B987352101_O1995.pdf

extracted text

THE COMING OF

THE MAORIS
TO

AOTEAROA

BY

A.

W.

Illu strated by

REEDS’

REED

H. D. B. Dansey

JUNIOR

LIBRARY

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A(Pf?"'’;^''SACKtD HEART
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REEDS’

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ranfurly

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JUNI0;R*-WBRARY

THE COMING OF THE MAORIS
TO AOTEAROA '

O

By

A. W. REED
Jllustrated by H. D. B. Dansey

î,

J

WELLINGTON

A. H. & A. W. REED

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First

publishçd February 1953

A. H.

& A.

W. REED

^2 Wak^efield Street
”

Wellington

OTHER

BOOKS

IN

THIS

SERIES:

The Valley Farm, by Rachel Huson

Pitama, by John L. Ewing

Priiitea
♦

IIutchcBon,

«bwman

Il >:

♦

&

b'y

Stewart

Ltd.,

Wellington

SACRED HEART SCHOOL
RANFUKI-Y
CONTENTS

Page
The

Corning of the Maoris

7

The First Voyage

13

Kupe and Ngahue

14

The Moriori

17

Toi and Whatonga

18

Manaia

24

The

Corning of the Fleet

The Arawa Canoë

27

Tainui, Mata-atua and Kurahaupo

38

Aotea, Takitimu and Horouta

42

Grateful acknowledgement is made to
Mr. H. D. B. Dansey for the use of

illustrations which appeared originally
in his book How the Maoris Came to

Aotearoa.

5

THE

CO MING

OF

THE

MAORIS

Long, long ago the people whom we call Maoris came
from the Homeland of tJie race to a new

country which
they called Aotearoa, and which today is known as New
Zealand. If we go back far enough we shall find that this
joumey took many hundreds of years. It happened so
long ago that we cannot be sure of ail the details and, in
order to get some idea of the far-off lands
through which
they travelled, we must look at the map; we must listen
to the traditions that were handed down
through the âges ;
and we must read the books that wise men hâve written.
We will find that three thousand years ago, and
nine or ten thousand miles away from our
tiny group of
islands in the south seas, there lived a people called

Aryans, near the shores of the Caspian Sea. They had
built up a powerful empire but, like many that hâve
flourished since those far-off days, it was conquered by
fierce marauding tribes, and split up into small groups.
Some of these groups of people moved to new lands and in
their turn grew into powerful empires. It is from one
of these groups or tribes that our own Anglo-Saxon race
descent.
One of the tribes fled towards India and, over a
period lasting many centuries, its people grew in number
and gradually moved through Burma and down the

can trace its

Malay Peninsula until they came to the sea.
7

Even the

A Pacific island.

océan

did not stop them. They built canoës and migrated

to the group

of Sumatra,
Guinea.

of islands known as Indonesia, to the islands
Java, Bomeo, the Philippines and New

This primitive race of seafarers seemed to set their
faces towards the sunrise. One of the greatest of their

descendants has called them the Vikings of the Sunrise.
These South Sea Vikings travelled further and further

Polynesia (which is a Greek word meaning Many
Islands). By way of the Ellice, Fiji and Tonga groups of
islands, they reached the Society Islands, and on Tahiti

into

8

and

Rai’atea

they made their home, and called it

Hawaiki.

That^is the story that the scientists hâve told us. It
is like a détective story, or a jigsaw puzzle that has to be
solved

by finding the pièces and putting them into the
right place. Some of the pièces are missing and will
never be found, but at least we can get some idea of what
the picture is like . . . the picture map of courageous
journeys to unknown islands over uncharted seas.
We can imagine that, on this long migration, these
dark-skinned navigators stayed for some time, perhaps
several générations, on the lovely island of Java. When
they were driven away from the island by their enemies,
they remembered the stories that their parents and grandparents had told of the tropic island, and each place at
which they stayed they called Hawa-iti or Hawa-iki,
which really means Little Java.
Let us think of the last Hawaiki as the Maoris do
.

as

.

.

the Homeland of their

race.

They stayed in

Tahiti for a long time and when, after many years some

of them journeyed on to Aotearoa, they carried with them
the memory of that happy place,

and gave many of its
places in the new land, such as Tawhiti (Tahiti)
Rangiatea (Rai’atea). Many of them remained

names to

and

in Tahiti and so we find that the inhabitants of New Zealand are related to those of Tahiti, Rarotonga and other
islands.

If we look at the map again, we can see that this

centuries

long journey from the shores of the Caspian

to

Hawaiki was covered by “island-hopping”, that is by

taking fairly short journeys by sea from one island to anHawaiki was an outpost of the Pacific. Far away
towards the sunrise lay lonely Easter Island, and still
further the western shore of South America.
(Thor
Heyerdahl and the men who drifted on the Kon Tiki
raft from Peru believed that the Polynesians really came
from South America, and so were Vikings of the Sunset.
other.

