Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/22

6 setting), went in search of him, but was drowned. Mr. Smith dated these events about 1550.”

There are innumerable legends centred round the discovery of greenstone, the first cited here being the one most favoured by the Old West Coast natives. This event is of course of paramount importance in Maori history, and sufficient has been written to clearly show that Westland was ever the scene of activity, and that the stage was always set at the Arahura River.

From the foregoing it would appear that the Maoris were the first inhabitants. This is not so, for centuries before the coming of the Maori, let alone of the Pakeha, there was a human occupation of Westland of much greater antiquity. What manner of men were these, who, in a desperate endeavour to keep body and soul together on the meagre natural production of that wild land, hunted not for sport, but for food, the mighty moa, that gigantic wingless bird unique to New Zealand, and who, when successful, feasted to their hearts’ content on the flesh thereof? Their struggle to subsist was heroic. True, native feathered game there was in great abundance, while the rivers teemed with fish of every description, and in season inanga (whitebait) ascended the streams in never-ending shoals. On certain beaches, too, there were seals in untold numbers, and a plenitude of shell-fish.