MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1940, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

THE KING’S DEFEAT. (Recorded by J.H.S., of Palmerston North, lor the “Times-Age.”) The loyal Chief Wiremu Tamihana, of Waikato, paid one and only one. visit to Auckland. His object was to induce the Governor to realise the lawless conditions under which the derelict Pakeha traders in arms and grog were living and bringing the Maoris to the same state. Some subordinate official treated him with discourtesy and contempt, refusing him permission to see his Excellency. He saw Mr Donald McLean, the Native secretary, and asked for assistance to erect a flour mill, the dual objects of which were to promote industry among the Maoris and* supply the Pakeha with the much needed flour. This also was refused. Being an opponent of land sales he was treated as an enemy. .Wiremu addressed every tribe urging them to elect Po Tatau te Whero whero as the Maori King. His name is said 'to have arisen from “counting the hours at night when his wife died, and his being the first Maori to wear a coveted red blanket.”

When Wiremu Nera, his great ally in the King movement, was converted to Christianity and a neutral policy, akin to the attitude of America in' the desperate 'battle for freedom today, Tamihana said: “My right hand has been severed.” The Government’s opposition to the King movement was a tactical, error, comparable only 'to the missionary mistake in destroying the restraining influence of their sacred law of “Tapu,” which was universally respected by them. Now it is like our own extinguished “everlasting fire.”