Another Early Letter

Tu Tangata, Issue 32, 1 October 1986, Page 58

Another Early Letter

from Ruta Te Rauparaha to Sir George and Lady Eliza Grey.

Tamihana, son of the great Ngati Toa rangatira, Te Rauparaha, decided in 1850 to go to England. He had learnt from the missionaries and colonists that England was the heart of the Christian church as they understood it, and of English civilisation.

The Rev Augustus Hadfield tried to persuade Tamihana not to go. (Hadfield had come to Waikanae and Otaki at the request of Tamihana and Matene Te Whiwhi who travelled to the Bay of Islands in 1839 to acquire a resident missionary for the South West of Te Ika a Maui). Though Tamihana was one of the leaders in Hadfield’s parish and a hard worker in promoting the Christian way of life at Otaki, Hadfield didn’t like him unreservedly, nor would he recommend him to the Church Missionary Society in London. Despite this, Tamihana left Otaki for England in November 1850. He stayed there for over a year and was presented to Queen Victoria in June, 1852. He had been given many letters of introduction including some from Hadfield to members of his family. Tamihana entrusted his wife, Ruta, to Hadfield’s care, with instructions that she was to look after him carefully as well. Ruta was very lonely during her husband’s long absence and this is reflected in her letters. This letter, to Sir George and Lady Eliza Grey, contains a waiata aroha, or love lament, which expresses Ruta’s emotions at the time she was writing. Singing an appropriate song was (and still is) a custom when Maori people delivered a formal speech, and early Maori letters are similar in many ways to speech. People transferred their skills as speakers to letter-writing. The letter shows that warmth and intimacy that existed between Ruta and Governor and Lady Grey. This relationship began soon after Grey took over as governor in 1846, and continued throughout their stay in Aotearoa.

Otaki Tihema, 1852. Haere ra, e taku reta ki toku matua tino aroha rawa, ki a Teoti Kerei. E pa! Tena ra ko koe. Ka nui toku aroha ki a koe. He tangi nui atu tenei ki a koe, penei me to tamaiti e aroha pu ana ki tona matua tupu. Tenei taku, kia rongo mai koe. Kua tae mai te reta o tou tamaiti aroha, o Tamihana Te Rauparaha, ki a au, otira ki a maua ko Te Harawira. Kua marama toku whakaaro, no te mea hoki kua noho tahi ia mete tuakana o Te Harawira, 1 i te kainga kotahi e noho ana.

Otira, nui noa atu taku mihi ki a koe mehemea ka hoki mai tetehi tangata, me tuhi ana koe i tetehi aroha. Ki te mea e ahei ana koe kite tuhi mai ka tuhi mai. Me tuhi mai ano, ka homai ki te tangata e haere mai ana. Ko tini hoki nga tangata e haere mai ana. E patai tonu ana ahau. Ko tenei, me

whakamana mai koe i toku reta kia ora atu ai toku ngakau. Heoi, nga kupu aroha ki a koe ano noho i konei.

E whae, e Reti Kerei. Tena koe! Ka nui toku aroha atu ki a koe, ki a koutou ko 6 kotiro 2 . He tono atu ano tenei naku ki a korua ko Te Oti Kerei i tetehi reta ki a matou ko aku kotiro e noho atu nei. E kore pea au e kite atu hoki i a korua. He nui tonu, 3 e Kui, no toku aroha atu ki a korua. He nui hoki no toku pouri ki toku hoa. 4 Otira, kei te Atua te whakaaro ki ahau kia whakakitea mai ranei toku hoa ki a au, pehea ranei. E kore hoki, te tangata e tino mohio. Mana anake ka kitea ai.

Waiata Kaore te aroha e awhea mai nei, Na roto ana mai o te koko raro. 5 ‘Ai he tohunga mana hei wehe kite wai, 6 ‘A hemo ake ai te aroha i ahau Ki te tau hoki ra. Nana i whakaraua iho ai. Ka hewa te ngakau. Kei hoki rua ki nga mahi. Pono ano rate ngahautanga atu. He paki, e Heu, 7 i rangona nuitia. He paki mai ma te ngutu ki Otaitapu ra. Ka nau atu Taia 8 te one i Kukuriki. 9 Ko to aroha ra i haramai pohewa.

Heoti and, naku tena reta, No to korua tamaiti aroha, Na Ruta.

□taki December 1, 1852. Go, my letter, to my beloved father, George Grey. Sir! I greet you. My love for you is great. This is a very sad lament to you, as if I am like your abandoned child longing for its real father.

And so I say, listen to me. A letter from your loving son, Tamihana Te Rauparaha, arrived for me, or rather it was to me and Hadfield. 1 My mind is at ease because he and Hadfield’s older brother are staying together in the same village. My greeting to you is very warm. If anyone is returning here, you should write a loving letter. If you are able, write to me. Write to me again, and give it to someone coming here. Lots of people are coming here I keep asking them. I say, you’d better respond to my letter to ease my heart. That is all the loving words to you who are living away from here.

Mother, Lady Grey, Greetings! My love for you and your girls is great. 2 This is a request of mine to you and George Grey for a letter to me and my girls living here. For perhaps I will not see the two of you. Lady, the love I have for the two of you is great, as is my sadness about my friend. 3 But it rests with God whether my husband shall be restored to me, or not. A person never really knows. It can

A Song What longing disturbs me! Carried here from inland on the north wind. 4 Who is the tohunga 5 able to take it away from me with water, So that the yearning for my lover might stop? It was he who brought us together. My heart was deluded, That you would not return a second time to do that! It is true that I was heartily involved. But Heu, 6 it’s a well-known story. Lips as far as Otaitapu gossip about me. Taia 7 goes away along the beach at Kukuriki 8 Your love came to me in dreams!

That’s all. That letter is mine. From your loving child, Ruta.

only be seen by Him.

Notes 1. Te Harawira refers to the Rev. Octavius Hadfield, a Church of England minister who was very close to Ruta at this time as I have explained. 2. O kotiro or your girls. Eliza Grey had no children, but she did employ young people in her household. One of these at least was known intimately by Ruta. Ruiha Te Whiwhi, daughter of her

close friends, Pipi and Mate ne, accompanied the Greys to Auckland where she helped in the house. This reference to “your girls” is therefore probably to Ruiha and other girls that Ruta knew well.

3. Tdku hoa or my friend refers to Tamihana her husband.

4. The wind, here the north wind, kokoraro, is often said to carry messages, spirits and emotions in Maori waiata.

5. Maori people who were brought low by the side effects of love sometimes approached a tohunga, or expert, to rid them of troublesome feelings. He performed a ritual involving water to achieve this.

6. Heu probably refers to Te Heuheu 111, Iwikau, the Tuwharetoa rangatira at the time, who was a friend of Ngati Toa and Ngati Raukawa, who along with Waikato and Tuwharetoa traced their whakapapa back to Hoturoa. Iwikau’s older brother, Te Heuheu 11, Tukino and Tamihana’s father, Te Rauparaha, fought together as allies in earlier battles.

7. George Grey’s 1853 collection of waiata, Nga Moteatea me Nga Hakirara o te Maori records this song with “ia”, meaning he, rather than “Taia”. This appears to be a name Ruta used and Grey changed to he, if indeed this letter was his source for the song.

8. Kukuriki is a beach along the Taranaki coast. This may suggest that this line had its origins in a Taranaki song, or that Kukuriki was a place that Ruta was familiar with.