MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 February 1939, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

BOTH SIDES. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) Official reports referred to the election of the Maori King as "A dangerous excitement.” whereas the immediate effect of it was to abolish once and for all time the tragic tribal wars which had been a source of hatred and reprisal under the "Sacred" law of Utu (Satisfaction) for untold centuries. The ideal which prompted their election of an hereditary ruling power, was the beneficient loyalty of the Nation to "Kunini Wikitoria,” and the complete agreement and protection thus given. Governor Browne in alarm paid a hasty visit to the powerful and peace loving chief Te Heuheu at Taupo. To Heuhcu spoke quietly and reasonably but in reply to the newcomer's official attitude, he passionately defended the Maori desire for co-operation and equality. He pointed out the differences between the races which his people earnestly sought to heal. “If even an unworthy white man came among us. he was given food and shelter: but when a Maori Chief of high rank visited Auckland he was refused admission even to the table of a hotel, where, as a paying guest, he sought to appease his hunger. The only place where he was tolerated was at the bar among the white victims of liquor. The whites were mopping up their best land and treating them as animals of inferior type. The King's laws will not interfere with the Queen's subjects in your villages; but will bind all alike who live with and among us.” In the end his Excellency was secretly convinced of their claims but dared not confess it. He, however, consented to frame laws to meet certain grievances, and to station a Magistrate among them.