The Maori

THE first coming of native peoples to the land later to be known as New Zealand is a matter for conjecture, not definite statement. Though we cannot say when they came nor whence, we know that there were native settlers in New Zea­land long before the well-remembered ancestors pf present-day Maori arrived in their fleet of canoes roughly 600 years ago.

These ancestors were people of Polynesian blood. Polynesian is a word taken from the Greek. It means ‘ many islands,’ and it is the name scientists give to the peoples who live on all those Pacific islands which lie within the bounds of an imaginary triangle whose sides join Hawaii in the north, New Zealand in the south, and Easter Island in the east. From one of these islands the Polynesian sea rover, Kupe, set sail about 950 A.D. He discovered New Zealand and returned to his homeland, reporting that he had seen there definite signs of human habitation. He gave his people the sailing directions for reaching the new country far to the south.

Much later, perhaps about 1150 A.D., a chief named Toi set out from Tahiti to search for his grandson who had been blown out to sea. Toi sailed to Rarotonga. From there he followed Kupe’s instructions to keep a little to the right of the setting sun by day and to steer by Venus at night. Toi finally landed at Whakatane. Later he was joined by his grandson who in turn had set out to search for the searcher. Toi and his people intermarried with the native people already in New Zealand. They lived on forest products and fern roots. They evidently kept in close touch with their kin in Tahiti, for when the great fleet of Polynesian canoes set out for New Zealand about 1350 A.D., the people on board knew exactly what their destination was.

This exodus from Tahiti was a well-planned migration by fearless, sea-loving people. Tahiti at this time was over-populated. Tribes were fighting each other for what food was available. To get away from civil war and settle peacefully in a southern land must have seemed an ideal solution to a difficult situation. Large canoes were heavily laden with people and food—food for the voyage, cultivable plants, and seeds for the new land. Each canoe sailed under a captain. He was helped by a priest or navigator who kept the canoe to her course. Eleven days from Tahiti, nine days from Rarotonga, should have brought the canoes to New Zealand. Probably many of the canoes that set sail were lost for ever on the wide Pacific. But many of the canoes made safe landfalls in the land called Ao-tea-roa, Long White Cloud. Arawa, Aotea, Mataatua, Tainui, Tokomani, are the famous names of some of these canoes. From members of the crews of these canoes the today is proud to trace his descent.