MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 2 March 1934, Page 4

MAORI MEMORIES

(By J. 11.5. for “The Daily Times.”) MAHARA, TITIRO MEMORY OR OBSERVATION. By an unrivalled capacity for selection and summary of the best from all prcA-ious Avriters, and omission of the masses of irrelevant matters, the late Edward Tregcar has made the most valuable contribution to Maori studies. European traditions, no less than those of the Maori, persistently adhere to fixed beliefs that Avill not stand analysis in the light of modern science or discovery. Maori myths, legends, and fables of antiquity clearly indicate that they either sprang from a race of far higher culture and attainments than our ancestors, or that they themselves had insight far beyond that for Avhieh Ave gaA r c them credit; but Avhich had been gradually dimmed through the absence of all Avritten records. The ancient Maoris’ poetic allusion to ‘ ‘ the earth floating in space ’ ’ reveals a knoAvledge Avhich Avas only brought to us by Copernicus a feAv centuries back. The Polynesian hymn to Captain Cook as to Rongo, prince of peace, ends Avith “Establish the day of light on the floating Earth.” Their traditions of the universal deluge probably arose from seeing evidences of marine conditions on the mountain tops. The stories of islands being fished out ofj the ocean depths by tiie gods, seem to have arisen from observation of volcanic disturbances. Tales of Taniwha monsters would appear to be confirmed by geologists avlio report the discovery of the Maui saurus and the Taniwha saurus. Possibly hoAvever they originated in the ancestral memories of crocodiles in tropical HaAvaiki. Mingled Avith glimpses of science (or Avere they accidental?), Avere childish notions of the sky being supported on props, the moon’s monthly sickness being cured by bathing in the Avaters of life, that earthquakes were caused by the god of the underworld Ru ai Aloko struggling in a nightmare. An implicit and beneficent belief Avas that those dAvelling on contiguous mountains, Avhich had been joined in matrimony by the ceremony of Tatau Pounamu (the greenstone door), Avould live in perpetual peace. A significant proof of their observation Avas that they recognised in plants as in fish and birds, the male and female elements.