A Romance of Auckland.

Observer, Volume 27, 27 November 1894, Page 22

A Romance of Auckland.

\* \zWJf7j n the brave days of old, when all f c women were fine and tall and -^A|j^L^W?f handsome and all the men were big J^^MrWsßhf and braye ' and wuen there were no Land Courts or judges, or e&JciJ- jßts policemen, or Ministers or dog /&&lmJblM taxee ' or an y ° ther sucu b ° tlier - inS^li^Klr. some things to vex the soul of the " *"''<^ .s^ Maori — in those good old days there lived a beautiful maiden, and her name was HinexA. Her home was at her father's pa at Pukorokoro — which is a place that that silly person, the pa Mm, now calls the Miranda — or the gulf of the Hauraki. And at the same time — it was six generations ago, or in the year which the paMia would say was one thousand seven hundred and thirty-five — there lived a brave young Maori chieftain named Kiwi, whose tribe owned all the narrow neck of ground known now as the Auckland isthmus, extending from Tamaki to the "VVhau and from the Waitemata'to the Manukau. And. of course, this maiden and this young brave loved each other. That is the way the pa Mi a always starts his story. Now I, a Maori, can tell a story quite as well as the white man, and so I do not see why I should not start it in the same way as the puMia. Moreover, this tale is a true one — and, as you all know, the foolish pa Mm goes to a great deal of trouble to write stories which are not at all true, not at all. In those days, long before Captain Cook came to New Zealand, and before the Maori had any pigs or potatoes, the Waiohua or Ngaiwi tribe owned all the Auckland isthmus, which was often a dangerous possession, for it was a favourite fighting ground of the powerful tribes from the North and the South, whose very names made the flesh to creep. Kiwi the elder, surnamed Kau-Kau-matua, was the great chief of Ngaiwi, and he had hisy>« or fortified village on Owairaka, a volcanic hill near Auckland, which the paMia now calls Mount Albert — silly pahcha ! Ngaiwi were brave anl powerful, and they were rich in the Maori riches of those days — their cultivations of l.uuiara and turo were large, and their fishinggrounds were prolific and far-reaching, while as for a relish for their food — why they could always send a warparty up as far as the Kaipara or to the Waikato, or Matrurangi, and bring back enough food, juicy meat of man. to make quite a large feast.

This maiden, of whom I have spoken, named Hinera, was of the tribe of Ngatipaoa, who inhabited the Thames and the Piako districts. She was so named because she was exceeding fair to look upon ; her complexion was lighter than most Maoris, and her face was lovely to the eye, so she was called Hinera, which signifies " Daughter of the Sun." She was tall aud supple; her limbs were beautifully shaped, and when she stood forth in the 7/ala with her body and legs bare and danced and bent this way and that, all the young men's hearts leaped within them ; she was full-bosomed and strong, though but seventeen years old was she ; her teeth were small and

