As for all New Zealand, education for the Maori is compulsory up to the age of 15 years. Although this is a great advance in the battle for literacy there are still certain weaknesses. Regular attendance at school is not always encouraged by parents when families are large and wages are high and easily obtained. Offsetting this to some extent is the fact that where a Maori child's home environment is stable (no overcrowding, adequate income, no division of parental control) much of the European competitive instinct for examination success impresses itself upon him too. On the whole, however, Maori morale and performance appear to be low. It is only slowly being realised by the Maori that the immature and poorly equipped early school leaver, who so often becomes a fickle employee, remains a loss economically and socially to the community. In an increasing population with a very rapidly increasing Maori minority, this social maladjustment may contribute much to racial misunderstandings and perpetuate inequalities. For this reason a Maori Education Foundation Fund was established in 1961 to help the Maori to take greater advantage of the educational facilities which New Zealand offers than has been the case in the past.

by Ian Hugh Kawharu, M.A.(CANTAB.), B.SC.(N.Z.), B.LITT., D.PHIL.(OXON.), F.A.O. Research Fellow, University of Auckland.

• Maori-European Standards of Health, Department of Health (1960)
• Report on the Department of Maori Affairs, Hunn, J. K. (1960)
• A Survey of New Zealand Population, Ministry of Works (1960)
• Maori Youth, Ausubel, D. P. (1961).

As with much else concerning the Maori, there is little information of a national coverage to indicate the state of his housing and his accommodation needs in general. But the 1961 census showed that the average Maori house contained 4·1 rooms occupied by 5·5 people, whereas the average non-Maori house had 4·9 rooms occupied by 3·5 people. It has been estimated that 30 per cent of the Maori people live in grossly overcrowded conditions, mainly in Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, East Coast, and urban Auckland.

Urban housing in particular is becoming a vexed question for administrators and social workers, as well as for the Maori himself. It is a question which revolves around two aspects of the urban (Maori) population structure: (a) the extreme rapidity with which it is growing, due mainly to immigration; and (b) its youth, and therefore the high percentage of single individuals, childless couples, and small-sized families.

It is generally agreed that a youthful, insecure, and vocationally ill-equipped sector of the population should be provided with sound accommodation at the outset if there is to be any hope of its surviving the difficulties of adaptation to urban life.

While attention has repeatedly been addressed to this problem, no solution is yet apparent. It is a situation, furthermore, which is deteriorating in proportion to the rate in which apartment house areas are being rezoned and taken over for industry, and to the total increase in demand for such accommodation.

Any discussion of the distribution of the Maori population invites comment on the manner of their employment.

As is shown from the map, the concentrations of Maori population are at a distance from the centres of employment, a fact which is already causing some anxiety because of the high rate of increase in the rural Maori labour force – one even now with some underemployment. Concern at the trend was shown as long ago as 1948 when an inter-departmental (Government) committee discussed the pros and cons of decentralising industry. The basis of the proposal was the assumption that the rural labour force would, by the nature of its composition, be more stable than one recruited in the towns. But the major difficulty then, as now, was the uneconomic process of moving raw materials from the centres of distribution to the rural labour, and the return of the product back to the centres of consumption. The alternative, administrative action, would involve meeting the accommodation and social needs of some several thousand migrants each year, and this in turn would create new social problems in urban areas.

It is difficult to gauge changes in the occupational distribution of the Maori people because statistics kept by Government Departments at various times lack a common base. For all that, the statistics are a sound enough guide to show that between 1936 and 1956 primary industry and secondary industry have changed places as avenues of employment. The number of Maoris engaged in farming, etc., has fallen from 45·30 per cent, to 2676 per cent in 20 years, while the number of Maoris engaged as craftsmen, production process workers, etc., has increased from 36·86 per cent to 4190 per cent.

