THE FLAGSTAFF IS BUILT

Te Ao Hou, December 1961, Page 9

THE FLAGSTAFF IS BUILT In 1871 Major Rapata Wahawaha, N.Z.C., was presented with a flag by the British Government and a word of honour by Queen Victoria. In 1872 he had erected at Mataahu, on the East Coast just north of Waipiro Bay, a huge flagstaff on which to fly the flag and it was there hoisted with due Flag ‘Ngati’ Porou flying on ‘Te Rakau i Mataahu’ Eastland Photographers ceremony in the June of that year. Several thousand Maoris, many of them being those who had fought against the British Crown in the Hau Hau and Te Kooti wars, were assembled to see the hoisting of that flag. They heard the Reverend Mohi Turei preach on loyalty to God and the Queen, and they saw Rapata Wahawaha, wearing his New Zealand Cross and girt with his sword of honour, newly returned from a ceremony of honour in Wellington where the highest in the land had assembled to praise and congratulate him. Mataahu was chosen for the site of the flagstaff because it was the traditional landing place for war canoes returning from an expedition. It was a symbolic place because it was close to there that the Government steamer had not long before landed the Ngati Porou contingent which Rapata Wahawaha had commanded so successfully in the Hau Hau and Te Kooti campaigns, the contingent which succeeded in doing what two British columns had failed to do, that is to break the might of Te Kooti's Tuhoe allies and to drive Te Kooti himself into futile exile in the King Country. The cost, in lives and in privation, had been recorded by pakeha historians, who have paid full tribute to the courage and hardiness of the Ngati Porou warriors. Many, many pages could be filled with details of the prowess of Ngati Porou in these campaigns, but the record is there in the history books for you to read for yourselves.* In this article I wish to deal more with some of the lesser known aspects of those campaigns and especially with the symbolism which lay behind that historic flag-raising nearly ninety years ago.