TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE MAORIS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5497, 8 November 1878, Page 7

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE MAORIS.

Dr. Hector, in his lecture on the exploration of Otago, incidentally referred to the traditional history of tho Maoris in the South Island. As Ids remarks were very interesting we, append them. He said :- The traditional history of tho occupation of tho southern country by tha natives was collected by Mr. Sborrland, tho protector of aborigines, as early as 1844, but further details have since been collected by several qualified persons, and aro to bo found collated in Mr. A. Mackay’a admirable compendium on “ Native Affairs in the South Island,” published in 1872. Tho traditions were reproduced last year in a paper by tho Rev. Mr. Stack, and he has been the first to venture to fix the dates for the principal events. It appears pretty certain that the Otago country was occupied by several successive tribes of Maoris. Tho earliest of these, Ngatikura, is ouly known by vaoue traditions, but is considered to bo an offshoot from the Ngapuhi tribe that still.occupies tha northern district of Auckland, where thev first landed about twenty-seven generations ago. The Ngatikura became very uumerous, and - occupied the whole island, and according to Mr. Mantell’s notes it was they who burnt off the bush and made the open grass land. (E. Waka-pakihi.) They were succeeded by the Waitaha tribe, who also came from tho North Island, and according to Mr. Stack their migration took place iu 1477, which is the earliest date he ventures on. The Waitaha, after 100 years, wdre in their turn attacked, and gradually displaced by the Ngatim mice, but they were not exterminated until the year 1701; and shortly before this date a further tribe, the Ngaitahu, had commenced to displace-the Ngaiimanioe, which was almost exterminated by 1827, only a few having families living survived to within loss than 30 years back in the dense'forests of the 3. W. mountains. The Ngaitahu tribe is the one that now survives in Otago, and at one time must have been very numerous ; but about 45 years ago they were greatly reduced by an epidemic of measles, which disease appears to have been as fatal to them as to the natives of Fiji when it first broke out in that group about two years ago. Tho later history of the natives in utago is a remarkable instance of rapid disappearance of an aboriginal race when brought in contact with civilisation, notwithstanding that they are carefully provided for. In 1844 there were 1206 Maoris in Otago ; in 1852, 709 ; in 1861, 612 ; and in 1869,396. But in 1874 tho census shows an increase, the number being 510, The western side of tho island was inhibited by a separate tribe, having the same origin in tho North Island as tho Ngaitahu, called the Ngatiwairenga, having their head quarters at Arahura ; and’tradition states that the first knowledge of the-greenstone or pouaumu which the eastern natives acquired was from a woman of that tribe who crossed the mountains to Kaiapoi. This has a most important bearing on tho date up to which the moa birds survived in numbers, as greenstone implements have been found in most of the ancient cooking heaps along with moa bones, thus proving that the moa must have been used as food by the Maori tribe that still survives.