INTERPRETATION OF MAORI ADDRESS AND SPEECHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6297, 23 January 1882, Page 3

INTERPRETATION OF MAORI ADDRESS AND SPEECHES.

TO THE EDITOR. Slß,—Tile report as published by vou in your issue of the iOth as to the proceedings at the banquet giveu to Tawhiao and his followers at the Choral-hall oa the previous evening, certainly has a tendency to lead the public to believe that a quarrel or misunderstanding had taken place between Mr. J. C. Young and myself with reference to the interpretation of the speeches on that occasion. I distinctly assert that nothing of the kind took place. We are, and always have been, ou the most friendly footing. Before the toasts were given we had some conversation, and it was agreed between us that as his (Mr. Young's) voice was weak, owing to a severe cold he was suffering from, that I should do my very best to aid him in the interpretation of the English and Maori speeches. Mr. Young's iemarks that he wished to be "relieved in a gentlemanly manner," did not refer to me, but to those persons who were calling out to him to "Speak up" and "Sit down," and I have his authority for sayiug so. I may also here take occasion to state that the speeches as reported iu the Herald, although in the main agreeing with my interpretation, are not precisely the same as rendered by me— but were Mr. C. O. Davis' version, as given to your special reporter at the time—and they were, perhaps, more carefully made from a shorthand reporter's notes than mine ■would be, when I had frequently to follow a loag sentence, with a chance of omitting part of it. As you did not acknowledge your indebtedness to Mr. Davis iu the matter I request to be allowed to do so through the medium of your columns. In the report of the address read at the wharf by Tawhiao's secretary a discrepancy arose between Mr. Davis' translation and mine, as published in the Evening Star. In the copy I had the portion referring to the Pleiades was given "rere kite rua" instead of "rere i te rua," the first meaning " descending to the horizon," and the second "ascending from the horizon." The latter is correct. In other points there is no material difference between the translations and interpretations made by Mr. Davis and myself. And I here beg to state emphatically that when the licensed interpreters residing at Auckland volunteered their services to the committee no feeling of jealousy existed between us, and does not up to the present time.—l am, &c, James Mackay.