A comparison between Maori and European incomes (including women) taken from the 1961 census is also worthy of some note:

Yet another consideration is the distribution of population, and in this respect that of the Maori displays its own marked characteristics. To begin with, some 96 per cent of the Maori people live in the North Island, while only in Auckland (72 per cent of the Maori total), Hawke's Bay, and Wellington provincial districts do they form a significant element. Again, from the point of view of their distribution, the increase during recent decades has two noteworthy aspects. First of all, there is the very considerable increase, both proportionate and absolute, in the numbers living in urban areas (34·4 per cent of the Maori total). According to the 1961 census the Maori outnumbered the non-Maori in five counties, while in four more they constituted 40–50 per cent of the total. Further than this, however, is the fact that their greatest concentration was not necessarily in those counties in which they were dominant; in fact, by far the greatest number in one place was in the Auckland urban area (19,847).

Large-scale movement of the Maori into the bigger towns first became apparent during the 1936–45 intercensal period and has continued at a fast pace since. Nevertheless, in sum, the proportion of Maori to the total population (1961) remains small, except in a few boroughs and cities such as Opotiki (38 per cent), Rotorua (21 per cent), and Auckland (5·2 per cent).

Although there is clear evidence of an increase in the Maori population, it seems to have been largely in spite of, rather than because of, its health record. In comparison with the European the Maori performance has been poor. Nevertheless, it is important to add that it is a steadily improving one, as is indicated by the diminishing death rate.

Infectious and epidemic diseases continue to exact a heavy toll among the younger age groups (for example, the death rate from tuberculosis is some nine times the European rate) while these and degenerative diseases in general take a greater toll among Maoris than among Europeans in the middle-age and older groups, a fact which tends to be obscured by present-day small numbers.

Reasons currently given in explanation of Maori lower levels of health are based upon the frequent overcrowding, inferior sanitation, hygiene and water supply, and poor nutrition.

A second set of factors correlated with the general health standards of the Maori, and particularly with his higher death rate, is his proneness to serious accidents. Once again, causes are obscure, but the obvious ones include occupational hazards for the labouring majority and carelessness among groups, for the Maori is especially gregarious.

According to the census of Maori Population and Dwellings, issued by the Department of Statistics in 1964, the estimated Maori population at 18 April 1961 was 167,086, and the European, 2,247,898 – a ratio of 14:1 in favour of the European. There were, however, 3,326 persons aged 65 and over in the Maori total as against 208,649 in the national total, thus giving a ratio of 62·7:1 in favour of the European. These figures underline the widely understood fact that there are radical differences in absolute numbers and in the age structures of the Maori and European sectors of the New Zealand population. In particular, they summarise, as it were, the changing fortunes of the Maori people over the better part of the last 150 years. Inter-tribal wars and wars with the European, plus the ravages of introduced epidemic and infectious diseases, had cut their numbers by upwards of two-thirds – to some 40,000 by the close of the nineteenth century. Subsequent improvements in the birthrate and a continued reduction in the death rate have combined to give a total population which today is greater in number than ever before.

Further factors of importance are, first, that there is a high percentage in the younger age groups, and, secondly, that there are relatively few in the older. Again, in terms of growth, the product of these factors has resulted in a current rate of population increase of 38·1 per 1,000 (cf. 21 per 1,000 for the total population of New Zealand). What this in turn indicates is of some moment for by the year 2000 the Maori population may well total 700,000 and comprise 14 per cent of the New Zealand total, as against that of 7·4 per cent in 1961.

Some modification may be expected in such predictions, based on the assumption that the Maori age structure will slowly approximate to that of the total; that is, there will be some fall in the birthrate and some increase in the crude death rate, in proportion perhaps to the rise in living standards and to an increase in the numbers occupying the older age groups. But it does seem certain that the Maori will increase, both in numbers and in proportion to the total population, for many decades yet.

Relevant to an analysis of the Maori population is the question of what, in fact, constitutes a Maori. For present census purposes he is one who states that he has half or more Maori blood. By the same token, none other than verbal evidence is required to substantiate a claim to his being full Maori and, in the 1961 census, 62·2 per cent of the total Maori population made such a claim. Opinions, based on previous census returns, have been expressed that this figure is a deliberate “overstatement”, which, if true, is of itself an interesting social commentary.

