Sidestep: Moriori traditions and history

This is a direct copy of an old article. It makes for intriguing reading and touches on two things that we we find most interesting, namely...

1. The Old Name of NZ

2. The extermination of Tangata Whenua males

THE MORIORI PEOPLE OF THE CHATHAM ISLANDS: THEIR TRADITIONS AND HISTORY.

Chapter XV.

OWING to the lamented death of Mr. Alex. Shand, it devolves on another pen to complete his work on the Moriori people. In doing so we shall here cite the Maori accounts of the exodus of the Morioris from New Zealand as they were preserved in one of the ancient Whare-wananga (or Houses-of-learning), the last of which ceased to be used about the middle of the nineteenth century. Luckily, the principal teacher in that “House-of-learning” dictated to a young scribe a very large amount of interesting and important information regarding the history of the Maoris, which has been faithfully preserved in writing, but until quite recently has not been available generally. It is now made use of for the first time in explaining some of the difficulties Mr. Shand always experienced in accounting for the discovery of and the early settlement on the Chatham Islands. The discovery that this information was in existence was naturally of extreme interest to Mr. Shand, and his last chapter (which was burnt with its unfortunate author) dealt with this Maori account, besides other matters.

It has been proved with as great a degree of accuracy as any point in ancient Polynesian history is ever likely to be that the Maori, Rarotongan (and probably Tahitian) ancestor, Toi-te-huatahi, flourished thirty-one generations back from the year 1900, which, converted into years by the rule universally adopted by the Polynesian Society of allowing four generations to a century, takes us back to the year 1125 A.D., or let us say the middle of the twelfth century as the period in which this celebrated ancestor flourished. We have thus a fixed date to aid us in determining that of the first occupation of the Chatham Islands, for Toi is connected with it, as we shall see.

It is necessary now to recite a few occurrences in Maori history in order to provide a starting point for that of the Morioris, and in doing so some notes will be given that are generally quite unknown to Maori scholars, the full text of which is shortly to be published.

During the period that the headquarters of the Maori people was in Tahiti (which is the Hawaiki from whence they came to New Zealand) there arrived from the Hawaiian group a canoe (or canoes) on a visit to the people of the former island. The navigation of the Pacific Ocean was at that time a great factor in the lives of the Polynesians, and emulation in nautical achievements a characteristic feature in their lives and a subject of interest at all meetings of the people. Hence, in order to honour the Hawaiian guests, a great canoe regatta was arranged, in which large numbers of vessels took part. A canoe commanded by Whatonga, the grandson of Toi-te-huatahi (who has been mentioned above), exceeded all others in speed, and had reached a position out at sea far from the north-west coast of Tahiti, when a sudden gale from the east arose, against which this canoe battled in vain to regain the shore. She was driven before the gale for two days and two nights; and when the wind fell a dense fog covered the face of the ocean, in which the crew paddled at random, not knowing in which direction they were going. When the mist lifted they discovered land in the distance, to which they directed their course, and on their arrival there they ascertained it to be Ra'iatea Island, distant one hundred and twenty miles to the W.N.W. of Tahiti. Whatonga and his crew remained here several years, taking wives from the local people, but making no attempt to return to their homes in Tahiti, because the storm and the fog had caused them to lose the direction from which they came. They afterwards recovered this direction and eventually returned to Tahiti, but the incidents connected therewith do not belong to this story.

In the meantime Toi-te-huatahi, after the lapse of some time, perhaps some years, being persuaded that his grandson Whatonga and Tu-rahui had not perished at sea, decided to go in search of them. The people at this time possessed full accounts of the voyage of Kupe during which he discovered New Zealand, and of the sailing directions he had left with the learned tohungas of Tahiti. Toi appears to have been persuaded that Whatonga had reached New Zealand, which, by the way, was not then generally known by the name of Aotea-roa, although this name was given by Kupe, but as Tiritiri-o-te-moana which referred to the land based on the prominence of the Southern Alps from the sea. The directions given by Kupe were to the effect that in the month of February the course to New Zealand from Rarotonga was to steer a little to the right hand of the setting sun, moon, or Venus—which correctly describes the direction of New Zealand from Tahiti and the neighbouring groups. But Kupe had visited other islands besides New Zealand, and it is apparent that Toi, having this in mind after he left Tahiti, first visited Rarotonga, and thence steered for Samoa in his search for Whatonga. The name Hamoa (Samoa) and of Pangopango in Tutuila Island (of the Samoan group) are mentioned in the narrative of Toi's voyage. 1 From Samoa Toi made for New Zealand, and here comes in the interesting fact that connects him with the exodus of the Morioris. He at first missed New Zealand and got too far to the east, consequently first making the land at the Chatham Islands—Latitude 44° south, over four hundred miles east of New Zealand. Toi was therefore the discoverer of that Group. The islands are correctly described as subject to mists and fogs, and of no great size. From the Chathams Toi returned on his course and finally made New Zealand in the Hauraki Gulf, where he came into contact with the real tangata-whenua, or original inhabitants of New Zealand, from whom, as we shall see, the Morioris of the Chatham Islands are descended.