Written fok the Christmas Ncmiseh of the Ohseuvek by "Tk Pokopiti

white ; her dark hair was long and glossy, and her eyes shone like the laughing brook under the summer sun. Truly, she was a daughter of the day. So who will be astonished when I say that Kiwi, the young and warlike, fell deeply in love with HinerA one day, when he paid a visit of state, accompanied by one hundred and forty warriors of Ngaiwi, to the village of Runga-te-rangi, the father of the young lady, at Pukorokoro ? Kiwi no sooner saw the maiden and perceived that no tattoo yet marked her lips than he determined to make her his wife. He conceived a sudden, a strong affection for her, and he was determined to win the beautiful girl and take her away to his home at Owairaka. He was at first doubtful as to whether Hinera returned his affection; she was proud as well as beautiful, and he knew that many young men of noble birth had sought her hand, but were all rejected with scorn. But Hinera smiled on him and pressed his hand as he sat in her father's house on the fourth day of his visit, and he knew that she was willing to be his wife. Besides, he was young and handsome, and fully tattooed on the face and limbs, and he looked chief-like as he stood forth in his splendid dogskin and feather mat, with his rare greenstone weapon in his hand and the feathers of the liuia in his hair. So, on the fifth day, he found means to tell the girl his love, but she despaired of becoming his wife. "My father does not wish me to become a wife of the Ngaiwi people," said she ; " he will assemble his tribe and kill y,ou"&nd your party if he suspects that you are determined to take me back with you." Then the maiden wept. . • ■ • But Kiwi the younger was a young man of resource as well as a determined lover. He would sooner fight than leave the village without Hinera. So he arranged a stratagem of elopement with Hinera, to his people's country, where he would be safe. On the mangrove beach near Pukorokoro lay his two war-canoes, in which he and his men had voyaged down from the Waitemata, and drawn up beside them lay the war-canoes of Kau-Kau-matua. In the dead of night, Kiwi sent six of his men down to the beach and they pulled out the plugs and cut the lashings of the topsides of all the canoes but their own, so that Ngatipaoa would have no canoe in which to pursue Kiwi and his bride. For the gii'l had consented to elope with her brave young lover. Next day, Kiwi and his men bade farewell in the fashion of the Maori to the people of the village, and to Runga-te-rangi, with loud cries of " Ihtor, llaere," the Ngatipaoa farewelled Kiwi, as he wended his path to the beach, with his band of warriors. Now they are at the beach ; their canoes swing by lines of flax, paddles in place, ready for the rowers. The people watch their departing guests from the outskirts of the -village. But who is that who comes runniug along the beach to the canoes, from round a clump of pohutukawas ? Lo, it is Hinera! She has stolen from the village unnoticed in the excitement of leave-taking ; she has her old father's most treasured ear-drop dangling from her ear, ungrateful girl I She is running away from her people ; she is going with the Kiwi ! See, she springs into the canoe in which Kiwi sits ; he throws his flax cloak over her ; the paddlers bend to their work ; the visitors are away and with them goes the beautiful Hinera, the pride of Pukorokoro! All now is indeed confusion in the village ; the women scream and cry and shout, like the foolish beings that they are ; the men get weapons, and run to launch their great canoes, but they find them unfit for going to sea; the cunning Kiwi has been there before them. So they sadly relinquish the pursuit, while Hinera, the light of the kaintju, is borne away.

The Kiwi and his young, handsome and plump wife — for she was now his wife — reached the village at Owairaka safely, and there were great rejoicings when 1 the people

knew that the young chief had brought the beautiful maiden of Ngatipaoa home with him as his companion, to rear fine warriors for the tribe. But they also gathered food supplies, and assembled outlying members of the tribe, and they prepared for war, for they knew that the Ngatipaoa would bitterly resent the carrying-off of their young chieftainess, and would also make the elopement an excuse for reviving a quarrel of old. This quarrel arose in a very simple way — one of the Ngaiwi ran away with a high-born girl of Ngatipaoa, whose fine, bouncing form he had admired, and after a while when he found her no better than she should be he killed and ate her. Just a trifle it was, yet the descendants of Paoa longed for revenge, and now was their chance. * * * One autumn's day, when all the food supplies had been gathered in, a great war-party of the Ngatipaoa, headed by the old Rungtvte-rangi, sat down before the pa at Mount Albert. They were indeed terrible to behold; their numbers covered the plain at the foot of Owairaka. Their arms glittered in the sunshine ; their war-dance shook the very ground. They sent a messenger to demand that Hinera should be returned, but they well knew what the answer would be. Kiwi was not the man to be terrified by the armies of his unwilling father-in-law. He sent a reply to say that he hoped to have the pleasure of killing and eating the old man the next day, if the father-in-law would give him the chance. This was all quite correct, so next day the siege began. With mere, with spear and with stone battle-axe and wooden sword, and with darts and heated stones, the Thames warriors assailed the fortress; again and again they rushed to the assault ; and each time did the garrison repulse them. The clash of weapons, the cries of battle and the lamentations over the dead, filled the air ; yet did not Owairaka yield. For Mount Albert was the strongest fort in the district of the Waitemata ; eight rows of palisades and many deep ditches and unassail. able earthen ramparts surrounded it, and the summit of the terraced hill was very safe and secure. No enemy had ever yet taken it. But if they should be driven to the last desperate strait, then the people had one secret way of escape open to them, which would in the direst extremity preserve their flesh from the lituvjit; of the conquerors. But Kiwi the elder alone knew of this way. So Kiwi and Hinera were happy in their mountain retreat, and they were enjoying what the jpal-eha calls the honeymoon, after the fashion of boisterous, lusty lovers.

