A TANIWHA.

Waikato Argus, Volume VII, Issue 491, 23 September 1899, Page 2

A TANIWHA.

Mr C. C. Cox sends us the following account of the capture of a " Tauiwha" by the Raglan natives on Wednesday. Its dimensions are about 14 or 15 feet long and about two or three feet thick. It has tremendous teeth and snaps a stout tea-tree stick with the greatest ease. Mr Cox believes it to be a species of the sea lion. The natives have written their version of the affair. I enolose a translation of the statment, made by Mr Gilmour. The natives have a tradition that thesfl Taniwha guided their ancestors to the shores of New Zealand, and believe that the one thoy have captured has come to meet the spirit of the old chief who has just departed this life. Mr Cox adds there are hundreds of natives at Raglan attending the tangi, and that there is great excitement amongst them, They are feeding the monster with birds and fishes, and I learu that they purpose either to fenee off a portion of the beech so that it can have a swim, or to bring it to Waikato for exhibition if they can get a conveyance in which to transport it.

The following is the translation of the Maori accouut referred to above : " During the assemblage of natives here cryinp over the remains of an old man of high rank and power, named Wetini Mahikai, of the Tainui tribe, who could trace back to the advent of his ancestors in the Tainui cauoe, who came from Hawaiki (brought by the Taniwha through the big waves of the ocean). Many of these Taniwhas made their appearance on shore ; one of them came inland about five chains and was captured by the natives (after incautations had been performed over it by an old Tohunga by name Mik« Tia). The balance of- the troop escaped to the ocean."