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The Discovery of New Zealand

1. The Polynesians

1. The Polynesians

The best popular general account of the wanderings of the Polynesian race is by Sir Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), Vikings of the Sunrise (New York, 1938; Christchurch, 1954); Book I of the same author's Coming of the Maori (Wellington, 1949) gives the traditional account with moderation and great learning. S. Percy Smith's Hawaiki (4th ed., Auckland, 1921) has considerable importance in the history of Polynesian scholarship, but is now in some respects out of date. Elsdon Best, in his 'Maori Voyagers and their Vessels', in Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. XLVIII (1916), pp. 447-63, gives a fascinating account, touched with his usual poetry, of the material means of Maori navigation; his Land of Tara (New Plymouth, 1919) will be found interesting for its account of Kupe and other voyagers at Port Nicholson. The Introduction to Dr. Roger Duff's Moa-Hunter Period of Maori Culture (2nd ed., Wellington, 1956) is a very useful summary. For the most recent consideration of Polynesian navigation and its possibilities in discovery, Andrew Sharp's Ancient Voyagers in the Pacific (Wellington, 1956; Pelican, 1959) must be read.