A Pakeha-Maori was a European, often a deserter, shipwrecked seaman, or runaway convict, who fell into Maori hands and escaped death or slavery by becoming a tribal member. He married one or more Maori wives, often became tattooed, and frequently reached a prominent position in the tribe acting as an agent between Maori and Pakeha in their trading activities, thereby raising the status of the tribe. Such was John Rutherford who was sole survivor of the Agnes wrecked near Thames(?) in 1816. He lived amongst the Maoris for 10 years, rose to become a chieftain, was tattooed, and married two wives. Another was a trader, Capt. John Rodolphus Kent, who was probably the first European to bring a ship into the Hokianga River. He later became a Pakeha-Maori at Kawhia and Ngaruawahia.

Amongst the gentry more qualified to spread the less virtuous aspects of European life can be named Jacky Marmon, an uneducated deserter who settled in Hokianga in the early years of the nineteenth century; and Kimble Bent who deserted the Army to join the Hauhaus in the 1860s, with whom he lived as a slave. He finally came out of exile in 1878, and thereafter lived in various places until his death at Blenheim in 1917. The most famous was Maning who lived at Hokianga for many years and eventually became a judge of the Maori Land Court.

by John Sidney Gully, M.A., DIP.N.Z.L.S., Assistant Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library, Wellington.

Pakeha, which is a Maori term for the white inhabitants of New Zealand, was in vogue even prior to 1815. Its original meaning and origin are obscure, but the following are possible origins, the first being the most probable:

1. From pakepakeha: imaginary beings resembling men.

2. From pakehakeha: one of the sea gods.

3. From keha: a flea.

4. From poaka: a pig.

Its use was in no sense derogatory.

Williams in his Dictionary of the Maori Language records a number of meanings for the word Maori, the common one being normal, usual, ordinary, which is applied when talking of birds, trees, dogs, or men. Originally, therefore, maori tangata meant an ordinary man or a man native to the place in which he was living. If the pre-European Maori called himself anything, it could have been maori tangata. Early European visitors in their crude way abbreviated this to Maori and, although the term was in use before 1815, it did not appear in writing until 1850. Prior to this date the terms native or New Zealand were those used to indicate the native or aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand, and it was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that the term Maori came into common usage.

Every Maori social group had its own body of traditional belief which validated its claims to the territory it occupied, gave authority to those of high rank, and justified the group's external relationships with other groups. These purposes were served because the members of the groups concerned believed that the traditions were true records of past events, and they acted accordingly. Alliances between groups were facilitated if it was believed that they shared a common heritage, and the commoner's respect for and fear of his chief were based, in part at least, on his belief in the semi-divine ancestry of those of high rank.

At this point it is convenient to divide tradition itself into three types, namely, discovery or origin traditions, migration and settlement traditions, and local traditions.

The two best-known discovery or origin traditions are, first, that which assigns the discovery of New Zealand to Kupe, and, secondly, that which regarded Toi as the first important origin ancestor. Both traditions were current over wide but apparently complementary areas of the North Island. Attempts to place the two in a single chronological sequence are misguided, since there is no reliable evidence that they ever formed part of the same body of traditional lore.

According to the tribes of the west coast of the North Island, and those of North Auckland, Kupe was the discoverer of New Zealand. He sailed here from the homeland, called Hawaiki, after murdering a man called Hotu-rapa, and stealing his wife, Kura-maro-tini. References in traditional songs attest his voyaging along the coast of New Zealand. A well-known one says, “I sing of Kupe, who cut up this land, so that Kapiti, mana, and Aropawa stand apart”. Proverbs refer to the rough seas (nga tai whakatu a Kupe), and the nettles, brambles, and sword grasses with which he protected the coasts of the newly discovered land. It is proverbial, too, that he sailed back to Hawaiki and never returned to the land he discovered. But, later, settlers came here according to his directions.

Toi-kai-rakau (Toi-the-wood-eater) was regarded as origin ancestor by the tribes of the East Coast of the North Island. The traditions of the tribes who trace descent from him contain no reference to his coming to New Zealand, and the inference is that he was born here. According to the Tuhoe tribe of the Bay of Plenty hinterland, it was Toi's ancestor Tiwakawaka who first settled the country, but only his name is remembered.