But their contentment did not last long. For two weary, bloody months the army of the Ngatipaoa besieged Owairaka: the garrison of Mount Eden did not care to venture to Kiwi's help, and with the almost daily assaults the brave defenders found their numbers slowly thinning, for in the fierce hand-to-hand combats on cue lowermost terraces and walls many a brave man was sent to the Reinga. Sickness broke out in the closely-packed fort ; and the old men and the children passed away ; the sickly died because there was no nourishing food to be got. But something worse was to come. The cool spring of pure water which was their supply for drinking, which gushed out from the shadow of an overhanging rock and a bush of Mel-ie on the western side of the hill just within the outside palisade, suddenly fell into the possession of the beleaguers. An onslaught of the invaders cut the gallant garrison off from their spring, and there was great consternation in the [>a thereat. Without water and with only a little food left, surrounded by an overwhelming army, what were they to do ? The women wept, but the men strengthened the defences of the pa and tightened their belts and said naught. Their stores of Izumara, preserved birds and fern-root were no longer theirs; the enemy were feasting on them, and taunting the besieged people. " Come out, come out,"

cried Ngatipaoa ; " Come out ; do not die like rats in a hole ; come out and we will suck your bones ; come down and we will frizzle you on our fires like fafc eels." This was very kind, but Ngaiwi would rather stay in their pa. The lovers were anxious ; were they not the leaders of their people now ; was it not their duty to plan for a way of escape from this deadly position ?

Louder grew the shouts and the jeers and the wardances of the blockading army. Full well they knew that Kiwi and his people were starving. Stern revenge, the hunger for men's flesh, filled them. Hinera. no mercy ■would receive ; she was now an enemy ; Kiwi's heart was a tit-bit reserved by proclamation for the father-in-law, who already licked his lips in expectation of the feast. " What a dainty it will be!" he would say with savage anticipation of the feed of " long pig." Thejm must fall in a day or two ; men could not live and fight on nothing : they must surrender ; and then the glorious time of feasting ! Ngatipaoa licked its chops over the thought of that feast. Yes, on the morrow they would dine on the men and women of Owairaka !

Kiwi and HinerA were sore at heart, but the young ady did not cry, as other women were wont to, neither did she say to Kiwi, "I told you so," after the fashion of ]tal-cha women to their husbands. No, she was brave as well as comely to look upon ; she fought herself, for she was a good hand at throwing a spear, and she could break a man's head quite easily with a good sharp patu. But when the water was taken, how were the men and women to live V HinerA grew faint : she became sick ; Kiwi and his father grieved inwardly ? and the old man determined to do the last thing which was in his power to save his people and his beloved children.

Now you must know that there are peculiar caves and passages underneath the earth in the volcanic ground all around Auckland. There are great caves and underground passages at the Three lungs, and the lava streams around Mount Eden and Mount Albert are full of these caves or bubbles which the jnikcha say were made when the burning overflow cooled. Some of these caves in the ground extend for great distances, but very few people know of them. The one which I am going to tell of at Mount Albert was, the Maoris say blocked up afterwards, and the entrance cannot now be found.

