Koko or Tikoko

Any implement in the form of a shovel or scoop may be termed a koko or tikoko. The name is applied to a form of wooden spade by the Ngapuhi folk of the north. Nicholas (1815) gives it as the name of a tool. Mr. T. H. Smith terms the tikoko "a kind of shovel," in his paper on Maori implements. (See Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. 26, p. 426).

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Tuta Nihoniho informs us that, on the East Coast, a curious implement, termed a koko, in form much resembling a canoe baler, was formerly used as an earth scoop, used in place of a spade or shovel for filling baskets with earth, &c., as when constructing earthworks, &c. The writer of Maori Art calls the koko a weeding stick, which it certainly was not. Hori Ropiha gives takoko as the name of an old native implement used as a spade. It was made from a piece of maire, and was used in digging ditches, &c., also in cultivation work when weeding and loosening the soil. The Ngati-Porou folk told me that the takoko was a spade-like implement that was employed as a shovel—hai tikoko i nga oneone ki ro rahu—to shovel earth into baskets, as when constructing the ramparts of defensive works.

Presumably the hoto already described would be termed a koko in some districts, inasmuch as it was used as a shovel.