The Origins and Early History of Ngati-Porou: a Maori Tribe of East Coast, New Zealand

Abstract

The first years of the European occupation of New zealand was the time when accurate information concerning early Maori history could have been gleaned from the priests and chiefs. These men, who had undersone periods, often extending over years, of intensive schooling, were characterised by an amazing ability to recite word-perfectly the genealogies and past history of their people. They had no method of writing by which such knowledge could be placed on record, and a photographic memory and the ability to reproduce exactly what had been learnt, were the prerequisites of scholarship and priesthood. The early colonists were far too busy carving out homes for themselves and making profitable land deals to bother about the history of the native race, and the opportunity slipped by; a new generation of Maoris grew up, largely in ignorance of the things of the past, though very much concerned with the whisky and gun-powder of the present.