9

It is possible that some brave hearted explorers did sail
towards the setting sun and played their part in peopling

the “Many Islands” of the Pacific. )
Still further away towards the cold, unfriendly south

lay the island on which we live, a primitive unspoiled

CANOË

HULL

CANOË HULL

TWO WÀES

HEWN

FRONl

ONE LOG

MALE IN THREE PIECES

OF JOIFING PIECES OF THE HULL OF CANOË •
PIECES OF TLÜBER CÔVER THE INSIDE FOIN

JH EACH CASE

B-

A. MaRTISEAFD TENOy
type of xjom .
.

PIECES

lOINED
(

TOP STRAKE

BATreN
J'O/N ,

CANOË HULL

FITTED WITH

rOP sr/?AKE\BAiLfNG
TOP
srPAK£\BAlLfNG

y WELLK

TOPSTRAKE .

ra£ii/s

OF CANOË
10

OVBA

THWART-- USEÙ AS SEAT
fHWARI

BBCAffAfG

TOP STBAKE

%TERN

-mVi CAgVING

/—S.

BATTE N
LASBEb 0A/
OR
>0//V OE HULL
ANÙ

Paradise of magnificent forest and imfrightened nature,
in a temperate zone, sheltered from the fierce heat of the

tropics and from the ice-laden breath of the Antarctic
blizzards, The seafarers of Hawaiki knew nothing of these
distant lands until some restless men and women launched

DOUBLE,
CANOË
s//oiV//yG

-',3

oecK

HOUSE BU/LT OA/

D£CK/Ne BEWEEN
CAE/OES

.

SINGLE
OUTRIGGER
CANŒ

DOUBLE
OUTRIGGER
CANOË

11

their ocean-going canoës and sought for new lands in thc
remote océan wastes.

Before

we

hear of these vast

journeyings where

ancient legends and story alone can give us our history

books, let us try to picture the great seaworthy canoës of
the Vikings of the Sunrise.

Some were double canoës, and
outriggers. Some of them were
over one hundred feet
long, and were manned by a crew
of as many as one hundred and forty men.
Many of the double canoës had a small house built
on a platform
connecting the t^vo canoës. There was
little space to sleep, but regular watches were kept on
board, so that there was no need for space for the wdiole
crew to
sleep at the same time. The hollowed tree trunk
which formed the canoë had its sides built up with slabs
joined neatly together, each plank being sewed on to the
next one with woven or plaited cord which was
passed
through holes in the planks. Thwarts, which were also
used as seats, were lashed to the tops of the planks and
helpèd to stifîen the vessel. In bad weather, the canoës
rode out the storm by means of a sea-anchor, with another
at the stern to help to keep the bow up to the waves.
The
paddles were long and pointed and, with sails set, the
canoës could cover long distances in a short time.
others had

one

or

two

12

THE
If

FIRST

VOYAGE

far back into the misty past, even before
Conqueror invaded England, we can find
wisps of tradition which tell us that Maui, half god and
half sea-rover, sailed into Southern seas and
pulled New
Zealand, like a great fish, out of the water^ Some people
believe that this is a poetic way of
saying that he discovered this country; but the Maori says that the South
Island was Maui’s canoë and Stewart Island its
anchor,
while as for the North Island, anyone can see that it is
a fish, with its tail
pointing northwards, with Taupo
Moana for its heart, and Wellington Harbour and Lake
Wairarapa for its eyes; even the fish-hook is there, in the
curving bight of Hawke Bay! Te Ika a Maui is its name
we

go

William the

—The Fish of Maui.

KUPE
It

was

AND

NGAHUE

Kiipe who first named the new land when it
depths of the sea after many long days and

rose from the

nights of voyaging, a thousand years ago. “He ao! He
ao!”—“A cloud! A cloud!” cried his wife, and as they
sailed on, the cloud grew and grew into a long bright
World, into the land of the long-lingering daylight—
Aotearoa!
We must never forget those first pioneers
and the canoës they sailed, Kupe in the Matahorua and
his companion Ngahue in the Tawiri-rangi. They are
the first canoës of our island history.
Matahorua and Tawiri-rangi made their landfall in
the far north and sailed down the east coast, landing at
places which we now know as Castle Point and Palliser
Bay, and sailed into Wellington Harbour. Their camp
fires twinkled under the karaka trees in the silent bush

Seatoun, where now the suburban trams destroy the
quietness of the night, and the headlights of motor cars

at

sweep along the waterfront.

Leaving Wellington, the canoës sailed through the
After a brief visit to the South Island,
full of exciting adventures, they tumed their prows towards their island homeland. They sailed up the west
coast, and left the shores of Aotearoa from Hokianga,
“Kupe’s Returning Place”, sailed across the rolling seas
to Rarotonga, which \vas often to become a port of call
Strait to Porirua.

