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A HISTORY OF BLACKBALL: FIRST SETTLERS. ca. 1321
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DescriptionPeople first found their way more or less seven hundred years ago into the valleys around what we now call Blackball. Although archeologists and historians know that findings may need to be revised with further work, the earliest settlers in our part of the world seem to have come in the late thirteenth century, sailing on big sturdy twin-hulled waka built in Eastern Polynesia. The settlers will have come in carefully planned voyages On their waka they brought with them full kits of farm animals and food crops.
The very first settlements in the new land seem to have been made in broad sandy bays on the eastern coasts of what we now call the North Island and the South Island. Te Tai Poutini, the West Coast, was settled a little later than those eastern bays. Explorers will have sailed up and down the Coast, though, taking a look at its possibilities and liking what they saw when they found the teeming lagoons and wetlands at the mouth of the Māwheranui.
When did the first settlers build whare on the banks of the big river and begin working their way up its valley?
We don’t yet know. We can be sure, though, that as soon as people came they will have systematically probed every valley and side valley, hunting and gathering, killing moa by the thousand, while looking for useful types of stone and wood. They will have noted the gold in creek beds. They will have noted the coal seams in rocks. Clearly they did not think either gold or coal worth gathering, and were probably disappointed at the lack of pounamu in the valley and side valleys. They will have tried to set fire to the forest, as elsewhere, to clear land. The fires smouldered then sputtered out thanks to the wetness of the rainforests. Burns were successful in only a few areas of Te Tai Poutini. Most districts, among them Blackball and its neighbourhood, continued to be thickly forested.
After a generation or two, explorers will have worked out what they could find in and around the two streams that flank the Blackball tableland. Scrambling up the steep stony sides of the terraces to take a look at what bounty might be found on the tableland may have waited for a few more years.
The human history of hunting and gathering bands working their way seasonally up the creeks, over the tableland, must have been thoroughly in swing by the late fourteenth century. At certain times of year the voices of people would be heard talking, calling, chanting, praying and singing on the tableland amidst the cries and peeps of insects and birds, the sighs of the big old beeches. The bands were not speaking modern Māori. They were using some sort of other Eastern Polynesian language, closely akin to the languages spoken today in the Austral Islands, Society Islands and Cook Islands – very likely not too different from the language spoken by my husband Bart and his family on their home island of Ma’uke.
pic An early 19th century painting of a chief in the Cook Islands. One of the first serious tasks undertaken by new settlers in Te Tai Poutini was making warm clothing and waterproof rain cloaks. See LessDate of Photoca.1321Map[1] ContributorStevan Eldred-Grigg
The very first settlements in the new land seem to have been made in broad sandy bays on the eastern coasts of what we now call the North Island and the South Island. Te Tai Poutini, the West Coast, was settled a little later than those eastern bays. Explorers will have sailed up and down the Coast, though, taking a look at its possibilities and liking what they saw when they found the teeming lagoons and wetlands at the mouth of the Māwheranui.
When did the first settlers build whare on the banks of the big river and begin working their way up its valley?
We don’t yet know. We can be sure, though, that as soon as people came they will have systematically probed every valley and side valley, hunting and gathering, killing moa by the thousand, while looking for useful types of stone and wood. They will have noted the gold in creek beds. They will have noted the coal seams in rocks. Clearly they did not think either gold or coal worth gathering, and were probably disappointed at the lack of pounamu in the valley and side valleys. They will have tried to set fire to the forest, as elsewhere, to clear land. The fires smouldered then sputtered out thanks to the wetness of the rainforests. Burns were successful in only a few areas of Te Tai Poutini. Most districts, among them Blackball and its neighbourhood, continued to be thickly forested.
After a generation or two, explorers will have worked out what they could find in and around the two streams that flank the Blackball tableland. Scrambling up the steep stony sides of the terraces to take a look at what bounty might be found on the tableland may have waited for a few more years.
