Looking back: The taniwha in Tory Channel

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The story of Kupe and the taniwha in Tory Channel is shared, this week 120 years ago, as we take a flick through the archives.

From the Marlborough Express, June 17, 1903

(Contributed by W. G. H. Baillie.) THE LEGEND OF TE WHERE A MUTURANGI, THE TANIWHA OF TORY CHANNEL, MARLBOROUGH. The following legend was told me by an old chief of one of the Wanganui (sic) tribes, who himself claimed to be a descendant of Kupe, the hero of the story:

“Kupe,” he said, “was the man who first discovered New Zealand, arrived in a canoe called Matahorna, and paddled right round both islands. As he was passing the promontory now called Castle Point he saw a large squid (wheke), or taniwha, and made an attack on it at once. He called it Te Wheke-a Muturangi (the cattle-fish of Muturangi).

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The taniwha was at first afraid of Kupe and fled, and eventually crossed Cook Straits and took up its abode in Tory Channel (Kura te au).

Here it caused great terror, and reports stated that it had at various times dragged down canoes full of men, and that none of them had ever been seen again.

Kupe, hearing these tales, suspected that his old enemy was the cause of the trouble; and, as the monster had on the previous occasion fled from him, he undertook to attack it single-handed.

He accordingly paddled across Cook Straits and entered the Channel (Kura te-au), chanting incantations (karakia) the while.

Te Wheke, hearing him coming, met him on the southern side of the Channel. Te Kupe at once recognised his old enemy, and immediately resorted to stratagem. In order to divert the attention of the taniwha be threw his sandal (hu) overboard.

Wheke dived after it, and as he did so, the old man struck him with his taiaha (a long battleaxe made of wood), and inflicted a severe wound.

The monster, finding that he had been “sold,” returned to the attack with renewed fury, but somewhat weakened from loss of blood.

Kupe, in the meantime, had paddled across to the northern side of the Channel, close to what is now known as Otenarna Bay (in which Mr George Kenny’s house now stands) and, still chanting karakia, calmly awaited events.

As the monster approached Kupe threw over his baler (tata). The taniwha dived again, and Kupe again inflicted a severe wound.

Again the monster returned, but now much weakened, and Kupe easily dispatched him with a third blow, and towed him out and placed him on the northern side of the entrance to Tory Channel and turned him into a rock.”

The narrator concluded: “If you don’t like to believe the story there stands the rock to prove it.”

The Marlborough Express newspaper cost one penny in 1903.

Marlborough Express

The Marlborough Express newspaper cost one penny in 1903.

MAORI PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

Ka ruha te kupenga, ka pae kei ta akau. – When the fishing net becomes old it is allowed to drift on shore.

He kaka waha nui. – A noisy mouthed parrot. A term applied to a boaster.

Te kotuku kai-whaka-ata. – The kotuku (white crane, an emblem of royalty) eats quietly. This applies to a chief who sees that his guests are fed before he himself sits down to eat.

Te kotuku rerenga tahi. – The kotuku is seen only once in a lifetime. This remark is applied to an event of very rare occurrence. The kotuku was very rare in most parts of New Zealand, although it was at one time somewhat plentiful in the Wairau Plains and was frequently seen by the early settlers there. It is now almost, if not quite, extinct.

Ekore e ngaro ho takero waka nui. – The hull of a large canoe cannot be hidden. Said of a large tribe that had lost a great number in battle, but could not become exterminated.

I mua ata haere; i muri whatiwhati waewae. – Those in front travel easily, those in rear break their legs. This teaches a lesson in punctuality. Be on time so that you need not hurry.

Ka mate he manu, ka tupu he manu. – One bird dies, another is hatched.

He manga-a-wai koia, kia kore e whitikia. – It is indeed a big river that cannot be crossed.

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