The manuscripts from which these particulars are taken state that after Kupe's discovery of New Zealand there arrived there several canoes, which made the land on the coast north of Taranaki, coming from a south-west direction, and that they had been blown away from their own islands, named Horanui-a-Tau and Hau-papa-nui-a-Tau, in a gale of wind. They were apparently carried away to the south, and on their return towards the north made the New Zealand coast at the place mentioned above. Here they settled down, building many of the fortified pas still existing; and when Toi arrived they had spread along the West Coast from the North Cape to Wai-ngongoro River, in the South Taranaki Bight, and on the East Coast from the North Cape to near the East Cape. They were, by the middle of the twelfth century, a very numerous people, and differed a good deal from the Eastern Polynesians, to which branch Toi belonged, and had a fairly strong Melanesian element in them, as is very evident from the description of them preserved in the before-mentioned MSS., though they spoke the Polynesian language. Evidently they came from the Western Pacific. Toi-te-huatahi's crew was composed almost entirely of men—indeed, it is not certain that any women came with him. The consequence was that intermarriage between the crew and the tangata-whenua at once took place, and after Toi had settled down and built his pa of Kapu-te-rangi at Whakatane, in the Bay of Plenty, these marriages were not long in causing strife to arise between the two peoples, leading to wars in which Toi's people invariably obtained the upper hand.

Many years after these events Toi's grandson Whatonga found his way back to Tahiti from Ra'iatea, and there learnt that Toi had gone in search of him to Tiritiri-o-te-moana (New Zealand). He gathered a strong crew, and manning the “Kura-haupo” 2 canoe, came on his way in search of his grandfather, whom he eventually found living, a very old man, at Kapu-te-rangi, Whakatane, New Zealand. After Whatonga's arrival further intermarriages took place with the tangata-whenua, and then serious troubles arose between the two peoples, which eventuated later in wars of extermination, in which the later migrants appear always to have obtained the upper hand, and during which most of the tangata-whenua males were killed, the women of marriageable age and the children spared, to become incorporated in the tribes of Toi-te-huatahi and his companions.

These wars seem to have prevailed most extensively in the times of the children of Te Awa-nui-a-rangi (Toi's youngest grandson), many of whom had migrated to North Taranaki from Whakatane through intermarriage with the tangata-whenua descendants of Pohokura, Maru-iwi, Pananehu, Rua-tamore, and others, and who were then known by the tribal names of Te Tini-o-Rua-tamore, Te Tini-o-Maru-iwi, Te Tini-o-Tai-tawaro, etc.

It was the latter tribe that principally occupied North Taranaki, and as we shall see, were the ancestors of the original Moriori people of the Chathams. A great war is mentioned during which the Tini-o-Awa tribe (descendants of Te Awa-nui-a-rangi, Toi's grandson, now known as Ngati-Awa and Te Ati-Awa) completely overcame the tangata-whenua people of North Taranaki, and finally expelled them. This defeated people crossed Cook's Straits and occupied D'Urville Island, at the north end of the South Island. Te Tini-o-Awa followed them across the Straits, and in a final battle again inflicted a severe defeat on Te Tini-o-Tai-tawaro, the last of whom were seen making their way south in several canoes, “on their way to the Chatham Islands,” as the narrative says. We will not stop here to enquire how their destination became known to the Maori conquerors; it will appear later on.

In the further Maori accounts from the same source, dealing with the Chatham Islands, there are discrepancies which are not easily reconcilable with the Moriori story or with the MSS. themselves. But taken as a whole, it is undeniable that the Maoris were well acquainted with the early settlement of the Chathams, though it is a remarkable thing that this knowledge has not become public until now. Evidently we never went to the right source for the information. It is to be understood that in this chapter only the salient facts of the case as- 210 recorded in Maori narrative are mentioned; the detail and discussion must be left until the original documents are published.