14

Kupe vvatches the coast of Aotearoa from his canoë
Matahorua.

for
to

canoës that follovved in later
years, and at last back
their own people at Hawaiki.

The story they told of their adventures was never
forgotten. Like a Marco Polo of the South, Kupe had a
taie that could hardly be believed.
“It is a wonderful
land that we discovered,” Kupe said. “The forests cover
the islands from the

sea

to

the snow-line of the great

mountain ranges.

The song of birds is heard everywhere.
There are no fierce beasts there, only the moa.”
His listeners

laughed, for they knew the moa as a

tame, plump fowl.
15

Ngahue

sees a moa.

‘‘You would not laugh if you saw it,” Kupe said.

“It

of a man. Look,
and, unwrapping
a bundle, showed them a piece of preserved flesh and told
them how Ngahue had driven the bird into a corner with
his men, and killed it. “Now show them the pounamu,”
he commanded Ngahue. His friend unwrapped a smaller
parcel, and showed them the dark gleaming jade that he
is a great, fierce bird, twice the height

I will show you !” and he ran to his canoë

“It is hard and bright and
“It will make weapons for warfare,

had found at Arahura.

shining!” he said.

and ornaments to wear.”
And so it did, for from the piece of greenstone that

Ngahue had brought were made a hei-tiki, an ear
pendant and two adzes which, four centuries later, were
used in the making of the canoës of the Great Migration.

16

THE

While they
not see

MORIORI

in Aotearoa, Kupc and Ngahue did
any other men and women, but once a fantail
were

fluttered on to a wooden perch that had been made
by
human hands, and
they knew that someone had been

there before them. After their
visit, however, and before
the arrivai of the next

filled

canoës

with

expédition from Hawaiki, several

men

and

women

arrived

from

Melanesia, which is an island-dotted area to the west of
Polynesia. The Melanesians are darker skinned than the
Polynesians, and hâve frizzy hair. These people, who
were later called
tangata whenua (people of the land) by
the Maoris, were
probably storm-driven castaways whose
canoës had
escaped destruction and landed at Taranaki.
They spread quickly through the northern parts of the
North Island, from Cape
Egmont and the Bay of Plenty
up to the far north.
They lived in peace for many
years,

until. the

powerful and energetic Maoris
Aotearoa, and drove them away or absorbed them
by intermarriage. They are best known to us by the name
the Maoris gave them, Moriori. The last
pure-blooded
Moriori died a few years
ago at the Chatham Islands,
where the survivors had taken
refuge many years before.
Although the Moriori is as extinct as the moa, we
can still see his dark skin and full
lips in the features of
somc of his descendants to this
very day.
more

came to

17

TOI

The
rovers

years

AND

WHATONGA

passed by and still no

Polynesian sea-

had corne to live in Kupe’s fabled Southern land.

held in
Hawaiki. The old chief

About thirty générations ago, a canoe-race was
the lagoon Pikopiko-i-whiti in

of a
His grandson Whatonga and his
young friend Tu Rahui were in command of one of the
canoës.
The old chief did not stir or make any sign as
Whatonga’s canoë swept past the winning post with the
other canoë far behind, but his heart sweiled with pride.
Whatonga and Tu Rahui urged their men on to
Toi and other elders of the tribe sat on the slopes

hill to watch the race.

efforts, and they swept through the gap in
but as they made ready to
return, a sudden storm swept over thé flanks of the mountains and they were forced to run before it. Day after
day Toi kept watch for the retum of his grandson, but
in vain. “He is lost. It is the price that foolish young
men pay for their pride,” the elders said, but Toi would
not believe that his grandson was lost.
After many days he stood up on the marae and said
that he would take his own canoë. Te Paepae-ki-Rarotonga, and go in search of the lost canoë.
“Perhaps
Whatonga is on an island and cannot return because his
canoë is hurt.
Shall it be said that Toi left him to his
greater

the lagoon into the open sea;

18

A strong wind drove the canoë ont to sea.

fate?

The gods hâve told me in the night that he is well.

He beckons to me.

I shall go to him !”
Te Paepae-ki-Rarotonga was the

She was strong to stand the

pride of the tribe.
buffeting of the seas, her sails

were in

good repair, and there were a hundred men eager
under Toi. They set sail westwards, well
provided with food and water, and in a few
days reached
Pangopango in the Samoan group of islands. Whatonga
had been there, and Toi found some of the crew
living
to serve

on the island.

“Where is my grandson?” he asked
eagerly, but they
could not tell him.

Toi

kept watch for the return of his grandson.

“He has sailed on these many clays,

but we do not

know where he went.”

Toi’s bro^v was furrowed ^vith thought.

