Maori Pronunciation and Lore

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 24, 28 December 1928, Page 2

Maori Pronunciation and Lore

Intensely Interesting Talks Arranged

(THE latest to join the numerous band of broadeasters is Mr. Henry M. Stowell, perhaps more widely known as Hare Hongi, the bosom friend of the late Timi Kara (Hon. Sir James Carroll). Hare Hongi has consented to broadeast the correct pronunciation and the meanings of Maori place-names, phrases, etc. His talks will begin on January 7. We append a few particulars of his career. He was born under a kauri tree (which is still standing) at the head waters of the Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) River, Waimate, Russell, North Auckland, on the 4th day of February, 1859. His grandmother, Maumau, belonged to the hereditary

ariki (first) family of the Nga Puhi tribe, "the Loyal Nga Puhi," of which family, too, the notable chiefs, Hongi and Titore, and others, were members, Maumau was married by the Rev. Petit-Jean to Matthew Farley, shipwright, a descendant of the persecuted Huguenots, whose family escaped and settled in Kent, England. There was a family of four, all being daughters, These Farley named after his four sisters, and of these by her marriage with John S. Stowell, Huhana (Susannah) became the mother of Hare Hongi, ? [AUN CHED into that purely: Maori world, the boy learned his AB’s at Singer’s School, in Parnell, Auckland. . From there he was placed, by Sir George Grey himself, in the Three Kings College, with ‘the advice to learn as much of the English. language and history as he could, and impart it to his Maori people. Governor Grey also advised him--quite unnecessarily though-to hold fast | ‘to his Maori. language. © : A well-known figure in the athletic field. he was a first-class rower, wrestler and runner. In 1876 he catried off the Northern Wairoa

Championship Cup, against the best of Auckland’s runtiers. In doing so he established the peculiar record of Winning all three distances; first in the 100 yards, first in the 220 yards, and first in the 440 yards. | As the boy grew up he became convinced that-in many important ‘:e-spects-the Maori language was superior to the English; that opinion he holds to-day. And, by his ardent wooing, the Maori language has been_induced to yield up many of its ancient and most secret meanings. Those which were -not strictly tapu or cere-monially-restricted, he will broadcast. He assures us that in the course of. his long and interesting career, he has known of but one out-and-out qualified interpreter-one of whom it might be said: "He is a master of the Maori | language." . vo HARE HONGI gained a wide knowledge of Maori lore by sitting at the feet of its aged and best exponents, tohungas. These took as much pritle in teaching it to him, as he did in the acquiring of it. For more than fifteen months, at Waitaha (near the Ninety-mile Beach), he lived with Nga Kuku Mumu, whom he regards as being the most capable and efficient master and teacher of that wonderfil lore. In the study of that lore, Hate Hongi has twice traversed New Zealand, from end to end, from the North Cape to the Bluff, In 1890 he a’ specially engaged to collect and set} down for record what he could of its modern remains. That embraced such subjects as the Maori belief in the evolution of the world, for that was, in’ fact, an evolution, and one that is still in progress; Maori teaching on the evolution of man; the — religious faith of the Maori; his knowledge of such an abstruse subject as astronomy, the science of genealogy, and so -on. Hare Hongi has published a textbook on the language, entitled the "Maori-English Tutor and Vade Mecum" (Whitcombe and Tombs), which is the standard authority oh the subject. [YOR publication in London he has recently forwarded the manuscripts of a life-work, "The Strange Maori." That MS. has been submitted to Sir Robert Stout, and after reading it, in a foreword Sir Robert. says: "This is a great book... and no book that has yet been published gives such a graphic, description of the past Maori life ... the writer’s autobiography is unique. We learn from one part of the book much of Maori learning and of the psychology of Polynesians. It appears that the Maoris had a notable man whom the writer calls, ‘The Maori Christ. The life of Tawhaki... is certainly as full of incident as that of any man known to history. His fame has apparently. spread to several Pacific island groups ... The ancient history of the Maori is dealt with and that necessarily includes the much-debated question of the whence of the Maoris." Sir Robert concludes: "This work can be recommended to anyone desir-

ing knowledge of the great Polynesian race. No work has come. from the Maori people, or indeed from any people, that can displace it. It is more than an autobiography, for it ineludes the history of the ancient Maori people, and gives short stories equal to thdse found in popular magazines, re is indeed not a dull page in the ork." Such, briefly, are the qualifications of Hare Hongi, who will presently broadcast the pronunciation and meanings of our Maori place-names. :