KORERORERO TORONGA

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12074, 10 June 1920, Page 2

KORERORERO TORONGA

TALES THAT ARE TOLD OF . MAORI. AjS-D PAKEHA. (By Ingoa Korc.) Written for the Kaugitikei Advocate, (Rights Reserved) THE KING OF NEW ZEALAND.

Had onr rulers in their wisdom seen fit to recognise arid encourage Potatau in his desire to correct ou:: blunders iu attempting to mirsule liis people, the history of this country would have taken another and a better form. To us Potatau and Tawhiao were each known as "The Maori King," to them as ' 'The King," and not? The Maori has long been quoted as a proof that it is not possible to civilise barbarlaLS, but the unhappy quarrel witli the Maori was the result of errors which would not have been made by wiser people than we proved to be, The task of civilising would have been easy if they had bean met in the spirit which they showed us, After the Maori people broke into open revolt, our stock and houses, and isolated people were spured, except in the case of a pitched battle. In the beiguning, and until we ! taught them, there was neither i damage, robbery, nor murder. Eventually the quarrel was a question of the depredations of i pakeha cattle and the killing of Maori pigs. I refer only to the first war; afterwards the Maori became as bad or worse than his enemies. In 1862 they refused to attack our i road parties so long as they were ! upon land which had been sold to the Queen. In 1840 we bribed each man with a blanket in order that he might sign a treaty which he could not possibly understand. Those ! alone who "explained" the treaty to a people who knew nothing of the complexities of governorship and sovereignty and had no words in I their language to define such poI sitions, could realioe the hopelessj ness of <;he task. We at one time appointed Native Magistrates, one 'of whom Te Oriori, whose legal | acumen would do credit to Lincoln's Inn, made a limit of sixty minutes for ihe hearing of each case, at the expiry of which, to the minute, he | delivered judgment. The execution he effected in Maori fashion by forcibly taking possession. This crude method was eminentlv successful with his°primitive people. A little civilisation soon made them idle, and idleness made them mischievous. The policy of bribery with flour, sugar and blankets dis--1 gusted them with our rule and a demand arose for the "clean, honourable administration of a King." Our political propaganda was made through a "neutral" newspaper, "The Maori Messenger," published in Maori and English. It endeavoured to side with the Queen's subjects and the King Maoris, the Anglicans, and the Wesleyans, the Governor and the Chiefs, with what result one i may now only imagine. The new ! King endeavoured to suppress the evils of rum by punishing the seller of poison, while the Government insisted that 'he poisoned victims were the real cri ninals. The result was that the police feared that the arrest of a drunken and riotous Maori even in the city would, precipitate war. The deuire to conserve their ancestral i lands, and to avoid secret and dishonest sales on the part of their own people, such as the Waitara sale by Te Teira to Governor Browne, made it imperative that their own King should control all lands, as the only mean 3 of escaping the destrnctive quarrels. Te Hen Hen summed up the reasons of their desire to be "decently ruled like the people of far-off England," in saying to Sir George Gray that "the riff-raff of the whites loosed their cattle in the Maori gardens, made the men drunk, and the women dissolute, and then those who taught politics and religion took their land. The Maori will soon be eaten up and cease to be, therefore we will have our own King, yours being too far off to ( supervise you or us. Like Piripi of the Bible we always regarded I the tongue as a constructor, not as I with yon, a mere commentator." j One final attepmt to abolish the sale of rum to his people was made 1 soon after Sir George Gray returned Ito New Zealand, when Wiremu Tamihana demanded that the State I records should be searched. i Memorials from all the Waikato tribes were there found setting forth at the inception of the King movement their cry to the Government tor help to put an end to the trade. This had actually received the approval of the Ministry and the Governor; but some subordinate official pigeon-holed it, and tho whole matter then stopped just short of action, thus confirming the Maoris in their opinion that the Government cared more for their own revenue and the income of many of their influential colonists than for the well-being of the Maori people. Potatau the King elect said his people "were in favour of the gospel of frieudshipand work for the people. The King of the Maori and the Queen o v the English should cherish thi.<- and live in the same friendliness as though they were the father and mother of both races. A little work will produce food for the year, a little friendliness will produce sunshine in the heart for many wintry days " Despite ell protests made and good given why a change of treatine t was the only way to secnre the loyalty of the Maori people, the Govern-risnt turned deaf ears to their pleadings, and tnreatened reprisals if the King movement was persisted in. If there is one thing to which a Ma ori is oblivious, it is a threat. The war of 1863, though inevitable, was in the end precipitated through a natural misinterpretation by the Maori tribes, The news of the marriage of the Prince of Wales was celebrated in Auckland with rejoicings and huge bonfires on all the hill tops. These wore believed to be the fires of defiance, and treatc: accordingly by the Waikato tribes, who, in ac|cordan36 with their "rules of honourable warfare" first sent I warning, then attacked all who ventured upon their land. Thus was the torch lit at our bonfire after its preparation by our vacillation. "What lamp has Destiny to guide Her children stumbling in the dark ?■ A blind understanding-—Heaven replied.