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Tales of Banks Peninsula

[introduction]

page 1

To all who know how attentively the Maoris noted the physical features of the country, and the prolific character of their geographical nomenclature, it is somewhat perplexing to find that an isolated region, with a conformation so marked as Banks Peninsula, does not possess a distinctive Maori name; unless, indeed, the present inhabitants have lost the knowledge of it, and confined to a part a name which originally embraced the whole. I am inclined to think that this is the case. In ancient times the whole island was spoken of as "the fish," and even now the northern part of it is called "Mua upoko" (the front head), while the southern part is called "Murihiku" (rear tail). I think it is highly probable that when the first explorers, looking southwards from the neighbourhood of Kaikoura, saw the Peninsula looming up against the sky, they took it to be the limit of the land's extent, and called it accordingly the Hiku, or tail-end of the fish. But the combination of Rangi (sky) with Hiku may point to another derivation, since Hikurangi is the name of a mountain at the head of the Waiapu Valley, near East Cape. The name may possibly have been applied to this peninsula from some fancied resemblance in its appearance, when first sighted from the north, to the well known mountain near the ancient home of the Ngatikahunu tribe.

Whether the Peninsula was ever inhabited by people of another race it is impossible to say, owing to the absence of conclusive evidence either one way or the other. My page 2friend Dr. Von Haast rather inclines to the opinion that it was, being led to the conclusion by some discoveries he made in the moa bone cave near Sumner. But there is nothing to be found in the existing traditions relating to the locality, which can be relied upon as affording any evidence that the Maoris knew that the country was occupied before they came here. The demigods of whom they speak as having been the first discoverers and explorers of these islands, cannot be regarded as the representatives of an aboriginal people, because the stories relating to them are common to all sections of the Polynesian race, and evidently belong to persons and events connected with Maori history in distant ages, long before the migration from Hawaiki.

Whether the Peninsula was ever inhabited by people of another race it is impossible to say, owing to the absence of conclusive evidence either one way or the other. My page 3cruel process of extermination by which they had secured their own conquest of Waitaha.

Before entering on the narrative of Ngai Tahu's doings on Banks Peninsula, it may be interesting to relate what the Maoris say about one monument of the former inhabitants that still remains, known as the