MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1938, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

NOHEA (WHENCE.) (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) Captain Cook wrote "The language of the South Sea Islands and New Zealand is proof that they have one source and one origin; but even time may never discover where this is.” This forecast is still thought to be not very wide of the mark. The actual spot from which the Maoris started for New Zealand does not seem to have been known. Percy Smith in his book "Hawa Iki” fixes the position as the group of islands around Tahiti. i Kawasi, a Japanese student at Massey College for two years, has at last hit upon a very simple solution of this century-old problem. After obtaining from me a list of 1000 Maori place names, with their probable meanings or origin, he declared that they corresponded with the Japanese place names and their significance in at least 60 per cent of those listed, thus proving his theory that the Japanese and the Maori languages had one original source. From this, we must assume that these two nations came from one source, the Japanese going North to their humid, sultry climate and losing in stature, the Maoris coming South to this genial land and gaining size. In every legend of the Maori it is agreed that “Hawa Iki” was the source from which they sprang. The name applied to Java by its larger neighbour Sumatra, always has been “Little Java.” The Maori tongue cannot pronounce the letter J, which is therefore omitted from his alphabet. His pronunciation of the name is Hawa, and Iki is his equivalent for little, hence Hawa Iki is undoubtedly Little Java, the original home of the Maori and the Japs. It will be of great interest to us when Kawasi publishes the result of his inquiries on this controversial subject.