MYSTERY MAORI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 413, 3 November 1930, Page 9

MYSTERY MAORI

DOES LOST TRIBE EXIST? CAPTA IN ’8 ST KAN G E BTO RY INCIDENT IN DUSKY SOUND. The Christchurch correspondent of the Auckland Star says; Tho question of a* lost Maori tribo on the West Coast i s being debated in Christchurch. A local business man referring to the matter recently, stated that when he was on the steamer Hinemoa at Dusky Sound last summer,. Captain Roberts, master of the ship, told a strange story, which he claimed to bo true. On a previous trip uf the steamer to Dusky Suu nd some time before, said the captain, she was anchored at the same spot. Suddenly a Maori climbed over the side of the ship. He was in native dress. Standing on the deck he gesticulated fiercely, protesting apparently against the visit of the ship. He was obviously very angry. Then ho 'lived over again and swam ashore, and disappeared into the bush that came down to tho water’s edge. Captain Roberts said that when he wrote an account of the amazing incident and sent it to one of the newspapers, apparently it was too strange a story for the editor to believe, and it was not published, a fact, which Captain Roberts, who was emphatic about the truth of it, bitterly resented.

NGATIMAMOE TBIBE. POSSIBLE SURVIVOR. STORY DISCREDITED. _a The Dunedin correspondent of tho Auckland Star telegraphs as under to that, journal: An authority on Maori loro and a full-blooded chief, Hoani Matiu, does not believe the suggestion that a remnant of the Ngatimamoe tribe still lives in the remote fiordland of the West Coast. He stated that in about the year 1650, his own tribe had fought and defeated the Ngatimamoes at Five Rivers Plain. The Ngatimamoes fled tc To Anau, where they were again attacked by the Ngatahus, and again defeated. Another small battle took place nt Colac Bay. and once more the Ngntimamues suffered defeat. The remnants of the tribe were then absorbed by the Ngatahus and were intermarried with their conquerors. Nearly all the full-blooded Ngatimamoes left now resided at Otago Heads.