292 KEPOKT— 1891. 



capable of a probable explanation as follows : The introdueed 

 plant about which most discussion has taken place is the 

 karaka-ivee {Gorynocarims Icevigata), and the birds are the 

 'pukeko (Poiyhyrio melanotus) and the little green paroquet 

 called kakariki. These things are said to have been brought 

 in the canoe Aotea, commanded by Turl, who, as the tradition 

 states, stayed on his way here for some time at an island called 

 by him Bancji -talma. This name cannot now be identified, 

 but it is not impossible that it may be Sunday Island, which 

 lies just in the course Turi should have followed. If so, then, 

 tlie karaka-tree , the green paroquet, and the 2)ukcko are all 

 found in that island, and are natives of it. It is quite probable, 

 all of them being new to Turi, that he brought some of the 

 birds and the seed of the karaka with him, and the tradition 

 of his having introduced them to New Zealand may be quite 

 true, notwithstanding that all of them are natives of this coun- 

 try. But Turi was not the only one to introduce the kumara. 

 There are very circumstantial accounts of others having done 

 so, and also of voyages made back again to Hawaiki specially 

 to obtain supplies of this useful root. 



This migration found a race already in occupation of the 

 country, of which mention is made in the traditions, and from 

 whom many of the chiefs now living trace their descent. I 

 believe this original people to have been of the same Polynesian* 

 race as the Maori, speaking the same language, and having 

 much the same customs, but that they were inferior mentally 

 and physically. They became gradually absorbed in the later 

 migrations, by whom they were in a great measure ignored. 

 The Maoris — properly so called — came from a place called 

 Hawaiki — a name which was brought by the Polynesians from 

 the Eastern Archipelago, and which, under slightly different 

 forms, is found in most of the groups of the Pacific, either as 

 the name of one of the islands, or as that of a place from 

 which they trace their common origin in the far-distant past. 

 In the case of the Maoris, I feel little doubt that during the 

 later generations they had come to look on this name as a 

 general one applied to the islands of the Pacific known to them ; 

 but the particular Hawaiki to which I trace their immediate 

 origin before their migration here is that of Havaii,* or 

 Haiatea, in the Society group, from whence, it will be remem- 

 bered, the Earotongans also trace their origin in part. The 

 connection, of this name of Hawaiki with the Society group 

 will be shown later on. Here I will merely say that I believe 

 the Maoris to have migrated from both Earotonga and the 

 Society Islands, their connection with Samoa, which has 



* Havaii, of the Tahifcian dialect, would be pronounced by the Maoris 

 Hawaiki. The Tahitians have lost the hard sound of " k," and also the 

 nasal " ng." 