It is typical of discovery and origin traditions that they are confused and contradictory. In particular, consistent genealogical validation is lacking. The traditionalist will refer this inconsistency to the great time span involved. The functionalist might regard it as evidence that these traditions played little part in the social organisation of the people, serving only to account for their presence in the land.

Migration traditions are more numerous than origin traditions, and pertain to smaller areas and fewer tribes. Each group of tribes had its migrant ancestors who arrived from Hawaiki in a named canoe, though certain tribes appear to have emphasised their canoe migration tradition and descent from crew members more than the others. In particular, the Hauraki, Waikato, and King Country tribes (Tainui canoe) and the Rotorua and Taupo tribes (Te Arawa canoe) appear to have placed special emphasis on their descent from a particular canoe migration.

According to some tribes, those of matatua, for example, a people derived its mana, its prestige, and nobility through the descent lines from the canoe people, while its land claims rested ultimately on descent from the origin ancestor, in this case Toi. Other tribes, those of Te Arawa descent for example, rest both their territorial rights and inherited status on their descent from such land-claiming ancestors as Tama-te-kapua, Ngatoro-i-rangi, Tia, Kahu, and Hei, all of whom came on the canoe.

But both status and land rights had more important and more immediate locus in later ancestors, and the main function of canoe traditions appears to have been to give a sense of unity to whole groups of tribes, even though they might at times be warring one with another. The shifting alliances within groups of tribes were facilitated by appeals to common descent from the ancestral canoe and it was not unusual for a whole canoe area, when threatened, to present a common front to outside aggression.

Europeans first became aware of migration traditions in 1842, when the Tainui tradition, in much the same form as it is told today, was recited to the missionary Hamlin at Orua, near Waiuku, on the south shore of the Manukau Harbour. Within a year or two the stories of a number of canoes were known, in outline at least, and by 1850 virtually all that is now known of the canoe traditions had already been collected.

• “There the plume of Te Arawa floats on the water”

• In what follows, the tradition of Te Arawa canoe is presented in some detail as a typical example of a migration tradition. It is followed by brief summaries of the traditions concerning a number of other canoes.

  The chain of circumstances resulting in the voyage of Te Arawa canoe to New Zealand began when a dog called potaka-tawhiti, owned by Hou-mai-tawhiti and his sons Tama-te-kapua and Whakaturia, licked a festering sore on the high chief Uenuku. This was sacrilege, and the dog was killed and eaten by Uenuku's companion, Toi. Tama-te-kapua and Whakaturia came looking for their dog, which, hearing their calls, barked loudly within Toi's stomach. Toi clapped his hands over his mouth and said “Alas! Hidden within the great belly of Toi, still you bark. You wretch!” In revenge for the death of their dog, Tama and Whakaturia made themselves stilts, and by means of them stole the fruit from the lofty poporo tree which shaded Uenuku's house. This was a further act of sacrilege and Uenuku's men lay in wait for the brothers when next they came to steal fruit. Tama escaped but Whakaturia was taken captive. With Tama's help, however, he, too, escaped, and the incident was followed by a series of battles between Hou-mai-tawhiti and his sons on the one hand, and Uenuku on the other. Hou and Whakaturia were killed, and Tama-te-kapua decided to seek another home.

  We are told that his canoe, Te Arawa, was built by Rata, Wahie-roa, and others, all characters from mythology, and it is typical that the stories of the closing period in Hawaiki mark the borderline between myth and tradition. When the time came for Te Arawa to sail, Tama-te-kapua, having already persuaded Whakaoti-rangi, wife of Ruaeo, to abandon her husband, also managed to kidnap Ngatoro-i-rangi, navigator and priest of the Tainui canoe, together with his wife Kea-roa. On the voyage Tama incurred Ngatoro's wrath by seducing Kea-roa. In revenge the priest called on the gods to swallow up the vessel in the whirlpool called the Throat-of-the-Parata. The canoe tilted dangerously towards the vortex, and only the cry that the pillow of Kea-roa had slipped from beneath her head aroused Ngatoro's pity and persuaded him to save the vessel.

