Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Port Molyneux : the story of Maori and pakeha in South Otago : a centennial history : commemorating the landing of George Willsher and his companions at Willsher Bay, June 28, 1840 : with a programme for the unveiling of the centennial cairn, erected by the Clutha County Council, June 28, 1940

[introduction]

There is no evidence that there were any people in New Zealand before the Maoris. Certainly there were people here long before the historic migration in which the Arawa, Tainui, Takitimu, and other canoes took part. But those earlier people were likewise Polynesians. Some Melanesians would also be driven here, and the mixture of these two peoples, but in which the Polynesians were dominant, formed the Maori people who were here before the principal migrations. It is these older immigrants who are referred to as “the people of the land.” Sometimes they are loosely referred to as the Moriori. But even the Moriori of the Chatham Islands is a Polynesian of the Maori type.

Early Maori history is very confused. But from researches carried out amongst old Maoris it is possible to set down the main outlines.

page 28

As some historians take 20 years for a generation—Stack, for instance—and others take 25, dates in Maori history vary considerably. The late Mr. Percy Smith, using the 25 year generation, correlated New Zealand, Rarotongan and Tahitian traditions, and arrived at the following approximate dates:—

925 A.D.—Kupe sailed from Rarotonga for New Zealand.

975 A.D.—Early waves of migration to New Zealand.

1150 A.D.—Time of Toi.

1175 A.D.—Moriori migration from New Zealand to Chathams.

1250 to 1325 A.D.—Voyages of the second Kupe, Ngahue, and others.

1350 A.D.—New Zealand settled by the “Fleet.”