Waitaki having been a seasonal camp. Link With Tamatea. Up to the present time no burial grounds or even remains of moa hunters have been found in the camp or in the locality. Waitaki (the Maori meaning of the word is Wailing Water) is not ill-named, for the place has been the scene of sad happenings of one kind and another since man first arrived in the district. Maori tradition says that Tamatea (who sailed round the land) landed at Waitaki and traced the river to its source. To Tamatea is credited the excavating of the cave Te ana wha kaino in which were placed the sacred writings brought from Irihia-Hawaiki. The meaning of these writings is now lost, but many are still in a good state of preservation. Some years ago an enterprising American removed some of these drawings bodily and took them away. This cave is situated above Duntroon and a few miles below the hydro-electric works. The Waitaki teems with Maori tales “The dog in the rock,” “Te Huru-Huru’s leap” and others, the origin of which can be traced far across the Pacific. There are many small moa-hunter camps on the banks of the Waitaki right up to the head of the lakes. Investigation shows these camps as conveniently placed for the collection of food, material for making canoes and stone for making implements. Some are found at the ends of mountains tracks and such a track existed in the early days of European occupation between Te Aka Tarewa and Black Forest. Shepherds using the track found on the surface a quantity of human remains, and surmised that they were those of a party caught in a snow storm. Fire, stock, rabbits and poison laid for rabbits have played havoc with the plant life and native game in the hill country once proudly alluded to by the Maoris as "the lofty food stores.” The routes into the lakes of the Mackenzie Country were known and used by moa hunter and Maori alike. Advantage was taken of natural shelter, but many moa hunters’ camps were out in the open on what is now bare and wind-swept waste.

There is every reason to think that man and moa existed together in New Zealand many years before the arrival of the last Maori migration of 1250. Many theories have been advanced regarding how the moa was captured, and it could be easily agreed that so far as Waitaki was concerned the birds were transported by means of the tnoklhi (canoe). The remains of thousands of moa lie in the ash at the JVaitaki camp, and it is believed that the birds were taken there and cooked whole. The area from which they were obtained is so vast that only one means of conveyance is probable—down the river by canoe. Material f or making the mokihi was available everywhere. These canoes were used for downstream traffic only and when they were finished with they were cast adrift. The journey from the lakes, about 130 miles, occupied, at river current speed, about two days. The moa was taken in summer and early autumn, and at that time of the year the river carried a good volume of water on account of the snow melting on the hills.

In the opinion of Mr McCully the taking of game in snares, as practised by the Maori, was very probably the method adopted by the moa hunters,

the birds being snared by a leg. The work could be carried out by an individual without unduly disturbing other groups of birds in the locality. Apparently while the bird was still alive in the snare it was disabled by the captor breaking the thigh bones. It was the custom of the Morioris of the Chatham Islands and the Maoris when dealing with mutton birds to break the legs and so prevent escape. The reason given by the Moriori was that the mutton bird plucked easier when warm, and so he kept them alive until it was convenient for the birds to be dealt with. Killing was avoided by the moa hunter for several reasons, including the distance from the base camp, the wait for full cargoes and the possible delay in delivery on account of climatic conditions.

Considering the difficulties of transport it can be understood that it was

quite necessary to keep the moa alive if it was to reach the end of the journey in condition for preserving for future use or consumption on arrival. At the camp yesterday were seen large mounds of used oven stones, one of which is 16yds long, 7yds wide, and from 2 to 3ft. high. This mound is almost surrounded by ovens, and in this may be seen the means for dealing with quantities of the birds in a rush period owing to a successful catch or to delay on account of weather conditions. Many broken thigh bones are found in the middens —broken apparently by a smart blow, the fracture being short and without shatter. An interesting feature yesterday was the different colours of moa crop stones. Near some middens the stones are red and at others, mostly white. From this may be gathered some idea of the locality in which the bird was taken. The stone tools used by the moa hunters do not differ greatly from those made by later Maoris. The material of which they are made includes greenstone from the West Coast, obsidian from the Bay of Plenty and other places in between. Fragments of cocoanut shell, evidently pieces of a broken bowl, have been found at Waitaki, this indicating a wide range of interchange. Further finds of this material are awaited with interest. Underground flake tools or “flints” are very plenti-

ful at the camp. These do not differ from those found on the lowest levels bearing evidence of man in England. They are without embellishment. Stone, where plentiful, was used for making, tools for temporary use as freely as was flax used for making food dishes, and was as little valued. A quartzite quarry exists at Grey’s Hill in the Mackenzie Country from which a large quantity has been lifted for making flake tools. At Waitaki there is no evidence of weapons, no human remains in the middens, or tikis of Maori pattern. The absence of these suggests an unwarlike people. All these Interesting features of this historic area were appreciated to the full by the Maori party who took away many of the bleached bones of the now extinct moa, and many other souvenirs of the visit. Of unusual interest was the outline of a circular hut claimed

by the Polynesian Society to have been the only one of that shape ever in existence. The great interest that Mr McCully had always taken in the Maoris of South Canterbury was expressed in the native tongue by Mrs Paipeta, who spoke of the great pleasure that the party had been given by the trip. She praised the work of the Women’s Institutes and said that Arowhenua h-d greatly enjoyed their association with the movement. “Arowhenua w'll hold this in memory as a great day,” said Mrs Paipeta. “We know that Mr McCully takes the Maori to nis heart.” She asked him to accept a titi (Maori brooch) which was made many years ago at Waitaki and a riwai fibre bag, as a mark of their appreciation, and a flax bag for Mrs McCully. Mrs Paipeta acknowledged the courtesy of Mr Chapman in throwing his property open to the visitors. Mr McCully described the provision of the outing as a privilege he had enjoyed, and he hoped that at some future time it might be possible to repeat it. He thanked the Institute for their gifts and for the friendly spirit that had prompted them. He acknowledged the assistance he had been given by Mr Hornsey. Mr Chapman, in fluent Maori, spoke of the pleasure it had given him in making his land available.