330 JEssaijs. 



social state. Tliese laws were wonderfully minute and comples, and must 

 have been a grievous burden, from Avbicb, by adopting Claristianity, they 

 niiglit be relieved. Hence it is not to be wondered at tbat Cbristianity 

 spread rapidly at first among tlae younger men. All gods being spirits of 

 their ancestors who bad died, there Avas no idea involved in the teaching 

 of the missionaries repugnant to their sentiments ; and their priests, when 

 consulted as to the Grod of the white men, replied, as I have been often told 

 by them, " that Christ was a true &od, and. more powerful than theirs." 



Traditions which speak of the first colonization of New Zealand by the 

 Maori, are to be found an^oug all the tribes, more or less perfect and 

 circumstantial. 



The northern tribes called Ngapuhi have a tradition of one Kupe, who ' 

 made a voyage from an island called "Wawauatea to jSTew Zealand, who, 

 having circumnavigated the IN'orth Island, and given names to different 

 places there, returned to his OAvn countrymen, who, in a succeeding gener- 

 ation, fitted out an expedition to seek for the land of Kupe, and found their 

 way to the North Island, where they remained. These first made the land 

 at Muriwhenua, the North Cape, and finally settled at Hokianga, where their 

 descendants are now to be found, and are able to deduce pedigree in un- 

 broken succession from those first settlers. The present northern tribes, 

 however, are also descended from other ancestors, whose canoe first made 

 the coast near the East Cape at "Waiapu, some of whom migrated to the 

 north, and intermarried with those there located. 



Hawaiki is the name of the island most generally referred to by the 

 New Zealanders as the place from which their ancestors came. The causes 

 which led to the abandonment of Hawaiki are variously related ; but the most 

 probable tale is that, a civil war having broken out among their ancestors, 

 the weaker party determined to seek a new country, and embarked in several 

 canoes, some of which, after a long voyage, reached the coast of New Zea- 

 land. 



The two most celebrated of these canoes were named Tainui (full tide) 

 and Arawa (shark). The latter of them made the land a short distance 

 north of "Waitemata, the harbour on which Auckland is situated ; and a 

 sperm whale (paraoa) being discovered stranded on the beach, the place 

 obtained the name of Wangaparaoa, or whale port, from that circumstance. 



Tainui first made the land near the East Cape, which was also named 

 Wangaparaoa, owing to a similar circumstance ; hence we may infer that 

 in those early times, when man had not hunted them in these seas, the 

 sperm whale frequented the northern coast of New Zealand. 



It will be curious to trace what became of Tainui and its crew after 

 reachiug New Zealand, as it will throw some light on the notions of this 



