MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 December 1940, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

THE KING'S GUARD OF HONOUR. (Recorded by J.H.S., of Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.”) In the opinion of the various tribes, the weakness of the Runanga (Maori King's Council) for the settlement of disputes and the trial of offenders was that the King could not pay the members a stipend such as that enjoyed by the Governor’s Magistrates, nor could their judgments be enforced. There were many parties of young men dressed in military uniforms, “playing at soldiers,” who in the Taranaki War had learned the English words of command, the bugle call, and military manoeuvres. It was agreed that each tribe should by this means form a “Guard of Honour” in turn, to protect His Majesty, the Maori King. Tamihana and his people would have nothing to do with this. He said his tribal members were ploughmen, not soldiers. To confirm this, instead of providing a “puppet Guard of Honnnr ” ihpv hrniicrht n nlnnwhc

Ito the Royal Whare and cultivated 70 acres of His Majesty’s palace grounds, J upon which they grew a record crop of early potatoes. Still the military movement, each corps with its bugler, grew apace. All members were boys of 16 to 20 with white trousers, blue coats, and white peaked caps with a red cross on the front, neat and clean, they were the picture of health and activity. They grew their own food, and with their

old flint lock guns shot pigs and pigeons. Their military pay was 3d per day. When the King’s Treasury began to fall the pay was commuted to the promise of a grant of land, one acre for every month of military service. This example was followed by the Colonial Government, excepting that the Maori King gave his own land, not that of other people.