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Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 December 1938, Page 2

(Recorded by J.H.S.' i.> imes-Age.”)

Hare Hongi, the greatest Maori authority, poet, and philosopher, living or dead, is still alive and in peaceful retirement at his home in Wellington. More than in all other Maori associations, did I value his friendly company at Hawera forty years ago. His “MaoriEnglish Tutor,” worth its weight in sterling silver, is long out of print. In token of our friendship he graciously permits me to freely quote from it.

I understood from him in our many casual meetings of long ago that his mother was a granddaughter of Hongi the famous war chief; that she was educated by a well-known French priest in the far north, and that she gave him the brain power, and the only education necessary to develop it. Let us begin with Hare’s disclosure of the ancient Maori’s knowledge of the heavenly bodies. The Maori name for the Sun is “Ra,” the same as in the most ancient languages in the world. Jupiter’s size caused him to be named “Kopu nui” (the great paunch). Saturn’s rings caused it to be named “Pare a rau” (the chaplet), or Whetu Karu pounamu (the green circles or widow’s wreath).

The Milky Way is “Mangaroa’,’ (the long shark). A double star of red hue is known as “Puanga rua” (the double flower). Canopus, so far distant that it does not appear to move, or accompany the stars of the Zodiac, is named “Aotahi” (the lonely one). The star in the Pleiades which disappears for many months is “Matariki” (the Wanderer). The vicinity of the Equator is “Rawhiti” (the crossing of the Sun). As the Maori had no optical instruments other than a splendid vision, we can only wonder how such knowledge came to him.