THE HAUHAUS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23354, 20 November 1937, Page 4

THE HAUHAUS

A FANATICAL NATIVE CULT ■' Hauhau-ism.” By S. Barton Babbage. M.A. Illustrated. Dunedin; A. H. and A. W. Reed. 4s 6d. A handy little text-book on Hauhauism, the fanatical cult which was largely responsible for the prolongation of the Maori wars, has been published by A. H. and A. W. Reed, a firm to which New Zealand literature will always be indebted. The author, Mr S. Barton Babbage, has compiled from all the available sources, including the invaluable reports in the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, and also some original manuscripts inaccessible to most students, a careful survey of this remai’kable religion. As he explains, the movement became largely poli-tical-political to the Maoris in so far as it spurred their determination to continue the struggle to maintain their ancestral lands. Its originator was Te Ua, a mission-educated Maori, who became slightly mad, and claimed to be able to work miracles. Had the Government of the day acted wisely, Te Ua’s first few supporters would quickly have been disillusioned and the “prophet” discredited as has been the fate of others such. As his importance increased, however, he was supported by fierce fighting chiefs and old tohungas who employed the Pai Marire teachings to their own ends. The disciples danced around a niu, a pole, and chanted perversions of the Old Testament and other unintelligible jargon. The most horrible of their atrocities was the murder of the Rev. Car] Sylvius Volkner at Opotiki, with whose dead body terrible rites were performed. The backbone of the movement was broken by vigorous military measures, although it was revitalised in the Ringa-tu cult propagated by Te Kooti. Without any desire to quibble with such a brief and compet-

ent survey, one would have wished to see in this book more attention given to some of the aspects to which _Hau-hau-ism owed so much. In this religion, as with the earlier papahunhia in the fiorth, the succeeding Ringa-tu-ism and, to a lesser extent, modern Ratana-ism, the leader succeeded in establishing an initial importance which, although false, was sufficient to impress the credulous Natives who would accept almost any excuse to oppose the pakeha. Te Ua was really a comparatively harmless lunatic, and had he early been accepted as such his influence could have been weakened. Again, the author might have enlarged on the importance in Hauhau-ism of the head of Captain Lloyd, which became to the fanatics almost an Ark of the Covenant, and was used with gruesome ceremony for initiation. The official anxiety to secure the return of the head gave Te Ua’s prestige an added impetus, whereas had the matter been left to a competent magistrate, who was already in touch with the “prophet,” the head would have been obtained without fuss or show. The Lindauer portrait of Te Ua would also have been a welcome addition to the book. E. A. A.

The Ashley Library The British Museum has undertaken to buy from the executors of the late T. J. Wise the famous Ashley Library. The price has not been divulged; it is known to be very much less than the probable value of the collection if sold in an open market, but at the same time is stated to be high enough to put a considerable strain on the ordinary resources of the Museum. There was a suggestion that the library lost value and prestige with the exposure as forgeries in 1934 of “certain ninetecnth-centurv pamphlets ” with which Wise was associated. The Times Literary Supplement, referring to this matter, states: “That the pamphlets in question are forgeries is beyond doubt; Wise’s connection with them, whether innocent or guilty, is equally firmly established. But ’ the pamphlets themselves, even if they had been genuine, would have formed the least important part of the library, to the bulk of which no suspicion can attach; and Wise’s collection of English poetry and drama from the Elizabethan age to the Victorian age remains unparalleled both in its completeness and in its high standard of ‘ condition.’ ”