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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 5 (August 1, 1936)

[section]

This is the beginning of the old Maori's New Year. He knew that by the signs of the stars for one thing, and by the various indications that Nature is stirring for the approaching spring, Puanga has reappeared with his glittering panoply. Look out to the cast about three o'clock in the morning and you will see the rise of Orion preceded by the bright morning star. Many astronomers consider Orion the grandest of all the constellations. Certainly it is the one most easily picked out in the heavens, not even excepting the Southern Cross. Those three stars in a line forming the Belt, and the great stars vertically above and below are as famous among the Maoris as they are in the pakeha science of the sky. The appearance of Tautoru (“The Three Friends”) and Puanga in midwinter, when the constellation is at a sufficient distance from the sun to be visible at rising is a tohu or sign, annually looked for by the old generation of Maori.