The human history of hunting and gathering bands working their way seasonally up the creeks, over the tableland, must have been thoroughly in swing by the late fourteenth century. At certain times of year the voices of people would be heard talking, calling, chanting, praying and singing on the tableland amidst the cries and peeps of insects and birds, the sighs of the big old beeches. The bands were not speaking modern Māori. They were using some sort of other Eastern Polynesian language, closely akin to the languages spoken today in the Austral Islands, Society Islands and Cook Islands – very likely not too different from the language spoken by my husband Bart and his family on their home island of Ma’uke.
pic An early 19th century painting of a chief in the Cook Islands. One of the first serious tasks undertaken by new settlers in Te Tai Poutini was making warm clothing and waterproof rain cloaks. See LessDate of Photoca.1321Map[1] ContributorStevan Eldred-Grigg
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Location (city or town)BlackballEventA HISTORY OF BLACKBALL: FIRST SETTLERS. ca. 1321
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Date Created16th February 2021CommentsMary Moffitt
The writer demonstrates much uncertainty about each aspect of this entertaining story. It would be good to fully discuss the suggested points, and try to back them up with facts.
Chris Farrington
Mary Moffitt I think you mean evidence. Unfortunately most of the materials used by the first settlers do not last long in a damp wet environment. What does last is the oral traditions. The same traditions that formed the basis of European history before writing.
Don Hutton
Chris Farrington Not sure what you mean here. Are you talking about paper, the writing on it, or building materials? We have a lot of historical documents and objects in our family archives written / made well before 1840 which are in excellent condition. Some were kept in farm sheds for many decades before being properly stored in archives like the Alexander Turnbull Library, Macmillan Brown Library and Hocken Library. Lots of other people could tell you about their surviving family records I'm sure. The historical field books of early West Coast explorers / surveyors are wonderful records and have survived in good condition. They used to be kept in a safe in the old Government Building in Hokitika which, as a very junior person, I had to lock away each night!
Chris Farrington
Don Hutton first settlers in this case being Polynesian.
Don Hutton
Chris Farrington Touche! But you know what I mean. Semantic slip? The first arrivals were probably mariners of Pacific origin and may not have been deliberate settlers. Any record of this does not appear to have been in writing or symbols on a tablet or similar. A great pity and a challenge for researchers in all fields of "history."
Rosemary Matthews
The West Coast is POUTINI not Te Tai before Poutini as this was explained to me many years ago by Maika Mason who was Chairman of Mawhera Incorporation and was involved in Ngaitahu land claims.
· Reply · 1d
Glenn Johnston
Rosemary Matthews I think Maika would have been indicating the people are "Poutini" part of the greater Ngai Tahu. "Te Tai Poutini" is descriptive of where the Poutini people resided.
Rosemary Matthews
Glenn Johnston Maika stated West Coast is Poutini.
Glenn Johnston
Yes, a contraction of Tai Poutini. The person or deity Poutini was of course prominent in the foundation legends of Te Wai Pounamu (where the greenstone resides) and a brother of Pounamu. There are various versions. Poutini is also the name of a star. I've heard Maika and various of his relies give versions of the foundation story and read others.
Don Hutton
Rosemary Matthews, Mr Mason also cut down the war memorial gates at Grey Main School and chucked them in a paddock. His fancy title does not entitle him to pronounce anything about anything, even if he may be right re poutini. Do you know the full Maori name for Greymouth?
Don Hutton
Glenn Johnston I'll bite my tongue on Mike Mason's stories. He was a good rugby player though.
· Reply · 8h
Glenn Johnston
I don't remember Maika in his rugby playing days but I got to know him through forestry and to a lesser extent over his "Maori" related dealings with my father. I even remember his parents and sons. I could also add lots but won't.
Don Hutton
Glenn Johnston Just as a comparison between written and oral "histories," Shakespeare's written plays continue have a huge influence on English historians and history to this day and many are still trying to work out truth from fiction in them. Shakespeare was a story teller par excellence, but not a historian. The Mason family's oral interpretations appear to have varied in the telling in one or two generations, so one wonders what their 6x great grandparents might have been saying in Shakespeare's time? Be it written or oral, history is history is history and not facts by a long chalk and it keeps changing.