He remem-

that Kupe and Ngahue had told géné¬
‘Terhaps he has gone to Kupe’s land,”
“It is just the kind of thing my grandson will

bered the story
rations before.
he said.

do.”
The old warrior set out for the Southern islands.

He called at Rarotonga on the way, and then set the prow
of the canoë to the south,

It was not easy to set a course,

Kupe had left few sailing directions. When land
sighted, the old man’s hopes rose, but he soon found
that these were smaller, less hospitable islands, known to
us today as the Chathams.
After a short stay, the sails
were hoisted again, and without further adventure Toi
arrived at Aotearoa, landing at Tamaki, near the présent
city of Auckland.
Toi made enquiries among the tangata whenua, but
for

was

20

The

Kurahaupo

was

made ready for

sea.

he coulcl learn nothing of Whatonga and Tu Rahui.

felt the

He

disappointment keenly, and knew that old âge
was
overcoming him. He could not face the thought of
the long battle northwards against the sea gods, and he
decided to spend his remaining years in Kupe’s land. He
made his home at Whakatane, far from the
people he
knew and loved, his only neighbours being the
despised
Moriori. Instead of the tasty kumaras and the luscious
tropical fruits he was accustomed to eat, he and his people
had to dépend on the products of the forest, on the roots
of ferns, and dishes of fish and fowl.
The tangatawhenua gave him a nickname, by which he is afîectionate21

ly remembered, the

name

of Toi-kai-rakau—Toi the

Woodeater.
In the meantime Whatonga, fearless though he was,

had

been

ambitions

his

grandfather had
imagined. By way of Rai’atea he had made his way
cautiously back to Hawaiki, and of course he found on
arrivai that his grandfather had already gone in search
of him. “Can my love be less for Toi than that of Toi for
not

as

as

me?” he asked his men. The canoë Te Hawai was renamed the Kurahaupo and quickly made ready for sea.

With a crew of sixty men and several women, Whatonga
set ont on
same

his quest.
(There was another canoë of the
which sailed at the time of the Fleet, but

name

little is known of the second Kurahaupo. )
In island after island he heard news of Toi, until at

length he was sure that the old man had ventured as far as
The Kurahaupo landed on the west coast, at

Aotearoa.

22

Tongaporutu, and there he heard stories that had spread
far and wide of Toi-kai-rakai, who lived in Whakatane. In
great excitement the crew sailed northwards, rounded
the nortfiem end of the island, and at length landed at
Maketu in the Bay of Plenty. The two relatives soon met.
Whatonga found Toi living in a pa maioro (a fortified
village with earthwork defences), called Kapu-te-rangî,
on a hill overlooking the présent township of Whakatane.
Eventually Whatonga moved to Mahia, and in his
old âge his two sons Tara and Tautoki settled at Welling¬
ton Harbour, which was named Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara
the Great Harbour of Tara.

The descendants of the

marriage of the tangata-whenua with the crews of
l’e Paepae-ki-Rarotonga and Kurahaupo were known as

Tini-o-Toi; and so the settlement of New Zealand
by the Maori people began.
Te

M ANA I A

While

Whatonga

w'as

scarching for his grandfather,

two chiefs in Hawaiki, named Nuku and Manaia, werc at
war.

As he was the weaker of the two, Manaia made his

in the Tokomaru canoë. Nuku and his peuple
pursued the conquered chief in the canoës Te Houama,
Waimate and Tangi-apakura.
Manaia and Nuku both called at Rarotonga, and
then came on to Aotearoa. Manaia passed through the
strait that séparâtes the two islands, and landed at
Rangitoto (D’Urville Island).
When Nuku arrived there,
Manaia had gone, but the ashes of his camp lire were
escape

still

warm.

The chase continued until

Manaia

was

sighted at Pukema, a tiny sheltered bay in the rocky coast
a few miles north of
Wellington. Nuku had caught up
with Manaia, and there was a terrible fight which lasted
until darkness fell, and the friendly night hid the enemy
warriors from sight.
The two chiefs, calling to each other across the water,
agreed to land and spend the night at rest, resuming the
battle the next day. They went ashore at Paekakariki,
but ail that night a fierce gale blew, and the breakers
thundered on the shore. The storm had been caused by
Manaia, who had called the sea god to help him. When
morning came, it was found that the rollers had piled up
the sand into great dunes, which stretched from Paekaka24

Nuku’s

canoës

in

pursuit of Manaia.

riki to Otaki, and were known as Te Ahuahu-a-Manaia.
canoës were smashed and his fighting strength
broken, so peace was declared. Nuku returned to Hawaiki

Nuku’s

repaired the damage that the storm had
wrought, but Manaia remained in Aotearoa, and formed
the third settlement of the Polynesian people in the bay
which was named Tokomaru after his canoë. Later he
went over to Tongaporutu a little while after Whatonga’s
when he had

visit.
For the next two hundred years, many crossings and

recrossings of the Southern seas were made.

