“ARIKI OF ARIKIS”

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23962, 1 June 1943, Page 6

“ARIKI OF ARIKIS”

Sir—l challenge the claim made by Eric Ramsden that Koroki is the ‘‘ariki of arikis.” The majority of canoes during the migration brought chiefs (not tapu arikis). toas, and all foods (live edible rats and dogs, etc.), necessary to settlement of a new country. These facts alone explode Eric Ramsden’s romantic claim, because the food proves the people aboard to have been of lesser rank. Now, Te AhoAriki of Te Maiharanui, our upoko-ariki (paramount chief and heir to the ancestral honours of Ngai-te-Rangiamoa, the noblest family of Ngai-Tahu and all its sub-tribes) begins with the dawn of creation, and comes forward to his demi-god ancestors who reached these shores on Ruamano, Poutini, and on the few sacred canoes which brought the gods Kahukura, etc. This fact caused bitter envy on arrival till the death of Te Maiharanui, The relatives of Te Maiharanui will guard religiously their priceless ancestral honours, hence this challenge.—Yours, etc., HILDA M. TRAILL (nee Hira Moroiti Pohio). Kaiapoi, May 27, 1943. IMr Eric Ramsden says: “The purpose of my article was to attempt to show to a younger generation in this island something of the historical background of the Kingite Movement and the peculiar and unique place held in Maori society by King Koroki. There is no need to explore Maori history before 1857, the year in which Potatau, the first King, was selected. The Kiingitanga dates from that year, and is in no way, of course, connected with the early migrations. It was a political movement that arose because of the chaos in Maori social life at that time. Will Mrs Traill deny that Taiaroa attended that meeting at Taupo and pledged his mountain (with the mountains of the principal chiefs of most other tribes) to the Kiingitanga? Not all the tribes, it is true, joined in : the movement at that time, but NgaiTahu, through their mouthpiece and acknowledged head, certainly did. The term ‘ariki of arikis’ is my own. I used it to explain the term king, which was unfortunate for the movement, and, unfortunately, it is still misunderstood, Koroki is the ariki of Waikato, but he is also thfe ariki of all those other tribes that recognise the Kiingitanga. The expression king never did quite convey just what was in the mind of those who founded the movement.”]