ORIGIN OF THE NEWZEALANDERS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 91, 2 December 1843, Page 363

ORIGIN OF THE NEWZEALANDERS.

[From " Dieffenbach's Travels in New Zealand."]

Before the arrival of the present inhabitants there were no men in the land, and it was covered with forest. Three canoes then came from a distant land, situated to the eastward, the names of which canoes were Arawa, Kotahi-nui [ko Tainui], and Matatua [Mātaatua][Mataatua]. They contained Te-tupuna or Te-kau-matua (ancestors). In the Arawa were the ancestors of the Nga-pui and of the Rarewa, who sat at the head, the Nga-te-wakaua behind them, and the Nga-te-roinangi at the stern. It is a custom to the present day that those engaged in an important enterprise of any kind, whether in peace or war, are " tapu ;" they can neither smoke nor eat anything but the food indigenous to the country, nor can they have connexion [connection] with women. If these rules are transgressed, they are punished by the gods, who frustrate their object. Thus it happened in this case. In the middle of the canoe were the women, and a man whose name was Tamatekapua: this latter was guilty of adultery with the wife of a Nga-pui. The canoe stopped, and only pursued its course after they had reconciled the divine anger by an imprecation and by the punishment of the offender. This imprecation is still preserved. The words "No te uru o te Arawa koe," meaning you belong to the Arawa —that is, you are a cheat and a liar — are proverbial. They arrived at New Zealand : the Nga-pui landed in the Bay of Islands ; the Rarewa in Oruru, in Lauriston Bay ; the Nga-te-wakaua and the Nga-te-roinangi at Muketu [Maketu], in the Bay of Plenty, whence the former settled at Rotu-rua, and the latter went into the interior to the Taupo lake : these were the forefathers of their respective tribes. May not the incident above mentioned have sown the seed of the hostilities in which the inhabitants of the north and those of the south have been engaged from time immemorial ?

The second canoe, Kotai-nui [ko Tainui], landed on the western coast in Kawia [Kawhia], and its crew were the ancestors of the numerous tribes of the Waikato. A piece of the canoe is asserted to be still preserved ; that is to say, it became stone, and is to be seen near the northern head of Kawia [Kawhia] Harbour. It is a large piece of limestone rock, cropping out upright from the sandy downs which surround it. Limestone rock occurs in that harbour, but on the other side ; and it is not impossible that the mass of stone was actually put here by them as a memorial of their arrival.

The third canoe, Matatua [Mātaatua][Mataatua], brought the Nga-te-awa, who landed in Wakatane, on the eastern coast, and in the course of time a branch of them went to Taranaki.

Thus we are led to consider the numerous tribes in the island as in the first instance derived from five. When they spread farther, the founder of a new tribe gave his name to it, and it was called Nga (the genitive case plural of the article), adding te-tangata, the men of this or that chief.

Tradition says that these canoes came from the eastward, from the island of Hawaiki. The taro and the dogs were the only things they brought with them which were not before known on the island. It is expressly stated that the Kotahi-nui [ko Tainui], which had to go to the western coast, doubled the North Cape.

According to another tale, the natives of Hawaiki had four eyes, but nothing else regarding them has been preserved.

I have noticed already that at a subsequent period the kumara was brought to them by E Pani from the island of Tawai. E Tiki, her husband, was a stranger to the New Zealanders, although of the same colour and language. We cannot fail to recognize in the names Hawaiki and Tawai, the Sandwich Islands, Hawaii and Tauai. One of the differences between the dialect of New Zealand and that of the Sandwich Islands is, that in the latter, as well as in the dialect of Tahiti, fewer consonants are used : the the Arii of the Sandwich Islands becomes Ariki in New Zealand ; Ranakira becomes Rangatira ; Tanata becomes Tangata ; and in the same manner Hawaii has become Hawaiki. The u and w are in all Polynesian languages of an equal value, the pronounciation being a sound intermediate between both, and there is no difference therefore in sound between Tauai and Tawai. But there is still better evidence for the assertion that the Sandwich Islanders must be regarded as the last stock from which the New Zealanders have sprung. There are traditions which lead us back to still more ancient times, when Maui and his brothers fished up the island of New Zealand. Maui is not a god ; although tradition gives him supernatural powers, he is distinctly stated to be a man. There were four brothers — Maui mua, Maui roto, Maui waho, Maui tiki tiki o te Rangi ; which literally means — Maui (who was) formerly, Maui (who is) within, Maui (who is)without,Maui tikitiki,from Heaven.

