THE SAURIAN MONSTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2236, 6 November 1886, Page 3

THE SAURIAN MONSTER.

Mr E. Trfgkar vmttsas follows to the Wellingtou Press .-—Having read an interesting snb-leader in your piper of this evening on the subject of the alligator in Waikato, I shall ft' el obliged if you will kindly permit me to write a few lines on this head, as I have devoted much thought and reading to the consideration of the question as^ to the real existence of a monster saurian in New Zealand. In favour, of the presence of such creatures, there are the numerous legends (alluded to by you) told by the natives as to the great lizards" and taniwln, this evidence being Incited up by the important testimony of the first diseoveieis as to these stot ies being then current, and also by the lefeicuces as to names, incidents, etc , to be found in the most ancient native songs. The main point is. of course, whether these land and water lizards had been seen in New Zealand, or wero mere traditional memones. The general impression among our tailiest settlers was that natives then living (or certainly their grandfathers) had seen them. A gentlemau who had resided in New Zealand for more thau fifty years (engaged in native work) wrote to me recently from Auckland, saying : "I've certainly considered that somewhere in the interior of the country the allitixtor existed ; the descriptions were much too minute and graphic, too exact in detail to lender doubt on the subject possible." But this minuteness of description is an essential part of every Maoii tradition, and is really the weak point in this style of narrative, for we find the actions, &c\, however absurd and impossible, of their gods and hcioes related with as much faithfulness to small p;u tiouUrs, and exactness af expiession, as if an adventure of yesteiday or a tale of the last war was beiug told. I feel convinced that if we wish to a i rive at the real value of the thaditionary evidence we o<ui otdy do so by the "comparative method ; ' by considering the Maori not is a New Zvalander, but .is a member of the great Polynesian race. If, outside New Zealand, amoni; all branches of this widely spread and remarkable people, we mid the .same story, then tlu- piobabihty Is that the traditions are older tiian tlv migration hither, and that they hove been merely loeilisod in the manner usual with all ie^e-nda in meiy land. I will not trespass on your good-nature by asking yoivto reprint any of the curious Maori legends on this subject ; the slaying of thh gieat dragou '• Hotupuku " was told (in Maoii) by Sir Geome Grey in, his 11 Poljii'sian Mythology," and was translated by Mr Colenso, .F.K.S., in the '' transactions of the New Zealand insti tu(o,"so that this, and similar stories there printed, aie within the easy reach of your re-ydeis wiio may be inteuisted^ in this subject But I will ask you to find space for the following short quotations from a woik not easily procuied, Maiinci's "Tqngi IsUnds." Mr Marnier, who wa* spared tiotn the massacre of a crew in Tongo, and who lived among the nat ; \es some years, published on ! his return to England a- verj interesting and clever account of the Tongan people, language, traditions, &c. Speaking of a monster lizard of which the story was related to him, he gives, as the words of the natne nanator, the following :—*' ln fcnis wa Y lie na( * cle ' stroyed nine people at different places, pai tly on this islaud, and partly on another island close in the neighbourhood, when an old man, who had observed that he came on shore every morning at one particular place near the lake, in which he aftei wards concealed himself, boldly devised a method to destroy him. Between the beach and the lake was a Lirge/c7/« tree ; and the old man's plan was thid : to procure a lqng rope, and [•assing It over a strong branch of this tree, to let one end, at which there was a i mining noose, hang near the ground, .\hilst the other end was to be in the possession of about fourteen or fifteen sliong men concealed in high grass. The old man, who was a staunch wairior, and well fitted for such a perilous task, having engaged the solemn contedeiates co act their paits with steadiness and tHelily, nndeitook to walk about the beach at the time the. monster was to be expected, and at his approach to recede >ehind the noose; thiough which the animal must neeessaiily pas 3 his head to lay hold of him ; :it which moment he would call out to them to pull the rope and nposs .him- tight. Mattets being thus idjiisted, the expected enemy made his appearance, ran towards the old man, «ho took his station behind the noose, xnd the moment the animal put his jaws through it, r he sprang back and gave the appmitpd signal ; instantly the cord was diawn tight and their piey was caught with his head and one paw through the noose ; they soon secured the ropu, and mnuing up, beat him about the head and pierf*! n,<n wherever thpy could, till at length, a ter much woik, they killed him. YV'limi their toil was over,' the nist thin,: they thought ot — for these , »Ojde have \ strange genius.— was to try il t.e was goo^l to eat; they accordingly >_:ut linn up, and selecting those parts w hich they thcught the tendeie*t they i) ik"d a hiiilicicnt quantity, and finding t \eiy good made a hearty meal. Cow \lonla (the chief) saw the bnnes of this ariin.il, from the de»cnption of which, as wllas what he hid heard concerning tlui liviuy animal, Mr Manner suppos s that it must have been a cioco>lile that by some accident had made its way fiom the Kast Indies," Now this exhibits the most singular pirelleliMii with the New Zealand legends of H)tupnkn, &o ; the gieat lizard, the ioiic en ire, the decoding the beast into the bj.no, the feast afterwards, &c, aru t>ll exactly coincident. Jfi\eu the monstuS bone? being seen by the chief has its ujmalcnt lieie in New Zealand, wher.' Mr Coionsu, looking as a scentisl should for piactic.il proofs, found that the traditional skeleton of the R/>torua monster was an outcrop of calcite rock. I ha\e given this Toucan stoty a3 a -ample ot very many I have collected from Hawaii, Samoa, the Marquesas, Ac , as to the conflict of hero and lizard. ! h.it the relation of any such legends pioves tho local existence of the great Saurian is not to be believed ; however circumstantial and minute the I details the regends should be considered exactly in the way in which educated men receive the tale of the "Dragon of Wantley," supposed to be slain by More at Warncliff, in Yorkshire • of St\ ! George's dragon, killed at Dragon Hill, in Berkshire ; that is to say, the stories are historically valuable in enabling us know what was the mental condition of people in days when such anecdotes could he regarded as being true; and ethnologically valuable as ottering strong presumptive evidence that the ancestors of such people once lived in a couutry where the deadly forms of reptile life were known ; but never as of value in considering the question as to the dragon being an inhabitant of England. This is equally, I believe, the value of the Polynesian folk-tales ; without actually denying (to deny would be foolish) that alligators exist, or once existed in New Zealand, the balance of judgment would seem to lean strongly to the idea that these stories have been brought to the South Seas from the far-off cradle of the Maori race whenever that may be.

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