Did Witchcraft Cause Reservoir Wall to Burst

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 606, 7 March 1929, Page 1

Did Witchcraft Cause Reservoir Wall to Burst

Maori Woman Claims Fulfilmcnt of Spell CENTURIES-OLD RIGHTS Maintaining that Te Akarana Mao hi Association had infringed | the tapu law by planting a tree on the slopes of Mount Eden, Kohupaki, a woman descendant of New Zealand’s earliest stock, cast,a spell on the tree and said that it would not survive. When the Mount Eden reservoir collapsed on Monday, the association s tree was swept away among- the debris. Kohupaki is elated now. Among : some Maoris, her prestige has advanced ! astonishingly. Her story illustrates that the native mind has not yet broken away from superstition. The association? Its members are not sure what to think. There may have been something in Kohupaki’s spell, after all. The association cannot regard the Mount Eden disaster as natural so is acknowledging that Kohupaki is in a position to feel pleased with her success. The story behind the planting of the tree is full of interest. “Potiki-ropu” the association’s child —the young tree was christened when it was planted, with much ceremony, to commemorate the foundation of the Maori society in Auckland. But Kohupaki was seriously annoyed. She stated plainly to Te Akarana that the law of tapu had been violated. HERITAGE OF WAIOHUA / Kohupaki establishes her claim to the influence of tapu on Mount Eden on the ground that the mountain is the heritage of Waioliua, the tribe which originally held Auckland isthmus. The Waiohuans were tangata-wlienua—men lof the land. They were Hew Zealanders before the main flood of Maoris came pouring in from Tawhiti. Then cam© troublous times for Waiohua. Marauders from Kaipara, the new stock of Maori, swept through Auckland and many Waiohuan fortresses on the volcanic peaks of Auckland crumbled. ' _ . The Waiohua tribe had been defeated. Its tribal rights had been smashed by the virile conquerors, but remnants of -the older tribe persisted through the centuries. To-dav Kohupaki, who has Taianaki blood in her veins, says that she has the lineal- rights of Waiohua behind her. Tapu law, she says, is inviolable, and will always persist. When Te Akarana Association cooked food on Mount Eden, Kohupaki said that tg.pu was being broken. When the young totara was planted she was emphatic that she had placec. a makutu on it. , _, When fire swept over Mount Eden and the tree was not scathed, the association was jubilant. When the totara survived drought last year, the association was triurhphant. But now the question is: Has the tapu of Waiohua persisted through centuries of changes in New Zealand. Kohupaki -has had one success, but her makutu has not been effective in another way.Princess Te Puea, of Ngaruawahia. planted a purifl on Mount -Eden and called it “Tainui.” after the ancestral 1 canoe of‘her tribe. Kohupaki placed a spell on Tainui too, but the puriri is “ still standing in spite of the destruc- ' tion on the mountain.