We now come to Kāhu's voyage to the Chathams, the Moriori account of which is to be found in Mr. Shand's Chapters IV. and V.

According to the Maori accounts, one Horangi, who was a chief and priest that came to New Zealand with Toi, spread about the report that on their voyage they had come across an island which was “constantly covered with clouds, and which was not of great extent.” This report coming to the ears of Kāhu, who was then living at Whakatane with his people (it is not clear whether he came with Toi or not, but the inference is rather that he was one of the tangata-whenua), who decided to try to reach this mysterious island. After a visit to Taranaki he returned to Whakatane, and then with all his people, twenty-seven in number, migrated to Te Pou-o-Kani, a place on the east of Lake Taupo; but finding little natural food there, moved on to Mokai-Patea, near Muri-motu (east of Mount Ruapehu), and thence down the Rangitikei Valley to Te Houhou. Finding there were no people living there, they decided to settle in that part—probably only for a time and to grow food. After all the timbers had been collected for the palisades of their pa and for building their houses, Tama-uri, Kāhu's son, dreamt that a flood carried all their wood down the river and out to the great ocean, and finally drifted ashore at a strange island, and that he and all his people were also there. On telling this dream to his father, the latter exclaimed, “Let us all go,” and taking the dream to be a direction for them, they then migrated to the mouth of the Rangitikei River, on Cook's Straits. Here they commenced to build a canoe, and whilst doing so, Kāhu's daughter Hine-te-waiwai found on the beach a drifted kauri log, which was afterwards split up to form karaho (deck beams) for their canoe.

Whilst engaged in this work there came from Whanganui two men named Te Aka-aroroa and Ha-waru, who apparently belonged to the tangata-whenua people, but who, nevertheless, were accomplished in canoe building, and they materially assisted Kāhu in preparing his vessel for sea, for he did not understand the necessary arrangements of a canoe to battle with the rough waves. These two men finished the canoe, ending by making the koaka, or narrow, closely-woven mats, that are placed along the gunwales in rough weather to fend off the waves.

When leaving Te Pou-o-Kani Kāhu had brought with him the seed (? roots) of three different kinds of fern-root suitable for food, which were carefully placed in a calabash to preserve them. Some kumara roots were also carefully packed, both kinds of food to be taken to the Chathams.

In the month of Tapere-wai (September), Kāhu's canoe was afloat on Te Moana-nui-a Kiwa (the great ocean of Kiwa, the latter being one of their ancient gods, joint ruler of the ocean with Tangaroa, and both of them the offspring of Rangi and Papa), and crossed over the Straits to D'Urville Island, where they stayed until the last day of December, when they finally left New Zealand for the Chathams. They landed at a certain bay on the north coast of that island, where they proceeded to build houses, using the deck-beams of kauri in their construction, and hence Hine-te-waiwai named the island Whare-kauri. The bay was named Kaingaroa in remembrance of the New Zealand plain of that name near their temporary home at Taupo. The seed-fern was then planted at a place they named Tongariro, after the mountain in the North Island of New Zealand (cf. the Moriori account, Chapter V.)

As in the record of all these voyages made by the Polynesians, there is the usual absence of detail of the voyage itself. We are not told how the crew fared in crossing the five hundred miles of boisterous seas that separate the Chatham Islands from New Zealand. It is only by inference and the deductions to be made from the nature of the karakias used in the case of the “Rangi-houa” and “Rangi-mata” canoes (see infra), as preserved in the Moriori accounts, we are led to infer that they suffered great hardships from want of water. Details of the fitting out of the vessels are plentiful, but few notes on the voyages themselves are ever given.

After they had been there some time, Kāhu and Aka-aro-roa started to explore the island to find out what it was like and whether there were any inhabitants. Presently they saw smoke in the distance, and then men; they thus discovered that they were not the first people on the land. “These were the people called Moriori, and it is said they were a fine people. So Aka-aro-roa took two wives of that people named Te Para and Wai-mate, from whom the descent is as follows:—

This last one of his descendants returned to Whanganui … in New Zealand, and it is said did not go back to the Chathams, but remained at Whanganui, where all his descendants are to be found, whilst others of Aka-aro-roa's offspring remained at Whare-kauri.”

