MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 August 1940, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

WAKA MAORI. (Recorded by o£ Palmerston North, tor the “Times-Age.”) The absence of reported casualties in the memorised Maori reports of their first voyage to Aotea roa, is probably due to the fact that they used the double canoes (taurua) propelled by double rows of paddles and sails. These pairs of vessels firmly lashed together, were unsinkable, and the safest ships ever known. Their upper decks (poya) left ample room for the paddlers below. Maori builders of canoes (kai hanga waka) frequently asked why we did not build double ships for safety. A shrine for the worship of the gods of the ocean, the stars, and the winds was placed on each upper deck. Outrigger candes tamo) were also favoured but neither kind survived the days of old. We cannot now realise Ihe planning and labour involved in the construction of a 70 foot canoe from the heart of a huge totara tree about ten feet in diameter, especially with their stone axes and rammers of hard flint. The first essentials were clearing land for whores (huts) and cultivation (mara). By a sense of the perpendicular (tu tonul they knew exactly the line in which the huge tree would fall.