Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Legends of the Maori

Te Whiti the Prophet — Pomare’s Oration

page 245

Te Whiti the Prophet
Pomare’s Oration

IN 1907 the celebrated old chief Te Whiti o Rongomai, the prophet and leader, died at his town, Parihaka, in Taranaki. One of the finest speeches delivered during the mourning ceremonies of the tangihanga was that of Sir Maui (then Dr.) Pomare. He opened with the usual salutations to the dead and to the people. Then, addressing the spirit of Te Whiti, he said:

“Depart to the illustrious chiefs who have gone before, to thy brave comrades of old, to the Giver of war and peace. Go to that land from which no man ever returned. Thy words have come true; the lips of children speak of thee as ‘The man of peace and goodwill to all people, on the West Coast.’ In thine own words thou said’st that war and peace, as life and death, were fore-ordained. The sun was overshadowed at times with many troubled clouds, but thy sun has sunk gloriously in the west, leaving thy people disconsolate.”

Turning to the people, Pomare said:

“A new condition of affairs has arisen. It is not new; it is old. Your predecessors saw years long before the feet of white man had trodden on the land that this would be. The pakeha is not a stranger; he is one in blood with us. Ever bold and venturesome, the Maori conquered the unknown waters while his pakeha brother clung to the land, journeying westward through Europe, fearing to cross the unknown waters lest they should tumble over the edge of a square world. One of your ancestors, long before the foot of white man touched this soil, said: ‘Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, for the time is come, and now is, when alien white feet shall desecrate my grave.’ Tiriwa, another of your ancestors, two hundred years before the white man came, said: ‘Shadowed behind the tattooed face the stranger lurks. He is white. He owns the earth.’ Now the pakeha has come, the iron has taken the place of the stone. The lightning flash of the pakeha’s wisdom” (referring to the telephone) “speaks from near and far. The old order has changed; your ancestors said it would change. When the net is old and worn it is cast aside, the new net goes fishing. I do not want to blame the old net; it was good in its day, and many fish were caught in it. But the old net is worn with time and we must go fishing with the new net our brother has brought us. We must advance by work, for therein lies our only salvation.”