At last, when Kiwi the elder found that he could hold the fort no longer, he called his people close around him at the summit of Owairaka, while Ngatipaoa were dancing and singing in the fields below, in their exultation at the plight of the garrison, and explained to them what he would do. Then the people of the foct went about their duties as usual, but when evening came they were to flee silently. At the dead of the night, when all save the sentinels of the enemy were snoring in slumber, old Kiwi, followed by his son supporting the " Daughter of the Sun," led his wondering battle-worn people silently but rapidly down the hill. Silently they wept over their village, for they loved it, but their lives were sweeter !

Down in the darkness, Kiwi led his band, over the rocks and fern which encumbered the north side of the hillfort, facing the upper part of the Waitemata. Here they came to the lava, the great cooled stream which had been poured out of the mountain ages ago, and which had rolled over to the sea in a great volume. Suddenly, the old chief paused at the foot of a high rock which rose up conspicuously in the lava, near the outer lines of the palisades. Peering around, he sighed with reJief as he saw the entrance to the secret cave, of which he was the only living explorer. Down he dropped into the crevice ; the earth swallowed him up. Silently Kiwi and his wife followedj; silently the whole people, in single file, followed

the example of their chief, and set forth with him to explore the bowels of the earth. Torches they carried with them, and these they lit when they were certain that no eye from the outside world could reach them here in the recesses of the black rocks of the fire-mountain. On the people stumbled and crawled, through a mysterious passage in the lava, sometimes only large enough to allow them to creep through on hands and knees, and sometimes high enough to let them stand upright. The cave' wound in and round, and the sharp edges of the lava caused blood to flow from the bruised limbs of the fleeing Maori. Hinera's soft, supple legs — those beautiful legs, the pride and the admiration of the tribe, and particularly of Kiwi — were pinched and torn by the cruel stones ; then could not admire even Hinera. Bats flapped their wings in the faces of the travellers ; and once the hearts of the people were suddenly darkened as the passage stopped and seemed to go no further. But the brave old chief discovered a safe turning in the narrow cave, and led his tribe on, with the help of the dim and flickering torches, until at last the joyful people came out on to the surface of the earth again a long distance from the jju, and the torches were extinguished. Then they breathed the fresh cool air of the outside world, and Hinera's wounded limbs were refreshed in running water and she

embraced Kiwi with rejoicings at their deliverance. Far behind them they could discern the camp fires of the deluded enemies. On again, old Kiwi led his tribe, down a little valley towards the sea, near the place which the pakclta now calls Motion's Mill. Here the weary people met the Waitemata ; with cries of joy they rushed into the water. The warriors found three canoes at the mouth of the creek ; and embarking in these they crossed to the other side of the harbour and were, by the next morning, where the bloody Ngatipaoa could not reach them. Great was the mana of Kiwi ! Had he not saved his tribe from the ovens of their enemies ? The army of Runga-te-rangi burned the pa — what more could they do? — and returned to their own country, where they killed and ate all their spare slaves, for they must have something to appease the hunger caused by the desire to eat Ngaiwi.

This was the escape of Hinerfi and her lover. They lived happily ever afterwards, just like the men and women in the big books with yellow backs which the pahehas write, and at their village on the Waitemata Hinerii, her beautiful legs grown rounder and larger and her plumpness turned into comfortable fatness, such as

was acceptable to the eyes of her husband, was a very excellent wife. She brought forth, as was her duty, a family of boys who became great warriors and killed many men and did their mother much credit. And Hinera. and Kiwi ever loved one anothex*, for was not their love shown when they did flee like the sea-spray before the squall when they together twice eluued the warriors of Ngatipaoa, when they risked life witli each other ? Certainly, Hinera was the finest of the sex of women. Of course she was, because I, the " Prophet," who write this true tale, am her direct descendant — Hinen'i and Kiwi were my ancestors. Now, who shall say that I, a Maori, can not tell a tale after the fashion of the /ifikeha ?