  Te Arawa made land near Cape Runaway when the pohutukawa trees were in bloom, and one of her crew, exclaiming at the prodigal display of their sacred colour, red, cast his treasured ornaments of crimson feathers into the sea, and plucked the flowers, only to find that they faded almost as soon as they were picked.

  In a series of incidents Tama was discomfited for his earlier misdeeds. He was worsted in a battle of wits with the captain of Tainui canoe over the ownership of a stranded whale. He was humiliated by Ruaeo who, although left behind in Hawaiki, appeared dramatically in New Zealand and, after defeating Tama in a duel, rubbed his head in filth and vermin. And finally, his canoe, Te Arawa, was burned by Raumati.

  According to the tradition, Tama-te-kapua, Ngatoro-i-rangi, and others of the crew of Te Arawa travelled widely in the Bay of Plenty and its hinterland, from Maketu to Moehau, and inland to Tongariro, naming and claiming the land as they went. Whatever the truth of the story it is certain that the tribes who trace their ancestry to Te Arawa did, in fact, occupy the lands described, and many scholars would see in the validation of land claims, social status, and inter-tribal alliances, rather than in historical fact, the ultimate reality of tradition.

• “Haul Tainui, haul her to the sea”

• The Tainui canoe, under its captain, Hotu-roa, is also said to have made its landfall at Whanga-paraoa, near Cape Runaway. After quarrelling with the people of Te Arawa canoe over the ownership of a stranded whale, the Tainui people coasted northwards and (according to most versions) crossed the Tamaki isthmus at Otahuhu. The crossing was not accomplished without difficulty because Marama-kikohura, one of Hotu-roa's wives, had committed adultery with a slave, and so rendered ineffective the canoe-hauling spells that should have made the portage easy.

  Eventually Tainui pulled out through the Manukau Heads, to be drawn ashore finally at MakeTu, the Maori settlement on the shores of Kawhia Harbour, about a mile to the west of the town. Here two upright limestone slabs, 76 ft apart, are said to mark her resting place. The people spread inland until, after some centuries, they occupied the territory stretching from Tamaki in the north to Mokau and Taumarunui in the south. Their inland boundary, marking the division between the Te Arawa and Tainui tribes, lay in the mountainous country that stretches from Coromandel south to Taupo.

• “Aotea is the canoe, and Turi is the chief,
• And Te Roku-o-whiti is the paddle”

• The Aotea canoe was owned by Toto, father of Rongorongo, the wife of Turi. As the climax to a series of incidents Turi had killed Hawe-potiki, the young son of Uenuku. To escape Uenuku's revenge Turi obtained sailing directions from Kupe, and the canoe Aotea from Toto, and set off for New Zealand. On the way they called in at an island called Rangitahua, and picked up there the castaways from the wrecked canoe Kura-hau-po. Aotea reached New Zealand at the harbour which still bears her name. Working south, the people finally settled at Patea. Here, Turi's daughter, Tane-roroa, quarrelled with her brother, Turanga-i-mua. Today, we find that Taneroroa's descendants, the Ngati Ruanui tribe, live north of the Patea River, extending northwards to Oeo, near New Plymouth. Turanga's descendants, the Nga Rauru, live south of the river, extending southwards to Wai-totara, and Kai-iwi.

• “You are destroyed, even as Kura-hau-po was destroyed.
• The cable loosed, and the anchor lost.
• And her plumes broken off and cast into the sea.”

• The Kura-hau-po traditions are contradictory, and the tribes claiming descent from this canoe have a broken distribution. Te Au-pouri and Te Rarawa tribes of North Auckland say that the canoe reached New Zealand under its commander, Pou, and then either returned to Hawaiki, or became a reef which still lies off the coast. The Taranaki tribe, whose coastal boundary extends from O-nuku-tai-pari in the north to Oeo in the south, say that Kura-hau-po. under the command of Te Maunga-nui, was wrecked at an island called Rangi-tahua on the way to New Zealand. The castaways transferred to Aotea canoe and reached New Zealand in that vessel. The Muaupoko and other tribes between the Whangaehu River, and Lake Horowhenua, near Levin, agree with this story in general, but say that the commander's name was Ruatea.

