Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

"In Notes and Queries, No. 246, in the "Journal of the Polynesian Society" for June, 1913, Mr. Taylor White mentions the "Maori potato." While residing in Southland in 1856-7-8 it was the only potato I grew. We called it "Kapana mungamunga." It had a rough, dark-brown skin, and purple flesh, with occasional whitish streak. They were delicious for eating, They yielded the best crop when planted in bush land, on the surface of the ground, and held up with loose soil. We called the heaps "Maori hills." The yield was many tons to the acre.

About 1894 I was given a few tubers of it, which had been grown by a Maori at Waitaki Kaika, Otago, and I grew them for a few years at Oamaru, and we liked them better than the common potato, though hardly equal to those I grew in 1857."

Percy Smith, Editor, commnets that the name should be mangumangu (black), and that kapane is the common word for potato north of Auckland.