Best.—Miramar Island and its History. 789 
Some very curious maps of the Wellington district appeared in the 
first half of last century, and the harbour was shown in man ird forms. 
Cook's local chart is more correct than McDonnell’s map of 1834. 
In Sir J. Alexander's Incidents of the Maori War, New Zealand, we find 
a brief note concerning Miramar, as follows: “ А sandy peninsula, over 
which Cook's boats once rowed before an upheaving from earthquakes took 
place." This myth was commonly believed by young folk of Wellington 
in my school-days of the “ sixties,” but no craft has rowed over Kilbirnie 
Isthmus since the days of the Ngai-Tara. 
Tasman marked Cook Strait as a gulf on the coast-line traced by him, 
and named this country Staten Land.. It was named New Zealand when 
Brouwer, in 1643, proved that the Staten Land to the south of America 
was not part of a continent, and therefore could not be identified with the 
Staten Land of Tasman.. 
One wonders if the Oruaiti pa, on Point Dorset, was inhabited when Cook 
lay off Barrett/s Reef. In volume 7 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society 
are recorded some interesting notes concerning that place, and certain 
occurrences there in olden days. Of the old forts at Kakariki and Tarakena 
pa on the Rongotai ridge we know the name of but one, Maupuia, on the 
southern side of the deep block cut. Butts of some of the old stockade- 
posts were seen there in former years. It was probably abandoned when 
Ngati-Ira were expelled from the district in the “ twenties of last century. 
The Puhirangi pa was situated on the ridge near Fort Gordon. I collected 
and sung by a woman of a long-past generation for her dead daughter. The 
picture presented is that of the bereaved mother sitting on the hilltop, 
looking seaward over the defensive stockades of the village: Wearily 
inclines the body, as, within Puhirangi, I look forth on Hine-moana surging 
restlessly afar off." This Hine-moana 1s the Ocean Maid, the perso 
form of the ocean. The mother mourns farewe puer 
on its way to the spirit-world, bidding her pass over the vast ocean, bac 
to Irihia, the old homeland of the Maori race, thence to the upper spirit- 
world, in the uppermost of the twelve heavens, there to be welcomed by 
the mareikura, or celestial maids. The composition is a fine one—a g 
specimen of the old-time Maori song :— 
kau. — 
Ko wai rawa koe e tahu nei ia au 
Ka haramai e roto, ka kai 'kohau noa, 
Ka waitohu noa. aie 
kahurangi ; 
Ko wai rawa ka hua ko koe tonu, e Rangi, e! 
a Hine-m i waho. я 
епа te au kume ki Tawhiti-nui 
Ki Tawhiti-pamamao, ki Te Hono-i-wairua 
I o Irihi 
mau to ringa 
i і Tikitiki-o-rangi. 
I kake ai Tane ki D iode 
Kia powhiritia mai koe e nga mareikura 
to o Rangiatea : к 
О то Saoti te mahara i kona ki taiao 
