WHENCE THE MAORI?

Evening Star, Issue 19782, 4 February 1928, Page 2

WHENCE THE MAORI?

FURTHER RESEARCH IN PACIFIC NATIVE TRADITION REINFORCED [Special to the ‘ Stab.’] WELLINGTON, February 8. The origin of the Maori is a fascinating subject to ethnologists, and more information is, available to them as the result of researches of the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, a privately endowed institution which includes a New Zealander, Dr Buck, on its staff.; Another New Zealand ethnologist, Mr H. D. Skinner, lecturer on that subject at Otago University, spent three and a-half months at the Bishop Museum during the course of an eighteen-months’ tour from which he has just returned; and lie gave your correspondent many interesting tacts which he has gleaned. One point is that the latest researches support the Maori tradition that they ft came from Tahiti. The exhibition "collections of the Bishop Museum are, on the whole, disappointing, but Mr Skinner’s opinion is that the research material is extremely valuable. While at this museum he prepared a handbook on its Easter Island collections, which are the largest in the world.

“ The material culture of Easter Islanders is,” remarked. Mr Skinner, “ remarkably close to that of our Maoris, and this is seen best of all in the weapons, the resemblances being astonishing. It looks as if a section of the Maoris had colonised Easter Island. The class of weapon generally known as the mere is here in all its variations, also the long taiaha. Close relationship to our Maori weapons appears also in the Rapa and Austral Islands, and only little less close in the Marquossas. The variation in culture in all the marginal fringe of Polynesia is only what we might expect to see in different districts in New Zealand, We are accumulating facts on this phase, which demonstrate that the relationship is a great deal closer than was once believed. Mr Emery, of the Bishop Museum, has lately prepared for publication his researches into tiro culture of Neckar Island, 500 miles north-west of Hawaii. It was occupied anciently for not a lengthy period as a bind of holy island, and then deserted. Hawaiians knew nothing of it when Cook landed, and no informa- _ tion has been obtained from Hawaiian sources. It had already' been thought up to the present that the Hawaiian Group was the first colonised by navigators, who moved north of the Equator through the Carolines, the Marshalls, and the Gilberts. It js now seen, from Neckar Island evidence, that the earliest culture of the Hawaiian Islands is derived from Tahiti. They had come north across three thousand miles of water. That was no casual drive. It was a great sweep by folk keenly interested in maritime discovery.” NOT DRIFT NAVIGATORS. “ Then this conclusion hears closely oa the theories regarding the arrival of the first Maoris in New Zealand? suggested the interviewer. “It is apparent,” agreed Mr Skinner, “ that our earliest Maoris were no chance drift navigators either," and j I think there can be no reasonable doubt also that Polynesians reached the South American coast. If they navigated from Tahiti to Hawaii they could easily have taken the shorter course to South America, though the only results of that contact seem to be the introduction of the kumara, though that is not conclusive.” Further reinforcements of this conclusion was found in Auckland Museum, where are displayed some stone implements found at the Ivermadees. “i had expected,” said Mr Skinner, “ that these would be of Cook' Island type, but they 7 are not. They are Tahitian. Maori traditions have always been interpreted as indicating that the Maoris came from Tahiti, and the archaeological evidence supports the tradition.” CAPTAIN COOK’S BRASSWARE. A result of applying wide experience in identifying ancient remains was mentioned by the New Zealand ethnologist. Several American museums have weapons similar to the Maori mere, four being of black basalt, and one, on close examination, proving to bo of brass, the latter being in the Washington (D.C.) Museum. It came from a grave at the mouth of the Columbia River. “Cook is known to have touched near that coast,” explained Mr Skinner, “ and to have brought out with him brass meres. The black, basalt specimens cannot therefore be claimed as earlier than Cook’s type, but were probably from the same ship.”