FIORDLAND FOOTPRINT

Hokitika Guardian, 18 June 1930, Page 2

FIORDLAND FOOTPRINT

TRADITION OK REFUGEES

(By .T.O. in Auckland “Star.”)

That Crusoe-like story from the. South about . the mysterious footprintin the, sand seen by a wapiti hunter; between, the. north fiord of Lake To Auau and the West- Coiist, recalls a certain tale, strange but authentic, told me many years ago by old natives' of Southland. Inevitably the (■■‘litary footprint story (revives the theory that some of . the long-lost. Ngvti-Mamne people -still haunt inaccessible valleys in l-lio vast wilderness of Fiordland. Two old Maoris whom I knew at Or aka, on the coast of Foveaux Strait, told me that they' had many cruises to the West Coast Sounds in vihaldboats fair fur seals, and they 'always kept a. look out for traces of the missing tribe, who were their Rinsmeii on their Ngati-Mamoe side. I'uey knew of Cook’s meeting with these fugitives at Dusky Sound (1773) and also of the report made by the dejptain 'of the sealing sdhooner ;in the early ’forties concerning his discovery of Maori life in Bligli Sound. That sealing skipper, Howell, from the Bluff, was the last mail to see Maori fires in the Sounds. The mysterious people Lit their camp and fled into, the bush; the sailors found a whalebone club and a flay; mat, but did not follow the tracks they saw for fear of an ambuspade,

FOOTMARKS IN LAKE ADA

The next, and last, definite traces seen of the fugitive children of the mist was in 1872. In that year one of my informants, Ivupa Haereroa, and a number of other natives from the Southland coast,, sailed round to Milford Sound on one of their sealing expeditions. By ,way of diversion front their seal killing they did some exploring up at the Sound head, and they discovered the valley and river now known as the Arthur, and lone Lake Ada, now so well known to tourists. They went eel fishing on the lake. At first they imagined they were the first to break into that wild solitude, but soon after leaving their boat at the mouth of the Arthur River, they were astonished to discover three prints of naked feet in the mud at the base of a cliff.

On their way to the defile they kept a careful watch for other traces of inhabitants.. On the shore of the lake thev found several indications that primitive man had had his habitation there. Under overhanging rocks they qairi-e upon (deserted sleeping (places surrounded by rows of stones and ashes of cooking fires, At one of these camps there was a separate and smaller sleeping place, indicated by stopes arranged in an oblong shape, somewhat apart from the other quarters, Ivupa] said that ho remarked to his companions “That must have been the bed of the chief,’’ But this jvas all, Those seal hunters were greatly excited at the thought that they might meet the last remnant of the missing clan, but those footprints and long-mid ashes and camps were all thev-found.

The late Donald Sutherland, the pioneer of Milford, told me that when lie first settled at the Sound-bead, in 1370, he found some battered axe-

heads of nephrite when he was clearing a' site for his camp. That was the vqry. last trace found of Maori occupation Of the Milford region.

SECRETS OF FIORDLAND

From the narratives of a, number of old Maoris I pieced .together the tradition of the ■ Fiordland ion gees. They were • a section, of Ngati-Mair.os Vito were driven away by stress of war into the western fiords of Lake Te'Anau, ‘aijd there disappeared from human ken. There were others who were driven away by a tribe called Ngati-Kuri. and the legend-tellers gave me the names of several people who went to Dusky Sound; they believed a man named Maru was the chief who went on board Cook’s ship the Resolution in the Sound. As for loose who vanished into the great bush west of Te Anau, they believed it quite possible that a remnant of their descendants might still survive. “They were a cunning people,” said an old man of Oraka; “they were much given to ambuscades, and when they were pursued their wise men would invoke the gods and call down dense fogs and mists to conceal them, and (they wfoulcl escape <nto places where none could follow them; and that is the reason no one can ever find them.”

So go the stories of old time. Mystery and enchantment still lie within those vast dripping forests of imperfectly explored Fiordland. Imagination has full play when one examines the map and 'observes the maze of country that cannot be seen through except from an aeroplane. The tribe of the mist most probably perished there half a century ago and more. But a wapiti could lift make human footprints.