Te Hokowhitu-a-Tu: What Did They Come Home To?

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 42, 1 January 2009, Page 35

Te Hokowhitu-a-Tu: What Did They Come Home To?

MONTY SOUTAR

Recruitment The Great War (later referred to as the First World War) was not the first time Maori had offered to participate as a unit in a war involving the British Empire. In 1900 Maori leaders offered to raise a Maori contingent for service in the South African War. When the proposal was declined, some Maori, most of mixed ethnicity, enlisted and served in the several contingents that went to South Africa.

Maori participation in the First World War was limited by official sentiment: having been on the point of extinction, the race should not face further depletion by putting its men on the front line. After the defeat of the Allies at Gallipoli and the losses suffered by its unit, the Maori contingent was sent to the Western Front as a Pioneer Battalion (that is, as trench diggers and road builders). But they also suffered heavy casualties, as their duties consistently took them into the firing zone. Throughout the war the contingent and its reinforcements (known to Maori as Te Hokowhitu-a-Tu) sent more than 2,500 men overseas, including 470 Pacific Islanders. Casualties included 336 men killed in active service, and more than 700 were wounded.

Maori involvement was intended to be voluntary, and the initial response to the call for recruits was pleasing considering the historical relationship of some iwi (tribes) with the British Crown. Maori who served overseas were drawn from a population of 63,000. However, the facts behind the figures do not always appear in a positive light.

The sense of grievance that resulted from the raupatu (land confiscations) of the 1860 s and 1870 s affected the tribal response to the call for volunteers. Iwi who had suffered land confiscations fewer than 46 years before still included members who had fought in the wars of the 1860 s. A whole generation had grown up with an intimate knowledge of which lands had been confiscated and were now being settled by the government. Among these iwi, land loss, denial of access to resources, and associated poverty were all leading causes for lower recruitment

during the First World War. The views of such iwi were balanced by those who adopted a more ready approach to civic responsibility and service. This latter approach stemmed from Article Three of the Treaty of Waitangi, in which the rights of British citizenship, and the duties and obligations it imposed, were imparted to Maori. In times of war, who more than tangata whenua should rush to the defence of the country? Iwi whose sons were first to the recruiting offices included Ngapuhi in the north, Ngai Tahu of the South Island, Ngati Kahungunu of Hawke's Bay, Ngati Porou on the East Coast, and Te Arawa and Ngati Tuwharetoa in the Bay of Plenty and central North Island.

Conscription

Those iwi that were most unresponsive to the Empire's call to fight were from regions where the conflicts of the 1860 s had been most bitter and who, as a result, had endured the confiscation of large tracts of their tribal estate - especially those in Waikato and Taranaki. Nursing an inherited sense of grievance against the Crown, represented as they saw it by the government and Pakeha generally, these destitute and aggrieved communities were in no mood to appreciate the obligation to serve abroad in the armed forces.

Because of the reluctance of these iwi to enlist, the government discussed the possibility of applying its conscription policy to them. They had already begun conscripting other New Zealanders into the armed forces, but had not extended the policy to include Maori. As the war drew on it became obvious that the constant need for Maori reinforcements would drain the manpower of some iwi, while others with minimal enlistments would be hardly affected.

In 1917 the government, in an ill-advised move, decided to apply conscription to one electoral district, the Western Maori, of which the Tainui iwi were a part. Ballots were drawn from eligible men of Waikato and Ngati Maniapoto - both Tainui iwi - and intentionally included some members of the Maori king's family. It was hoped that their compliance would encourage would-be dissenters to follow their example.

When none of the men presented themselves at the army office, the Minister of Defence Sir James Allen went to Ngaruawahia in an attempt to persuade Waikato leaders to co-operate. With their men facing imprisonment, Tupu Taingakawa, spokesman for the King and son of Wiremu Tamehana Tarapipi, the Maori kingmaker, received with contempt the olive branch held out by Allen. 'Ko wai te wha?' (who will suffer?), the old chief remarked: 'My people cannot suffer more than they have done in the loss of their lands and of their mana.' 1 Their refusal to serve was not readily understood, and those selected by ballot

who had not presented themselves were imprisoned. The individual who best understood the position of Maori in New Zealand society during this period was Sir Apirana Ngata. In 1914 he had been a member of the Maori War Committee, which saw the establishment of the 500-strong Native Contingent in the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF). Ngata remained at the forefront of Maori development after the First World War, and knew first-hand the key issues with which iwi were grappling. He wrote about these in 1943:

As a device for securing men for the Maori contingent conscription was a dismal failure. As Government policy it was justified solely by the theoretical equality of Maori and Pakeha under the law of their common land. It took no cognizance of historical facts barely half a century old. It ignored the hurt done to a large section of Maori people whose offence was a vain attempt to stem the encroachments of an aggressive and not too scrupulous Pakeha colony. An old wound was reopened that time and the emergence of other interests might have rendered less sensitive. Suspicions and resentments, the aftermath of the Land wars 50 years earlier, were foolishly if not wantonly stirred to renewed activity. 2

The imposition of conscription on the Waikato and Ngati Maniapoto people had long-lasting effects, and the breach it caused has probably only been restored recently with the Treaty of Waitangi Tainui settlement. Applying the policy to one electoral district was a mistake and resulted in only a handful of Tainui men ever being put into uniform. P. S. O'Connor, in his review of Maori recruitment in the First World War, noted that by 1919 only 74 Maori conscripts had gone to camp out of a total of 552 men called up. 'None had been sent overseas, 111 had been arrested, and nearly 100 warrants were still in the hands of the police.' 3 Such a poor outcome begged an examination of the reasons for the resistance. Ngata, involved in the post-war committees set up to investigate claims and grievances, wrote:

The position was clear enough to those who had studied it closely among the disaffected peoples. The mote in the brother's eye had to be removed before he could be expected to begin to see things as other men saw them. The duty of the Maori leaders was to convince men in authority of the existence and stubbornness of the obstruction and of the urgent need for removing it. So the long-standing grievances arising from unfulfilled promises, from the arbitrary acts of Government land purchase officers or, most serious of all, from the punitively excessive confiscation of native lands, dominated the political activities of the period immediately following the 1914-18 war. 4

So from 1920, Maori MPs and iwi leaders were involved with other politicians in protracted negotiations for the settlement of historical land claims. Maori grievance became publicly highlighted, in much the same way as Treaty issues have been under the gaze of the New Zealand public throughout the past two decades. The story behind the setting up of Royal Commissions,' wrote Ngata, 'to investigate claims and grievances [and] of the solutions they propounded . . . will fill an interesting chapter in the history of New Zealand.' 5

Getting on With Life After the War

While iwi leaders invested their time and energy into reaching agreed settlements, Maori returned servicemen settled back into normal life. On a personal level, they had come home with a more confident bearing and a better appreciation of their place in the world. They knew they had played a praiseworthy role in the greatest overseas activity of which their country had been a part. They had seen close-up the might of the British Empire, and they had learnt what it meant to serve that institution. Most of all, they had earned the life-long respect of their communities.

After the war, photographs of these men in their khaki uniforms were hung in homes and in wharenui (meeting houses) throughout the country. Stone

monuments, dining halls and a church were built as memorials to those who served, and returned-soldier organisations and Anzac Day commemorations helped to keep memories alive. The names and places where relatives had fought or been killed were passed down to children. Mothers and grandparents who registered the children at native schools took great pride in placing the names in the register, for they understood the cause for which the men had fought and to which the children were now committed.

The Maori soldiers' participation in the war also led to the economic growth of a large section of their people, particularly among those iwi whose voluntary enlistments had been strongest. In their rural and remote communities, the returned men were able to help their kinsmen understand and appreciate the opportunities presented by the world beyond the village. They felt education was the pathway to opportunity for their children, and they became the staunchest supporters of their local schools. The focus on education increased employment opportunities in industry, where some skill was required, provided openings in clerical work, and improved land use. Some Maori even ventured into business on a small and experimental scale.

The camaraderie resulting from the shared experiences of the training camps and battlefields allowed men of different tribes, some of whom were to become leaders among their people, to form networks that might otherwise not have been made. Some had also made close friendships or contacts with Pakeha soldiers in the NZEF, and these relationships were extended into business and social affairs. The influence of such contacts would be further seen in the joint war effort in the Second World War. 'One may say,' wrote Ngata, 'that the Maori soldier element gave an adventurous turn to the process of acculturation and broke through the tribal cordons that threatened to keep Maori communities apart.' 6

