Sailing into the Setting Sun

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 1, 18 July 1930, Page 2

Sailing into the

Setting Sun

And Kupe Returned to of the Land of the

| ESS than two hundred years ago, Abel Tasman, looking for the limits of New Holland, as . was then called, brought news of a country of high mountains. dense forests and warlike natives to the Old World. Then came Cook and learned more © -about this country. He had passed through the Pacific, faced innurnerable difficulties, and rediscovered this isolated country, and a people who knew not the use of the sailing ship, nor the compass, nor firearms. But they had courage and strengththey were not a retrograde native people that the white men were encountering in the age of colonisation, They were the Maori-the greatesc of all primitive peoples. After fifty years of strife and unhappiness, during which time forest

became pasture land and the mountains bare, while pas became strangely empty and the European settlements grew, the Maori was understood. The learning that had given this white race possession of the world becarne useftil in the possession of the Maori; and so his story was unfolded.: yo?

Bevonp the restless waters that engulf the enact of these lonely isles is Hawaiki, the gathering place of souls.

It: is.not clear what islands or countries constituted Hawaiki, but it is generally regardedas the mythical _ home of ‘the Maori. -Many, many. generations back- " the Maori took.pride in counting. back his generations, cand he had a prodigious memory-the warriors of

Hawaiki longed for fresh hunting and fishing grounds; furthermore, their numbers were increasing and their land was small. ‘And so they sailed out in many directions, and discovered many islands. They even visited a land away to the south. "A foggy, misty and dark place not shone upon by the sun, where there were waves three times as big as anything seen elsewhere, a goddess whose long hair waves about in the waters and on the surface of the sea, a deceitful animal who dives to great depths, and things like rocks whose summits pierce the skies, but are completely bare and without any vegetation on them." And these wonderful things were set in a land where the sea was covered with "stuff like thick fat or beaten white arrowroot." So the Maori in his frail craft reached a land which the European in his steel ships and aided with the science of a thousand years was later to enter and describe these same things to the world through a wonderful mouthpiece. These explorations took place before 1000 A.D. Txz craft of these explorers were simple. The largest were probably 150 feet long. Others were double, and some had outrigging. They were paddled, and not propelled with long oars like those of their European contemporaries-the Normans. From Hawaiki came Kupe. Daring the perils of the ocean, he visited island after island in the south seas, always eager, anxious, ambitious. In his double canoe, in which we would barely dare to cross Cook Strait, he came as far down as the Kermadec Group. Dauntless of the great unknown ahead of him, he sailed on, and found a land, a rich land, with its waters teeming with fish, with huge ‘wingless birds, where there was no enemy to disturb. the serenity of a quiet atmosphere. Surely here the gods who had brought them so far could be appeased and would favour them. Kupe, if tradition can be relied on, citcumnavigated the land of "the long white cloud, Ao-tea-roa, and sailed back to Hawaiki.to tell them of the rich he had found-out into the setting sun. But Kupe was not alone in his discoveries, and in the interval of time before the migration, the first settlers came to the coast of the land of "the long white cloud." From the neighbouring islands, these long double canoes, propelled with nought but a crazy sail or

( Hawaiki and told them Long White Cloud the strong limbs of the braves, brought people. Little is known of these tangata-whenua, as they were called. They disappeared when the Maori eventually came from Hawaiki. . Soon after the Normans landed in Britain, "canoe races were being held in Tahiti, when one of the canoes became separated and fond its way to a neighbouring island, there to wait a seasonable. return. In the meantime another canoe had set off in search of the missing crew, and, passing the island, sailed south, and eventually found the land of "the long white cloud" that Kupe had told of. In the meantime, the first canoe, returning to Tahiti, set off to seek the searchers. They found them-in Ao-tea-roa. And these were the first settlers from Hawaiki. They were followed by other adven-

turous immigrants, who settled in scattered parts of the island. Like seeds scattered in a

fertile land, these grew to plants,

and the plants to colonies: and so the tribes came to be. But as -yet there had been no serious attempts at migration from Hawaiki. But preparations were being made. Huge canoes were

hollowed out, calabashes, in which water and dried provisions were to be carried, were accumulated. The more daring spirits of the islands, spurred on by the tales of the beautiful land of "the long white cloud" that lay beyond the setting sun, prepared for the great voyage. What was ahead of. them, they knew not. But we know that they were attempting the great Pacific in craft that even Columbus would have scorned, and in which his men refused to venture ou of the sight of the shores of Spain. The great canoes from which the Maori proudly claims descent, the "Tainui," "Takitimu,’ "Tokomaru," and "Matatua" were gradually built and equipped for the long trip. Tradition even now tells of how the huge trees from which these craft were hewn were felled, and with religious rites prepared for ~ migration. Seeds, and even ‘animals, were collected, for it .was told that this land was quiet and that there was little animal food. And so the first fleet was ready for the long voyage. . But before the main fleet was ready the "Aotea" canoe was well on the way. A dispute had been the cause of, this, and in a very little time

