Kupi's Voyage.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1920, Page 5 (Supplement)

Kupi's Voyage.

(By Mr. S. Percy Smitli, F.R.G.S.)

THE DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND. AXD INCIDENTALLY OF TARAXAKI.

If any well-taught schoolboy were asked the question: '"Who discovered New Zealand/" lie would certainly reply that it was Tasman, in 1042. But he would be wrong. There was a Polynesian navigator of fame who really discovered this country when Tasman's Dutch ancestors had not advanced very far in civilisation, and unquestionably were not such expert navigators as he who really did make the discovery. Tasman sailed from Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, in the middle of 1G42, with two small vessels, and, after visiting the Mauritius, directed his course to the south-east to continue the exploration of the terra incognita Australia, which we now call Australia. After coasting the land from Cape to Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land, after his friend, t'he Governor of Batavia, he sailed away to the cast in search of adventure, and struck tV.e west coast of New Zealand somewhere north of Greymouth, and thence , coasted along into Blind, or Tasman Bay, anchoring his two little craft off Separation Point. Here they were attacked bv tlie Maoris, members the extinct tribe of Ngati--1 umata-Kokiri, and lost throe or four of their crev, - . Finding they could obtain no water, owing to the hostility of the natives, Tasman sailed on, looking into Cook Strait, and then up tlie west coast of the North Island, seeing the land here and there, to Cape Maria Van Diemen (named after his sweetheart), and thence attempted a landing on the Three Kings Islands. But the natives here again prevented his landing, their fierce attitude, as depicted in a quaint illustration in the account of the voyage, struck terror into the hearts of the worthy Dutchmen. These natives were some of the Au-pouri tribe of the North Capo, who were in temporary exile, due to the excursions of their warlike neighbours, the Rartiwa tribe, who had defeated them in battle. Prom The Three Kings, Tasman sailed awav to Tonga, and thence home through Torres Straits, without once landed on the shores of the country he named after his ancestral home, Zealand. Now the very fact that Tasman twice saw inhabitants in this country proves that he did not discover it. Tasman's merit is that he made known the existence of New Zealand to the civilised world, though it was already well known all over the Pacific. We will now show who was the real discoverer, and base our narrative on iihe verbal records of the Maori institution named WhareRunanga, which was, in fact, a Maori college where the young chiefs and priests were taught their history and other things. .Tust about the time that Dieke Rollo, the Scandinavian, the great-grandfather of William the Conqueror of Normandy and England, was harrying the coasts of the Netherlands and ' France with his Viking crews, there flourished in the Eastern Pacific a noted navigator named Kupe, who had visited many of the groups of the Central Pacific, as well as Hawaii in the north. This was about the early years of the tenth century, when voyages were constantly undertaken by these Polynesian navigators to most parts of tlie Central Pacific, and more particularly between Samoa and Tahiti, where the intercommunication was constant. It, would be during these many voyages that the crews of the canoes would notice in the month of March the constant flight of certain birds, always _ coming from the southwest. The minute and accurate knowledge, common to all Polynesians, of Nature and especially of bird life, on which much of their sustenance depended, would immediately demonstrate to I them that these were land-birds, and not sea-birds. And, if so, the conclusion that land lay to the south-west was an inevitable one. We all know that the kuaka, or godwit, migrates every autumn via the Western Pacific, to pass the northern summer in Siberia. We also know that the koheperoa, or long-tailed cuckoo, leaves New Zealand in March to winter in Samoa, Rarotonga, Tahiti and other islands. These were the land-birds that these Polynesian sailors would so often see on their annual flight, and by the course they took would certainly conclude that tliere was land to the 6outh-west.

