“Passing Maori Memories”

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7068, 30 January 1933, Page 6

“Passing Maori Memories”

MAORI KING [Recorded by “ J.H.S.” for the Times. ] One of the gravest tactical errors made by our rulers was to deny the Maori tho right of self-gov-ernment for which generations of obedience to the Rangatira of the tribe liad fitted him. When Tarnihana, son of tho Maori Napoleon, Rauparaha, returned from England he was so impressed with the initiative, equipment and efficiency of the Pakeha under the guidance of the Queen, that he sought to be King of the Maori. This was in no spirit of opposition, but rather that they may have co-operated with their Pakeha friends. The original King movement was really a noble conception, designed merely to make it possible to live and work together in amity, side-by side with the Paheka. But Sir George Gray suspected airl feared it. The Hau-Hau trouble and the subsequent war were the outcome of his opposition. Confiscation of the finest province of New Zealand, and that loss of his sole heritage—the land—was the blow to the mana of the Maori hardest to bear. To every Maori “The land is a living tlflng.” Had we yeilded them their heriditary right of kingship, the whole relationship of the two races would have been infinitely better.