THE LATE HONE HEKE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 37, 11 February 1909, Page 2

THE LATE HONE HEKE.

AN APPRECIATION

(By the Hon. James Carroll, Native

Minister.)

The late Hone Heke, M.P., was born at the historical spot of Kaikohe, Bay of Islands, whence can be seen the numerous strongholds (pa), including Pakinga, Te Putahi, and Tautoro, which made his ancestors famous. With those places are associated, for all time, the names of the old-time warrior chiefs Tuhouhia, Nukutawhiti, and Ruanui, and later of Rahiri, Kaharau, Orokewa, and Mahia. Still later are they identified v/ith the names of Te Wairua and his martial sons Te Auha and Whaka-a-ria, the immediate progenitors of Hongi Hika and Hone Heke, each of whom in their turn contributed something to the warlike proceedings which heralded in the nineteenth century. . . Hone Heke received his early tuition in the little schools of Oromahoe and Kawakawa, from which he passed into St. Stephen's Native School, Auckland. From there he entered the Government service., but, becoming imbued with the idea of a Maori Federation, he turned his energies to that, and soon stepped to the front as an organising leader. From this movement he was careful to exclude the "King" and Te Whiti parties, on the ground that their teachings were inimical to the interests and the advancement of the Maori people. While his attitude on the question of unity endeared him more and more to his own section, a very large one, of the people, his voice was possessed of peculiar mana. His genealogical connections traversed those of the leading families of the four main tribes which inhabit that extensive territory extending from 4 the Auckland harbour to Cape Maria Van Diemen, that being from ancient times, the territorial possession of—in geographical order—Ngatiwhatua, Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, and Ngatiruanui, or Te Au-pouri. Qutside of those again he was allied in blood to the powerful tribes of Ngatiporou and Ngatakahungunu, of the East Coast. So convinced was his people of the genuineness and peacefulness of his mission, that in 3,893, at the early age of twenty-four, they elected him as their representative in Parliament, and he retained their confidence to the end, having been returned by a large majority at the recent election. In this respect no Pakeha-Maori ever dared to so apparently estrange himself from his constituency as did the late Hone Heke. The only election in which he ever took a personal part was that of 1893, his first. After that he was never in his constituency during an election, the people thus showing* an unbounded confidence in him, although in European eyes, he would be regarded as an "absentee." In politics—no matter how practices or questions diverged—he never swerved from his declared principles of promoting and maintaining the welfare of his people as a whole, whilst ministering to their _ individual needs. And when realising—as he latterly did—that the minority must yield to the growing and accumulating influences of the civilising race, he did. everything in his power to soften those harder conditions to which Maori aspirations must ultimately coincide. It will thus be seen that although he sprang from a fightingrace, he was essentially a peacemaker from first to last.

Generous to a fault, he made numerous friends of both races, some of whom, to their great honour, tended him to the last. All that friendship, all that nursing and medical skill could do, was done. And now the grand-nephew of the celebrated Hone Heke the First, the last scion, too, in the male line, has gone. Already there are signs that leading chiefs of the South here will bring pressure to bear on what they do say is a somexvhat stubborn ISative Minister to allow the body to rest at various Maori villages en route, _to give them an opportunity of paying their sorrowful tributes. Yet the intense pressure from the North, from his tribe, to have his remains early with them cannot be disregarded, and every arrangement is being made to have the wishes of his people complied with.

In the meantime the gentle, the genial and generous gentleman, Hone Heke, has passed on to join his ancestors and fathers in those bright climes where conflicting interests may have no place: "E Puhi, E. kei Tai; kei te Whakarua koe, c—i." Vacancy hungers for a trite supplement.—New Zealand Times.