THE LATE DICK TAIAROA

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1954, Page 44

THE LATE DICK TAIAROA On the 9th April one of Maoridom's most notable rugby players passed away at his home in Taumutu. Although Mr Dick Taiaroa had hung up his boots long before most of our readers were born, his name has lingered long on the lips of the enthusiasts. With his very famous brother Jack, and his great team mate and close relative, the late Tom Ellison, Dick Taiaroa contributed some of the most gloried pages in our early football history. At the time of his passing Dick Taiaroa was 87 years of age. He had seen rugby develop from its crude infancy in the ′80s to the highly polished, overspecialised game it is today. In the early days of that development he played no small part. Dick Taiaroa was born at the ‘Kaik’ at Otakou Heads. His father, Hori Kerei Taiaroa, was a member of Parliament and later a Legislative Councillor. The family, while Dick was still a boy, moved from Otakou to Taumutu in Canterbury, where later Dick Taiaroa was to become a successful farmer. From Taumutu he was sent to the Christchurch Boys' High School as one of its first pupils and it was there that his career as a footballer began. It was in Wellington, however, where he trained as a surveyor, that he first attracted notice. He played at different periods for two of the three clubs then in existence, Athletic and Wellington. His kinsman, Tom Ellison—thought by many to be the greatest footballer of all time—played for the third club, Poneke. Tales, some apocryphal, surround the name of Taiaroa and one which concerns Jack may bear retelling here. The Taiaroas played in the days when there was no international body for the drafting of rules and New Zealand, being so far from the centre of the game, knew little of the finer interpretations. It seems that the five-yard rule for the lineout did not then exist, and provided the ball was thrown or bounced in from touch some-where near where it went out it was considered to be in play. The New Zealanders playing against Stoddart's visiting English team knew nothing of this ruling, and early in one game, near their goal line, they were astonished to see an English player grab the ball, bounce it a foot or two in from touch, recover it and walk across in the corner for an unimpeded try. Taiaroa was most upset at what he looked upon as an underhand trick. A little later in the game a similar opportunity presented itself to Taiaroa, and nothing loath he seized it and scored an identical and gleeful try. Legend has it that he was heard to say, ‘My word, that rule is a good one—it will do me—this is the best game I've ever played!’ Dick Taiaroa was a member of the famous native touring team which visited England in 1888. In fourteen months in Australia, New Zealand and Britain, this team played 107 matches and lost only 23 of them. Compare this with the so-called strenuous itinerary of the 1953 team, which played about 30 games. In addition to playing for the native team, Dick Taiaroa represented Wellington in 1886 and 1887. He also represented his race at two Coronations—those of Edward VII and George V. He served in the South African War with the Mounted Rifles. In the 1949 King's Birthday honours he was awarded the O.B.E. The passing of Dick Taiaroa removed from the rugby scene one of its most colourful characters; but though he is gone his name will remain long in the annals of the sport which he decorated so well.