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Ko te Pukapuka o te Tarakona (The Book of the Dragon)
Date: 29 Nov 1855
From: Webster, Kenneth Athol, 1906-1967 : The Webster collection and papers / of Kenneth Athol Webster
Reference: MS-Papers-1009-2/79
Description: Entitled 'Kote puka puka ote Tarakona' (The book of the dragon). There is an English translation in between the lines of Maori text, probably done by Richard Davis. Text begins "This is a true likeness of the dragon..." There are six Northland place names indicated on the page, named as (with spellings as they appear) Hokianga, Pakane, Waimamaku, Wairoa, Wangarei and Ngunguru. In her chapter on Maori prophet leaders in the 'Oxford illustrated history of New Zealand' (1990) Professor Judith Binney refers to this document as from a movement that emerged in the Bay of Islands and Hokianga in 1855, led by an unknown prophet residing at Waimate, who claimed to be the brother of Christ. The dragon in the document was seen a a protector and drawings of it were found in homes amongst local tribes. Quantity: 1 leaf. Physical Description: Ink and pencil Provenance: The document was collected by the missionary Richard Davis who sent it to the Church Missionary Society in 1856. Davis referred to it in a 1856 letter to the CMS quoted in the 1865 memoir about him by Coleman (p380). It was later removed from the CMS archives by Webster.