THE MAORI NIU

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MAORI NIU

Stories of the Hauhaus and T heir Magic Pole of Worship

A LITTLE more than 70 years ago a tall flagpole, ringed like a ships lower mast, stood in many scores, in fart hundred?, of .Maori villa pre 3 from the Wellington province to the Kin? Country, the Upper V\aihou and Ohinemuri and the Fast Const. Aronrid this mast, from which brightly - coloured and ftrjingely-pHttorned flags flew, the disciples of the ITauhau fighting faith marched in procession several times a day. chanting the incantations taucrht them by their prophets. Thp=e chants, the "karakia" of the faithful, had much of musical beauty when they were recited in loud rhythmic chorus by many earnest voices. The Niu (pronounced Nee-ooh) was the central symbol of worship, or incantation, under the dispensation of Te Ua, the half-crazed patriot of Taranaki, v-ho devised the Paimarire faith at the beginning of the year 1804. Te Ua's object was to give a new impulse to the war feeling against the white man's Government and to band the tribes together in a bond more fierce and aggressive than the earlier confederation of the Maori king's tribes. Niu is a term of great historical interest. The word is the general Polynesian name of the coconut tree. Often in the South Sea island rites of old a sacred coconut was spun by the priests; and a half coconut is still used a a cup in the ceremony of kava drinking; from this shell "ipu" libations are poured out to the household and tribal gods. There may have been some knowledge of the tall coconut tree in the Maori mind—for many Maoris in Te Ua's time had voyaged to the South Sea islands in pakeha ships—when the first Niu pole was erected at Taranaki. Niu From Ship's Mast. The first Niu set up there is said to have been part of one of the masts of the steamer Lord Worsley, which was wrecked near Cape Egmont in 1862. Crossed with a yard, rigged with stays and flag halliards and adorned with flags of curious designs, it was the first visible sign of the new religion that was to sweep like a fire through the island. Te Ua himself, -who taught the people a series of wild chants that were mostly a kind of pidgin English, stood at the foot of the mast, leading the chants, while the men, women and children of the kainga

went round and round him. Each tribe as it became converted to Paimarire set up its Niu, under the directions of one of Te Ua's subpriests. Some of these masts of worship were of great size, and very decorative they were when the" flags of many colours were displayed upon them rrom truck to vardarm. The Great Niu at Whakamara. The most lofty and massive mast of this war-religion must have been that which stood at Whakamara, in the South Taranaki interior; it is

the >Tiu depicted in the illustration on this page. I made the drawing from a diagram and description given to me by Tutange Waionui, one of the Hauhaug who helped to erect it. This vigorous veteran (the leading man of the Pakakohi tribe, Patea) said it was about 80 feet in height. It was built up like a ship's mast, with a rimu tree for lower mast, and a topmast and crosstrppf? and four yards. The late Chief Tu-Patea te Kongo, of Taumaha, Patea, also described to me this mast; he was one of those who felled the rimu tree in the bush a mile away and after squaring it

By. . . . James Cowan

hauled It to the Hauhau camp in a clearing; the strong Whakainara Pa was on a narrow neck of high land in the rear. At the end of every yard there was a block with halliards which led to the ground and on all these halliards except the lowest there were nationalist flags displayed. Some were British flags given to the Maoris before the war. but most of them had been specially made for the Maori King party; some bore stars and half moons. Should Have Been Preserved. A veteran who fought against the Rauhaus also described this great Niu to me. He was a sergeant in the Armed Constabulary. "We cut down this Xiu," he said, "when we captured Whakamara in 1869, when we were chasing Titokowaru and his warriors out of the Pat°a country. We had seen the flags flying on it from a great distance, long before the fight. It was the tallest Niu I have ever seen and I think it was a great pity it was ordered to be destroyed. It should have been preserved as a national war relic. But we never thought of the future in those fighting days." There were large gatherings of the tribes of Taranaki at Whakamara during the period 1865-1569, and it must have been a wild, exciting scene when the bands of war-thrilled people went marching and chanting around the magic mast, waving their guns and tomahawks, and ending every solemn prayer-song with a loudly-barked "Haul"—the exclamation or yell from which the Paimarire devotees took the name "Hauhau." It was really a descriptive term given hv the white soldiers in 1864. when the survivors from the surprise attack at Ahunhu—close to the present coast road from New Plymouth southward—reported that the ambuscade war party dashed out upon them "barking like dogs." Tt was the first time the whites heard the battle cry. "Atua Pai-marire— hau!" A curious contradiction in terms: The first three words mean "God. good and gacious," or "peace- ■ ful" and "hau" here is an exclamation signifying to attack. "Angels" of the Niu. There were many curious beliefs about the Niu and its rigging and flags. The Maoris in some places made a wooden carving of a "rupe" (roo-pay) (pigeon, or dove) and set it up on the truck of the mast. Troops of spirits were supposed to

ascend and descend by the ropes; they were called "anahera" (angels). The chants were many; I have the words of most of them and they make fine rhythmic chants. The "Pai-marire" hymns were taken from Bible phrases, from English Church services, and eome from military and nautical phrases. Thev were meaningless in themselves; but taken in mass and chanted by the faithful, hypnotised by the actions and speeches of the priests, they had a wonderful power in arousing the crowd to a high pitch of fanatic fervour. Magnetic, mesmeric chants and speeches and processions have been known to have a somewhat similar effect on European gatherings of impressionable people. The Magic War Cry. The tribal leaders on the Northwest frontier of India and the fanatic mullahs or w*ir priests in the Sudan had a good deal in common with our Hauhaus of the 'sixties. They preached and carried out a holy war against the white man. inspired —at first—by the belief that their gods and magic ceremonies and sacred spells protected them from British bullets. Maori veterans of the wars, particularly old Hauhati warriors of Taranaki. told me of the strong faith they had in the assurances of their prophets that the bullets of the pakeha soldiers would pass over them harmlessly if they repeated the magic prayer-charm "Hapa! Pai-marire!" and waved them away or over their shoulders. Their confidence was sadly impaired, though not destroyed altogether, by their heavy losses in such battles as the attack on Sentry Hill Redoubt, in Taranaki, and the fight on Moutoa T=land, in the Wanganui River (1S04). The surviving prophets inspired new faith in their disciples even after disasters in battle. Moreover, some of the Maoris who fought on the Government side were convinced that the Hauhaus were protected by magical powers. An «ld soldier of the Arawa tribe told me that in one long-drawn series of bush skirmishes in which he took part he and mo=t of his comrades believed that the Hauhau leader could catch their bullets in his hands and crumble them into dust or toss them away. That belief made the Arawa half mad with terror and rage, and made them fight all the more desperately. Concluded on Page 223.