LATE SIR MAUI POMARE.

Otaki Mail, 22 August 1930, Page 3

LATE SIR MAUI POMARE.

A LEADING CHIEF OF THE MAORI RACE. Rangiotu, July 21. With the death of the Hon. Sir Maui Pomare the Maori race have sincere reason to grieve and deplore tho loss of one who for more than half his span of 54 years of life had devoted the whole of his energies, and genius for the betterment and progress of bis race in particular, and the whole of the community in general. ‘‘One of the greatest totaras growing on one of our highest mountains has fallen,” stated Mr. Coates, ‘‘and it behoves every young Maori and pakcha to endeavour to live up to the example of that giant tree. His memory stands out as an examplexto us all.” He was in truth the guardian, guide, philosopher and comforter of the race he dearly loved, and the widespread grief and songs of lament expressed by his people whom ho left in the land of their adoption is worthy of one who proved himself a citizen and chief of the first order. From a Maori viewpoint, few indeed realise the enormous difficulties he has had to contend with amongst his people, beginning from tho period when, as a comparatively young man among the then newly formed Young Maori Party, he set: out to visit the Maori villages—as an officer of the Health Department—in an effort to introduce pakcha sanitation and check the decline that.had set in, and with that end in view had studied medicine. After it decade he entered the political field in which lie was successful in gaining the seat of the Westland Maori electorate in I!)l2—immediately afterwards gaining Cabinet rank—a position which he continuously held until the defeat of the Coates Government in 1028. It has been rightly said that the way in which Sir Maui maintained the confidence of ills people in his electorate —an electorate of many diverse tribes with diverse histories and political and religious differences from a Maori angle of view—was a source -of admiration. A'o man had succeeded better than Sir Maui Pomare in welding these many and diverse tribes. To his genius and capabilities as an administrator a great, measure of his success amongst lii.s people has been clue and also to the profound knowledge he possessed of the Native mind and of things Maori, so to speak, such as Maori art and literature, mythological, ethnological, genealogical, and other varied learnings that only a chief or person of rank could obtain bv graduating through the ‘‘Where Wananga” or school of learning and culture. Sir Maui claimed that liis mana and power amongst his people particularly in his electorate, which extended from Wellington to the Waikato and beyond to the Thames Valley, came .mostly from his mother’s side—Hautonga, who was '■a chieftainess of the noted Ngatiioas by direct descent from Toa. the great fighting warrior after whom the tribe (Xgati-Toa) derives its name. Tracing along the genealogical tree his mother Was a great-grand niece, of Te Rauparaha, fighting chief of the NgatiToas- —whom history- records as tho ‘‘Napoleon of the (South,” conqueror of the southern portion of the North Island of New Zealand and of practically- the whole of the South Island. In recent years —1922 —the last of Te Bauparaha’s great grand nieces, Horn Te Whiwhi, died at Otaki and many of her descendants are at Otaki and Rangiotu.

Sir Maui’s native born and robust eloquence is regarded by leading natives as being inherited from the line of Toa whose descendants constitute a lengthy list of great orators, greatest amongst them being Mu ten o Te Whiwhi, paramount chief of the NgatiRaukawas, grand nephew of Te Rau-pai-aha and nephew of Te Rangihaeata, chief of the powerful and warlike Xgati-Huias and first lieutenant of Te Rauparaha during his conquest of the southern portion of New Zealand. Below is the genealogical table of the line of Toa:—

Ton-Rungatira ! Marungai , I 1 Maunu Kimihia Raka*, Maui Wcrawera u l , i 1 Matoha Waitohi, Te liauparaha 1 ■ I—| Te Eau Topeora. Rangihaenta ! Hautouga Matene Tc Whivrhi I f ■Sir Maui Hcni Te Whiwhi •Waitohi married Rakaherea. The late Sir Jlaui Pomare was regarded by his people as a chief amongst chiefs and his connections with the many leading tribes along the West Coast, including that of his father. Xacrn Pomare, chief of the NgatiAwas (Taranaki), and extending as far as the Waikato, entitled him to be chosen and selected as their genial and lovable leader. Ho worked unselfishly for both pakeha and Maori. It has been truly stated that his door was always open to the high and the lowly and at all times he exhibited that innate courtesy and generosity of the Maori of rank. He was practically a dying man when lie sailed for California and one could not help but be struck by the plain, simple and poetic Hues he penned shortly before Ms departure from New Zealand. Thy verses were read at the recent annua! meeting of the Palmerston North Plunket Society by Mr. .r. A. Nash, M.P;, when reference was made to the -Minister’s death. The last verse which was the keynote of Jiis feelinhs reads of,'thus:— ”

We when I wend my way to that mythical realm of Irihia, I can say that I have heard and seen wonderous things. And close my eves in deep eonteni. There is no doubt that the thoughts oi the chief when he penned those sinxpie lines wandered back to the mythical realms so dearly longed for bv the ancient Maori—he knew it was his lan sea voyage. Truly the thought grows that for Maui must have been thinking ot tfie ancient words quoted in Maori mythology:—He aroaro' ko huri M. te wa kainga, c kore c tan ki riiro. (He 'V'ho is homeward bound tarries not bv the wayside). . . , and the mythological lines translated thus, follow m an pppropria te setting for a departed chief* -Along that path, guided by the spirits of his forebears, .true-to the -reddening signal of Tane-teWaiora (life gives sunlight), he will pass down the rolling waters his ancestors knew long, long centuries ago. Tarrying not bv tne wayside, he will greet the summer lands whereat those old sea-kings rested during their long, long quest of the rising sun, until, through the far-off sea haze he lifts the loom of the Lost ..Land of Irihia. And '...other he re.l solve, through love for the- gentle Earin' Mother, to enter the realm of Earohenga (The underworld spirits) and abide with the merciful Dawn Maul (Night) or ascend by the gyrating winrhvilHl to the supernal, realm of lo (supreme being), there to be welcomed by the celestial maids (The twelve Mareikura), we will cry him a Ions: i farewell. "