17 

 THE MAORI OF NEW ZEALAND. 



The natives of New Zealand form a branch of the Polynesian 

 race, and are nearly related to the people of the Cook and Society 

 Groups. The later-coming pre-European settlers in these Isles 

 assuredly came from that region, hence the origin of the Maori of 

 New Zealand is one with the origin of the far-scattered Polynesian 

 race. 



The original home-land of the Polynesians is a matter that has 

 caused much interest and produced many conjectures. Most of the 

 writers on this subject agree in locating that home-land in southern 

 or south-eastern Asia. Professor Keane has placed the Polynesians 

 among the Caucasic peoples in his family tree of the Hominidae, 

 and claims tliat they represent the main subdivision of the Indo- 

 Oceanic Caucasians. An interesting tradition preserved by the Taki- 

 tumu clans of the North Island mentions Irihia as the name of the 

 hidden home-land, and in this name some students of Polynesian 

 ethnology recognize an old Sanscrit name for India Vrihia. This 

 name is apparently connected with vrihi, a name for rice, and the 

 Maori has possibly preserved another rice-name in ari, which he states, 

 was a small seed that formed one of the principal food-supplies of 

 the land of Irihia. 



Divers writers bring the Polynesians into the region termed by 

 us Polynesia at varying dates ranging from 1000 B.C. to 450 A.D. 

 Whatever the date may have been, the early European voyagers in 

 these seas found them occupying an area of about 4,000 by 4,500 

 miles in extent. In addition to this exclusively Polynesian area 

 there are many Polynesian colonies in far-sundered isles of Melanesia 

 and Micronesia, from the New Hebrides to Monteverde Isle. 



It is clear that the ancestors of the Polynesians were fearless 

 voyagers, intrepid navigators of wide seas. Throughout long centuries 

 they roamed over great areas of the Pacific, and made many long 

 voyages repeatedly in all directions. Thus repeated voyages were 

 made between Tahiti and New Zealand, between Tahiti and the 

 Hawaiian Isles. A yet longer voyage was that from Fiji to Easter 

 Island. These pre-Columbian neolithic sea-rovers, all ignorant of the 

 compass and of the true art of shipbuilding, manned their carvel-built 

 outrigger and double canoes, and cross-hatched great seas with their 

 innumerable ara moana or sea-roads. 



Some forty generations ago two of these Polynesian Vikings dis- 

 covered the Isles of New Zealand and returned to eastern Polynesia. 

 Twelve generations later the first Polynesian settlers arrived on these 

 shores, but during that period the northern parts of the North Island 

 had been occupied by an unknown people, a dark-skinned folk who 

 probably came from the western Pacific. These early settlers were 

 the descendants of castaways, the crews of three vessels that made 

 land on the Taranaki coast. These two peoples intermarried, and 

 hence the Melanesian characteristics so often observed among our 

 Maori folk. 



Communication between New Zealand and Polynesia was kept up 

 for generations, but finally ceased, save for certain drift voyages. 

 The last vessels to leave these shores for Polynesia, so far as we are 

 aware, sailed about two hundred and fifty years ago. Since that 

 time the Maori has been isolated in these Isles. 



Inset Nature Notes. 