• “Recline, oh friend, on Tokomaru,
• The canoe of Whata,
• By Rakei-ora and Tama-ariki
• Paddled to land.”

• Although the Tokomaru canoe is always mentioned in any tally of the important canoes, very little information, and that suspect, is available about it. Tribes claiming descent from this canoe occupy the north Taranaki coastal area from Mokau south to O-nuku-pari, near New Plymouth. According to the published traditions about Tokomaru, it was commanded by Manaia, who left Hawaiki as the result of a series of incidents which began with the rape of his wife by a party of workmen (or her seduction by a man called Tomowhare, according to another version). The canoe is said to have made its landfall in the South Island and to have travelled north along the west coast of the North Island, to be drawn ashore finally at Tonga-porutu. A puzzling feature of the traditions about this canoe is that the tribes who claim it do not have genealogies showing their descent from Manaia.

• “My canoe is Takitimu
• A canoe of the gods.”

• In the tradition of Takitimu (also called Takitumu) we once again find Uenuku involved in the incidents leading to a migration to New Zealand. He became annoyed with Ruawharo, who kept taking fish from Uenuku's net. Poutama, acting on Uenuku's instructions, tipped Ruawharo up among the fish in the net. Ruawharo and his brother Tupai went to learn magic from Timu-whakairihia. They reached Timu's home when he was away and raped his wife. Because of this, Timu would not teach the most effective spells to Ruawharo. There is a hiatus in the story at this point and we next hear of Ruawharo on board Takitimu.

  Though contradictory at many points, all versions of the story of this canoe agree that it was extremely tapu, because of the gods it carried. Accordingly, no cooked food could be brought on it. The crew suffered from hunger, and Ruawharo only saved himself from being sacrificed and eaten by using his magic knowledge to lure fish to the surface of the sea.

  The canoe is said variously to have made its landfall at North Cape, Tauranga, and Cape Runaway. The tribes that claim Takitimu are Ngati-Rangi-nui, of Tauranga, Ngati-Kahungunu, of Hawke's Bay, and the tribes of Poverty Bay and the East Coast. They all trace descent from a man named Tamatea through his sons Kahungunu and Rangi-nui, but it has also been denied that this particular Tamatea came on Takitimu at all.

• “We came, you and I, on Horouta and Takitimu.”

• The Horouta canoe, under its commander, Pawa, came to New Zealand as a result of quarrelling that took place in Hawaiki among sections of the Ngati Ira tribe. On board Horouta were a section of the Ngati Ira, a man named Pouheni and his followers, and a woman named Hine-kau-i-rangi and her followers. The canoe landed at O-hiwa, near Whakatane, where it went aground on the bar called Te Tukeraeo-Kanawa (Kanawa's eyebrow). Hine-kau-i-rangi and her people did not wait for the canoe to be repaired but struck inland, crossing the Rau-kumara Range and coming down the Tapuae-roa River, reached the coast at Tupa-roa, near Ruatoria. They then followed down the coast to Whangara, where they met Pouheni and his people, who had travelled round by way of East Cape, almost dead of starvation. When they had been revived, the whole group came on to Muri-wai, south of Gisborne, where they found Ngati Ira, who had come round by sea in Horouta. The Ngati Porou tribe, whose territory extends from Cape Runaway to Whangara, claim Horouta as their ancestral canoe.

• “Now let me act the man.”

• The matatua canoe, under the command of Toroa, made its landfall at Whanga-paraoa (Cape Runaway). It then sailed across the Bay of Plenty to Tauranga, then back to WhakaTane, where it entered the mouth of the river. While most of the people were ashore the canoe went adrift, and Toroa's daughter, Wairaka (or as some say, his sister, Muri-wai) had to play the part of a man and paddle the canoe back to shore. The name WhakaTane (act-the-man) commemorates this incident.