The home of Kupe was Ba'iatea, Island, of The Society Group, called by Maoris and Karotongans Bangiatea. Some time in the early part of the tenth century Kupe and his family were on a visit to Rarotonga, situated some 500 miles south-west of Ea'iatea, when circumstances started him on a voyage of discovery in his canoe, Mata-hou-raa, accompanied by his relative, Ngake, in command of a second canoe named Ta-whiri-kura. As is usual in the many accounts we have of the numerous voyaged made by these Polynesian navigators, no detail is recorded aa to events, on the voyage, until one morning in the month of November, Kupe's wife, looking ahead, beheld some clouds hanging over the land. She said: "Behold the aotea (the white cloud)! We have arrived." These were the clouds over the ranges lying between Victoria Valley, Kaitaia and Hokianga, and from this lady's exclamation comes the name of New Zealand—Aotea-roa, the latter part of the word being added by Kupe when he found how largo a land it was they had discovered. It means "The Long White Cloud." From the place of discovery, the voyagers proceeded down the east coast, eventually entering Wellington Harbor, where Somes Island was named Matin, and Ward Island, llnkaro, after two of Kupe's daughters. From there they went to Poririwi and renewed their stores, giving names to place* on the coast. Thence, crossing the Straits, they passed through Tory Channel, and so on round Cape Farewell, and down the west coast of the South Island, calling in at Arahura, near Hokitika, where they procured some greenstone, which they took ba;k with them to the Eastern Pacific. At the South-west Cape they saw many seals. Then, passing through Fovea nx Strait, they coasted up it as far as Kau-arapawa (some fifteen miles from the mouth), where one of the crew of that name was drowned. From there they went on to Patea River, where Kupe was struck by the excellence of the soil, which he carefully examined. Passing onward up the coast they

tivo describes as a inaunga liuka, or snowy mountain, and so on to Ilokianga, the full name of whicli is Te Hokianga 0 Kupe (the returning place of Kupe). Here they replenished their stores by preserving and drying fish, birds and probably fern root, together with water which they carried in baga made of the bull-keto 9»a.weed.

The narrative frequently mentions that the explorers constantly sought for signs of man, but always failed. No smoke nor sign of cultivation or dwellings was seen. Kupe reported that the only "people" he saw were the kokako birds, who answered his call by saying "ko, ko, ko-ka-ko."

In the voyage to New Zealand the explorers had a, large objective—a long extent of coast to strike. But in returning to Eastern Polynesia they had but a few islands in front of them, and therefore the .fact that they struck Rarotonga correctly only adds to the marvel of the powers of these splendid navigators. On reaching his home at Ra'iatea, Kupe gave a full account of his voyage, and by request went to Tahiti, some 130 miles to the east, to tell the people there of his discoveries. His report induced a desire in many people to migrate to the new land, but it was not until some three centuries had elapsed that the first settlement of Eastern Polynesian people, under Toi-te-lmatahi, took place, when the Bay of Plenty was occupied. Kupe left in the Maori colleges accurate directions of the course from Rarotonga to New Zealand—"ln the month of November let the course be a little to the right of the setting sun, moon and Venus," (i.e., a little to the north of S.W. by W., which is the true direction). But in the meantime, probably not long after the departure of Kupe," parts of the North Island had been settled by a people who probably came from the Western Pacific, and had an admixture of Melanesian blood in them. When Toi-te-huatahi arrived, about 1250, these people had spread from Nga-motu, near New Plymouth, south as far as Waingongoro, and north to the North Cape, and into the Bay of Plenty. Their own account of themselves, as related to the Maori historians, was that six canoea were out fishing when a strong westerly gale came on and blew them away before it. Evidently their course was afterwards southerly, for the account says these six canoes made the land at Nga-motu, "coming from the southwest." These Tangata-whenua, as they are called (the aboriginal inhabitants') were the ancestors of the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands. After the descendants of Toi-te-huatnhi had become numerous in the land, largely by taking the women of the aborigines, they absorbed and exterminated the early settlers, The Tai-tuwhero branch was defeated in battle at Urenui, driven to sea, where they were followed to Durville Island, across the Straits, by ta Tini-o-awa (ancestors of the Ngati-awa tribe). At that island, the aborigines were again heavily defeated, and thence departed for the Chatham Islands. This was somewhere about the year 1175. The great migration of Eastern Polynesians from Tahiti and the adjacent islands in the six celebrated canoes arrived here about 1350, of whom Turi, of the Aotea canoe, was the principal man, and who settled at Patea. The descendants of Turi and his crew are the people now living from New Plymouth to Waitotara.