Don Hutton
Glenn Johnston Another wise decision.
Rosemary Matthews
Don Hutton quite frankly he had every right to they were owned by Mawhera Inc. there’s more story re the gates best you leave it alone MR Hutton.
Jackie Douglas
· Reply · 8h
Mary Moffitt
Rosemary Matthews I grew up on the Coast, and after leaving for education, I spent much time every year back there till I was about forty. Family reasons gradually made the visits fewer and shorter, but I still care deeply for the place and its people - all of them.
I grew up feeling horrified that land occupied by the business area of Greymouth was Maori land and was therefore rented at what I can only call a peppercorn rental. Any right-minded people could see that this was glaringly unfair.
When I learned that things had changed, and that Maori had become entitled to market rates for the rental of their property, I felt good. This is fair.
It would seem that tempers have boiled up in the transition from the past to the present. It is not my place to dictate anything, but my feelings are that we just have to get over the hurdles of this change. In this case a hurdle seems to be a set of gates.
Let us get over them - TOGETHER.
Don Hutton
Rosemary Matthews That is 99% incorrect Get your facts right. The war memorial gates were erected after WWI by public donation to commemorate the deaths of the fallen including maori The school was situated on a section of what was called originally deignated as a Native Reserve in the Mawhera Purchase (a ripoff of maori) which stretched from South Belt to Mawhera Quay. The Crown leased the school section from maori from at least 1876 when the Grey District School was opened. The rent was a source of revenue for Maori just as the rent from the whole CBD was. The leases for it and all the Greymouth CBD are in the National Archives but were previously held in the Government Building in Hokitika where, as a temporary keeper of documents, I studied them with my very own eyes! For example the rent from Alf Harrison's Menswear was a measily 1 pound a year. Maori have every right to regard that sort of thing as a ripoff as the 1 pound was shared by 20 people. I understand they now pay market rates. I have issued Ms Matthews an invitation to debate with me via PM. See my following post.
Don Hutton
Mary Moffitt I feel very much the same but I also feel that Rosemary needs to given some help in the finer detail of who owned / owns what and why. Also who doesn't own what or why, and the actual rights of the players in that very unfortunate incident. I did set out to do that but a nice lunch and a balanced conversation reduced my enthusiasm and anger over Rosemary's threatening tone. So I'll just ask her why she has virtually ordered me to leave the matter alone. I'm happy to listen if she has the courage to take me on via PM so that this admirable site is not swamped by a few home truths! Or should that be counselling? A skill I was trained and practised in I might add. Rosemary Matthews doesn't appear to be a member of this group.
Mary Moffitt
Chris Farrington Yes, much European history is also oral, especially that of NZ settlers, evidenced by the difficulty we have in tracing our ancestors from paper records. An interesting fact is that, after the Missionary drive to teach reading and writing to Maori, there were genuine
surveys which show that Maori were more literate than the settlers - in their own languages. It was, of course, assumed by the indigenous people that all newcomers would similarly learn the language of the country, and that New Zealand would remain a Maori-speaking country.
Oral history remains a valuable tool for all of us, but we should not stop looking for facts/evidence to back up what we say or write.
Roger Strong
Mary Moffitt And yet we have incidents from the rebellions of the 1860's where 'supposed incidents' of the murder of 100 or more Maori by being locked in a church and then set fire to has been quoted as fact-without the slightest evidence. This was 'found' recently by a small group of secondary school students(assisted of course by their activist teachers) and was quoted as fact.
· Reply · 4h
Mary Moffitt
Roger Strong Where did they ‘find’ this information? Generally, discovered ‘facts’ should be supported by something which can be checked, preferably from more than one source. There is a need for recipients of such claims to investigate. Research needs to be backed up by evidence to be believed.
Take for example a humble family search conducted via oral history. One known family line had a single sentence containing the word ‘Jamaica’, which word would seem to be totally irrelevant. Then, years later, another family line had a different comment, except that it also contained the word ‘Jamaica’. Just using this one keyword eventually unleashed a flood of information, all proven back three centuries. Recently, another family line presented another sentence containing the word ‘Jamaica’. That too is significant, giving a religious slant.