“Now the calabash in which Hine-te-waiwai took the fern-seed was named ‘Te Awhenga,’ and the totara-bark receptacle in which the kumara was preserved was named ‘Rangi-ura’; hence is the saying regarding it, ‘Ko te rangi-ura a Hine-te-waiwai.’ When Kāhu found that neither his taros nor his kumaras would grow, he exclaimed, ‘A! There is the food-producing soil at Ara-paoa! (South Island, New Zealand). I am wasting my time on this ocean rock’—in reference to the inferiority of the soil, which is boggy. So Kāhu said to his retainers that they had better return to Ara-paoa; but those who had married in the island refused to join him. Kāhu and his daughter Hine-te-waiwai and some of their people, however, started back in the same canoe they went thither, which was named ‘Tane-wai,’ but it is not known whether he ever reached these shores, for nothing has ever been heard of him since.” (That is one statement with regard to Kahu; we shall come across another later).

The narrative goes on to mention the names of the principal Morioris living at the time of Kahu's visit, and then describes the origin of some of these people who appear to have arrived there after or about the time of the earliest migration from the Taranaki Coast, already described. The narrative says, “Now, it is known that the following canoes came (to Chatham Islands) from Rarotonga—i.e., ‘Aotea-roa,’ ‘Te Mapou-riki,’ ‘Rangi-ahua,’ and ‘Te Ririno’; this latter canoe arrived there long before Kahu's visit. It first made the land at Rangi-kapua at Whare-kauri (Chatham Islands), and one of the principal men on board was Tahua-roa, another was Kapohau, together with their friends, wives, and children. Both of those whose names are mentioned were descendants of Matangi, who married Hine-huri.” This statement does not, however, assist us much, for we do not know anything of Matangi and the others.

The return of Hau-te-horo to Whanganui in the fourth generation after Kahu's visit explains how it is that the Maori's knew that the defeated people of Te Tini-o-Tai-tawaro reached the Chathams; even supposing that the other story (see infra) of Kahu's return to New Zealand is incorrect. As to “Te Ririno” canoe, it has hitherto always been stated that it arrived at Rangi-tahua Island (probably the Kermadec group), whilst Turi in the “Aotea” canoe was temporarily staying there to repair his vessel after his long voyage from Ra'iatea, and before attempting the more stormy part of his course to New Zealand. This occurred about the time of “the fleet,” circa 1350. The accounts of the voyage of the “Aotea” say that Te Ririno, after leaving Rangi-tahua, sailed away and was never afterwards heard of; though other accounts seem to indicate, rather than definitely stating so, that she was wrecked at Tama-i-ea, the boulder-bank forming Nelson Harbour, South Island of New Zealand. Again, the Rev. T. G. Hammond informs us that the Taranaki people have some knowledge that “Te Ririno” did go to the Chathams.

We must now follow other accounts of the settlements on the Chathams derived from the same MSS., and which are not entirely in accord with what has been written above, whilst at the same time they throw considerable light on some obscure points in previous chapters written by Mr. Shand, and tell us where “Rangi-houa” canoe came from—a point which is not at all clear in the Moriori account of this vessel to be found in Chapter V. We will follow the Maori narrative as closely as possible, premising that the order of the paragraphs is changed somewhat to accord with what appears to be their historical sequence.

“Te Uru-o-manōno was the name of a pa at Hawaiki which belonged to Manaia (see the Moriori account of this man, Chap. III.) and his tribes, Ngati-ota-kai, Ngati-Pananehu, and Ngati-Rakaia. These tribes were a bad people, given to murder and other evil ways; and consequently offering many reasons for quarrels with the other tribes, then living in Hawaiki (Tahiti), and these dissensions were the eventual cause of their leaving Hawaiki. Manaia's chief enemy was Uenuku and his tribes. Now Tu-moana (see Chapter IV.) and Whena were chiefs of some of these hapus, and the sister of Tu-moana named Papa, daughter of Tu-wahi-awa was the sister of Uenuku's wife—that particular Uenuku whose son was Kahutia-te-rangi. A cause of much trouble was the theft of the whakai of Uenuku's children, and their subsequent murder by Whena. (See Journal Polynesian Society, Vol. XVI., p. 194). It was then that Horopa, Tu-wahi-awa's brother, went with a war-party and killed Tu-moana at a place named Te Whata-a-iwi in Hawaiki. Another name of Tu-moana was Tuara-huruhuru-o-Tu-wahi-awa (this is probably the Tchu-huruhuru of the Moriori account), and his youngest brother was named Papa-kiore (? Hapa-kiore of the Moriori, Chapter IV.). Tu-moana's sister, Te Kiri-kakahu, was taken prisoner (? by Uenuku's people) during these troubles.”

