MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1940, Page 8

MAORI MEMORIES

THE MAORI KING AND TAPU. (Recorded by J.H.S.. o£ Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.”) Sir George Grey arrived on H.M.S. Cossack on September 26, 1861, and Colonel Browne left the same week. The grave errors arising from the attempt to govern the loyal intelligent Maori people by a Foreign Ministry who knew nothing of their real character was wrongly attributed to the departing Governor. Sir George realising this, awaited the first move from the Waikato Maori chiefs, who remained silent. Tamati Ngapora though a “Kingite” always strove to keep peace. He went to the Maori “King’s Court” where the Maori Queen was just then the cause of Whaka hauhau (excitement) for the serious crime of being tattooed. She was fined £lO and Honi Papita, her artisan, £5. Both refused to pay on the ground that “Royalty is Supreme.” Tamati’s mission failed as the Maori chiefs said, because the Government was too busy making laws instead of enforcing obedience (whakarongo). Making laws was then as it is in 1940, the staple manufacture in New Zealand. At this critical moment, when the Maoris numbered ten to our one, the two vital points of danger were: The British Government's refusal to recognise or permit the proclamation of a "Royal and loyal Sovereign whose aim was peace and goodwill” and the refusal of the churches to recognise the law of Tapu which for six centuries was known to have preserved the sanctity and fidelity of married or single men and women. Under this holy ceremonial, the threat of sudden death or superstition was an absolute safeguard. Even at that period the New Zealand Gazette reported: "One of our highest judicial authorities in England has lately declared in open court that our own law on these matters is a disgrace to civilisation and cannot be recommended for native adoption.”