MAORI KINGSHIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22353, 26 February 1936, Page 17

MAORI KINGSHIP

Sir, —Allow me to draw vour attention to an irregular statement which appeared oil February 13 in the New Zealand Herald, relating to the death of Mrs. Rewha, a relative of "King" Koroki, and I trust you will have space in your paper to record this reference to that statement. As a representative of one of the distinct tribes of our Maori race, I regard the statement "King of the Maori people" as irregular, and to the pakeha people generally it is misleading. "Of the Maori people" would intimate that the whole of the Maori people were subjects under the kingship of the line of Maori kings beginning with Potatau Te Wherowhero. Such is not the case. There are numbers of tribes throughout the land, including my own, whose traditions and descendants aro distinct from those of the Waikato, and who are in every respect equal to the best in the Waikato, and these regard themselves subjects of no kingship other than that of the British. We aro a race sensitive to the last degree and jealously guard and uphold our own tribal traditions built up for us by our forbears. It would not be offensive to tribes outside the Waikato calling, and not misleading to the pakeha public generally, and also more in keeping with the dignity of station of Koroki and descendants, to refer to them as "kings of the Waikato tribes," and not "kings of the Maori people," which they are not. Whakatohea.