The weird thing is that all of this oral history is actually documented. Of course, the fact that slaves in Jamaica were considered commodities and were therefore well recorded, is very helpful.
I am therefore looking seriously at everything said by parties connected to these ‘legends’. One man in particular has passed on a wealth of oral history, all of which except two elements have been backed up by written records.
I am now looking seriously at those two seemingly extraordinary things to prove their authenticity. I am confident.
John Rosanowski
Interesting speculation here. My theory is that early Maori, because they had great geological knowledge, knew that coal could be burned. They did not do so because they had found that the fumes could kill, and much of their firing for warmth was within their whare. It would also dangerously taint a hangi.
Mary Moffitt
John Rosanowski WHS Roberts, writing about 1856, described how he encountered evidence of underground fires on his walk from Nelson to Southland. Local Maori explained how it had burned for a very long time and had resulted in the landforms Roberts was… See More
Bing Donaldson
Mary Moffitt have you ever heard of spontaneous combustion in coal seams? There are a number of seams that burn on the west coast
Mary Moffitt
Bing Donaldson Yes, of course. The point being made was to emphasise the previous comment that Maori had considerable geological knowledge. They were able to explain this combustion to Roberts in 1856 when they were discussing the uneven terrain.
Just as a matter of interest I was always terrified every time our school bus went over the burning Dobson mine.
Don Hutton
John Rosanowski are you suggesting they invented a cure for lung cancer?i.e. abstinence?
Mary Moffitt Really? And I thought you were fearless.
John Rosanowski
Don Hutton I imagine that it had been tried, but found it perilous and therefore declared it tapu.
Mary Moffitt
Don Hutton Only now!
John Rosanowski
Don Hutton I imagine that it had been tried, but found it perilous and therefore declared it tapu.
Mary Moffitt
Don Hutton Only now!
Don Hutton
I enjoyed Stevan's book "Oracles and Miracles" especially the use of the comment "Youse tarts!!" Must also read "Diggers, Hatters and Whores" again.
Don Hutton
A balanced discussion here might provide better education for us Coasters of all origins than anything the Wellington politicians can devise for the new history curriculum.
· Reply · 8h
Glenn Johnston
It written as if it is fact but it is just educated guess work!
Marie Tern
Author
Glenn Johnston isn't that true of most 'history'
Glenn Johnston
Marie Tern Not really, some history only presents documented accounts and where speculation is occurring that is stated as being supposition. I like Stevan's work except for that he writes as if things are fact when there is a lot of supposition there. There are differing versions of most oral histories. Sometimes it may be better to present evidence and let the reader make up their own mind. I'm reasonably widely read on the subject with my own good library on SI Maori. My background is my father was a fluent Maori speaker who spoke for Poutini Ngai Tahu many times at hui, tangi etc and who in the 1950's knew and listened to the stories of various Ngai Tahu elders including here on the West Coast. A bit rubbed off! I'm not going to go in to intricate detail of the points that I contend are supposition but readers should be aware this is not necessarily how the settlement of the Coast occurred. It's agood story and perhaps should be presented as such!
Don Hutton
Glenn Johnston Wise words
Sheldon Kirby
Looks nothing like Phil at the Hilton
Mary Moffitt
An excellent document relating to the relationships between early settlers and South Island Maori is the diary of William Henry Sherwood Roberts which relates to his walk from Nelson to Southland in 1856. In his description of the rivers and streams he crosses, he gives both Maori and European names for them, often indicating a preference for Maori. He writes much about how the language was pronounced at that time. He describes good relationships with those Maori he met along the way, and he outlines how the land had been used by them. He also gives very learned descriptions of the type of land and what grew on it. An excellent read.
PaulAnthony Teens
How can bull like that come from an intelligent being
Yvonne Jean
very interesting and did not know this thanks for that
Mary Reynolds
Very interesting
Faye Rainford
Very interesting & great information thank you
Dorothy Wills
Great information!Interesting
Bob Jamieson
Where did this "eastern polynesian warrior" get his fine, white woven fabric from.?
