Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand

by James Cowan

By

JAMES COWAN

WHITCOMBE & TOMBS LIMITED

Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, & Wellington, N.Z. Melbourne and London

1923

E. Cowan, photo

Hone Taare Tikao, the narrator of the legends.

PREFACE

In this little book I have endeavoured to interweave with descriptions of the most picturesque parts of the Canterbury Port Hills some of the Maori poetic legends and historical traditions which belong to the Range, and which have not previously been recorded. These stories, I hope, will invest with a new interest for many Canterbury pakehas the scenic beauties of the Port Hills now opened up from end to end by the Summit Road. Here I desire to record also, with feelings of gratitude, the name of the principal narrator of the legends, Mr. Hone Taare Tikao, of Rapaki, a Ngai-Tahu gentleman whose uncommonly retentive memory is a storehouse of information on local history and who blends in himself the gifts of the folk-lorist and the genealogist. Some of the place-names were supplied by the late Mr. T. E. Green (Tame Kirini), of Tuahiwi, Kaiapoi, one of the last good native authorities on the ancient history of the plains.