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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 11 (February 1, 1935)

Stories in Names, and Pureora Mountain

Stories in Names, and Pureora Mountain.

I have discoursed in previous numbers of the “Railways Magazine” on the history, adventure, poetry and romance often embodied in a Maori place name. I shall take just one more for the present; the subject is one of endless charm for an investigator. One should never take the origin and significance of names for granted; the popular notion of their meaning is often as erroneous as the popular pakeha pronunciation.

Pureora is a particularly interesting name, to which a long chapter of tradition belongs. The peak of this name is the highest mountain in the King Country, and a famous place in the annals of the Ngati-Maniapoto tribe and their neighbours. Its full name, as the word-of-mouth historians of the tribe told me, is Te Pure-ora-o-Kahurere, and it was so named six hundred years ago by Rakataura, the tohunga, who was one of the chiefs in the canoe Tainui from Hawaiki.

Rakataura and his wife, who was the daughter of the commander of the Tainui, the chief Hoturoa, set out from Kawhia Harbour and explored the interior, with a small party of followers. They named many places and took stock of the fertility and the wild foods of the land, especially the birds which swarmed in vast numbers in the great forest. On the slopes of the highest mountain, in the region that is now the King Country, Kahurere was taken very ill, and the party remained in camp there for many days. Rakataura recited his prayers for her recovery; he kindled a sacred fire, and the food cooked therein was ceremoniously eaten, with many rites. This was the ceremony called “pure” (pronounced poo-ray) designed to remove evil spells, witchcraft and other mysterious ills.

The wife recovered, and the tohunga named the mountain Pure-ora-o-Kahurere, signifying the sacred rite which restored the health (ora) of Kahurere.

But it is significant also that Pureora is the name of a mountain in Tahiti, the island from which the Tainui came. The coincidence is rather remarkable; no doubt Rakataura, the explorer, had that sacred height in his mind when he named the mountain in the new land, after the restoration of his wife to bush-travelling form again.