History and traditions of the Maoris of the west coast, North Island of New Zealand prior to 1840 . we shall constantly come across their names in followingout the history of the Taranaki tribes proper. TAINUI TRIBES. From the Mokau river—which may be taken as the Northernboundary of the Taranaki tribes, as it is of the present Province—northwards to Manukau Harbour, a coast line of over one hundred andtwenty miles, we find a number of tribes and hapus, who may be styledgenerally the Tainui tribes, because they are largely descended fromthe crew of the Tainui canoe that formed one of the fleet
History and traditions of the Maoris of the west coast, North Island of New Zealand prior to 1840 . we shall constantly come across their names in followingout the history of the Taranaki tribes proper. TAINUI TRIBES. From the Mokau river—which may be taken as the Northernboundary of the Taranaki tribes, as it is of the present Province—northwards to Manukau Harbour, a coast line of over one hundred andtwenty miles, we find a number of tribes and hapus, who may be styledgenerally the Tainui tribes, because they are largely descended fromthe crew of the Tainui canoe that formed one of the fleet of 1350,and which canoe finally found a resting place in Kawhia Harbour,where, to this day may be seen two pillars of stone, named Puna andHani, placed there by the Maoris to show the exact length of thevessel where she finally rotted away.* A very significant name is that * See Plate No. 5, from a photograph by Mr. R. W. S. Ballentyne, in whichthe two stone pillars are shown. They are between 60 and 70 feet apart, and thusserve to denote the probable length of one of these famous fee® i-H o HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF THE TARANAKI COAST. 107 of Ahurei, close to the spot where Tainui perished. It was thettmhu or altar set up by Hoturoa the captain of the Tainui on herarrival, and is named in memory of the district in Tahiti from whencethey came—now called Te Fana-i-Ahurei. Close to is Hawaiki, whereHoturoas wife planted the first kumaras, brought over in the Tai-nui. Many details as to these tribes are to be found in Mr. JohnWhites Ancient History of the Maoris, Vols. I., II., and III., buthis matter sadly wants editing and arranging on an historical far as this narrative is concerned, we may, for the present, considerthese Tainui tribes as having two great divisions, viz.: Waikato andNgati-Mania-poto, with which are connected a large number of sub-tribes and hapus. In very general terms it may be said that the Wai-kato tribes occupied all the coast from
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmaorine, bookyear1910
