Moriorin.adj.

1861 W. Seed Rep. 21 Oct. in New-Zealander (1862) 18 Jan. Everywhere that I met the poor Morioris I found them delighted to see me.

1865 A. S. Atkinson Jrnl. 9 Jan. in Richmond–Atkinson Papers (1960) II. iii. 145 I had a long talk with a genuine Moriori..or real aboriginal of the Chatham islands & of some of the southern parts of New Zealand.

1874 A. Bathgate Colonial Experiences xviii. 258 The Maories used them [sc. stone implements] to kill the Moriories rather than..degrade their own meres.

1882 T. H. Potts Out in Open 160 The Moriori was robust in figure, tall of stature, not darker in colour, perhaps, than many a Maori, but of a dull dusky hue.

1919 Trans. & Proc. N.Z. Inst. 1918 51 415 Chatham Island..was peopled by a branch of the Polynesian race known variously as Maioriori, Mouriuri, and Mooriori (generally spelled ‘Moriori’).

1949 P. H. Buck Coming of Maori (1950) i. ii. 14 The Moriori became extinct as a separate people, but their blood is present in some mixed Maori families.

1962 Listener 19 Apr. 676/2 The Morioris carved birds on the front of their houses.

1993 Dominion (Wellington) 1 June 10 Chatham Island Morioris have joined the chorus of discontent at the Government's selection of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission.

1865 in Richmond–Atkinson Papers (1960) II. 145 Maori & Moriori are mutually unintelligible but no doubt they are only two dialects of one tongue.

1919 Trans. & Proc. N.Z. Inst. 1918 51 415 Moriori appears to be farther removed from Maori than the dialects of many islands of the Pacific.

1947 A. R. D. Fairburn Lett. (1981) 178 I'll support just about anything short of a proposal to translate ‘Lyttelton Harbour’ into Moriori.

1996 B. F. Grimes Ethnologue (ed. 13) 843 Maori..dialects; North Auckland, South Island,..Moriori.

1861 W. Seed Rep. 21 Oct. in New-Zealander (1862) 18 Jan. Only two instances have occurred of Moriori men having taken Maori wives.

1866 F. Hunt 25 Years' Exper. N.Z. & Chatham Islands 32 She had been a Moriori belle, sighed for by many a dusky swain.

1874 A. Bathgate Colonial Experiences xviii. 258 The Moriori population, which, at the time of the discovery of the islands, in 1791, was estimated at over 2,000, must at one time have been very large.

1905 W. Baucke Where White Man Treads 27 The ancient Moriori mother scooped a shallow hole in the earth, and warmed it with embers, and lined it with dry grass..to nestle her new-born child in.

1950 R. Duff Moa-hunter Period Maori Culture 20 The Maori invasion of 1835 [of the Chatham Islands]..marked the end of the culture which we know as Moriori.

1968 E. Grundy Who'd marry Doctor? 52 Back in Moriori times there was no cultivation of the land or planting of any food crops.

1991 Daily Tel. 30 Aug. 9/8 The near-extinct Moriori people of New Zealand have been given permission by government conservationists to take up to 20 protected albatross chicks for ceremonial use.