"DINGY ACADEMICIANS."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 114, 17 May 1927, Page 6

"DINGY ACADEMICIANS."

The visit of the famous conqueror, Hongi Hika, to England in quest of weapons of wax* has often been mentioned in our histories. The references to the voyage have usually been based on missionary records. Here is a passage from another source that I think has not previously been quoted in New Zealand; the two unnamed chiefs were Hongi and his kinsman. The authority is that weighty but often racy volume of memoirs, "The Creevey Papers," consisting ol the letters of Thomas Creevey, M.P., who was born in 1768 and died in 1838. Mr. Creevey, who plied a lively pen when he liked, was greatly interested in two strange visitors to London whom he saw accommodated in seats of honour in the House of Lords as spectators at the trial of Queen Caroline. Well "Carved" New Zealandeis. In a letter to his stcp-daugnter, Miss Urd, from the House of Lords on October 21, 1820, Mr. Crevey wrote: Before I begin with the trial (of Queen Caroline) let me tell you a story. On my arrival here at ten this morning I perceived a black man of an extraordinary appearance in Tom Tyrwhitt's box at the other end of the House (Thomas Tyrwhitt was Black Rod) and another black by his side, both in bushy black wigs. Upon inquiry I found it was no less a person than the King of New Zealand and his Grand Chamberlain; and it was presently reported that they were white and not black men, and that the black shade was merely the effect and impression of tattooing. Western and I went round and got near enough to touch His Majesty, when I found his royal face to be one of the finest specimens of carving I have ever beheld. "The Chamberlain's face was fair; the sunflowers on it were highly respectable; but the King's nose, which surpasses the average size, was one blaze of stars and planets. The groundwork of their faces, of which a mighty small portion remained without ornament, was evidently fair, but had been painted a deep orange colouf. . . I just learn it was the Minister of the King and not his Chamberlain; and also that they are both just entered at some college in Cambridge, where, I flatter myself, these dingy academicians will do honour both to themselves and my favourite University." Another Discovery. Mr. Creevcy's remarkable description of the New Zealander's face "moko" was presently supplemented by a quite arch hint at the tattoo they woro "in another place"—the spiral pattern technically known among the Maoris as "rape." Writing to Miss Ord from the House of Lords, October 23, ho said:

"Premierement, let me bring up the rear of my narrative respecting the King of New Zealand. It is confidently reported that en derriere both His Majesty and his Minister are much more profusely decorated with ornamental carving than on their faces—but you'll not quote me!" This latter-day Pepys does not record the names of the "white" tattooed potentates. But we can identify the "King" as Hongi Hika, and his "Minister" as Waikato. A portrait of Hongi, painted when he was in England, which is now' in New Zealand, shows that he certainly was well-tattooed after the best Maori style as to face; and, no doubt, Mr. Creevey was perfectly accurate when he stage-whispered the storv about the beautiful posterior decoration, which was the universal adornment of the warriors, and often of the wahincs, in those days. Hongi's cicerone was Mr. Kendall, the missionary, who had him entered as a student at Cambridge. Hongi and his kinsman, Waikato (whose home was Rangihoua, Bay of Islands), must have been bored by much of'the social and religious duties to which they were introduced by the missionary people. The one thought in Hongi's mind was material of war. He wanted only muskets, bullets and gunpowder. The lionising and petting by church folk and other English dignitaries was, however, all useful; it was a part of the necessary means to the martial end. It was not till he reached Sydney, however, that lie was really able to lay in a supply of arms.

It was in March, 1820, that and Waikato sailed from the Bay of Islands for England in the whaleship "New Zealander" for the express purpose of obtaining arms and ammunition wherewith to wage wars of revenge on the tribes of the Kaipara and the Hauraki. They arrived in London in August, 1820, and remained there until the early part of the following year. They reached the Bay of Islands again via Sydney in the ship Westmorland in July, 1821. Very soon afterwards steel-helmeted Hongi and his army of cannibal musketeers were sailing out of the Bay southward bound, and the shores of the Waitemata and the Hauraki were ablaze with fire and slaughter. And good old Thomas Creevey was still prosing away comfortably in the halls of Westminster and inditing confidential letters with bits of semi-political, jjsajijlffJ, to bin vivacious