MAORI HISTORY.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18167, 4 November 1930, Page 10

MAORI HISTORY.

THEORY OF “LOST TRIBE.” DOES IT STILL EXIST? The Southland Fiords district was once familiar territory to Maoris, according to old explorers, and in view of the speculation as to whether natives still exist in a primitive .state in some of the unexplored, or partlyexplored, territory, the experiences of the late Mr Samuel H. Moreton, an artist explorer, are of interest. Mr Moreton knew of the existence of the Maoris and came in contact with them. An alpinist who has connuered many peaks in the territory is of the' opinion that the “lost tribe,’’ if it exists, comprised male survivors who escaped massacre as boys and fled to the fastnesses.

Mr A. E. Wildey, a Christchurch artist, spent three and a-half months in 1908 in company with Mr Moreton, on a combined sketching and exploring tour in the Routeburn, and I-loly-ford valle>s that link the Lake District with the Dart, and climbing peaks. They searched at the time for the rare Notornis Mantali, a bird with a large foot, a specimen of which would have meant about £BOO to the finders. They actually saw what they took to be the imprint of the bird on a snowflcld near Lake Wilson, at, about 5000 feet. It pointed to a cave, where it was surmised the bird had been after worms. Stories of the Maoris. Mr Moreton told many stories of the Maoris in the region. He lived at Milford Sound from 1880 to 1891 in company with Mr Don Sutherland, the discoverer of the Sutherland Falls, and they came in contact with Maoris. A friend of Mr Moreton was Mr Wynard Boyers, who died about two years ago in Piclon. Mr Boyers had been head man for Sir .Tames Hector, the Director of Geological Services, who conducted explorations of the fjords country, and searched for the Notornis Mantali. Boyers used to describe to Moreton his experiences with the Maoris on the survey. Most of the information about the rivers, mountains, and valleys in the region was gleaned from the natives there, many of whom regularly traversed the valleys after greenstone for meres. An account of Sir James Rector’s experiences, in which information is given about the Maoris, was published in the “Otago Provincial Gazette” of 1862. “There are great faces of greenstone in the district,” said Mr Wildey to the Christchurch Sun reporter. “It should be possible to exploit the stone commercially. Mr Wildey would not express any opinion on whether Maoris still existed in the remote fastnesses of the district. All he would say was that the facts were indisputable that natives once were in the region and came in contact with Europeans.

In Unexplored Country. There is a distinct possibility that there are still a few Maoris in the considerable tract of unexplored country behind Dusky Sound. Mr Edgar R. Williams, an alpinist, who knows the southern part of the West Coast of the South Island as well as anyone in Christchurch, told a Sun reporter. Mr Williams thought it unlikely, however, that there would be more than a dozen Maoris. He thinks that when some of the Ngatimamoe tied before Te Rauparaha into the bush there may have been no women with them, but a few boys. These, he thinks, might sfit; be alive. Knowing nothing of what has happened since, they may still be hiding there, in thg fear that if they venture out Te Rauparaha’s tribe may kill them, he considers. Or again, they mar be frightened of the pakeha. Mr Williams thinks that if there had been women with the men who fled into the unexplored country the tribe would have grown to such an extent that people would have seen members of it. The country is very ragged, he says, and the weather is very bad indeed. “It’s the bush and the rain that keep people out,” he told the reporter. The trees are not very large—about the same size as those that grow at Arthur’s Pass, but the country is much rougher. The ground is covered with boulders ranging in' size from a foot or so thick, to some as big as a large room. In- the few clearings the grass may be waist-high. Even if an expedition went in search of the Maoris, he thinks they would not be found, as, knowing the country, the natives could keep out of the way. Traces of them would probably be found, however.