What Te Ao Hou printed 30 years ago Ruia Morrison’s World Tour

Tu Tangata, Issue 30, 1 July 1986, Page 49

What Te Ao Hou printed 30 years ago Ruia Morrison’s World Tour

by Elsdon Craig

na Bill Secker

A VISIT to America and a return trip to England and the Continent are almost assured for Miss Ruia Morrison, the New Zealand lawn tennis champion, next year. No sooner was she back in her own country after her first appearance at Wim- , , , J . . . r, r jka . bledon, than the Auckland Maori commitee which raised funds to send her abroad with the New Zealand Davis Cup , , , . . V team was busy checking the accounts to see if it would be possible for her to make another venture next year. Mr J. Waititi, chairman of the committee, says the expenses from the recent tour have to be computed but he is almost certain there is enough in the fund to send Miss Morrison on the same tour as well as to America. Much depends on the extent of her itinerary in Europe. If this is larger than anticipated some more money may be needed. Meanwhile the champion is back at Training College studying as hard as ever to become a teacher and quite unaffected by her triumphs on the international courts. Her modesty on and off the courts impressed all who saw her play, including

the members of the organising committees at the tournaments. When asked at Whenuapai airport what she thought of Wimbledon, her reply was what those who knew her before she left New Zealand expected from Ruia Morrison. “I was pretty lucky at Wimbledon,” she said. “I had the luck of the draw.” Miss Morrison makes no secret of the fact she would like to return to the scenes of her greatest moments. She acknowledges that her tennis has improved. She says she is hitting the ball harder than she did before, indicating that she has benefited from her experience of playing against the world's best. At least America's best want to see her in action in their country. Since she returned to New Zealand, Miss Morrison has had at least three letters from Miss Darlene Hard, the American runner-up to the Negress Althea Gibson at Wimbledon, pressing her to come to America. Numerous other requests have been received from tennis officials and supporters abroad stressing that Miss Morrison is not

only a great advertisement for the game but also a great advertisement for New Zealand. Although a further venture abroad will have to be officially sanctioned, the proposal that Miss MLorrison should visit America has been sympathetically received by the New Zealand Lawn

Tennis Association. Mr Waititi has an assurance that everything possible will be done to ensure the visit takes place. Almost the first call which Miss Morris°n made after her return was at her old school, Queen Victoria. A few days later she was given an official welcome at the KA-r- . r _ T , Maori Community Centre. The^arrange"rents for this were made only three days before, but the centre has rarely been as packed Mthough high-ranking tennis offials joined in te re ception it is doubtful if it eclipsed the spontaneous greeting which awaited her at Whenuapai airport, Mdss Morrison was surprised and flighted when she stepped off the aircraft to find a reception committee of her own people _ Training College students - waiting for her. She was greeted with the traditional challenge of the Maori followed by the haka and responded by rewarding the members of the welcoming party with a kiss. Dozens of Europeans stood by watching the enthusiastic scene amazed at the mysterious manner in which the party suddenly appeared on the tarmac and then disappeared to greet the returning heroine again with songs and more hakas.

During the course of the twentieth century a profound change has come about with regards to our understanding of that dim but nevertheless important prehistorical era which witnessed a change of life style from the traditional pattern that supplied comfortable living in Eastern Polynesia to one that was more in keeping with conditions prevailing in Aotearoa.

7 1 here is now good reason to believe that the early generations of Eastern Polynesians living in these islands over-exploited the natural resources of their localities above which nature could sustain. This unfortunate state of affairs meant fowling parties had to

forage further afield in their quest for protein. Visible evidence of the presence of these fowling parties can be seen today, in the centuries old drawings that have been sketched on the walls of limestone caves in Mid-Canter-bury and North Otago by moa hunters. Although having to leave their permanent villages would cause inconvenience and at times rigorous living, it nevertheless had another side to it, in that it expanded the geographical knowledge of the tribal areas. From the archaeological records that have been revealed from the excavation of temporary campsites and permanent villages, it has been shown that by the twelfth century A.D. New Zealand to all intents was an explored country. This broad and generally sweeping statement does not mean however that every nook and cranny in remote bush clad ranges and in the South Island, the very mountain tops themselves had been visited by intrepid explorers at this now remote time. For obviously there would need to be

a reason for parties to venture far from the coast where life was much easier. Apart from the perennial quest for food, there was another reason for the exploration of the hinterland. Of early and prime importance would be the urgent necessity to locate outcrops of rock that would supply suitable stone for the manufacture of adzes and other tools that would be needed to replace the ones brought from Eastern Polynesia, and which in time wore out. Considering the extent of New Zealand and its diverse geology, this quest for locating good alternative sources of stone would not be the easiest of activities. That this quest was successful can be gauged from the wide spread distribution of Durville Island Argillite, Obsidian from Mayor Island and Chert from Marlborough, and the Wairarapa in village middens hundreds of kilometres away from where the rock was quarried. From what the ground reveals, this economic quest for sufficiency with regard to one basic raw material had taken place by the twelfth century.

Not to be left out of the picture in the story of the exploration of New Zealand is the part played by greenstone - Nephrite or pounamu. It is of significance that greenstone and its discovery figures in the earliest traditions and its importance is well stressed by the emphasis that is placed with its connection with Hawaiki and the role it played in migratory movements.