Little is

known of these voyages, or of the men who made them.

They are but dim memories of the shadowed past.

THE

COMING
THE

OF

ARAWA

FLEET

THE

CANOË

Migration, or the coming of the
Fleet, that the Maori loves to trace his descent. It was
the last of his long voyages^—the final brilliant light before
It is from the Great

the torch guttered ont. Then Aotearoa became a different

World, eut off from other lands which were kept alive in
the memories of men only by the old-time taies and the
of the fatherland which were given to places in

names

many parts of Aotearoa to remind the Maori

of his loved

Hawaiki.
Fierce

wars

had broken ont in the

tropic islands.

Over-population and shortage of food were the principal
causes.

For those and other reasons a brave company

people set sail over the trackless océan in their
picturesquely named canoës—Te Arawa (The Shark),
Tainui (Great Tide), Mata-atua (Face of a God), Kurahaupo (Storm Cloüd), and Tokomaru (Shade of the
South). In addition there were the Aotea, Takitimu and
Horouta, which sailed about the same time, but did not
accompany the main fleet.
The grey rollers of the Océan of Kiwa beckoned the
hardy seafarers. The canoës moved restlessly as the
triangular sails were hoisted, and cries of grief and farewell rose above the soughing of the trade winds in the
of

27

Making a canoë.

palms. It was farewell, farewell to Hawaiki the Golden,
to days in the hot summer sun, to laughter and song and
happy memories of the palm-fringed shores of their
native land.

But to some who embarked on the canoës,

there was the hope that it was farewell to Tu, the War

God, whose shadow lay over them in Hawaiki.
believed that there would be

room

They

for men to live in

peace in Aotearoa, and so they gave a glad farewell to the

tropic sun which could not ripen fruit enough to satisfy
their hunger, and had indirectly been the cause of much
inter-tribal warfare.

They had still to learn that it is
28

hunger on which the War Gocl feeds, but on the
proud hearts of men.
A sudden hush had fallen. Where the white wavelets
lapped tKe sand, stood the grey-haired patriarch Houmai-tawhiti. He lifted his voice in the poroporoaki, the
farewell:
“Follow not after the God of War in your
country of the south; hold to the deeds of Rongo the
not

Peaceful.

Haere! Haere! Haere atu ra!”

His voice faded into silence; the wind bore it away

until it was lost;

the little waves caressed the canoës as

they slid away from the shore. Te Arawa led the way,
her three sails carrying her swiftly out into the océan.
The other canoës followed, fading into the distance one by
one, frail-winged birds that dared the périls of the océan.
The Arawa was the leading canoë; Tama-te-kapua,
Son of the Clouds, the son of Hou-mai-tawhiti, was her
captain. He was unlike his gentle father, for he carried
the War God in his heart. He chuckled to himself as the
Arawa lifted to the long océan swell. Before leaving he
had asked Ngatoro-i-rangi, the famous tohunga, to corne
aboard to perform the sacred rights which would ensure
the protection of the atua and the spirits of his ancestors
for his canoë. Ngatoro had corne unsuspectingiy, bringing Kearoa, his wife, with him. As soon as he had set
foot in the canoë, Tama-te-kapua had ordered the sails to
be raised, and while the tohunga and his wife were protesting, they were sailing beyond the reach of the other
canoës.
This was the reason why Te Arawa had led the
way out of the harbour.

Ngatoro was furious, but Tama pacified him by telling him that his own canoë would follow quickly and
that he would hold Te Arawa back until his own canoë
had caught up with it, but as the Arawa lifted her head
to the waves and the rigging sang in the breeze, Ngatoro
realised that Tama’s words were empty, and that he and
his wife would hâve to remain where they were for the
29

whole voyage.

By keeping these people from Tainui
him, Tama hoped to win the favour of the gods,
for Ngatoro was wise in their
ways. The tohunga said
nothing, but in his heart he planned revenge.
One day Ngatoro climbed on to the roof of the house
built between the canoës of the double
vessel, and called
aloud to the gods. His magic
power went out from the
lonely vessel and great winds began to blovv^ from a clear
sky. The canoë turned its prow towards Te Waha-o-teParata, the Throat of the Sea Monster, to the steep
with

descent where the world ends.

Waves licked round the

Arawa, the sky grew dull and heavy, and the canoë was
drawn into the outer spiral of a maelstrom. The carved

disappeared, the water reached the first baling
place, and then the second in the middle of the canoë.
From his place on the roof of the house
Ngatoro heard
the wooden gods
splashing in the water, and saw the
crew
grasping the thwarts to save themselves from being
thrown out. There was no
expression on his tattooed
facej but as one after another of the crew lost hold of the
slippery planks and was drawn into the racing water, he
took pity on them, and asked
Tangaroa, the Sea God,
for his protection.
There was no hint of fear in the
captain’s eyes as
the canoë twisted further and further into the
Whirlpool.
He looked calmly at the smooth
racing water, as if
calculating their chances of escape. His face twisted into
a grin as he heard
Ngatoro chant an incantation which
was meant to
quieten the water. He heard him call upon
the spirits of Ruarangi and of Maui to “clear from
périls
ail
th^ océan track of Ngatoro.” Gradually the wide
throat of Parata closed, and the
surging waters calmed
prow

down.

