“KA MATE, KA MATE-KA ORA, KA ORA.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2457, 22 July 1922, Page 4

“KA MATE, KA MATE-KA ORA, KA ORA.”

These were the words of Te Rauparaha the Maori Napoleon. His chant of alternate despair and exultation may well be adopted as the Avaka tau ki, or formal greeting, of a bowling, cricket, or football club. But there are just two essentials to its acceptance, the one, that its pronunciation and inflections may be properly taught, as they can be in ten minutes by an ‘expert; the other, that its history and significance may be properly understood. This is the purpose of the present fragment. When Rauparaha, 50 or 60 years ago, sought aid in the Taupo district, he made some breach of Maori etiquette and fled to Roto Aira, pur-' sued by his outraged hosts. There he wasreeeived by a stranger, who, hurriedly learning his story, directed him' to the darkness down three steps into, the rua kumara, or stonehouse for the sweet potato. The: cover, and mats being replaced, an ancient dame . squatted upon them and smoked her pipe in the peace- 1 ful sunshine. Rauparaha heard the thunderous tramp of his angry enemies overhead, and expected when his new-found host removed the covers, to have his skull cleft with a stone mere. Coming to the full; sunlight from the' black hole to a friendly face, he chanted dramatically an original patere, 'or hymn of gratitude, of which a translation can give but a colourless symbol: Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, l;a ora. Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, ka ora. (I die, I die, I live, I live), Tenei te tangata puhuruhqru : (This is the man, air covered < with hair) • Nana i tiki mai Whakawhiti .te ra, para te ra. (Who maketh the sun shine, "Or to be/obscured). Upane, upane, upane, lea upane. (Up, up, up, surmounted!) Para te ra, whiti te- ra ! (Darkness! sunshine and light!) The words spoken with dramatic passion in the fervour of gratitude and victory are indeed a jwondrous, war cry to an understanding people.