Haere, Haere, Haere. E nga iwi e pae nei, te Taitokerau: Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou! Ka nui te koa o te ngakau, kua tatu mai ano maua ko taku hoa rangatira ki tenei marae. Kua tangata whenua ke maua, No reira kia ora koutou katoa. In the name of Her Majesty the Queen, I greet you all. I am here first and foremost as her mangai. But I am here also as a person, and as a soldier; and as such I pay tribute to the Maori soldiers who fell in Gallipoli and in France nearly fifty years ago, and to the fallen of the Maori Battalion in the last war. Less than three years ago, beside Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who should have arrived in New Zealand nine days from now, I stood at the foot of Takrouna: the rocky hill which was captured in 1943 by a small taua from the Maori Battalion with dash, skill and gallantry. Later, and also in attendance on Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, I stood in the cemetery near by at Enfidaville, where the bodies of Maori warriors and of fighting men of my own Regiment, the Black Watch, lie side by side, their warfare over. Queen Elizabeth herself had three brothers in my Regiment, in the war of 1914, of whom one was killed; and two nephews in the war of 1939. Indeed, we are all ‘one people’. Enfidaville, and the other military cemeteries where Maori soldiers are buried, are a long way from here. But I am sure that you feel, as I most certainly feel, that their spirits are with us this morning; that they too are present here on Porowini; and that in a few minutes, when we enter Tu-Mata-Uenga, they will be crowding in with us. Now, I have heard, since I arrived yesterday in the country of Ngati-Hine, that there was a thought among you that this new and beautiful House should be called, not Tu-Mata-Uenga, but Maunga-Rongo, meaning Peace and Understanding. This was the thought of Riri Kawiti: and let all of us now on this marae think of him at this moment, who but for grievous illness would have been here. After long deliberation, you have decided otherwise. Tu-Mata-Uenga is to be its name. But I suggest to you that all the power, and skill, and mana of Tu-Mata-Uenga be harnessed from this moment to the cause of Maunga Rongo. Those men of Gallipoli and France and North Africa and Italy still remain an inspiration to us. It is they who have inspired the building of Tu-Mata-Uenga; and Tu-Mata-Uenga, whenever we enter it, should inspire us to perform all the things that they would have wished to achieve if they had come back to us. I can think of several such things. Most of them, especially those who came from Te Taitokerau, were men of the land. Let us make the best use of the land, and farm it well and sensibly and fruitfully. But for them, it might not still be ours. Let us give to our land the work and the imagination it deserves. Let us make a success of this. ‘Ko te puna i keteriki: Te rere i Tiria.’ All of us can climb Tiria if we really try. A second field which we must work is the field of Education. As I said in my message to the Maori people at the New Year, and indeed as my grandfather said to the people of Waikato-Maniapoto when he went to Ngaruwahia more than ninety years ago, Education is the one sure key to the future of every race. I appeal to the young to take advantage of the new opportunities afforded them by the Maori Education Foundation. I appeal to the kaumatua to use all their great influence to encourage the young to do so: to go to the secondary schools, the universities, the technical and agricultural colleges, the medical schools. Thirdly and once again, let me preach the gospel of Kotahitanga. There was unity on the field of battle; there is unity among the dead far off in Enfidaville; let there be unity above all among the living. ‘Ka mimiti te puna i Taumarere: Ka toto te puna i Hokianga.’ What is good or bad for the Maori is good or bad for the Pakeha. We are all one: Tatou Tatou. God Save the Queen. Kia ora koutou katoa.

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