  Toroa quarrelled with his brother, Puhi, who took the canoe and went off to North Auckland. His son, Rahiri, is the main ancestor of the Ngapuhi and Rarawa tribes of the Bay of Islands and Hokianga districts. Ngati Awa and Te Whakatohea tribes of the Bay of Plenty and Ngai Tuhoe of the Urewera country are included in the matatua canoe area proper which extends from Nga kuri-a-Wharei (near Katikati) to Tikirau (Cape Runaway).

  Local Traditions

  Each tribe and sub-tribe kept its own particular traditional record, told for the most part in terms of great battles and great men, and tied in with the genealogical record. In some cases the story is continuous and internally consistent from the migration down to the present. In other cases it is fragmentary and discontinuous earlier than about 1600.

  Local traditions may be illustrated with a grim incident from the life of Papaka, a single chapter in the centuries-long internecine warfare among the tribes of the Waikato Valley. While Papaka was still a child his father Tapaue was killed by his own brothers-in-law, and the wife, Te Ata-i-rehia, and her son, Papaka, were taken to live at Orua (now Wattle Bay), in the hill fort still known as Ata-i-rehia, above Turner's boardinghouse. While living there the boy was ill treated by his uncles who, after their fishing trips on the Manukau Harbour, turned their backs on him and, keeping the best fish for themselves, fed him only on the scraps. Worst of all, he had to watch them use his father's skull as a fishing talisman which they taunted with the cry “Oh, Tapaue e—e! When do we get a fish?”

  It was more than Papaka could bear and he travelled up river to his father's people who agreed to help him gain his revenge. The war party came down the Waikato and crossed by the Awaroa portage into the Manukau, at Waiuku. Papaka himself killed his uncles, answering their pleas for mercy with the words, “Your fat fish! Your faces turned away!”

  The bodies were cooked and eaten, and the entrails used to lubricate the canoe skids in an ultimate insult to the dead.

  Local traditions were not always so bloodthirsty, as witness the well-known story of Hinemoa who swam across Lake Rotorua to wed her lover, Tu-Tanekai. To the descendants of the couple, however, the story has more than romantic interest, since inter-tribal relationships and the ownership of lands depended on recognising it as history.

  The Historical Value of Maori Legends

  It is one thing to agree that Maoris themselves regarded their traditions as true records of the past, but another to decide our own attitude in this respect. There is a widespread belief that Maori legends were handed down, word for word, through the generations. But in fact this does not seem to have been the case, for there is very considerable variation in the many versions of the principal myths and traditions available for comparison. Although this is so for the prose versions of the legends, the fixed form of words and the generally archaic language of poetry encourage the hope that in the songs and chants which are associated with the legends we may find unaltered material from the past.

  Comparison within and beyond New Zealand, however, shows that with the passing of many centuries even the most carefully preserved poetry has altered, until various versions of what must once have been the same text show little resemblance one to the other. Nevertheless, we cannot discount entirely the possibility that in some cases traditional lore has been transmitted without substantial change for many generations, for in spite of many alterations of detail the plots, the principal characters, and the main incidents of the great myths of Polynesia and New Zealand approach identity. This is clear proof that the Maoris and their Polynesian kin were capable of preserving the main theme of a story for centuries.

  In the case of the traditions, which deal entirely with the period since the settlement of New Zealand, it is not possible to cross check them against Polynesian versions. Our only tests of their reliability as historical records are their internal consistency, the complex way in which they dovetail with the genealogical records, and the compatibility with the information gained from archaeology and related studies.

  It is significant that most people who have worked intensively and with due regard to these criteria on the great body of tradition available to us regard it as having a considerable amount of historical value, and when the traditional record approaches nearer to the present, the sceptics are few who would regard it as other than largely a factual record of the past.

  by Bruce Grandison Biggs, M.A.(N.Z.), PH.D.(INDIANA), Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Auckland.

  • Ko nga Mahi a nga Tupuna Maori, Grey, G. (1928)
  • Ancient History of the Maori, White, J. (6 vols. 1887–90)
  • Tuhoe, the Children of the Mist, Best, E. (1942)
  • The Coming of the Maori, Buck, P. (1958).