Geoffrey King
Bob Jamieson It states he is in the Cook Islands, painted early 19th century that's 18 something and could quite easily have been obtained from early traders, whalers, settlers. It has no relevance to the afore mentioned date of 1321
The writer demonstrates much uncertainty about each aspect of this entertaining story. It would be good to fully discuss the suggested points, and try to back them up with facts.
Chris Farrington
Mary Moffitt I think you mean evidence. Unfortunately most of the materials used by the first settlers do not last long in a damp wet environment. What does last is the oral traditions. The same traditions that formed the basis of European history before writing.
Don Hutton
Chris Farrington Not sure what you mean here. Are you talking about paper, the writing on it, or building materials? We have a lot of historical documents and objects in our family archives written / made well before 1840 which are in excellent condition. Some were kept in farm sheds for many decades before being properly stored in archives like the Alexander Turnbull Library, Macmillan Brown Library and Hocken Library. Lots of other people could tell you about their surviving family records I'm sure. The historical field books of early West Coast explorers / surveyors are wonderful records and have survived in good condition. They used to be kept in a safe in the old Government Building in Hokitika which, as a very junior person, I had to lock away each night!
Chris Farrington
Don Hutton first settlers in this case being Polynesian.
Don Hutton
Chris Farrington Touche! But you know what I mean. Semantic slip? The first arrivals were probably mariners of Pacific origin and may not have been deliberate settlers. Any record of this does not appear to have been in writing or symbols on a tablet or similar. A great pity and a challenge for researchers in all fields of "history."
Rosemary Matthews
The West Coast is POUTINI not Te Tai before Poutini as this was explained to me many years ago by Maika Mason who was Chairman of Mawhera Incorporation and was involved in Ngaitahu land claims.
· Reply · 1d
Glenn Johnston
Rosemary Matthews I think Maika would have been indicating the people are "Poutini" part of the greater Ngai Tahu. "Te Tai Poutini" is descriptive of where the Poutini people resided.
Rosemary Matthews
Glenn Johnston Maika stated West Coast is Poutini.
Glenn Johnston
Yes, a contraction of Tai Poutini. The person or deity Poutini was of course prominent in the foundation legends of Te Wai Pounamu (where the greenstone resides) and a brother of Pounamu. There are various versions. Poutini is also the name of a star. I've heard Maika and various of his relies give versions of the foundation story and read others.
Don Hutton
Rosemary Matthews, Mr Mason also cut down the war memorial gates at Grey Main School and chucked them in a paddock. His fancy title does not entitle him to pronounce anything about anything, even if he may be right re poutini. Do you know the full Maori name for Greymouth?
Don Hutton
Glenn Johnston I'll bite my tongue on Mike Mason's stories. He was a good rugby player though.
· Reply · 8h
Glenn Johnston
I don't remember Maika in his rugby playing days but I got to know him through forestry and to a lesser extent over his "Maori" related dealings with my father. I even remember his parents and sons. I could also add lots but won't.
Don Hutton
Glenn Johnston Just as a comparison between written and oral "histories," Shakespeare's written plays continue have a huge influence on English historians and history to this day and many are still trying to work out truth from fiction in them. Shakespeare was a story teller par excellence, but not a historian. The Mason family's oral interpretations appear to have varied in the telling in one or two generations, so one wonders what their 6x great grandparents might have been saying in Shakespeare's time? Be it written or oral, history is history is history and not facts by a long chalk and it keeps changing.
Don Hutton
Glenn Johnston Another wise decision.
Rosemary Matthews
Don Hutton quite frankly he had every right to they were owned by Mawhera Inc. there’s more story re the gates best you leave it alone MR Hutton.
Jackie Douglas
· Reply · 8h
Mary Moffitt
Rosemary Matthews I grew up on the Coast, and after leaving for education, I spent much time every year back there till I was about forty. Family reasons gradually made the visits fewer and shorter, but I still care deeply for the place and its people - all of them.
