Indeed so Stu. There are a great deal of best said "reproduction" decoratively carved Maori weapons to be had. I am starting to think that the writing may very well say Taiaha though the fourth letter the second "a" is most unclear. I am also a lot happier about the length which I got wrong it is 118cm or 46.5 inches for those that size is important. Thats considerably larger than the example in the link with rather strong but simple carving. The only fly in the ointment is the rather ugly cuts to each side to the spear end. This with the remnants of tiny steel screws makes me think the damage was caused in fixing the item to a wall display of some kind.
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6683521