There

many leagues still to be sailed. Day
day passed by, and every night the sun was engulfed in the endless sea. Then the lonely sails were
were

after

30

The throat of the Sea Monster,

rocked in the black void and only the Sound of the waves,
the creaking of cordage and the sough of the wind came

The rising moon shone over
the empty wastes, and only the black shape of a following fin broke the silvered surface.

to

the ears of the seafarers.

31

After many days the new land came in sight.

As the
glided into a peaceful harbour, the water was like
glass, reflecting the blazing glory of the flowering pohutukawa trees.
The crimson blossoms put to shame the
bright colour of the head ornaments of the crew of Te
canoë

Arawa.

One of the men threw his red head ornaments

into the sea

contemptuously, and cried, “See there, red
the head are more plentiful in this
country than in Hawaiki. I throw my head ornament
into the water”. He was bitterly disappointed when he
found that this glowing colour came
only from flowers
which withered as soon as they were
placed in the hair,
ornaments

for

and crumbled at a touch. The kura or head ornaments
of Hawaiki were made from the red feathers of a
and were worn only by the highest chiefs.

bird,

Some people
believe that this story may hâve been invented
by the

Arawa

people to explain why they did not possess the
kura, whereas the true explanation is that they were
probably driven from Hawaiki by the wearers of the

kura.
Most members of the canoës of the migration arrived
about the same time and, forgetting the

parting words of
Hou-mai-tawhiti, they began to quarrel over who had
been the first

to

arrive.

A whale was stranded

on

the

beach, and the captain of each canoë claimed it as his
property. It was because of this whale that the bay,
tucked under the sheltering point of Cape
Runaway, was
named Whangaparaoa, the Bay of the Sperm Whale. An
inspection was made of the sacred places that had been
set up on the shore
by the different crews, and it was found
that while the posts set up by the men of Tainui were
weathered and dried, those of the other crews were fresh
and green, Tainui therefore claimed the whale and the
honour of being the first arrivais. Ail that it
proved,
however, was that the men of Tainui were more cunning
than the others, for they had secretly passed the
posts and
32

The

ropes

long sea voyage.

through the fire, which gave them a weathered

Tainui had arrived after

appearance. As a matter of fact,
the other canoës. When the chiefs looked at the anchor
ropes of the canoës,

the people of Tainui had put their

mooring rope under the others, and for these reasons it
33

was

to

admitted that Tainui must hâve been the first canoë

arrive!

The Arawa people had brought kumaras with them,
and

planted at Whangaparaoa where they
this very day. Shortly afterwards this canoë
separated from the others. One hundred and forty men
under the chief Taikehu explored the north-west coast.
some

were

grow to

The Arawa then sailed to the island of Motiti, which was
named after a place in Hawaiki because of the shortage

of firewood there.

At Maketu the people set up

their

altar, which they also named in remembrance of their
old home.

There are rocks at Maketu which

are

said

to be the bow and stem anchors of the Arawa. The stem

anchor, Tu-te-rangi-haruru, is a solid outcrop to which
The descendants of
Tama peopled the Hot Lakes région, while Ngatoro and
his foliowers went to Lake Taupo, so that it is said of the
Arawa canoë that the bowpiece is Maketu and the sternpost Tongariro.
Ngatoro soon parted from Tama, and travelled about
the country. When he found dry valleys he stamped on
the ground and brought forth springs of water, for he was
a famous tohunga with great
powers.
He visited the
mountains and peopled them with patupaiarehe or
fairies. Ngatoro probably travelled further afield than
any of the other important chiefs at this time. He was
making up for lost time, for when Te Arawa was beached
at Maketu, his duties as a tohunga prevented him from
selecting land while the other chiefs were rnaking their
choice.
He feared that ail the best country might be
taken by the others, but his slave, Auruhoe, told him that
she had seen a high mountain in the distance, from the
summit of which, if only he could reach it, he might
survey a large part of the island, and thus secure a larger
the anchor was probably fastened.

share of the land than the other chiefs.

