MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1939, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

FAMILY DESCENT. (Recorded by J.H.S. tor “Times-Age.”) Rauparaha’s Heketanga Panuku (family descent) did not entitle him to the distinction of leadership in war or in council, because of mixed marriage among his ancestors. Personal bravery and . exceptional initiative must, therefore, be his claim. Hape, the chief of the great tribe, lay. on his death bed with the whole of his people around him awaiting the signal of his passing. His voice clear as a bell sounded like a modern loud speaker as he asked “Can my successor lead our people to victory and maintain our honour?” Not one of his sons replied Rauparaha seated outside the circle of the family and chiefs said, after a. long pause: “I am able to do what you could not.” Thus satisfied, Hape breathed his last at the very moment anticipated by that strange premonition of the Maori mind which is a mystery yet unsolved by modern science. The whole Maori people of Waikato were so obsessed by the one idea of ■acquiring firearms and thus dominating both the Pakeha and the smaller Maori tribes, that they agreed to abandon for the time being those fertile lands and ancestral homes, and to link up their power with Rauparaha, the Maori Napoleon, whose coastal area enabled him to trade with whalers and sailcK's for ample supplies of guns, powder, bullets and tomahawks. These inlanders descended from Te Waharoa and Hongi gave the Ngapuhi great power which could only be broken by firearms. Their alliance with Rauparaha, Waka Nene, and Patuone on the shores of Cook Strait and near the Kapiti whaling station would realise the ambition of a life time.

In 1819 Whatanui of Kawhia and his tribe joined the syndicate of gun hunters. whose desire for peade with the Pakehas was maintained only by the need for friendly communication. This alone saved us from extermination as a reprisal for wrongs inflicted by a few unworthy white scoundrels.