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The Maori Canoe

The Waka Tiwai

page 183

The Waka Tiwai

The tiwai (waka tiwai) was a smaller canoe than the tete, and was not fitted with topsides. Usually a tiwai was made in one piece. They were river-canoes, but might occasionally be used for sea-fishing near the land, though not for deep-sea fishing. Such a craft might contain from five to ten persons: thus they were of different Fig. 87 Fishing-canoe, showing Paddlers and Steersman. Burton Bros., photo sizes. These vessels were not provided with thwarts, and were not ornamented in any way. As a native informant expressed it, "Te waka tiwai kaore ona haumi, kaore ona rauawa, kaore ona tauihu, kaore ona taurapa" ("The waka tiwai had no haumi, top-strakes, prow or stern pieces"). The name tiwai in itself denotes the lack of accessories, and implies a plain dugout hull. Occasionally the form tiwai is heard.

In his account of the arrival of the first vessels of the New Zealand Company at Port Nicholson, Wakefield says: "Several canoes came off… One of them, a low skimming-dish thing without topside-planks, filled and turned over, ducking six or seven natives, including a woman, who were passengers. They seemed to be perfectly used to such accidents, and some hung on to the bottom of the canoe while the others swam with one hand and gathered the paddles which had gone adrift."

Wakefield describes a canoe in which he ascended the Whanganui River as "a very graceful, light-looking vessel, without topsides, but with tapering head and stern well peaked up at either end; about thirty feet long, broad in the beam, quick and handy to paddle, and adapted for six people. She was painted a bright red with kokowai."

page 184

Captain Cook soon became acquainted with the crank nature of the Maori canoe, for at the place he calls Tegadoo, in the east coast, Mr. Banks and seven of his companions were capsized in the surf: "Not being used to a vessel that required so even a balance, they unfortunately overset her in the surf."

Fig. 88 A Small River-canoe.

Angas makes the following remarks concerning one of his river trips: "Our canoe was too deeply laden; and though we were in still water, its edge was frequently not more than a couple of inches above the surface of the stream. The paddles were plied with great spirit; the exertions of the natives being stimulated by the animated shouting song kept up incessantly by one or another of the party… Their wild deafening songs, with their heads all undulating at every stroke, the contortions of their eyes, and their bare tawny shoulders, finely developing their muscles as they all dashed their paddles simultaneously into the water, rendered the scene at once Fig. 89 A Very Small River-canoe, Waikato District, in Canterbury Museum. page 185 novel and animating. The canoe-songs are generally improvised, and frequently have reference to passing objects… The native art of balancing a canoe is extremely nice, the slightest preponderance of weight on either side being sufficient to upset it. From a want of proper caution in having the canoe exactly balanced, Europeans have frequently lost their lives by being capsized. Meeting a large canoe on the river, well manned, as it approaches end on, with all the paddles dashing into the water at once, has a curious effect; giving one the idea of a huge centipede moving along."

In describing his range from Mayor Isle to Mercury Bay, Captain Cook remarked on the inferiority of the canoes to those he had previously seen on the east coast: "Three canoes came off to us from the main, with one-and-twenty men on board. The construction of these vessels appeared to be more simple than that of any we had seen, they being nothing more than trunks of a single tree hollowed by fire, without any convenience or ornament."

Again, of the natives of Queen Charlotte Sound he writes: "In comparison of the inhabitants of other parts of this country they are poor, and their canoes are without ornament." Of three canoes seen in the vicinity of Cape Palliser he remarks that they were "distinguished by the same ornaments which we had seen upon the northerly part of the coast."

Of all the many canoes that were in use at Wellington in the early days of its settlement, only one apparently has been preserved. This is a small vessel of the tiwai type, 31 ft. in length, though it had evidently been fitted with top-strakes, as shown by the lashing-holes along its sides, a somewhat unusual feature in so small a canoe. This small vessel is remarkable for its sheer, or upward curvature to prow and stern, which amounts to 11½ in.—that is to say, a line drawn taut from prow to stern is 11½ in. above the sides of the canoe in the middle. The widest part is not in the middle, but nearer the stern, where it is 31 in. wide, at 20 ft. from the prow. The lower parts of this shallow hull are 1½ in. thick; the gunwales are 1 in. in thickness. The keel is sharp at both ends, but flattens toward the middle. (See fig. 90, p. 186.)