Maori, now largely a rural proletariat, turned their attention to adjusting to life in a Pakeha-dominated society. Their minority status in their own districts had some bearing, for example, on language use. Until the 19205, except in addressing Pakeha, the Maori language was dominant. After that, though, the small number of Maori families who had taken up residence in cities and boroughs began to reserve the Maori tongue for conversations between parents, and although adults spoke to children in Maori, the children were encouraged to respond in English. Maori in these centres were admired, tolerated, or looked on with contempt by their Pakeha neighbours. 7

Conversely, Pakeha in densely populated Maori areas were compelled to adjust to Maori culture rather than vice versa because they were to some extent dependent on Maori not only for labour, but also for land to rent, for trade and custom, and for the disposal of produce. Pakeha families worked with Maori and mixed with them socially, and some learned to speak Maori to varying degrees.

For example, for many years only three or four Pakeha adults lived in the isolated settlement of Torere. When Rangiatiria Ratema, later known as Guide Rangi, became an assistant at its native school in 1914, she found the two Pakeha teachers had endeared themselves to the Maori community: 8

Mr Armyn Drake ... and his wife were a wonderful couple, devoting most of their lives to the education of the Maori with almost missionary zeal. . . . [They] played much more than the normal role of teachers in the local community. Mrs Drake, who had been a nurse, often acted as unofficial doctor. She had tended many cases of pneumonia in the school house. The local Maori people, the Ngaitai... were a religious people and a bell was rung every morning and evening for prayers. Sunday was a complete day of rest. Mr Drake used to conduct Sunday school in the mornings and I took classes in the meeting house in the afternoons. 9

Maori Life in the 1920 s After the war, large tracts of group-owned Maori land in rural regions were merged and farmed for the benefit of the owners, or were leased to Pakeha. In the Gisborne

district, for example, these included 160,000 acres (65,000 hectares) of the East Coast Trust Lands the Mangatu Blocks and the Whangara Blocks, which carried some 100,000 sheep and 8,000 head of cattle. Further north, beyond Tokomaru Bay, over 60,000 acres (24,000 hectares) had been cleared and grassed to allow smaller incorporations to farm their own lands, and again there were many sheep and cattle. Similarly, as one headed west from Whangaparaoa, through Te Kaha and on to Torere, evidence of sheep-farming incorporations could be seen in almost every community. Where the incorporations or trusts showed a profit, dividends or rents were paid annually to the owners.

There were also smaller family holdings throughout the country making a success of sheep farming and dairying, and providing permanent and seasonal work for skilled and unskilled workers. Practically all the shearing in densely populated Maori regions was done by local Maori gangs, which included women and children. Other avenues of employment included droving, fencing, bushfelling, scrub-cutting, road and railway construction work, vegetable harvesting, maize plucking, fruit picking, and driving service cars or taxis. A handful of Maori passed the Public Service entrance exam and joined the Native Department. A few

entered the teaching profession, although there was no training college system, as Guide Rangi noted: 'The brighter scholars simply left their desks and took a place in front of the class as teachers, under the eye of a senior teacher.' 10

The majority of Maori children were educated in 'native', 'public' or 'church' schools, all of which were state funded to some degree. Most finished their formal education around the age of 14 and went straight to work. Some children, having passed the proficiency exam, had the opportunity of a secondary-school education. If a child had attended a native school, a few scholarships were available to assist with secondary-school fees. Otherwise, parents had to make great sacrifices to ensure the most promising of their children received a higher education. Where secondary schools were non-existent, students were sent out of the district to the denominational boarding schools - the most sought after were St Stephens and Te Aute for boys, and St Josephs, Victoria and Hukarere for girls.

In the 1920 s an improving rural economy meant that some Maori were in a sound economic position, able to afford most of the comforts and luxuries of modern life, while others struggled to make ends meet. Some whanau (family groups), through their own efforts, lived together in large houses; at the other extreme, some large families were squashed into one- or two-room wood or tin huts with earth floors.

All families relied on farm-killed mutton, pork and beef, the food provided by sea and forest, and their own large vegetable gardens and orchards. As one Te Whanau-a-Apanui man recalled, 'You only took a little bag of flour when you went hunting. The rest of your food was in the bush.' 11 Stocks of fruit preserves, home-made pickles and paraoa rewena (home-baked bread) were to be found in every home. Kanga kopiro (fermented corn) was also a staple, and watercress was gathered in the springs and watercourses nearby. Some cultivated the soil to produce abundantly, but others were not nearly so conscientious.

