KING DICK SITS ON KING MAHUTU. An Auckland Disappointment.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 48, 1 June 1901, Page 8

KING DICK SITS ON KING MAHUTU. An Auckland Disappointment.

KING MAHUTU and his Waikato followers have not been paddling m the same canoe with the other Maoris who are assembling at Rotorua for the big reception to the Duke and Duchess. It is said that an old-time blood feud with the Arawas interposes a barrier which suffices in Maori etiquette to keep Mahuta and his tribesmen away from Rotorua • • • But, they were most anxious to pay their respects to the Royal visitors by presenting them with an address at Auckland. They also purposed taking part in the gala display there by appearing in their war canoes in the Waitsmata harbour on the day of the Ophir's arrival. It was likewise their wish to present the Duke with a small canoe, into which they would place their meres and mats, as an outward token that all the troubles of the past were now happily buried. • • • The Auckland people were charmed with the idea. They saw that it would invest their reception with just those elements of the novel and picturesque that would make the Royal visitors' welcome to New Zealand quite distinctive from the festal exhibitions elsewhere, and stamp it with a character all its own. The Government, however, declined to admit any Maori items into the Auckland programme. As an consequence, there has been an ebullition of angry and resentful feelings, which is reflected in newspaper letters and so forth. • • # The Mayor and local Reception Committee tried to wring a reluctant consent from the Government, but, apparently, all these efforts have been fruitless. A press telegram, published on Wednesday last, states that the Premier has informed the Mayor that arrangements could not be altered so as to enable Mahutu to present his loyal address in Auckland, and so the proposed Maori display has been abandoned. It is a great pity. How appropriate and interesting it would have been to have greeted the Royal visitors at their entrance to the colony with a sight of old New Zealand, in the form of a fleet of well-manned war canoes on the dancing waters of the Waitemata. • • • It would have gratified the visitors , it would have immensely pleased these Kingite Maoris, and tended still further to break down those walls of division that have kept them so long in isolation The refusal to allow them a share in the Auckland welcome will most likely be received as a snub, and cherished as a grudge. At any rate, it is a matter for regret that the Government should have been so unyielding on a point of detail which was so greatly desired both by the people of Auckland and Mahutu and his Maori adherents.