I grew up feeling horrified that land occupied by the business area of Greymouth was Maori land and was therefore rented at what I can only call a peppercorn rental. Any right-minded people could see that this was glaringly unfair.
When I learned that things had changed, and that Maori had become entitled to market rates for the rental of their property, I felt good. This is fair.
It would seem that tempers have boiled up in the transition from the past to the present. It is not my place to dictate anything, but my feelings are that we just have to get over the hurdles of this change. In this case a hurdle seems to be a set of gates.
Let us get over them - TOGETHER.
Don Hutton
Rosemary Matthews That is 99% incorrect Get your facts right. The war memorial gates were erected after WWI by public donation to commemorate the deaths of the fallen including maori The school was situated on a section of what was called originally deignated as a Native Reserve in the Mawhera Purchase (a ripoff of maori) which stretched from South Belt to Mawhera Quay. The Crown leased the school section from maori from at least 1876 when the Grey District School was opened. The rent was a source of revenue for Maori just as the rent from the whole CBD was. The leases for it and all the Greymouth CBD are in the National Archives but were previously held in the Government Building in Hokitika where, as a temporary keeper of documents, I studied them with my very own eyes! For example the rent from Alf Harrison's Menswear was a measily 1 pound a year. Maori have every right to regard that sort of thing as a ripoff as the 1 pound was shared by 20 people. I understand they now pay market rates. I have issued Ms Matthews an invitation to debate with me via PM. See my following post.
Don Hutton
Mary Moffitt I feel very much the same but I also feel that Rosemary needs to given some help in the finer detail of who owned / owns what and why. Also who doesn't own what or why, and the actual rights of the players in that very unfortunate incident. I did set out to do that but a nice lunch and a balanced conversation reduced my enthusiasm and anger over Rosemary's threatening tone. So I'll just ask her why she has virtually ordered me to leave the matter alone. I'm happy to listen if she has the courage to take me on via PM so that this admirable site is not swamped by a few home truths! Or should that be counselling? A skill I was trained and practised in I might add. Rosemary Matthews doesn't appear to be a member of this group.
Mary Moffitt
Chris Farrington Yes, much European history is also oral, especially that of NZ settlers, evidenced by the difficulty we have in tracing our ancestors from paper records. An interesting fact is that, after the Missionary drive to teach reading and writing to Maori, there were genuine
surveys which show that Maori were more literate than the settlers - in their own languages. It was, of course, assumed by the indigenous people that all newcomers would similarly learn the language of the country, and that New Zealand would remain a Maori-speaking country.
Oral history remains a valuable tool for all of us, but we should not stop looking for facts/evidence to back up what we say or write.
Roger Strong
Mary Moffitt And yet we have incidents from the rebellions of the 1860's where 'supposed incidents' of the murder of 100 or more Maori by being locked in a church and then set fire to has been quoted as fact-without the slightest evidence. This was 'found' recently by a small group of secondary school students(assisted of course by their activist teachers) and was quoted as fact.
· Reply · 4h
Mary Moffitt
Roger Strong Where did they ‘find’ this information? Generally, discovered ‘facts’ should be supported by something which can be checked, preferably from more than one source. There is a need for recipients of such claims to investigate. Research needs to be backed up by evidence to be believed.
Take for example a humble family search conducted via oral history. One known family line had a single sentence containing the word ‘Jamaica’, which word would seem to be totally irrelevant. Then, years later, another family line had a different comment, except that it also contained the word ‘Jamaica’. Just using this one keyword eventually unleashed a flood of information, all proven back three centuries. Recently, another family line presented another sentence containing the word ‘Jamaica’. That too is significant, giving a religious slant.
The weird thing is that all of this oral history is actually documented. Of course, the fact that slaves in Jamaica were considered commodities and were therefore well recorded, is very helpful.
I am therefore looking seriously at everything said by parties connected to these ‘legends’. One man in particular has passed on a wealth of oral history, all of which except two elements have been backed up by written records.
I am now looking seriously at those two seemingly extraordinary things to prove their authenticity. I am confident.
