BRIDGE LEGEND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 231, 30 September 1929, Page 8

BRIDGE LEGEND.

WAITEMATA FABLE. MAORI FAIRIES FAIL. ESCAPE ACROSS HAEBOUK. Few of those people ' who reside at Point Chevalier, or others who patronise that bright, summer seaside, realise that the locality is the subject of one of Auckland's earliest and best legends. Indeed, Te Tokoroa (the long reef) may be rightly classed as the first scene and site of an effort to construct a causeway across the harbour; but Waitemata bridge-builders of to-day, whatever their admiration or respect for mythology, are [not likely to be thwarted by influences of a hazy past. Tohunga's Evil Spell. In former times, the native story runs, the districts of Auckland were inhabited by a legendary race usually referred to as patupaiarehe (fairies), "who, unlike their kind in European fairy-books, were constantly engaged in inter-tribal warfare. One of their chiefs, lluarangi, a man of stupendous physical proportions, occupied the fortified village of PukeruatoiMo, on Mount Albert, which in a much later period acquired the name of O'Wairaka, where a huge cavern entrance still exists on the southern slopes of the volcanic hill. Foreseeing that Ins pa would be captured by other hostile tribes. Ruarnngi decided that he and his people would have to evacuate their home. It was resolved that the most convenient direction in which to flee was across the harbour via Point Chevalier (To Kan<nmatarau, "the day of a hundred spears") To accomplish this the chief ordered his warriors to rapidly build a raft bridge across the harbour by night, The enemy ascertained that this way of escape was being attempted, and therefore called upon their • tohunga (wizard) to recite incantations to hasten the sunrise and thereby prevent the work being- done. It has to be interposed here that these Maori fairies were just like those of English folk lore (and modern ones, too!) in that they could not work by daylight. Sure onotigri, in response to the wicked wiles of the witch, the golden orb rose early over the horizon, and behold, the bridge workers were all dried up (maroketia). Thus that ancient Waitemata 'bridge enterprise was-doomed. Osten-

sibly it was then before its time, and left as a failure for a future race to convert into a triumph. Euarangi, witli his pa, having heard of the fate of to henchmen, and knowing the position to be desperate, was determined to savo-liis people, who he thought might be captured the following night. ; Ho led them to the south -side of tlic Mount Albert i Hill into the cavern, from which, according to Maori legend, subterranean passages lead to an opening , in the new bourhoocl of Point Chevalier. I" tlffi if i and narrow corridor underground, Una- , rangi found that, owing to Ms gKj" I girth, he was unable to ■ proreed; so- W . stood by heroically and allowed his people f to escape, while lie remained ■ to-penw . in the bowels of the earth, The tnM ' eventually emerged at. the seaside-on - I let. Mid, hastily devising rafts, niaue ' from flax stalks (niokihi). were able to i safely cross the harbour, with one excep- : tion. ' Origin of "The Watchman." Before the sorrowful people left Buarangi to his fate, the hitter warned." 6 '" I not on any account to look back towards , the pa. This important instruction w t disobeyed by one chief, who M &ei ™ ) similar penalty to Lot's wife. »» ; about mid-channel he looked round, an« .. was immediately petrified. This * • still stands, and"is known to the M° r ; , as Nihokioro (the rat's tooth).-: B , Boat Rock. ■ An examination of the Point Chevalier i reef to-day will reveal a deal of fossil)^ • wood fragments which the r.atiycs ». I are the bones of the Kuanmgi p"' ■ paiarehe who perished when the..run ro> to rcllect the tragic vengeance • ■ eneniics. Another name of the rec ! To Ara-Whakapekapeka A Kuarangi._ = a native mouthful betokening an unsucee- , ful pathway or a circumvented objective. Hence, if the modern Waitciuaj? Bridge project does not become a real") it will be competent for the pubhetosa. that it was "whakapekapekaed."