MAORI EXPLORERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1869, 27 August 1918, Page 3

MAORI EXPLORERS.

COURAGEOUS NAVIGATORS OF

THE PACIFIC.

In walking the streets of V ellington,” said Mr Elsdon Best, in an address delivered before the Wellington Early Settlers’ Association, “you occasionally meet representatives of a far-spread race that hasperformed no small part of the great task of opening up the sea roads of the vast Pacific Ocean, and in settling its innumerable isles. These brown-faced descendants of the fearless sea-rovers of former centuries represent the neolithic navigators who, in pre-European times, traversed the long water trails of Oceania, in their primitive carvel-built craft, and carried their speech into every quarter of the Mar del Snd, the great South Sea. “When you land on the quay at Honolulu, 4,000 miles from here, you again encounter the Maori and Maori speech. When - you make your landfall at lone Easter Island, within 2,000 miles of South America, the* brown-skinned Maori will greet you as you land. Sailing to the northwest, from Easter Isle, across 7,000 miles of ocean, you glide into the lagoon of Montevarde, in the Caroline Group, to be hailed by the Maori in a dialect strikingly akin to that of New Zealand. Ranging southward to the Solomon Isles, you encounter the Maori at Le L’aninn or Outong, .lava, surrounded by darkskinned Melanesians. AVorking southward and eastward, you find the Maori, with his Maori speech, at many isles, including Rermel, Bellona, Tikopea, Futuna, and Uea. Across a vast ocean of 7,000 by 4,000 miles, we trace the Maori race and Maori speech. “In dug-out vessels, fitted with top-strakes, carvel-built, and lashed together, (hey sailed from island to island across the Pacific, opening up new routes and settling many far-spread isles. They carried with them their productive food plants wherever they went, and successfully introduced four species into New Zealand. They steered their outriggers and double-canoes by I ho sun daring the day, and by star or planet at night; lacking those, they held their course by following (he regular roll of the waves before trade winds.

.. . We know from tradition that a considerable number of voyages were made by the Maori from Eastern Polynesia to New Zealand, and that some of them are preserved in the traditions of the Society and Cook Groups. Wo also know (hat return voyages were made from New Zealand to those parts. The earliest recorded voyage to these isles was that made by two explorers named Kupe and Ngahue. who reached these parts in two vessels named Matahorua and Tauirirangi. They discovered New Zealand and sailed round it, entering Wellington Harbour on (heir way South, On the West Coast of the South Island they found greenstone, one of the most important discoveries ever made by (he Maori folk, for it had an important effect on their industrial life in later times. In the same region, tradition tells us that the explorers saw the moa.” The lecturer then referred to a number of traditional voyagers and their journeys to and from New Zealand, and continued: “Such were the vessels and the methods of these old-time rovers of the Pacific. These were the neolithic navigators who opened up the'sea paths and settled New Zealand. These were the Maori folk, men inured to danger and hardship, fearless and adventurous, postmasters in all arts of navigation as known to that culture stage, hut all ignorant of the compass, A race of courageous explorers, ever bent on the investigation of unknown regions, ever ready .to brave the dangers of the great ocean, to go forth and settle a lone-land beyond the red sunrise. For these were the true Argonauts, who far excelled the coastal voyaging of Phoneeian and Greek; the Polynesian vikings, (he Maori buccaneers, who saw familiar stars sink below the sea horizon, and made their landfall on many an alien strand. For those were the golden days of the Maori voyager.”