Best. — Maori and Maruiwi. 439 



The Pa Maori, or Native Fort. 



There is one matter in connection with the Maruiwi aborigines that 

 seems to show that in one direction at least they may have exhibited 

 intelligence of a fairly high order. Tradition states that they constructed 

 hill forts, and mentions those of Okoki, Pohokura, and Urenui, in northern 

 Taranaki, as having been occupied by them. The writer has carefully 

 examined those forts, and found them to be of a type common on the 

 Taranaki coast — small hills of which the sides have been excavated into 

 terraces. Those terraces were protected by lines of stockading along their 

 outer edges. Fosses and ramparts formed only a small part of the defences 

 of this type of fort. As these places have been occupied by the Maori for 

 centuries, down to the nineteenth century, they may not now present the 

 same features that they did when occupied by Maruiwi: the style of 

 defence may have been altered since that time. 



This brings us to the question of the origin of the pa maori, or native 

 fort. In the North Island are the remains of thousands of old-time 

 fortified places, mostly hill forts, exhibiting an advanced knowledge of 

 the science of fortification on the part of those who formed them. Some 

 are of great size, and must have accommodated thousands of persons ; 

 some are very small ; the greater number are of medium size. The 

 terraced hills, the fosses and ramparts (presenting scarps in some cases 

 of 20 ft.), the double and treble systems of circumvallation, the ingeniously 

 contrived earthwork defences for weak places and entrance passages — all 

 these are of much interest, and well worthy of study. Where or how did 

 they originate ? 



We know that the Maori who settled in New Zealand came from the 

 eastern Pacific area ; we know that no such remains of fortified places 

 are found in that area. A few stone-walled refuges exist on the lone isle 

 of Rapa. The Tongan fortified places were based on those of Fiji, but 

 the Polynesian was not a fort-builder. Apparently the only place outside 

 the North Island of New Zealand where hill forts, the defensive works of 

 which were fosses, ramparts, stockades, and fighting-stages, were numerous 

 is the Island of Viti Levu, in the Fiji Group. 



Did the local type of forts originate here ? If so, was it Maruiwi or 

 Maori who was responsible for them ? We know that the Maori was a " 

 fighter before he came to these isles ; that he fought in the open in Poly- 

 nesia, as he always preferred to do here down to our own time. The 

 first Polynesian that brought a party of settlers to this island was Toi, 

 who lived at the Ka-pu-te-rangi Fort, at Whakatane, according to all 

 traditions. Did the Polynesian become a fort-builder as soon as he stepped 

 ashore here ? Did he evolve the idea of an earthwork fort out of his inner 

 consciousness, or did he adopt a Maruiwi custom ? The origin of the pa 

 7naori is a field for inquiry. 



Cannibalism. 



There is another subject that carries an element of interest. Though 

 cannibalism was practised in some isles, yet it was no universal Polynesian 

 custom. In the Society Group, whence the Maori of New Zealand came, 

 it was rare, and it horrified several Tahitians who sailed on Cook's vessels 

 in the Pacific. How is it that our Maori has become such a pronounced 

 cannibal in these islands ? No such a condition of general cannibalism— 

 of its becoming -such a common practice — is known among Polynesians of 

 the south-eastern area. In order to find the eastern limit of this custom 



