COURAGEOUS SWIMMERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 873, 27 April 1956, Page 15

COURAGEOUS SWIMMERS

N a series of talks now being heard in Women’s Hour from all X stations and later to be heard from Commercial stations, Celia Manson (below) tells the stories of famous swims made in New Zealand’s early history. The series, entitled They. Swam for Dear Life, was written by Mrs. Manson, and begins with the story of a Maori princess named Harata and the man she loved, the white captain of a schooner. Harata lived at Paraiti, a pa close to where the town

of Napier now stands, and her father | was a very important chief. He was | such an important chief that when it became obvious to the elders that Harata was deeply interested in the visiting traders they decided to marry her as quickly as possible to one of her own Tace, a chief named Renata. Hareta had to submit to being guarded day and night while preparations for the marriage took place, and Alexander, her pakeha lover, was barred from the pa. But the Maori elders did not allow for the courage and determination that Harata now displayed. She would wait till the guards relaxed their vigilance, and when that moment arrived, her plan was to escape and swim to where her lover’s schooner trode at anchor. The moment came eventually, at a time when there were no canoes available to pursue her, and Harata set out on the exhausting twomile swim that was to end in the arms of her lover. Other talks in this series tell of the famous seven-mile swim from Kapiti to the mainland made by Rau-O-Te-Rangi, grandmother of Sir Maui Pomare;‘of a life-saving feat performed by a Maori woman in Akaroa Harbour; the legendaty tale of Hine Popo, who swam the sea of Raukawa (Cook Strait); and that most beautiful of Maori legends," the story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai. The last talk, unlike the others, is about a pakeha swimmer, Captain Jacky Love, and how he swam under fire in New Plymouth Harbour to save the Australian ship Currency Lass.