<P> Percy Smith believed that while the Polynesian traditions may have been flawed in detail, they preserved the threads of truth which could be recovered using a method already well established for Hawaiian traditions by Abraham Fornander (1878--1885). This method involved seeking out common elements of tradition from different sources, and aligning these to genealogies to give a time frame for the events . Fornander, Smith, and others used this method to reconstruct the migrations of the Polynesians, tracing them back to a supposed ancient homeland in India . </P> <P> Smith used the Fornander method, combining disparate traditions from various parts of New Zealand and other parts of Polynesia, to derive the' Great Fleet' hypothesis . Through an examination of the genealogies of various tribes, he came up with a set of precise dates for his' Great Fleet' and the explorers that he and others posited as having paved the way for the fleet . </P> <P> According to Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, "Smith's account went as follows . In 750 AD the Polynesian explorer Kupe discovered an uninhabited New Zealand . Then in 1000--1100 AD, the Polynesian explorers Toi and Whātonga visited New Zealand, and found it inhabited by a primitive, nomadic people known as the Moriori . Finally, in 1350 AD a' great fleet' of seven canoes--Aotea, Kurahaupō, Mātaatua, Tainui, Tokomaru, Te Arawa and Tākitimu--all departed from the Tahitian region at the same time, bringing the people now known as Māori to New Zealand . These were advanced, warlike, agricultural tribes who destroyed the Moriori ." </P> <P> The great fleet scenario won general acceptance, its adherents even including the famous Māori ethnologist Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter Buck), and was taught in New Zealand schools . However it was effectively demolished during the 1960s by the ethnologist David Simmons, who showed that it derived from an incomplete and indiscriminate study of Māori tradition as recorded in the 19th Century . Simmons also suggests that some of these' migrations' may actually have been journeys within New Zealand . </P>

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