Greenstone, to use a mixed metaphor, literally hides its light under a bushel. Because its exterior oxidised readily, it needed a keen eye and a knowledge of rocks to detect it in a river bed, where to use the appropriate contemporary expression, it was fished out of the Arahura, Taramakau and New River. Other dispersed localities where greenstone was found were the Routeburn, South Westland and Milford Sound.

Well before the Arahura and Taramakau sources were discovered however, greenstone would have been located amongst the unsorted detritus found on Westland’s beaches. One can only conjecture today of the frustrations and effort that went into finding the rivers and locations where this stone that could hold its own with tempered steel for hardness was to be had for the taking.

Being of such economic importance in prehistoric New Zealand the sources of supply were vaguely known throughout the land. Under the primitive transport system of the time some of Westland’s greenstone, would through barter and gifts or straight out spoils of war, be distributed initially by the coastal route heading to the North. Some greenstone however was obtained by hardship and the expenditure of immense physical activity by communities living along the eastern seaboard of the South Island.

In order to obtain their supplies the high alpine passes of the Southern Alps had to be traversed and the subsequent tackling of the gorges of Westland’s rivers. These alpine expeditions ranged from the relatively easy to the highly dangerous routes. In themselves each one is an interesting chapter in the exploration of New Zealand.

Cross Section Arahura Trail

This cross section of the Arahura trail by way of Brownings Pass was executed by Julius Von Haast. It graphically reveals the difficulties imposed on the traveller and surveyors who were entrusted in pioneering a route to the Westland gold diggings. Finding a route to the diggings in the 1860 s had assumed national crisis level as the Canterbury Provincial Council with good reason feared that without a road the wealth

from Westland’s diggings would be shipped to Australia, and Greymouth would become an outback town of one of the Australian colonies. Although a bridle track suitable for the passage of stock and pack horses was pushed through without delay the topography ruled out any improvement. This made it necessary in 1866 to construct a coach road via Arthurs Pass. This highway to Westland followed the line of another old maori trail.

□ld Maori Map

This sketch map which in its foreground locates the Wilberforce, a tributary of the Rakaia Biver in its upper reaches, was drawn by a Maori in 1865 after what can best be described as a set of interesting circumstances. The sketch map, of what in those days was the back of beyond, tells an interesting story with regards to the latter day exploration of New Zealand.

The immense difficulties presented to explorers in finding a convenient and quick route to Westland ended in a number of failures until it was suggested by J.W. Hamilton who was himself a pioneer Canterbury surveyor and explorer, that the services of the Maori should be sought in learningofthe whereabouts of ancient trails across the mountain divide to Westland.

The soundness of this suggestion is well recorded in this sketch map obtained by the Rev J. Stack from a Maori resident of Kaiapoi in 1865 and which was put to immediate use in blazing a trail to Westland by way of the Browning Pass and the Rakaia River.

In this historic map connected with the exploration of the South Island in modern times the Arahura trail can be followed without difficulty. The way ahead is up the Wilberforce, a tributary of the Rakaia in its upper reaches. Here the Wilberforce is given its original name of Wai-tawhiri swirling water. This descriptive place name would convey to old time travellers of what this section of the route to Westland and the Poutini coast entailed. Important information that was also committed to memory was the location of a rock

shelter - marked cave - where storm bound parties would rest until conditions improved. The lake in the saddle which marks the watersheds of Canterbury and Westland is Whakarewa. From Whakarewa there was the choice of two routes on this greenstone trail. These being by way of the Arahura River or alternatively the Styx saddle. This latter route led into open country which in turn gave travellers access to the Hokitika River. Although the compiler of this record of ancient geographic lore does not record the name of the high peak it is logical to

assume that this is Mt Murchison of Arthurs Pass National Park. The Rakaia Arahura or Hokitika rivers pathway was no easy stroll. Apart from its length of 320 kilometres over varied terrain and rivers, it climbed to a height of 1416 meters which is an elevation where weather conditions can be severe. In fact when Stack obtained this sketch from an aged NgaiTahu who was the only person who had walked the length, a tapu had long been in force due to a party coming to an untimely end, through a combination of starvation and cold.

Browning Pass

IN 1866 Julius Von Haast drew this sketch of Brownings Pass as approached from the Wilberforce Valley. In the centre foreground can be seen part of the bridle track to the Westland diggings.

W. A. Taylor the noted authority on the lore and history of the South Island Maori, was in no doubt that Brownings Pass or Noti Raureka as it was known in earlier times, was the route used by the old time Maori to the greenstone country. That its whereabouts was largely forgotten in 1865 indicates that it had been out of use for a generation or two. The origin of the placename Noti Raureka has given rise to some debate. One is that it honours the name of the first person to cross the pass. According to the legend this took place in the seventeenth century. Another older tradition and one that is more in line with the exploration of the South Island is that Brownings Pass was known centuries earlier by the Waitaha and Ngati Mamoe tribes.

The scene depicted by Haast shows what an alien and hostile environment

the alpine country presented to the Maori explorers of long ago. The alien conditions meant new words had to be added to the language. Some of these additions to the vocabulary were

Whenuahuka for the permanently snow covered peaks, Hukapapa for the glaciers, Hukahoro to explain avalanches and Waipuka which was the water seen gushing from the snout of glaciers.