HONGI’S SUIT OF ARMOUR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 January 1939, Page 3

HONGI’S SUIT OF ARMOUR

PRESENTATION IN ENGLAND. When Hongi, the Maori Napoleon, visited England in 1820 and was lionised by society, the most picturesque present he received was a suit of armour. When he sold all his presents in Sydney to buy muskets, he retained this as a useful article. George French Angas, a travelling artist saw this suit of armour in 1844 at Paripari in the Waikato. He described it as old and rusty. It was made of steel inland with brass (not, apparently, of chain armour, as the usual legend relates). “Although never worn by the possessors in battle" Angas wrote—“ it would sadly impede their movements —it is regarded with a sort of superstitious veneration by the natives, who look upon it as something extraordinary.”

When Angas saw Hongi’s armour, it was then in the possession of a chief named Taonui. Taonui, although he had a white son-in-law, one Lewis, was still not converted to Christianity. He had acquired Hongi’s prestige—conferring armour in a remarkable manner. The armour had passed from the Nga Puhi to Tetori, from Tetori to the redoubtable Te Whero Whero. Te Whero Whero was making a tangi for the loss of a dearly loved daughter. He was so grief-distracted or so contemptuous of those present at this feast, that he made up and sang an insulting song, in which he declared his intention of scalping the chiefs and throwing their hair — the most sacred part of the human body in Maori eyes—into his dead daughter’s grave. All the chiefs who had been thus insulted timidly ignored the song, except Taonui. He demanded a gift in compensation for the damage done to his honour, and Te Whero Whero presented him with Hongi’s armour. What has become of this' armour today?