Hariru Wikitoria!

Tu Tangata, Issue 22, 1 February 1985, Page 28

Hariru Wikitoria!

Palmerston North freelance journalist and historian Brian Mackrell is doing a writer’s hattrick by having three books published within twelve months.

First is Freelance a reference work for the aspiring writer, followed by Hariru Wikitoria ! An illustrated history of the Maori tour of England, 1863. Brian's third book, Halley’s Coment Over New Zealand, will be published in October 1985 to coincide with the return of the most famous of comets. It examines Maori star lore and cometary knowledge, details and illustrates, for the first time, the remarkable astrophotographic work of pioneer Kiwi astronomers and reports on the several probes being sent to meet the comet in 1986.

Hariru Wikitoria ! will be of particular interest to Maori readers. Many

books have described the adventures of Europeans in early New Zealand, with their comments on local customs and culture. Hariru is the first book on the Maori view of European customs and culture on an 11 month tour in which 14 men and women from several tribes became “The Lions of London”, the toast of Bristol and Bath, and the sensation of Birmingham. Her Majesty was Godmother to the first Maori born in England and two of the Chiefs returned home with young English brides.

Their visit was the grandiose project of William Jenkins, a former Wesleyan lay preacher and interpreter. It took place as open conflict between the colonial government and Maori broke out in New Zealand. The tour began with a dizzy rise to the height of London society, culminating in an audience with Queen Victoria. Paratene Te Manu (Ngati Wai) recorded the occasion: ‘‘We tangi’d and uttered salutations to the great Wikitoria, and then one by one we went forward to say ‘Hariru’ to her after the pakeha fashion... I said: Be kind to us, be generous to the Maori people. ‘Yes’, replied the Queen, ‘I am kindly disposed towards the Maori....”

And Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: ‘‘One said, on seeing me, that he felt inclined to weep, and spoke of dearest Albert’s great virtues, really very touchingly. Another spoke of their lands being taken away and hoped I would promise that this would not be done, which I said I would.”

But the tour quickly became the subject of bitter controversy. Reihana Te Taukawau (Ngapuhi) wrote: ‘‘They thought, that is the important people of England, that it was the Maori idea to come to England.... But afterwards those important people learnt that it was Jenkins who brought us ... the important people said the Maori did not know they were brought by the pakeha as monkeys for them....”

Also in England at the same time was another large Maori party who toured the music halls as ‘‘The Maori Warrior Chiefs” the very first of what would now be termed a Maori Concert Party. Some historians have confused these two groups as one and the same but Hariru Wikitoria ! sets the record straight in the first comprehensive account of a fascinating, forgotten episode in New Zealand and English history.

Brian Mackrell’s illustrated history of this extraordinary tour, largely told in the words of the visitors and the people they met, offers a rare insight into the encounter of Maori and European worlds in the nineteenth century.