These wars and troubles led to the migration of Tu-moana's people. “When the canoes of the migration were afloat on the ocean, the crews of ‘Rangi-houa’ and ‘Rangi-mata-wai’ (see Chapter V.) bid farewell to those left behind, especially to Te Kiri-kakahu, Tu-moana's sister. Another of the canoes that came with the others from Hawaiki to the land Tiritiri-o-te-moana (New Zealand) was named ‘Pou-ariki,’ and she was a large top-sided canoe built like Takitimu. It was at their departure that Te Kiri-kakahu sung the following song in lamenting the departure of her tribes:—

Before my eyes the plain of Kaingaroa lies, Whilst now are lost the great ones of the tribe, Plainly discerned is the hill at Amoamo-te-rangi,

Where by fire the Uru-o-manōno was destroyed, The mainspring of the people are now separated from me, To the world's wide open space That spreads away from Hawaiki's shore, Lie there then, O Manaia! O Whena! Through whose evil deeds, I am now left behind.

“Te Honeke was the priest of ‘Rangi-houa,’ and his god was Rongo-mai-whitiki. This canoe did not succeed in landing; she capsized in the surf at Whare-kauri (Chatham Island). Many of the people were saved, amongst them Taupo and Tarere-moana, whilst very many were drowned, and the canoe was broken up by the waves at Chatham Island. Rakei-roau was one of the drowned.

“It was in the eighth month (August, according to the calendar of these people) and on the day Orongo-nui (27th of the month), near the end of the month that they left Hawaiki, and it was near the end of the ninth month (September) when they reached the Chathams, and hence it was this canoe was wrecked.” (The several names of the fierce winds blowing in Winter, of this period are then recited). “Kini-waka was the chief of that canoe, and his sister Ariki-kakahu lamented his death as follows.” I hesitate to translate this without further information, but it is interesting as containing references to names mentioned in previous Chapters. After that follows the karakia of the tohunga of the canoe on their arrival at the island, which does not contain very much of interest.

We must now go back to another account that cannot easily be fitted in to the Moriori accounts.

“Ngati-Kopeka tribe was a sub-division of the Ngati-Waitaha” (that settled in the South Island of New Zealand; the first name, however, appears to have been a tribe in very ancient days, long before the people arrived at Tahiti), “and came from Hawaiki in the canoe named ‘Te Karaerae,’ commanded by Te Ao, Rongo-mai-whenua, Pu-waitaha and Kahu-koka. It was the latter who had the forethought to bring with him a basket of kumara seed, which were wrapped up in koka, hence his companions gave him that name. This canoe landed at Tai-harakeke at Mataaho (south of the East Cape, New Zealand). When these people went to fish off the rock named Rai-kapua, the original people of those parts—those who had first discovered and occupied Mataaho and Waikawa—were very angry about it, which caused the new comers to migrate. The people of this canoe left Hawaiki at the same time as ‘Takitimu’ and ‘Horouta’—‘Te Karaerae’ being one of the three. This division of Ngati-Waitaha had lived at Te Whanga-papa (in Hawaiki). And so these people migrated and went to Wharekauri (Chatham Islands), a name which they gave to the island in remembrance of their pa at Hawaiki, that is, at Te Whanga-papa. They gave the name of Rai-kapua to the fishing rock about which they had the trouble with Te Wahine-iti people” (who still live there); “another name for this rock is Kapua-rangi, it is off Waikawa at Waipiro Bay.

“Now Rongo-mai-whenua (mentioned above) married Hine-rua, a daughter of Hape-taua-ki-whiti (who apparently belonged to the Waihine-iti tribe). After they had arrived at the Chatham Islands, this lady constantly grieved at her separation from her parent, and when she was near death enjoined on her son, Kape-whiti, to visit his grandfather, saying, ‘After I am gone, and thou art come to man's estate, thou must return to Tiritiri-o-te-moana (New Zealand) and visit thy grandparent.’ After his mother's death Kape-whiti urgently desired to carry out his mother's dying wishes.

“So he came away with Pu-waitaha” (who came from Hawaiki, see above) “and landed at Tukerae-whenua near Takaka in the South Island of New Zealand. Here they found some people from Tokomaru” (twenty-five miles north of Gisborne) “and with them came to the North Island, and then Kape-whiti visited his grandfather and his tribe, and it was through him that it became known that there was another island besides these two (New Zealand).

