The Killing of Te Kaiwhakaruaki Translated by Margaret Orbell The main events in this story take place at the Parapara stream, in what is now Golden Bay in the Nelson province. Takaka and Motupipi are also in Golden Bay, to the east of this stream. Motueka is in Tasman Bay, further to the east, and beyond it is Whakatu, (the Maori name for Nelson). Arahura is on the West Coast. The story was told by Karepa Te Whetu, who belonged to Ngati Koata, a sub-tribe of Ngati Toa. Te Whetu lived most of his life in the Taranaki district, but when he was over seventy he went to live with relatives at Croisilles in Tasman Bay. He was well known as a story-teller, and he wrote down a number of stories that were published in the ‘Journal of the Polynesian Society’ this story first appeared there in 1894 (vol. 3, pp. 16–17). He also told many stories to A. A. Grace, a Pakeha friend who published some of them in retold form in his collection. ‘Folk-tales of the Maori’ (1907). In an introduction to this book, Grace describes Karepa Te Whetu as ‘a man of acute and artistic mind, a lover of tales for their own sake, and a humorist of no mean order.’ He died, an old man, in May 1905. This story is about a ngarara. Ngarara were supernatural creatures, usually described as being like giant lizards. As a rule they lived on the land, while taniwha, or dragons, were usually to be found in the water; but in this story, the ngarara lives in a stream. Te Kaiwhakaruaki is a name that is often given to ngarara in such stories. The warrior who attacks the ngarara throws a basket of red ochre into the stream where his den is. Houses, canoes and other important timbers were painted with red ochre, and men and women sometimes painted their faces with it. Sometimes, at any rate, red ochre was considered to be a defence against supernatural creatures; for it was said that fairies were frightened of it. Here it is apparently a challenge to the ngarara, a declaration of the presence of a human being. Te Whetu explained that the pohutukawa tree that the warriors cut down was the only one in the district. In the story there is a man named Potoru who remarks, ‘Taihoa, kia tohea ngā tohe a Potoru.’ In the context this is translated as ‘Wait until we have tried Potoru's plan’, but it could also be translated as ‘Wait until we have striven with the obstinacy of Potoru.’ In Sir George Grey's ‘Polynesian Mythology’, a man named Potoru is said to have set out from Hawaiki to sail to Aotearoa at the same time that Turi made his voyage in the Aotea. Potoru was in a canoe called Ririno. In the middle of the ocean the two leaders quarrelled as to the direction in which they were to travel; Turi was sailing towards the rising sun, but Potoru insisted on going instead in the direction of the setting sun. Turi could not make him change his mind; he stubbornly continued on his way, and his canoe was carried away by a strong current and swept down to the realms of death. It was said that this event was the origin of the proverb, ‘E tohe ana koe i ngā tohe a Potoru’: ‘You are obstinate with the obstinacy of Potoru.’ It is interesting that the saying is here given a quite different origin. Ko Te Patunga o Te Kaiwhakaruaki He ngārara anō tēnei, ko Te Kaiwhakaruaki te ingoa; ēngari tēnei i nui te mahi. Ko te mahi, he kai tangata; ko tāna māhi ko ngā teretere haere mai ki Tākaka, ki Motueka. Ka haere mai, ka hua ngā tāngata o muri kua tae ki ngā The Killing of Te Kaiwhakaruaki Here is another story about a ngarara. This one destroyed many men, devouring them in great numbers. Parties of travellers would take the road to Takaka and Motueka—they would set out, and those who stayed behind would