John Rosanowski
Interesting speculation here. My theory is that early Maori, because they had great geological knowledge, knew that coal could be burned. They did not do so because they had found that the fumes could kill, and much of their firing for warmth was within their whare. It would also dangerously taint a hangi.
Mary Moffitt
John Rosanowski WHS Roberts, writing about 1856, described how he encountered evidence of underground fires on his walk from Nelson to Southland. Local Maori explained how it had burned for a very long time and had resulted in the landforms Roberts was… See More
Bing Donaldson
Mary Moffitt have you ever heard of spontaneous combustion in coal seams? There are a number of seams that burn on the west coast
Mary Moffitt
Bing Donaldson Yes, of course. The point being made was to emphasise the previous comment that Maori had considerable geological knowledge. They were able to explain this combustion to Roberts in 1856 when they were discussing the uneven terrain.
Just as a matter of interest I was always terrified every time our school bus went over the burning Dobson mine.
Don Hutton
John Rosanowski are you suggesting they invented a cure for lung cancer?i.e. abstinence?
Mary Moffitt Really? And I thought you were fearless.
John Rosanowski
Don Hutton I imagine that it had been tried, but found it perilous and therefore declared it tapu.
Mary Moffitt
Don Hutton Only now!
John Rosanowski
Don Hutton I imagine that it had been tried, but found it perilous and therefore declared it tapu.
Mary Moffitt
Don Hutton Only now!
Don Hutton
I enjoyed Stevan's book "Oracles and Miracles" especially the use of the comment "Youse tarts!!" Must also read "Diggers, Hatters and Whores" again.
Don Hutton
A balanced discussion here might provide better education for us Coasters of all origins than anything the Wellington politicians can devise for the new history curriculum.
· Reply · 8h
Glenn Johnston
It written as if it is fact but it is just educated guess work!
Marie Tern
Author
Glenn Johnston isn't that true of most 'history'
Glenn Johnston
Marie Tern Not really, some history only presents documented accounts and where speculation is occurring that is stated as being supposition. I like Stevan's work except for that he writes as if things are fact when there is a lot of supposition there. There are differing versions of most oral histories. Sometimes it may be better to present evidence and let the reader make up their own mind. I'm reasonably widely read on the subject with my own good library on SI Maori. My background is my father was a fluent Maori speaker who spoke for Poutini Ngai Tahu many times at hui, tangi etc and who in the 1950's knew and listened to the stories of various Ngai Tahu elders including here on the West Coast. A bit rubbed off! I'm not going to go in to intricate detail of the points that I contend are supposition but readers should be aware this is not necessarily how the settlement of the Coast occurred. It's agood story and perhaps should be presented as such!
Don Hutton
Glenn Johnston Wise words
Sheldon Kirby
Looks nothing like Phil at the Hilton
Mary Moffitt
An excellent document relating to the relationships between early settlers and South Island Maori is the diary of William Henry Sherwood Roberts which relates to his walk from Nelson to Southland in 1856. In his description of the rivers and streams he crosses, he gives both Maori and European names for them, often indicating a preference for Maori. He writes much about how the language was pronounced at that time. He describes good relationships with those Maori he met along the way, and he outlines how the land had been used by them. He also gives very learned descriptions of the type of land and what grew on it. An excellent read.
PaulAnthony Teens
How can bull like that come from an intelligent being
Yvonne Jean
very interesting and did not know this thanks for that
Mary Reynolds
Very interesting
Faye Rainford
Very interesting & great information thank you
Dorothy Wills
Great information!Interesting
Bob Jamieson
Where did this "eastern polynesian warrior" get his fine, white woven fabric from.?
Geoffrey King
Bob Jamieson It states he is in the Cook Islands, painted early 19th century that's 18 something and could quite easily have been obtained from early traders, whalers, settlers. It has no relevance to the afore mentioned date of 1321
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West Coast New Zealand History (17th Feb 2021). A HISTORY OF BLACKBALL: FIRST SETTLERS. ca. 1321. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 11th Apr 2026 21:25, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/28995