the migrants were underway. As was’ usual on these journeys, the route was via several of the islands, Rarotonga being the last point : called at. There is evidence to show that ‘there was not a great déal of privation on this and like trips. "oR "T aev landed in. Tamaki Bay, in the Auck- : land harbour, but they did not remain here. Crossing the peninsula, A they sailed south, and, landing in Aotea harbour, they travelled overland, past the great lonely mountain with the white top, and finally saw..2 wide, slow-flowing river, and recognised it as the one Kupe had dex, : scribed which flowed into the setting sun. It was the Patea, and these Maoris settled here and built their pas and cultivated the ground. Then this main fleet, which, according to the most reliable account, _ left only after considerable preparation, came to the shores. *°Without compass or other exact navigation instruments, with only a kind | of dead-reckoning, these old-time sailors made marvellously accurate sailing. Their canoes would make considerable leeway, they had_so little hold in the water, but they would, by experience, learn to allow: for this. No doubt some vessels over-ran their course; no doubt may

were lost; we only hear of the successful voy-.

agers. But that they" could make | de-' curate sailing .

| given favourable ‘conditions, and that not alone on the far-stretching high coast of New Zealand, but on the return voyages. to small islands, is a fact

‘that arouses a profound ‘respect for ‘the sailoring genius of our Maori forefathers. .

"it must have needed stout hearts . and the true adventurous spitit to sail thus far out of the way of inter-island voyagings, keeping southward for a. colder land and a ‘land where the spontaneously, growing foods. of the tropics. did not exist. Close-hauled to | : the: strong roaring Trades, they held daunt‘lessly on their way across the vast expanse of: blue, a two-thousand-miles voyage, keep-

ing watch and -watch like any pakeha crew of to-day. They saw many a wonderful sight of the deep-the phosphorescent: sea, where every-. -_

thing seemed on fire; the play of lightning about them in

the thunder squalls; menacing -waterspouts that joined sea and cloud. They ‘saw the creatures of the ocean as only the. sailing-

craft-man sees them. The great whale went. majestically by Plunging along his mighty course alone — Into the watery waste unknown. Water and food were problems that required much forethought and preparation. Water was carried in taha‘or calabashes of the hue gourd. The

seed of this vegetable was sown in New Zealand, and we have seen the

taha, or kiaka, in use in back country villaces even up ‘to a few years ago.

Coconuts in generous quantity were also stowed aboard for food as well ‘as. drink. Sometimes, when long spells of calms affiicted the ‘voyagers, food ran short, and slaves were killed

for the sustenance of their owners. But. as a rule, it may be taken that

sufficient sea-stock was laid in to last the vovagers the usual dura-

tion of a voyage, about a month." . *fhe migrants from the main fleet landed at different points and at widely different dates.

Each band sought out an empty terrstory for itself and out of these grew the tribes and sub-tribes. They forgot much about Hawaiki, they changed. The food was. different, they used the phormium tenax to make their clothes and-so they dressed differently; there were no wild animals arid they had _to trap birds or catch fish, and they ate

Tdifferently and:grew different. In fact, they forgot from where they had come, but the chiefs told them they come from

Hawaiki-but they forgot where Hawaiki was and now Hawaiki cannot be found. Because’ some

of the genealogies. that the inhabitants of Hawaii, Savaii and

other islands in the vicinity correspond

forty generations back, it is thought that Hawaii was Hawaiki.

Tradition dies hard. Even now the older Maoris, on being encouraged to talk of the past, tell in convincine and picturesque detail

of the chief whose canoe was upset in the southern seas and who swam

all the way to Ao-tea-roa; of the. chief who, seeing the crimson

rata in full bloom, cast his own coronet aside. saying that he

would get a new crown in the new land: of another

who, dropping his axe over- . board muttered

incantations

so strong that the waters. divided and returned his axe. This is true, because the reef is there to-day!

T any were sailors, fishermen and warriors, and although they will not again cross the Pacific-nor even the straits in their double canoes which they have forgotten how to make-and will never again pull a drag net a mile long, nor raid, kill and eat a neighbouring tribe, they have not lost their arts. Watch a native going down a flooded river in a frail canoe, see him eeling, or remember how he went over the top in 1918 !

His wisdom and skill is traditional, but it showed signs of declining when civilisation reached him and its worst evils were more pleasurable than its good. Squalor, insanitation, bad food, the firearms and liquor of the white man sent him

rapidly down hill. Disease, in particular galloping consumption, swept the ranks of the trace that through sheer strength and ability, had conquered an ocean of eight thousand

miles. The pas that had effectively resisted the pakeha, became empty and the timbers rotted. Their trophies were carried into the museums of the white man.

But the very agent that had caused this decline, was responsible for its rise. The learning of civilisation roused dormant wisdom and the Maori produced statesmen that the British Empiré was honoured to call their own. _ The squalor was forbidden, the pas were cleaned. The Maori was properly clothed and he progressed and his numbers increased, "They are not lost Nor can annihilation Blight them all. As a noble war canoe Though broken, partly wrecked Can be renewed

Sa, O my people, rise."

Maori

Chant