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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 10 (January 1, 1937)

The Wisdom of the Maori

page 61

The Wisdom of the Maori

On Historic Maunga-Kiekie.

It is proposed by the leaders of the Maori people in the Auckland country that the great gathering of the tribes in the early part of 1940, as part of the nation's Centennial celebrations and pageants, shall be held in the beautiful domain of Maunga-Kiekie, otherwise Campbell Park or Cornwall Park. This shrine of history, culminating in the pointed hill where Sir John Campbell lies buried, is a particularly appropriate place for the rendezvous, for it is the centre of the whariki, as the Maoris symbolically call the Tamaki isthmus. The whariki is the domestic sleeping mat. It was the castle and citadel of the closely-populated Tamaki country centuries ago. On its entrenched summit lived Kiwi-Tamaki, the last great chieftain of the ancient Waiohua.

It is a pathetic thought that the descendants of the warriors, Ngati-Whatua, who conquered Kiwi and his people, now own only a miserable few acres, the little flat at Orakei, hemmed in between a new pakeha suburb of Auckland and the city's sewer. Ruin in every sense has fallen on Ngati-Whatua but the leaders of the Maori cause in Auckland bravely cherish hope that the people will be reinstated in possession of sufficient land for a living; and the proposed gathering of tribes on the sacred ground of the Tainui stock will serve to preserve and restore pride in the old tradition and culture.

Restoration of the Past.

The great terraces, sheltered levels and slopes of the ancient pa will be peopled again for awhile; thatched whares will once more stand where the pre-pakeha workers and warriors lived within the defences of two centuries ago; the park of Maunga-Kiekie will resound again with dance and song, and the great war-gong will again send its summons across the plains. That is the plan before the Auckland and Waikato leaders; and there is linked up with it the ideal of a noble memorial to the race. A great memorial to the glory of the Maori people was an ideal of Sir John Campbell; he did not live to give effect to it but he made a certain provision for it in his will. The restoration of the old headquarters of Ngati-Whatua at Orakei, too, is an ideal that every friend of the Maori will support. The general idea is one to commend; we may expect it to be developed in detail during next year.

The Generous Arawa.

When we consider how skilfully the pakeha has possessed himself of most of the land of the Maori, recollections arise of a spirit of chieftainlike liberality that often astonished the commercially-minded purchaser. Here is one example of the generous old ways.

In the early ‘eighties, when Rotorua town was being established, the Government desired to purchase about 20,000 acres of bush land on the hills about Tarukenga and Mamaku. Judge F. D. Fenton, of the Native Land Department (after whom Fenton Street in Rotorua is named) offered the Arawa, on behalf of the Government, the price of ten shillings per acre. But the old chief Paora te Amohau said that ten shillings was too much. “We want to assist the Government,” he said; “we want to assist the parent who is going to protect us and bring prosperity to Rotorua.”

So a compromise was arranged by which, at Captain Gilbert Mair's suggestion, the sum of five shillings per acre should be paid for the land. And that was the price at which the valuable timber lands of the Mamaku hills and plateau were sold to the Crown. The Arawa thus made the State a present of £5,000 on that transaction alone. Probably no race of people but the Maori would have refused a purchaser's offer because they thought it was too much. As for Pukeroa pa, they would not consider selling it at all; they made a free gift of the famous hill to the Government for a recreation ground. Now it is the site of the Rotorua hospital buildings.

A Hard-headed Ancestor.

Mention of the Arawa reminds me that a grievous insult to the tribe and its fighting fame was inflicted recently by some pakeha vandals who smashed up the bold warrior figure on the Arawa Soldiers’ Memorial in the Rotorua gardens. This piece of sculpture, the fighting man with uplifted taiaha, represented according to the Maori designers, the chief Rangitihi, a famous forefather, and a marvellous warrior. His name is a synonym for endurance and valour. Rangitihi of old, in a battle, had his skull cleft open; his wife bound it up with a strong bush-vine, and with this vine tied tightly about his head the champion once more charged into the fray and led his men to victory. “Rangitihi upoko takaia ki te akatea” (“Rangitihi whose head was bound with forest vine”) is a popular local allusion to-day. And there the heroic figure was poised, with his upoko takaia carved “lively as the deed was done.”

The warrior whose name has passed into a fine proverbial saying had a hill fort near the north-eastern shore of Rotorua Lake, a level-topped height of which a near view is obtained from the main road to the Ohau and the Kaituna outlet of Rotoiti. The pa was named Rangi-whakakapua; it was terraced, trenched and palisaded. Rangitihi, who lived three hundred years ago, had eight children, and these are represented on the war memorial by supporting figures. The “Hokowhitu a Tu-matauenga” (the War-god's Band) who fought so well at Gallipoli and in France included many descendants of Rangitihi.

* * *

West Coast Place Names.

Rapahoe:

This name, a place on the West Coast near Greymouth, is mentioned because of its beauty, and because it is popularly mispronounced. It means “Blade of the Paddle.” It should be pronounced Rapa-ho-ay, but the common error is the omission of the final vowel. Similarly in the North Island, the name Patu-mähoe is vulgarly mispronounced “Patter-ma-hö.”

Wanaka:

South Island form of Wananga, meaning sacred knowledge, ancient wisdom, also the learned people in the house of instruction.