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Te Ao Hou, March 1965, Page 56

west point corresponds with Cape Maria, places Te Reinga at its ‘proper’ place and explains one other feature that Milligan found puzzling, a knob-shaped form between the two capes which can be accounted for by one of two prominent features, Herangi, (700ft.) about half a mile inland, or Te Kohatu, on the beach. This does not disturb the other identification. The second, and more puzzling feature of Tuki's map, is the set of symbols which can be called, for want of better names, ‘houses’ and ‘trees’. Dr Milligan is certain that these are not mere doodles or decoration. Tuki was unable to make his message clear to King, nor is it any clearer now. Dr Milligan suggests several solutions none of which leads to finality. The ‘trees’ and the ‘houses’ he thinks have genealogical significance. They are coded information and may have meaning at several levels. He is, I think, correct in looking for a way of relating them to whakapapa though the means at his disposal were too slender for him to do more than suggest some profitable lines of investigation. Finally, we must ask, what made this failing old man devote the last years of his life to Tuki's map? The reasons are many, not the least were personal, they were in the nature of the man. These do not concern us. But there were others, good scholarly reasons, of which Maoris seem sometimes to be rather suspicious. Tuki's map is New Zealand's first literary document. It is the focus for some of the traditional history and lore of the Ngati Kahu people. Its meanings, like those of other ancient literature, are hard but not impossible to discover. Fittingly, it is the work of a Maori. Dr Milligan regarded it, therefore, as of prime significance to all New Zealanders to understand if possible what Tuki had to say, and as a matter of urgency. The stock of Ngati Kahu lore was, he knew, diminishing year by year. It took a long time to gain the confidence of the Ngati Kahu kaumatua and it is a measure of Dr Milligan's tenacity that he did so in spite of his own physical infirmity. This book therefore, is more than a scholarly account, it is a documenting of part of Maori tradition and of a contact between four men of equal rangatiratanga: King, Huru, Tuki—and R. R. D. Milligan. My response to a reading of this book, is to wish that there had been more such contacts, and that the present kaumatua will copy their ancestors, and preserve in writing their

own knowledge. It is only by this means that an authentic Maori consciousness can develop and survive in the sick world of pop culture. In whatever Reinga he is now inhabiting, R.R.D. Millingan would rest easier if he knew that his book had started at least one Maori off on that inquiry into the nature of the soil in which he grows that is the necessary first stage in the development of civilization as opposed to mere comfort. This, I think, a reading of ‘The Map Drawn by Tuki Tahua’ must surely do.