296 Transaction 



s. 



Art. XXXI.-- Notes on Eels and Eel-weirs (Tuna and Pa-tuna). 



By T. W. Downes, Wanganui. 



[Bead before the Wanganui Philosophical Society, 17th December. 1917; received by 

 Editors. 31st December, 1017 ; issued separately, 24th June. 19ls.\ 



Plates XXI II- XXXIV. 



Introduction. 



In commenting on the annual report of the Wellington Acclimatization 

 Society the London Field says, ' Various things in the report make it 

 clear that the big eels for which the country has always been famous 

 continue to trouble the fisheries. The New Zealand eel is a mysterious 

 creature, as to which one would like more information. He reaches an 

 immense weight, and has been credited with being dangerous even to human 

 beings when they are bathing. A monograph of his life-history and habits 

 would be very interesting." 



I much regret that I have been unable to find any descriptive matter 

 in connection with our native eels, but in the new edition of Williams's 

 Maori Dictionanj (1917), under the heading " Tuna." the following note is 

 given : " This is the generic name for eel. Nearly a hundred distinctive 

 names are recorded,* many, of course, being synonyms for varieties of the 

 three species observed in New Zealand waters." Five species of fresh- water 

 eels (in addition to the marine conger) are listed by Hutton in his Index,f 

 but no varieties are there recorded. Certainly there appear to be a good 

 many. 



On the west coast of the North Island, the only district in New Zealand 

 with which I am thoroughly familial', the eel, or tuna as it is called by the 

 Maori, has ever been conspicuous upon the native bill of fare. Indeed, 

 often for months at a time, owing to the fact that they could keep the fish 

 alive, and also as they were able to preserve it by sun-drying, it was their 

 only animal food ; consequently a, large part of the time of the people was 

 formerly spent in the manufacture oihinaki (eel-baskets), pa-tuna (eel-weirs), 

 and other implements used in connection with the fishery. 



In olden days the pa-tuna was an elaborate as well as an exceedingly 

 strong piece of work, often adorned by carvings, and always made to stand 

 years of flood-timber buffeting ; occasionally it required repairing, but it 

 was never quite destroyed. To-day on several of the upper Whanganui 

 River rapids there are the remains of old pa-tuna, though the huts of the 

 adjoining villages have long since been obliterated by time. 



I have heard that the Waikato River, with its tributaries, was the most 

 celebrated in New Zealand for its fa-tuna and the quantities of eels found 

 there, right away from the mouth up to the Huka Falls, near Lake Taupo, 

 above which none are found. The Manga-tawhiri, the Maramarua, the 



* ! am informed by a correspondent that about 110 eel-names are on record, most 

 of which are to be found in the 5th edition of Williams's Maori Dictionary (1917). 

 f F. W. Hutton, Index Faunae Novae Zealandiae, London. 1904. 



