MAORIS SOUTH OF MARTIN'S BAY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1474, 25 April 1873, Page 2

MAORIS SOUTH OF MARTIN'S BAY.

The following letter appears in a recent issue of the Wellington Independent :•*— Sir,— l observed in the telegraphic intelligence publighed some time since that the natives of Wakapitu in 'their la.st sealing trip on the West Coast of Otago, and the southern portion of the County of Westland, saw what they considered traces of the " Wild Maori," supposed to inhabit I the heads of the various sounds from Milford to Preservation Inlet.. It .may ;perhaps prove interesting to your 'readers to know how the idea' of the existence of this fragment of a tribe origin ated— and what grounds there are for believing that ithe sealing natives of Wakapitu are right in their conjecture that the traces they 6b- ; served were those of natives and not, of white men. l"tie present Maori occupants of West|!land are principally^compQse^ of ,thpse :wh6 have crossed the range from ]£aiapoi, in Canterbury, jn search of greenstpner^;the exceptions being men and women 'from Otago and the Horth Island con- ' nested with .them by marriage, or blood,, '■ They have a legend current among .them of tljeir progenitors having driven all the original Maori inhabitants of Westland south of the Kaduka or Martin's Bay, i and then taken possession of their whares and effects. Ten years since they believed, so Terapuhi> the head man of the Grey, informed me, that a rfemriant of these people still existed, 'living 1 in the bush, fleeing irom the app 1 roaclrtrf other natiyesj and existing on what fo"bd thfey' could obtain from the forests and lagoons. Nine years since ' last "October I was camped on the Waitaki River, some nine, miles north of Okarito, There was a small Maori encampment there at "that tjmae, composed, oJe £wo women, two children, an old man, and two natives from the Kaik, called by the.- Europeans Jackson's ISay. Remembering whai 1 puhi had previously £old me of the .existence of the wjld natives, \ questioned the men from Jackson's^ay Rn the subject, and received the following information :— Many years previously— how many they could not tell, but some little time before Messrs Heaphy and IJrunner made their memorable journey from $Jelson to the West Coast of Canterbury— they, with one or two other natives, were to the south of Jackson's Bay^ on the long pakihi end of Cascade Point patching eels and, wekas for. winter use. ., Qne evening, sitting or sleeping around their camp fire, one of them heard a rustling among the bushes close behind them ; after consults^ tion they managed by a sudden rush to' surround the disturbed spot, • and succeeded in capturing a young wahine almost nude. After capture she was brought to the fire, examined, and bound, when a dispute arose as. to whom she should belong — her captors not -agreeing on the subject. High words were exchanged, and blows were likely to ensue, when one of the party, desirous of maintaining peace, crept stealthily behind the captive, and brained her with his tomahawk. She now became common property, " and was cooked and eaten on the.: spot.^ The old savage narrated the whole affair, with many details which I have now forgotten, with the greatest gravity and composure imaginable . — like a miner would relate the capture of a stray sheep, when hungry 'and prospecting^ in a remote portion of the Colony; I heard afterwards, from other natives, a confirmation of its truth. I believed the circumstance

then, and have found no reason since to alter my opiriidn. Twenty, nionths since I was at Wakapitu, i Maori kaik, half-way between Riverton and Orepuki, and saw and conversed with nearly all the men who yearly from this place go westward sealing. I mquired^f them concerning the^Maon of the Sqvrad ; they only laughed at the idea. But there were at that time a man J^J^a§£fclJ2&He^-^ them who had walked round the sounds from Maitai, a kUifc north of Jackson's Bay, to Wakapitu, who were not equally incredulous. So mulch -fpfe the probability of natives being wh^re represented. But there are a few coiisidera^on connected 'with the subject tfiat are not mal a propos'. No Maori wiould mistake a white man's camp or traces for those of a native. Its arrangements, details, and footmarks would be different. No white man could have got into such a position of the Province of Otago unless' they had either gone from the settlement at Martin's Bay, or been landed at some of the sounds by steamer or sailing vessel. There is no known pass from the Te Anau country to West Coast, save that leading from Eglington to the Hollyford Valley and Lake M'Kerrbwy wnere a track is now being cut by Mr Clark, of theMara^ roa, forltlie Otago Government. The fiords of the Te Anau lake show no opening. A glimpse^ at ','tte map of Otago. ,will show the height and continuity of. the. spurs on the western side of Te AnoujLate.,. From the moutnotthe Waiauto Milford Sound the Weflt Coast sof the fiddle Island, is as much an unknown country las was that portion of the "West Coast extending from the Grey to Jackson's Bay previous to the year ]863 i There is reason to believe that natives may have means as well ac scope in this large untravelled portion oi Otago for the preservation of their rude existence.— l am^&c, ffGATiawA.. ,