KING TAWHIAO AGAIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 26

KING TAWHIAO AGAIN.

A MISUNDERSTANDING.

(Fhom Ouh Own Cobbespondent.) Auckland, August 23. " King" Tawhiao, once a power iv the land, evidently does not consider his mana yet vanished or his Maori kingdom a relic of the past. He has still a staunch band of adherents amongst the Waikato Natives, who look upon him as their leader and political head over the Maori race in New Zealand. At a recent largo Native meeting held at Maungakawa, a settlement of Ngatihau, near Cambridge, in the Waikato, Tawhiao repudiated the idea of laying down his mana and sovereignity at the feet of the Government in return for a pension, and stated he hid been asked to accept a pension as a mark of kindness from the Government and to control the .affairs of the Maori people. " The great council of the independent royal Maori power," with headquarters at Maungakawa, have jus!; issued a sort of Gazette, printed both in Maori and in English, giving a detailed account of Tawhiao's utterances at Maungakawa on the subject of the Maori kingship. The text of the Gazette is surmounted by a large woodcut of Maori carving bordered by fern trees, with the Pleiades constellation (known to the Maoris as Matariki) at the summit, and bears tho imprint " Printed by authority of King Tawhiao by T. M. K. M. Hadßeld, printer to the Kingdom. Maungakawa, August 9." Tawhiao sends his greetings to all tribes of the North and South Islands, and proceeds to say that in his recent interview in Auckland with Mr A. J. Cadman, the Native Minister, touching Native affairs, Mr Gadman said to him : "Your name as King you can keep. Your mana you can keep. You are to rule or govern your own people. The Maoris and you are to conduct the affairs of your own Maori people, and as you are getting old you had better accept this money for a pension. You must not think there is any meaning in this pension. There is not the least little bit of meaning in it." Tawhiao says the Government deceived him, and he concludes by saying : "And now I will not touch a penny of the said money. What do I care ? I give up all thoughts of that money ever after this." From this it will be seen the old chief has misunderstood his agreement with the Government, by which he was to cease to act in opposition to the Government of the country.