“After a time Kape-whiti said to his companion, ‘Now depart; return to see how the bulk of our people are getting on. On your arrival there let them take the name of ‘Kiri-whakapapa’!’ The origin of this name is this: When their party were travelling (towards Tokomaru) they came to Te Awahou, inland of Te Whiti-o-Tu, 8 the main body were left there and the Whare-kauri people went on by themselves. Arrived at Kuri-papango they camped, and during the night there came on a very heavy snow-storm, which caused much suffering to the travellers, and had it not been for some holes (or caves) they dug in the soil they would have perished. Hence was the message sent by Pu-waitaha to the people that they should call themselves Ngati-Kiri-whakapapa” (which means, it is believed, “cracked-skin,” due to their having to stick to the fires so closely during the snow-storm).

“Rua-ehu, Rua-whakatina, and Hine-rua were one family; the latter married Rongo-mai-whenua, and they were the parents of Kape-whiti, whose wife was Hina-maunu, the sister of Tamatea-upoko, who were descendants of Tamatea-ngana. Pu-waitaha named part of their hapu that came from Hawaiki, Waitaha, and Maunga-nui (? the hill at the Chathams) was named after a mountain in Hawaiki” (probably that at Raŕotonga).

“Some time after these events Kahu-koka went to see the Whare-kauri Island, but he found no place suitable, in his opinion, for the growth of his kumaras, the soil being too wet, and so Kahu-koka returned to the place he had first settled in (New Zealand), and the love for his original home in Hawaiki very much increased. The canoe in which he made his voyage was named ‘Tane-kaha’; it belonged to Hau-tupatu of the Ngati-Waitaha of Moeraki, in the South Island.”

Then follows a long karakia, said over the canoe to dedicate it and remove all obstacles in its long voyage to Hawaiki (or Tahiti). “After the karakia the canoe was launched on to the ocean, and Kahu-koka started before the first rays of the sun had appeared above the sea-horizon.”

It is obvious that the two stories concerning Kahu are irreconcilable, and at present there are no means of indicating which is correct. It is nevertheless satisfactory to get the Maori account of the two canoes “Rangi-houa” and “Rangi-mata,” and to find that they largely conform to the Moriori version. If it is true that these canoes came from Hawaiki after the troubles which led to Manaia's abandonment of his ancient home to settle in New Zealand, it accounts for a hitherto unexplained statement in Moriori history to the effect that they were acquainted with the story of Manaia (see Chapter III.); and it would further seem that the date of this last migration was synchronous with the final settlement in New Zealand by the crew of “Takitimu,” “Te Arawa,” “Tainui,” and other canoes—i.e., in the middle of the fourteenth century.

Mr. Shand had intended to give in his last chapter the Moriori account of the visit of Lieutenant Broughton, commanding H.M. storeship the brig “Chatham,” which contained supplies for Captain Vancouver. It was on their way from Australia to the north-west coast of America to join Vancouver that the “Chatham” fell in with the island to which the name of the brig was given, and the existence of this group made known to the world. Broughton landed at Kaingaroa, on the north side of the main island, on the 29th November, 1790, and had communication with the Morioris.

Failing Mr. Shand's full account of the transactions on that day, I copy from my journal of March 28, 1868, an account given me by some old Morioris living at Ouenga of Broughton's visit: “They say that the first vessel that arrived here came to Kaingaroa; it was commanded by Manu-katau (Broughton). The taukeke—for so they called the Europeans on board—were constantly collecting the clothes, utensils, weapons, etc., of the Morioris. On one occasion a taukeke got hold of a net and wanted to take it away as a specimen, but the owner objecting, called his friends to his aid. The white man, thinking that violence was intended, shot the Moriori, whereupon the latter's companions decamped. Soon after, a boat came ashore from the vessel and deposited on the beach a quantity of articles, such as blankets, shirts, tomahawks, etc. They then pulled out for some distance and waited. First one Moriori, then another, came forth from their hiding places and helped themselves from the heap on the beach. When those in the boat saw that all the things were gone, they returned on board and sailed away, and never came back. They call a ship pora.”

THE END.

*****

Of course there will be some that say the above is correct and others who say the above is wrong. But these days, accepting something (that cannot be absolutely proven beyond reasonable doubt) is not about the whole truth, but upon which side of the argument you are on.

In that regard, this is the only reason why we are digging where we are. To provide physical irrefutable truth of a people many say do not exist. And if they are there - well, that would be a truth none could deny, wouldn't it?