Maori name for a New Zealandbulrush, Typha angustifolia, Linn. The leaves are usedfor building native houses. The pollen, called Punga-Punga (q.v.), was collected and made into breadcalled pua. The root was also eaten. It is not endemicin New Zealand, but is known in many parts, and was called bythe aborigines of Australia, Wonga, and in Europe «Asparagus of the Cossacks.» Other names for it are Bulrush, Cat's Tail, Reed Mace, and Cooper's Flag.
1827. Augustus Earle, `Narrative of Nine Months' Residence inNew Zealand,' `New Zealand Reader,' p. 67:
«Another party was collecting rushes, which grow plentifully inthe neighbourhood, and are called raupo.»
1833. Henry Williams's Diary, `Carleton's Life,' p. 151:
«The Europeans were near us in a raupo whare [rush-house].»
1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 205:
«To engage the natives to build raupo, that is, rush-houses.»
1842. W. R. Wade, `A Journey in the North Island of NewZealand,' `New Zealand Reader,' p. 122:
«The raupo, the reed-mace of New Zealand, always grows inswampy ground. The leaves or blades when full grown are cutand laid out to dry, forming the common building material withwhich most native houses are constructed.»
1843. `An Ordinance for imposing a tax on Raupo Houses,Session II. No. xvii. of the former Legislative Council ofNew Zealand':
[From A. Domett's collection of Ordinances, 1850.]
«Section 2. . . . there shall be levied in respect of everybuilding constructed wholly or in part of raupo, nikau, toitoi, wiwi, kakaho, straw or thatch of anydescription [ . . . L20].»
1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i.p. 380:
«These [the walls], nine feet high and six inches thick, werecomposed of neatly packed bunches of raupo, or bulrushes, linedinside with the glazed reeds of the tohe-tohe, and outside withthe wiwi or fine grass.»
1860. R. Donaldson, `Bush Lays,' p. 5:
«Entangled in a foul morass,
A raupo swamp, one name we know.»
1864. F. E. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `The War in the North,'p. 16:
«Before a war or any other important matter, the natives usedto have recourse to divination by means of little miniaturedarts made of rushes or reeds, or often of the leaf of thecooper's flag (raupo).»
1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 308:
«The favourite material of the Maoris for building purposesis Raupo ( Typha), a kind of flag or bulrush, whichgrows in great abundance in swampy places.»
1877. Anon., `Colonial Experiences, or Incidents ofThirty-Four Years in New Zealand,' p. 10:
«It was thatched with raupo or native bulrush, and had sidesand interior partitions of the same material.»