Only the more affluent families had motor vehicles, although these were used for the benefit of the whanau. Most adults relied on buses, taxis, bicycles, or simply travelled by foot. Horses and horse-drawn drays were still very popular and the main form of transport for children when they were not walking.

A renaissance in Maori art and culture was indicated by the meeting houses appearing all over the country. Rugby and hockey were serious pastimes, and whole communities channelled their energies into making club, representative and tribal matches major sporting fixtures. Rugby, in particular, was seen as a sport made for Maori. It allowed the inter- and intratribal contests of the past to be conducted in a more controlled atmosphere and without lasting consequences. One tribal representative greeted a visiting team with these words of welcome: 'As we fought in the past, so we are going to fight again. But, as you have come with love in your hearts, it will be only a fight of sport.' 12

Tribal identity was strong and life was infused with the communal spirit. Community activity revolved around the pa (meeting house), and every village had a school, church and sometimes a sports field. Manaaki tangata (hosting) visiting teams and visitors in general involved Maori and Pakeha, as did fundraising for any worthy cause. Every community also had its less commendable pastimes: pubs, billiard saloons and gambling schools.

Inequalities Persist into the 1930 s

Just as the historical circumstances of their tribal background shaped Maori communities, so too did the disparity between the Maori and Pakeha races. In the 20 years following the war, for instance, more than half the Maori population remained inadequately housed, and a significant proportion lived in disgraceful conditions, especially in rural areas.

Poor housing resulted in poor health. Although the incidence of typhoid was slowly disappearing, in 1937 it caused 39 times more Maori than Pakeha deaths. A high rate of tuberculosis continued, and special huts to house patients were seen in every community. In 1938, four Maori babies died to every Pakeha infant fatality,

and this in 'the country renowned for the lowest European infant mortality rate and the Plunket system of infant care.' 13

Some commentators feared that social security payments were already proving a curse to the younger generation, but most Maori wanted to see their needy paid the same sustenance payments as Pakeha:

The Social Security Act 1938 failed to bring immediate equal benefit payments to Maori. ... The rationale for this discretionary difference continued from earlier twentieth century pensions administration. Firstly, it was assumed that Maori communal life on the land meant that living expenses were lower, and Maori as individuals were less needy. Secondly, the poverty and simplicity of Maori housing and lifestyles suggested lower Maori expectations, and therefore less need of a full benefit. Thirdly, the customary sharing of resources in Maori pa was interpreted as a misuse of social security benefits that were allocated to individuals. 14

Maori were struggling to gain parity, particularly in the widows' and age benefits, and the introduction of the family benefit in 1939 also sparked public debate: could Maori be trusted to spend benefits appropriately? Departmental representatives were allowed to scrutinise the way Maori families used the money. In some cases their monitoring was discreet, but more often than not, staff were intrusive.

Both the public and native primary schools were staffed almost entirely by Pakeha teachers, not more than 1% of whom spoke Maori. English language and culture was a major part of the school syllabus, while the Maori language was forbidden in the school grounds and spoken only at home. The application of this policy varied according to the teacher's own interpretation of it, but the suppression of the language, sometimes to the point of ridiculing it, was the experience of many a Maori child.

Some Pakeha remained avowed assimilationists and were opposed to any special consideration for Maori that appeared to encourage separatism. Yet separate treatment for Maori was permitted if it was deemed to be in the interests of the public. Take, for example, the regulations surrounding the operation of licensed drinking establishments. Some hotels would neither permit Maori as patrons nor accommodate them as guests. In Rotorua, Maori from the outlying districts visiting relatives in hospital could not get accommodation in the township. There were two reasons,' a local Maori explained:

One was financial - many Maori families could not afford to stay at a hotel or hoarding house. The second was racial - even if the Maori had the money to pay, he would not he accepted as a guest. This was not just a Rotorua problem. It was New Zealand-wide. My own relatives have been turned away from a hotel when the proprietor found out

that his would-be guests had an English-sounding name but a Maori skin. ... [Mjany of the Maori visitors without friends or relatives in Rotorua came from long distances and could not get back to their homes the same day. They often had little money. Some had to sleep where they could - in parks, under hedges, down on the lake-front. 15

By law, no Maori was allowed to take alcohol away from licensed premises and could be convicted and fined if caught drinking off the premises. l6 Nor were Maori women allowed in public bars. The dissatisfaction that some Maori felt about such prejudice is clearly evident in this letter from Keita Rangiuia to Ngata, frustrated at the way police were treating Maori in Pukekohe:

[l]f the public, I mean the white people and the law, do not wish to see a Maori too drunk in the streets why not give him his rights as a British subject and an honest living citizen and allow him to take his liquor home and drink, therefore keep him out of the publics way and thus prevent him from coming in contact with the law in such a way as to cause himself bodily harm. Are you going to allow this sort of thing to carry on? I am not making any complaint against the law, but I do think a Maori should have better treatment than this. The more I see my Maori people getting a rough spin the more bitter I feel towards all white people. Is it not enough that a Maori man was stripped of his land and home? Must he be put on the same level as an animal? 17

Even the New Zealand Territorial Force, which in the event of a war would provide the first line of home defence and immediate assistance in imperial defence, showed hints of prejudice towards Maori volunteers. In early 1939 there were a little over 10,000 Territorials, and the government began a campaign to reinvigorate the force and increase its numbers. But when the army began researching the possibility of raising a Maori unit, the Commander of the Northern Military District advised Army Headquarters that Maori were unsuitable as Territorials: If Maoris are accepted in ordinary platoons , the better type of territorial soldier is excluded. If separate Maori sub-units are formed the Area staff will be overloaded with administrative work as a result of the numerous applications which will be made and the process of endeavouring to trace defaulters and recover items of arms, clothing and equipment. 18

Later, in a draft report prepared by Major George Clifton, a similar objection was made:

The better type of European - the type of man we want in the Territorials - will not join up in a platoon which includes Maoris. ... The North Auckland Regiment and the Hauraki Regiment are most emphatic that they do not want Maori sub-units. 19

By the outbreak of the Second World War, 6,000 men had been added to the Territorial Force and a Highland Regiment had been formed in the South Island. On the question of Maori representation in the Force, however, the government was silent.

After the First World War, race relations between Maori and Pakeha were in an embryonic stage. The country was still very young, and despite talk of goodwill there remained a great gulf between them. Although their social contact was increasing, the inequalities between the two races were still obvious. It can be said, however, that Maori returned servicemen were responsible for an expansion of the Maori outlook on the world and for an appreciation and interpretation among iwi of events abroad after the war. At the outbreak of the Second World War these veterans would be the first to support the idea of a Maori infantry battalion, for they understood and appreciated the spirit that moved their sons to venture where they first blazed the trail. 20

ENDNOTES 1 MS-Papers-691 Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL). Incomplete draft for proposed second edition of I. G. L. Sutherland's The Maori People Today: A General Survey (Wellington: NZ Institute of International Affairs/NZ Council for Educational Research, 1940). Ngata had contributed four chapters to the first edition, but there was no focus on the position of Maori arising from the outbreak of the Second World War.

2 MS-Papers-6919-0234, ATL. 3 P. S. O'Connor, 'The Recruitment of Maori Soldiers, 1914-18.' Political Science 19, no. 2 (1967): 81. 4 MS-Papers-6919-0234, ATL. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Felix M. Keesing, 'Maori Progess on the East Coast.' Te Wananga 1, no. 2 (1929): 92. 8 Rangitiaria Dennan, Guide Rangi of Rotorua (Christchurch: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1968), p. 70. 9 Ibid. 10 Guide Rangi of Rotorua, p. 69. 11 Personal communication with John Waititi, 13 September 2005. 12 Wi Pere at the official reception for the 1908 Anglo-Welsh rugby team. J. A. Mackay, Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N. /., N.Z. (Gisborne: J. A. Mackay, 1949), p. 437.

13 H. B. Turbott, 'Health and Social Welfare,' in The Maori People Today, p. 253. 14 Margaret McClure, A Civilised Community: A History of Social Security in New Zealand, 1898-1998 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1998), pp. 111-12. 15 Guide Rangi of Rotorua, pp. 110-11. 16 Conrad Bollinger, Grog's Own Country: The Story of Liquor Licensing in New Zealand (Auckland: Minerva, 1959), pp. 104-5. 17 Rangiuia to Ngata, 6 November 1941. MS-Papers-6919-0585, ATL. 18 Colonel Weir to Army Headquarters, 17 July 1939. ADI 226/19/7 Vol. 1, Archives NZ. 19 Clifton Report. ADI 226/19/7 vol. 1, Archives NZ. 20 MS-Papers-6919-0234, ATL.