MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 August 1938, Page 7

MAORI MEMORIES

MAORI MIMICS (TAWAI). (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The Maoris were perfect mimics. The fashion of those early days was to conduct political meetings on a special platform in the public square, from which the candidates of all parties spoke, generally ending in an angry quarrel. When the meeting came to a turbulent end, the Maori mock candidates would clamber to the hustings and address the mixed crowd of angry electors and Maoris with a monkeylike mimicry, so accurately as to replace the irritation of the crowd with shrieks of laughter. . At Nelson, the Maoris carried out the burlesque of electing and installing one of themselves as superintendent of the Provincial Council, holding meetings, and passing formal resolutions- by which they mockingly disposed of the funds for the personal interests of the “councillors.”

It was subsequently admitted by more than one member of the Council that these Maori caricatures proved valuable as lessons by which to curb certain indiscreet tendencies on the part of some councillors. Quite another phase of their character was made apparent in the emotional regret of every Maori tribe when the impending departure of Sir George Grey was announced. Tribes who mingled with the Pakeha, others who stood aloof, those who had fought against us, and those who were loyal to the Queen, breathing a spirit of genuine regret. His memory will be kept alive as the capturer of Raupekapeka and the subduer of Raupekapeka, Heka, and Rangihaeata, and for the establishment of schools and hospitals for both races, as well as for the suppression of the sale of liquor and firearms to the Maoris. Sir George Grey left us on December 31, 1853.