The First Settling of New Zealand: The Coming of the
Mouriuri, or Maruiwi, Folk

Inasmuch as the later-coming Polynesians were a superior, more virile and warlike folk than the original inhabitants of these isles, it followed that, as soon as their numbers permitted such a course, they fell upon the Mouriuri folk and destroyed them, though this was not effected until a considerable amount of intermarriage had taken place. It also was a natural sequence that the Maori should not preserve much detailed information concerning an inferior and conquered people. It is also recorded in tradition that the aborigines were a folk who did not carefully preserve their history and genealogical records as did the Maori. These are two reasons that serve to explain our ignorance of the origin of New Zealand's first settlers. What little has been preserved is given below.

The Mouriuri aborigines were the descendants of the crews of three canoes that had been driven from the waters of their homeland by a westerly storm, and, after a long drift, made the Taranaki coast, where the ocean waifs settled. The name of the land they came from was given as Horanui-a-tau, and also as Haupapa-nui-a-tau; it was described as an extensive land, larger than the North Island of New Zealand, also having a much warmer climate. These two names of the Mouriuri homeland tell us nothing.

It is clear that this tradition is not trustworthy; that we cannot assume that the drift canoes came from a large island to the west of New Zealand, for that would make Australia their former home, and we know that the savages of Australia and Tasmania were incapable of making sea voyages, of so rude and flimsy a nature were their vessels. The drift canoes may have been driven from home page 390by a westerly wind, but may have been influenced by other winds, and ocean-currents, later on. The statement concerning a large land is also a doubtful one, for, omitting Australia, we must go far away to New Guinea to find such a land. Possibly the original home of the Mouriuri folk was New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, or the Fiji Group.

Traditional accounts of the aborigines describe them as a spare, slim-shanked, and dark-skinned folk, with bushy or outstanding hair, having flat noses with upturned nostrils; an indolent and chilly people, fond of hugging the fireside. They had a curious habit of looking sideways out of the corners of their eyes, and were noted for treacherous behaviour. They built rude huts, and wore but little clothing—a rough cape in winter, and merely some leaves in summer.

In order to meet this description we must certainly leave Polynesia alone and enter Melanesia, no Polynesians answering to such a description. One argument against the assumption that the Mouriuri were a Melanesian folk, however, is that certain names, tribal and personal, pertaining to them are purely Polynesian in form and phonology. If these names are genuine, and truly aboriginal, then the Mouriuri must have spoken a Maori tongue. It is scarcely credible that a people whose physical peculiarities were such as are described above should have spoken a tongue so purely Maori as is shown by such names as the following:—Canoes of Mouriuri, immigrants: Okoki, Kahutara, Taikoria. Tribal names: Rua-tamore, Te Pananehu, Tai-tawaro, Mamoe, Koaupari, Te Wiwini. Personal names: Maruiwi, Pohokura, Whatu-mamoe, Piopio, Tawhiri, Matakana.

In the eastern part of the Fiji Group we may observe a people of mixed descent, Polynesian and Melanesian; they are well formed and by no means of repulsive appearance. The tongue they speak contains many Polynesian words. It appears highly probable that either the description preserved of the aborigines is incorrect, or that they certainly did not speak a Maori—that is to say, a Polynesian—tongue.

The next voyager to reach New Zealand, according to Takitumu tradition, was one Toi-te-huatahi, a native of the Society Group, of eastern Polynesia. When he arrived on these shores, about seven hundred years ago, or somewhat more, he found the aborigines a numerous people occupying the North Island from Oakura, Tara-naki, northward to Hokianga, and down the east coast to Hawke's Bay. This means that no inconsiderable period of time must have elapsed since the arrival of the few castaways of the Mouriuri. Presumably that period would be one of several centuries.

page 391