MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1939, Page 8

MAORI MEMORIES

WHENUA (LAND).

(Recorded by J.H.S. tor “Times-Age.”) The Maori sentiment regarding the occupation and rights of possession of land has never yet been clearly defined. Possibly Mana (influence) and Tapu (Sacred rights) had more to do with ownership, tribal, family, or personal than any other consideration. The most enlightening and significant remark- made on this subject was the reply to a long and eloquent appeal made by Sir George Grey who pleaded with the Maori people at Ngaruawahia to allow the Pakeha to make roads and open up the forest lands for'use and occupation. The old Maori orator con',tented' himself and satisfied his audience' of 2000 with ten words'—“The land ’is a living thing—men are but mortal,” and as a result the Maori Wars ensued.

There are but three reliable sources from which we can obtain information concerning the unwritten Maori law of land tenure: —

(1) Maori stories in which this question is incidentally mentioned. (2) From this many proverbs or aphorisms always spoken in precisely similar words.

(3) From investigations in our Native Land Court, where the original ownership is in question between two families or-tribes.

The origin of ownership is traced to the first arrival of the canoes when the nine chiefs, each with his family, settled at Taupo, Whanganui, Rotorua, Mercury Bay, Cape Colville, Bay of Islands, or Kaipara.

Tangata Nana (owner) as the chief or the family who first stepped ashore, an act which conferred his mana (authority) as an undisputed title to so much of the land as his people could use.