"HE WHAKAMAMAEROA." (1)

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 64, 3 December 1881, Page 184

"HE WHAKAMAMAEROA." (1)

My petition for my land Las been ten years before tbis committee, and lam weary of waiting 1 . Yes. I should prefer a Land Court at Waimate to this committee, but let it be held soon, for there are few of us left now. The old people are dead, and we are passing away, and if there is much more delay there will be none left to stand up for us and our children. [Evidence of a female native claimaut to ancestral laud, given before the Native Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives at Wellington.] Ah, yes, I know that jour law is strong, And swift and sure as the karearea's (2) flight, And jour Judges are brave to expose the wrong, And quick to shield the just and the right ; But your laws are many and hard to learn, And we are a people of childish ways, For their paths are thorny with many a turn To a land of mists in a tangled maze. And we grope about in that land of gloom, And peer for light where the sun never shines, And never a ilower is seen to bloom, For the 7t.au o te tin (3) hath withered the pines. As Te Taoho sang in the ancient song At the passing away of Te Roroa, So the north-west gale is killing the strong, As the shellfish perish along the shore. So the shores of the Ao Wairua (-1) arc strown With the souls that gale hath swept away, And ever is heard the long, low moan Of shades that pine for the light of day. And with weary feet they tread the strand, And echo the sighs that are wafted o'er, On the weak, wan waves, to the spirit-land, From us that sorrow with mamae-roa (5). Like waves that wash the rock-bound shore, And wear the ilinty stone away, So time will wear a man's heart's core, And hope will die with long delay ; And we that watch from year to year, Like one that sees the icauri-s (0) growth, "We know how hard it is to bear Our landlessness, and your law's sloth. Wide over many lands and seas The shadow of your law is shed, Where Haunts your Hag in every breeze The mana (7) of your Queen is spread; They say the sunlight ever shines Upon the empire you have won, But evermore the dai'k race pines Where your dominion has begun. Whence are these awful mystic powers, This fatal spell your presence weaves ? That we must wither as the Jlowers, And fall and perish like the leaves ? Why has the Aiua (8) thus decreed ? What has the race of Menu' (9) done, That we like melting mists recede Before the scorching summer sun ? Ah ! beai* with me, these many days A shadow lias been on my heart, My soul is sick of these delays, G-ive iis our land, let us depart ! A remnant only now remains, Old age comes creeping on apace ; Preserve oxir children on these plains, And leave to them a dwelling place. AUTCOIATHES. Auckland, November 21st, 1881. 1. Whakamamacroa— Cause of long pain ; anxiety. 2. Karearea — A sparrow-hawk. 3. Han o tc. tin — North-west wind. The allusion is to a song sung 1 by a chief named Te Taoho when the remnant of a tribe called Te Roroa sought his protection. In the song he told them that they could never again become a tribe because they could not stand against the north-west wind, which withers the pine-tops mid drives the shellfish up on the sea shore. 4. Ao wairua — World of spirits. 5. Mamne roa — Long pain. 6. Kauri — The New Zealand pine (a slow-growing tree). 7. Mana— Authority ; influence. 8. Atua— God. 9. Maui— The great ancestor of the Maoris who fished up New Zealand from the sea.