Williams. — Language of tht Chiilunn Inlands. 415 



Art. XXXVI. — Some Notes on the Language of the Chalhaiu Islands. 



By Archdeacon H. W. WilliAxMS. 



[Read hfjorc the Xew Zmland histitute, <il Christchurch, dth-Stk February, lU lU ; received 

 by Editor, lllli March, 1919 ; issued separately, 19th August, 1919.] 



Chatham Island, called by the Maori Wharekauri, and by the earlier 

 inhabitants Rekohii, was peopled by a branch of the Polynesian race 

 known variously as Maioriori, Mouriuri, and Mooriori (generally spelled 

 " Moriori ").* Accounts of the early history of the island and its inhabit- 

 ants are meagre in the extreme, toi (c. 1125), making for New Zealand 

 in search of his grandson Whatonga, is reported to have sighted an island 

 " like a cloud in the distance." It does not appear that he touched there, 

 and no further information has been preserved. On reaching New Zealand 

 Toi found portions of the North Islandf occupied by a people now referred 

 to as " Maruiwi," the name of a former chief. Trouble soon arose between 

 Toi's party and the Maruiwi, and a war of extermination was raged against 

 such of the latter as had not intermarried with the new-comers, and a small 

 remnant of them escaped in six canoes, sailing towards the south from Cook 

 Strait. It is said that some of these reached Chatham Island, but actual 

 proof of this fact is wanting. Moriori genealogies certainly contain the 

 names of Toi, his son and grandson, among the demigods, but a knowledge 

 of them may conceivably have come through another channel. 



Some little time later (c. 1200) one Kahu, in a spirit of adventure, fitted 

 out a canoe at the mouth of the Rangitikei River and set out to find the 

 island reported by Toi. He reached Wharekauri, where he found inhabit- 

 ants who are supposed to have been the Maruiwi refugees from New 

 Zealand. But it must be borne in mind that the Moriori traditions claim 

 that their ancestors had resided on the island for many generations before 

 Kahu's arrival, a statement supported by notes to two Moriori genealogies 

 (Shand, pp. 53, 55) ; though it is difficult to assess accurately the chrono- 

 logical value of these genealogies, seeing that according to them 1,750 

 years intervened between Kahu's arrival and the coming of the Rangimata 

 canoe, a period which upon other data is estimated to be about 150 years. 

 The Moriori claim that his ancestors antedated Kahu by a considerable 

 period receives, perhaps, more support from the statement of Matorohanga 

 that four canoes are known to have reached Wharekauri from Rarotonga — 

 one of them, Te Ririno, " long before the visit of Kahu." The names of 

 two of the occupants of this canoe are given. One of them, Kapohau, had 

 a son, Te Ao-marama, a name which occurs in both the Moriori genealogies 

 as that of the father of Rongomai-whenua, who is stated to have been the 

 first ancestor who resided on the island. But this was, according to the 

 genealogies, some 128 generations before the beginning of this century — 

 say, about 1300 B.C., or fifty-five years before the siege of Troy. 



Reverting to Kahu, it is said that he, with some of his companions, set 

 out to return to New Zealand, but nothing is known of their fate. Others 

 of the crew married on the island, and some of their descendants have since 

 returned here. 



* This is probably not a tribal or race name, but, like the word " Maori," an 

 adjective meaning "native." Bishop Sehvyn, who visited the island in 1848, says that 

 they called themselves " tangata maoriori." 



f Recent investigations indicate that this previous occupation probably covered 

 both the Islands of New Zealand. 



