MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1938, Page 10

MAORI MEMORIES

ARRIVAL OF THE MAORI. (Recorded by J.H.S. for "Times-Age.”) The final stage of the eight canoes which brought the Maoris to New Zealand about 1300 or 1350 is judged by their memorised genealogies. Their accuracy is shown by the fact that each generation for 600 years corresponds with that of every other tribe throughout New Zealand. All tribal memories agree that their marvellous canoes were hewn by means of greenstone axes procured in New Zealand on some previous voyage. The successive flocks of kuaka (godwits) returning from Siberia were at once the motive and the unerring guide for these wonderful voyagers. In periods of storm instinctively avoided by the birds, the sailors were directed by the sun, moon and stars, a more than primitive knowledge of which was undoubtedly derived from some unknown civilisation from which they sprang.

Maori mythology is based upon legends which bear features of similarity to the Creation in the Book of Genesis, the principal difference being that they believed more than one deity formed the various elements. Rangi of the sky and Papa of the earth with their children dwelt in darkness, until Marama (light) separated them, using Tane (God of Forest) to effect day and night for work and rest.

The Maori gods had human passions like those of ancient Greece and Rome. They did not believe in the resurrection of the body, and were convinced that men were punished by their sins, not for them. They believed that their Ariki (High Priest) conversed with the spirits of the Good Dead.