SuonTLAND.—Sketch of the Maori Races. 335 
in vain for a more remarkable instance of the bold and adventurous spirit of 
this people. 
From the genealogies of chiefs-which we have noted down, it would 
appear that only about eighteen generations have passed away since New 
Zealand was first colonized; that is to say, a space of time probably not 
much exceeding five hundred years. To test the probability of this conclusion, 
the genealogies of chiefs of different tribes were carefully collected and com- 
pared, and it was found that they all nearly agreed in reckoning the same 
number of generations from the time when their forefathers first landed in 
New Zealand. The remarkable uniformity, being undesigned, is the best 
proof we can have of their correctness. 
The idea that these islands were not peopled at a very remote date is 
supported by the scantiness of the population very generally when first 
discovered by Cook, the more particularly so of the South and Stewart 
Islands, which, according to the accounts given by the New Zealanders, 
were colonized from the North Island. 
About ten generations ago all that part of the South Island which 
extends from Waipapa, a point about twenty miles south of Cape Campbell, 
to Rakiura or Stewart Island, including Foveaux Strait, and a great part of 
the West Coast as far as the Buller (Kawatiri), appears to have been in 
possession of one tribe, who were called Ngatimamoe, and are said to have 
come from Wanganui or its neighbourhood. Bordering on them to the 
north was a tribe called Te Huataki, whose ancestors also came from the 
North Island and settled at Wairau. To the westward of them the country 
about Totaranui and Arapaoa, Queen Charlotte Sound, was in possession of 
the tribe Ngaitara, whose ancestors also came from the N orth Island, under 
a chief named Te Pahirere. The fame of the pounamu stone, which was 
found on several streams or rivers on the west coast and in the interior of 
the South Island, stimulated large bodies of the N. gatikahuhunu, the 
powerful East Coast tribe we have before spoken of, to make war on 
Ngatimamoe, and after many years, by dint of a constant supply of fresh 
forces, they completely subdued and took possession of all their territory. 
At present there are only a few broken hapus remaining, who were allowed 
to live on a small portion of the land once their own. 
Subsequently Te Rauparaha, with an army composed of Ngatitoa and 
several other septs of northern tribes, overran the southern shores of Cook 
Strait, and having nearly exterminated the natives he found there, attacked 
Ngatikahuhunu, and carried the war south to Banks Peninsula, The rapid 
spread of Christianity put a stop to his wars, so that the tribe Kaitahu 
retained still the greater part of the lands they had conquered from 
Ngatimamoe. But the south shores of Cook Strait are now chiefly 