Their parents are not known, nor the land whence they came. Maui mua is the Tuakana, or elder brother. He went out one day with the youngest of his brothers, Maui tiki tiki o te Rangi, or Kotiki, to fish ; and as bait was wanting, the brother offered his ear, and both together they hauled up New Zealand. There is a mountain hear the east coast called Hiko rangi (literally, Heaven's Tail), which is said to be the fish-hook of Maui, and the island itself was the " begotten of Maui," " Te Ahi na Maui, " which name is sometimes given to the northern island, although very little known amongst the natives themselves. This myth, which is perhaps a geological tradition, is very similar to one related regarding the Tonga, or Friendly Islands, but the personages are named differently. At a time when nothing existed, says the narrative, but heaven and water, and the seat of the gods, the island of Bolutu, the god Tangaloa, to whom belong all inventions, and whose priests are always carpenters on the island

of Tonga, went out fishing on a certain day, and threw his line and hook from the sky into the water. Suddenly he felt a strong resistance. Thinking that a great fish had taken the bait, he put forth his whole strength, and, behold ! rocks appear above the water, which increase in number and extent as he draws in his line. His hook had seized on the rocky bottom of the sea, and had almost reached the surface of the water, when unfortunately the line broke, and the Tonga Islands alone remained above the ocean. The rock which came first out of the depth is still shown in the island Hunga, with the hole in it which was made by the fish-hook of Tangaloa. The rocky island was soon covered with herbs and grasses, which were the same as in the habitation of the gods, Bolutu, only of an inferior kind, and given to decay and death. If we further inquire whether we may trust to what the tradition tells us, that the New Zealanders in the last instance have come from the islands of Hawaii, and whether there is a natural possibility or probability for such a derivation, we encounter difficulties which it is probable will never be surmounted. All that we can do in the obscure history of the early migrations of these races is to group the different islands according to the relationship that exists between their inhabitants in regard to language and customs, and to see whether there is anything in the traditions of the people to confirm these signs of relationship. There is such affinity between the dialects of the natives of Hawaii and those of New Zealand, and to a far greater extent than that common tie which unites all Polynesians. Shrubs and trees of the same genus, although of different species, bear the same names in New Zealand and in the Sandwich Islands ; the kawa (made from the Piper methysticum) is not drunk in New Zealand, but in the latter country the Piper excelsum bears the same name ; the rata and aki are kinds of Metrosideros in New Zealand and in the Sandwich Islands ; the ti is a Dracaena, or rather Cordyline, in both : the physical features of the natives are similar, as is also the character of their sculpture, munufactures [manufactures], &c. According to the traditions current in New Zealand, their forefathers had a long voyage from the eastward before they arrived at that island. Can we trace in the natives of Easter Island (who, according to those navigators that have visited them, are more like New Zealanders than any other Polynesians) the connecting link between the group of Hawaii and Ahi na Maui, or New Zealand ? Easter Island is at the limits of the south-east trade-wind, and emigrants from Hawaii might arrive there without difficulty : the present inhabitants of this isle, a spot almost lost in the infinity of the ocean, seem to have retrogaded in civilization; at least the high statues, cut out of a soft volcanic rock, which were seen there by Cook and La Peyrouse [Pérouse][Perouse], were not ascribed to the then existing generation, but to their ancestors ; and the strange shape of these sculptures reminds us more than anything else of the grotesque wood-carvings of the natives of New Zealand. Is it not probable that the ancestors of both people, now so remote from each other, were the same? We have, unfortunately, no means of comparing the dialect of Easter Island with that of New Zealand ; and the outrages committed in modern times, by those who miscall themselves Christians, on the natives of that interesting spot, do not leave us much hope that our acquaintance will soon become more intimate. The native name of Easter Island is Waihu, and the same word is found as the native name of Coromandel Harbour, on the eastern coast of New Zealand.

The Sandwich Islands, it is true, are, of all the Polynesian Islands, the most distant from New Zealand, being situated in 24 deg. north lat. and 161 deg. 45 min. west long., while the most northern point of New Zealand is in 34 deg. 27 min. south lat. and 173 deg. 4 min. east long., thus embracing almost the extreme limits of the Polynesian Ocean, or of that part of it which is occupied by the true race of Oceanians. The reader, knowing how studded with islands is the intermediate space, many of them uninhabited, but producing fruits sufficient to serve as food for man, will perhaps say, "Is it not more likely that the Sandwich Islanders, if leaving purposely or by chance their former home, should have fallen in with one of those islands, and settled where the climate was mild and genial, instead of going where it is always variable, and often rigorous ? I have no answer to this objection, and it is in vain to attempt to account for that endless mixture and separation, not only of different races, but of different divisions of one and the same race, which we find in the islands of the great ocean. The mere proximity of the islands, or even prevailing winds, explain nothing. In the Chatham Islands, for instance, which are nearly 300 miles--to the south-east of New Zealand, live the remains of an aboriginal race, who in a short time will have disappeared before the intruding New Zealanders, and who, although Polynesians, have nothing in common with the latter. The New Zealanders knew nothing of that island before they came there in European ships.

THE WILD STRAWBERRY IN MICHIGAN. — Strawberries grow without planting ; and this is the sort of gardening that most of us like best. These are so abundant, that in the spring the very road-sides are damasked with their silver blossoms, and in their ripe season the foot of the passing traveller crushes them everywhere on the uncultivated uplands and on the moist borders of the marshes. It is, however, on fields that have been once ploughed that we find them in their greatest perfection. This rude sort of cultivation doubles their size without impairing their exquisite flavour. Transplanting them to your garden seems to affect them as a change from rural to city life does some people. They branch out into splendid foliage, but bear good fruit more sparingly than before.