As soon as.Ngatoro’s duties were completed,
34

he set

for the summit of the snow-covered
They struggled up the steep sides and at last

off with Auruhoe

mountain.

like
in the
round him, he
his de¬
scendants, but in order to establish his daim he had to
give names to every hill and valley and forest.
Unhesitatingly he named them, some after places he
remembered in his homeland, others on account of their
appearance, or of some incident that had happened as he
travelled over them. When he came to the end of the
naming, he looked down and saw hat his slave was lying
stiff and cold on the snow. She had frozen to death on
the cold mountain peak. As he bent over her, Ngatoro
fdt his own limbs growing stiff.
It was an effort to
breathe in the thin air and the cold eut him like a knife.
He knew that he was close to death. In desperation he
called to his sisters in far-away Hawaiki, who heard his
spirit-voice across the unending leagues of océan, and who
in tum called on Te Pupu and Te Huata, who are the
gods of volcanic and thermal heat.
“E Kuimai e ! Haungaroa e ! Ka riro au i te tonga !
Haria mai he ahi moku!” was his well-remembered cry:
“O Kuiwai! O Haungaroa! I am borne away in the
cold South windl” The words riro (borne) and tonga

stood on the peak, their breath going up
steam
cold air.
As Ngatoro-i-rangi looked
claimed ail the land he could see for himself and

( South wind) hâve been preserved for ail time in the name

stood—^Tongariro. The gods
of Kuiwai and Haunga¬

of the mountain on which he
of heat responded to the appeal
roa.

They ploughed their way at lightning speed through

the océan bed and came up at White

Island in the Bay of

Plenty, and at Rotorua (where the signs of their presence
still remain), and at last burst through the mountain top

of Auruhoe, or Ngauruhoe as we
Ngatoro threw the body of his slave girl into the raging
volcanic lire that had sprung up at the touch of the gods,
and thus gave the name of Auruhoe, or Ngauruhoe, as we
and thus gave the name

know it today.

35

Tama-te-kapua. was restless at Maketu.
Presently
he went north and joined forces with Taikehu at Tauranga. After a timc he went on to Hauraki and Colville,
and at the cape at the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula,

he made his home, and there he died.

Ngatoro and his

wife had settled in peace, far from the disputes of their

fellow-voyagers on Motiti Island, but Tama-te-kapua
buried by his sons on thé forested ridge of Moehau.
He was left in peace there, for his relatives went back to

was

Maketu.
His sons said of him when they buried him :

“Let him slumber here where his spirit can gaze far
over the océan and over the land of Aotearoa.
And the
winds that sweep across the great océan of Kiwa, they shall
ever

sing his oriori, his wild lullaby.”
It was a fitting funeral song for the famous sailor.

His memorial is the name that the Maori has

for the cape—
Te

preserved

Moe-hau-o-te-Tama-te-kapua

“Tama’s Windy Sleeping Place.”
Tama had two

brothers named Tia and Hei \v.ho

had accompanied him on the Arawa canoë.
discoverer of Taupo
at

Whitianga.

Tia was the

(Taupo-nui-a-Tia), and Hei settled

TAINUI,

MATA-ATUA

AND

KURAHAUPO
The Tainui

canoë

was

built after the Arawa.

Her

history is entwined with that of the Arawa, for there was
bittemess of feeling between the men of the two canoës
after Tama’s treachery in abducting Ngatoro and his
wife.

The Tainui, like the Arawa, was a double canoë,

and Hoturoa was her captain.

After leaving Whanga-

paraoa, the Tainui came to Tamaki, where the wanderers
landed. They went up the river till they came to the
’

portage that lies between the harbour of Waitemata and
Manukau.

There they saw seagulls and oyster-catchers

flying overhead from the west, and guessed that the océan
on the other side of the land could not be far
away. In
the distance their scouts saw the silvery gleam of the
Manukau harbour, and they decided to drag the canoë
overland at Otahuhu and launch her again on the west¬
ern

shore.
Other canoës had corne to Tamaki.

The Tokomaru
crossed the island first, but the Tainui soon followed and
sailed on the peaceful landgirt waters of Manukau. Turn-

ing southwards, this canoë finally reached Kawhia where
it

was

beached and later buried.

The head and stern

pièces, tumed to stone, can be seen projecting above the
ground to this day.
A less fortunate end awaited Te Arawa.
She was
burnt by Raumati of the Tainui tribe, thus causing end38

less strife betvveen the two peoples.

The descendants of

and were neighbours of
the Arawa tribe at Rotonia and the Bay of Plenty.

Tainui settled in the Waikato,

(though some traditions say that it
the Aotea ) canoë was made of one half of a tree that
The Mata-atua

was

The burning of

The end of

Te Arawa.

Kurahaupo.

40

fell and
canoës.

split into two pièces, and was made into two

Kura-aura was her captain, and he brought her

to her final

resting place at Whakatane.

The Tokomaru rounded the North Cape and came
down the West Coast as far as the Mohakatino River in
Taranaki.
Little is known of the Kurahaupo canoë.
The

Ngapuhi of the North say that it was petrified into a reef
on the East Coast, but the people of Aotea say that it
was wrecked at some time on the joumey, and that the
occupants were transferred to their canoë.

