Polynesian Mythology & Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealanders

Cover Art for 9781907256318, Polynesian Mythology & Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealanders by Sir George Grey
ISBN: 9781907256318
Publisher: Abela Publishing
Published: 7 March, 2010
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Links Australian Libraries (Trove)
Editions:
1 other edition of this product

TOWARDS the close of 1845 Sir George Grey was unexpectedly requested to administer the affairs of New Zealand. On arrival he found the Maori tribes engaged in hostilities with the Queen's troops, against whom they had contended with considerable success. He quickly realised he could neither successfully govern, nor hope to conciliate, with a people whose language, manners, customs and religion he was quite unacquainted. He decided that he should be acquainted with the language of the New Zealanders in order to redress their grievances. With no published Maori dictionary, nor books to study its construction, he found this to be a most difficult task. To his surprise he found that the Maori chiefs, in their speeches or in their letters, frequently quoted fragments of ancient poems or proverbs, or made allusions which rested on an ancient system of mythology. This gave him further impetus to learn the language of the country. For more than eight years he devoted a great part of his available time to collecting these ancient myths, poems and legends, working in his spare moments in every part of the country. Once, when he had amassed a large amount of materials to aid him in his studies, the Government House was destroyed by fire, and with it were burnt the materials he had so painstakingly collected, and thus he was left to recommence his difficult task. The ultimate result, however, was the collection of a large mass of materials. He felt unwilling that the result of his labour

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