486 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



' Of this story it may be remarked that, though we have 

 no means of determining its historical accm^acy, it is, of 

 com-se possi"ble that prehminary exploring expeditions visited 

 New Zealand and returned to the ancestral home, wherever 

 that was, as we have evidence that, as a rule, the islands of 

 the Pacifi'; were discovered by regularly-equipped exploring 

 expeditions. The report of the discovery of a great country, 

 with no formidable inhabitants, arriving in an over-populated 

 island the inhabitants of which were constantly at w^ar with 

 each other, is just the kind of circumstaiice that would stimu- 

 late a great migration, such as that which the' traditions 

 describe with such minute detail. The chief difficulty in this 

 story and others relating instances of a return to Hawaiki lies 

 in the degree of accuracy required to navigate a small vessel 

 back to a very small island, while we know that for ages 

 before Cook's time New-Zealanders had not made such 

 voyages. It is, however, more than probable that the Maori 

 navigators of ancient times possessed far superior knowledge 

 and methods to those of Cook's time. Possession of a great 

 territory had made them cease to be navigators of the ocean. 

 The same thing had happened to our own race for two cen- 

 turies at least before Alfred's time, and it is not difficult to 

 point out that four or five times in history the possession of 

 more than sufficient land-extension has caused the English or 

 the Saxons to turn their faces from the sea. 



Several traditions exist in New Zealand attached to par- 

 ticular implements or ornaments of greenstone besides the 

 two mentioned, suggesting that they were brought from 

 Hawaiki. Eeference to one of these is made by Mr. Stack in 

 his replies to my questions given later. I am informed by the 

 Eev. Mr. Hammond, a missionary at Patea, that when the 

 Maoris lose a treasured keepsake they make aiiother like it, 

 and always refer to the new one as if it were the identical 

 original: in this way a paddle of one of the ancient canoes 

 may be preserved in name. Possibly the precious Kaukau- 

 matua may thus represent an ancient jewel of some other 

 material. 



Waitaha. 



The history of the South Island (leaving out of considera- 

 tion for the present its west coast, separated by an alpine 

 barrier, and certain local settlements in the northern part of 

 the Island) begins with the tribe called Waitaha. They came 

 from the east coast of the North Island, and became ex- 

 tremely numerous ; and to them are attributed by tradition 

 the vast shell-heaps which lie near the beaches. They were 

 exterminated by Ngatimamoe, — Mr. Stack thinks, three hun- 

 dred years ago. They are vaguely connected by tradition 