41

AOTEA,

TAKITIMU

AND

HOROUTA
Of the

canoës which did not
accompany the Great
Fleet, but sailed about the same time, the Aotea, commanded by Turi, sailed from Rai’atea, but did not call
at Rarotonga.
She was beached at Rangi-tahua ( Sunday
Island), where she was refîtted, and a dog was killed to
please the god Maru. Ririno also sailed with Turi, but
they quarelled over Kupe’s sailing directions and parted
company. Some say that Ririno was lost, others that he
was wrecked on Boulder
Bank, near Nelson.
The Aotea gave its name to a small harbour on the
West Coast of the North Island, where the canoë first
landed.
She was abandoned there, Turi and his men
following the coastline by land until they reached the
Patea River, where they settled. Their descendants made
their way up the Whanganui River. Turi was the great
name-giver of Taranaki, and he also brought many valuable plants with him, so that his canoë has been known
as Aotea the Richly Laden.
Five canoës sailed under the command of Tamatea,
but only two survived, the Takitimu and the Horouta,
which joined her sister vessel at Rarotonga. A careful
choice had been made, and only the strongest men and
women had been selected for the
journey, but so great
were the hazards of the
voyage that three of the canoës
were lost on the way.

On account of her speed, and with the help of their
42

Turi foliowed the coastline

on

foot.

tohunga who called on the gods of the sea for help, Takitimu was the first arrivai. She landed near North Cape,
but a heavy storm arose, and she put to sea again.
tea

Tama-

and his peuple stayed for several years at Hokianga,

but later Takitimu rounded the North Cape, and sailed on
43

to Whakatane.

settied there.

A pa was built and a number of the crew
Tamatea took the canoë back to the Bay

of Islands, where about a quarter of his followers decided

Setting out again, he came to Waiapu on the east
coast, where he found some of the men and women who
had sailed in the Horouta. Still more of his people were
left at Waiapu, but the restless Tamatea pushed ofî, taking
some
of the Ngati-wai-tahi people with him.
They
visited the South Island, staying a while and leaving
some of the Ngati-wai-tahi there, and then joumeyed
north to Whanganui, ascending the river, and travelling
over to Taupo and Whakatane.
Another tradition says
that Takitimu was petrified into a range of mountains in
Otago. Tamatea-pokai-whenua, as he was called, was
the greatest traveller of ail the chiefs who came at the time
to stay.

of the Fleet.

His name means Tamatea-Who-Travelled-

All-Over-The-Land.
So the country was settied.
Descendants of the
Arawa and Mata-atua voyagers set up their homes in
different parts of the Bay of Plenty; those of Tainui in the

Waikato; while the descendants of the pioneering Taki¬
timu and Horouta sailors
Coast

and East

are

to

be found in the East

Cape districts, Aotearoa thus being

divided roughly into canoë districts.
There are many stories told of those early days of
settlement ; they can be found in books thàt some day you
may be glad to read. And there were other canoës, too.
Some of the names hâve corne to us by the paths and

byways of legend, but at least we can say this: that the
great deeds of which we hâve read were only a few of the
heroic adventures of long ago. In those days the océan
was

not a

barrier but a highway for a seafaring people.

There are traditional records of Crossing and recrossings

of the stormy seas,

and the bringing of food and other
supplies to the pioneers.
And then came isolation.
For many générations
44

were none who dared the Throat of the Sea
Monster, and the art of building ocean-going canoës was
lost. But one day a great white bird and pale-skinned

there

mariners sailed into these
was

forgotten seas, and Aotearoa

“found” again.
This is the story of the coming of the Maori.

It is

but history that has corne to us through the
unwritten pages of ancient legend and song.
ail history,

45

47

Reeds' Junior

Library

The books in this sériés will make an instant appeal
to boys and girls.

There will be books of adventure

and others which tell true stories of New Zealand.

The publishers propose to issue a number of titles
which will be

descriptive of every aspect of New
Zealand life, presented in an attractive manner for
young people.
The type is clear and each book
is well illustrated.
The first three titles are:—
THE VALLEY FARM

by Rachel Huson. An
entertaining account of the lives and adventures
of a typical family of children on a New Zealand
farm. Illustrated by Juliet Peter.
2/6
HOW THE MAORIS CAME TO AOTEAROA

by A. W. Reed.

A simple account of how New
Maoris, and the
Corning of the great fleet. Profusely illustrated by
H. D. B. Dansey.
2/Zealand was first peopled by the

PITAMA by John L. Ewing.
The story of a
Maori boy and his adventures at the storming of

Kaiapoi Pa.

Illustrated by Russel Clark.
★

Published by

A, H. è A, W. REED
182 Wakefield Street, Wellington

1/6