Brooking T. The History of New Zealand

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

204

Notable People in the

History

of New Zealand

cause of his humility, which endeared him to a culture that prizes humility

as a virtue, and his determination, which made him into the greatest ath-

lete of a sports-loving nation.

Tawhiao

(?-1894).

Pan-tribal leader and priest. Tukaroto Matautaera Po-

tatau Te Wherowhero was the son of the first wife of the Ngati Mahuta

ariki, or supreme

chief,

Te Wherowhero. Tawhaio was raised as a man of

peace, first under traditional Maori religious instruction and, later, as a

Christian. Always more of priest than a warrior, he committed himself to

the role of Maori king when his father died in

1860.

The Taranaki prophet

Te Ua Haumene bestowed the name Tawhiao upon him in 1864. After that

Tawhiao adapted the Pai Marire faith into his own religion, which he

named

tariao

or "morning star." This rather mystical religion helped sus

tain the Kingites through these difficult years. Comparing his people to

the ancient Jews exiled in Canaan, Tawhaio turned to pacifism and re-

nounced all war. He secured a permanent peace with the government in

1881,

which enabled the opening up of the so-called King Country for the

building of the main trunk railway. Believing that he would never receive

justice in New Zealand, Tawhiao visited England in 1884. Although he

failed to meet Queen Victoria, he did arrange an interview with Lord

Derby, secretary of state for the colonies. Tawhaio argued that the settler

government had breached the Treaty of Waitangi and asked for a royal

commission of inquiry into the land confiscations. The New Zealand gov-

ernment fudged this challenge by claiming that only the imperial govern-

ment could deal with complaints relating to the period before

1865,

so the

visit achieved little. In the late 1880s he created his own parliament, or Te

Kahanganui, but this institution only operated effectively once he re-

turned to his ancestral home of Ngaruawahia in 1892. There in 1893 he

banned all Pakeha from New Zealand. Although he failed to unite Maori,

he did at least keep the King Movement going, and he inspired his influ-

ential granddaughter, Princess Te Puea, to revive aspects of his faith as

well as to invigorate the movement in the

1920s.

Te Kanawa, Kiri (1944- ). Opera singer. New Zealand's best-known clas-

sical singer was raised by European foster parents. They recognized her

extraordinary talent and sent Kiri to St. Mary's Convent in Auckland to

study with the famous singing coach, Sister Mary Leo. Kiri subsequently

won all the major New Zealand and Australian opera competitions

before

moving on to train in London. Since then she has sung in many famous

opera companies around the world. Her greatest moment came when she

sang at the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981. Al-

though now in the twilight of her career, her combination of striking looks,

hard work, and success have inspired a whole new generation of exciting

singers from Maori and Pacific Island backgrounds, as well as young Pak-

eha. Kiri showed that if you are good enough you can conquer the world.

Notable People in the History of New Zealand 205

(Watch for Samoan bass Jonathan

Lemalu,

Maori soprano Deborah Wai

Kapohe, and the red-haired soprano Anna Leas.)

Te Puea Herangi (1883-1952). Tribal leader and prophet. Te Puea, who

grew into one of most influential Maori leaders of the twentieth century,

was born near Pirongia in the King Country. Initially she experienced

some problems in being accepted by the Kingitanga hierarchy because her

part-English father, Te Tahuna Herangi, was not accepted as a suitable

husband for King Tawhiao's daughter, Tiahuia. Te Puea's

father, William Searancke, was in fact a very well-educated English sur-

veyor rather than a German as later Pakeha critics claimed. Te Puea

inherited her ability and intelligence from him as well as from her Kin-

gitanga side. Eventually Tawhiao accepted his granddaughter into the

family, and Tawhiao's successor, King Mahuta, picked her out as the most

able member of her generation. Te Puea got her chance to prove her uncle

right in when in 1911 she backed his campaign to replace Henare Kaihau

as MP for the western Maori seat with the American-educated doctor

Maui Pomare. Then, during the First World War, she opposed recruitment

of Tainui men for military service. She strengthened her opposition by

reviving the Pai Mairire religion so beloved of Tawhiao and adopted an

essentially pacifist stance. Te Puea added further to her growing mana

when she worked tirelessly, without the slightest thought for her own

safety, throughout the devastating influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. Once

the flu had passed, she set out to build a new

marae

at Ngaruawahia,

known as Turangawaewae, as a focus of unity for her people. Much to

the amazement of both Maori and European critics, she completed the

structure by 1921 and moved on to develop farming to sustain her peo-

ple's recovery from land loss and marginalization. She cooperated closely

with both Apirana Ngata and Gordon Coates in pursuit of this goal and

succeeded in bringing some prosperity to her people. A traveling cultural

group known as Te Pou o Mangatawhiri helped raise money for improve-

ments to the marae buildings. She also tried to bring greater unity to the

Maori people by holding hui (large gatherings) with other tribes, but

things turned sour in 1929 when Ngata's eldest son and wife died from

dysentery while attending a hui to celebrate the opening of a great house

known as Mahinarangi. Eventually, relations with Ngati Porou improved,

and Te Puea began to accept some assistance from Peter Fraser and the

Labor government in developing agricultural skills and providing more

European-style education for her people. Te Puea also revived both canoe

carving and racing but boycotted the Waitangi celebrations in 1940 in

protest against the failure of the government to provide adequate com-

pensation for the land confiscations of the

1860s.

She also did not support

recruitment for the Maori Battalion in the Second World War, and Tainui

men did not serve in anything like the concentrations of other tribes. After

206

Notable People in the History of New Zealand

1945 Te Puea turned to developing her tribe's land further with the help

of a £5,000 annual annuity from the Labor government and continued to

try to revive such traditional activities as canoe racing. She won over Peter

Fraser, as she had earlier won the support of Coates, and achieved much

for her people. She remained a tough leader to the end, banning both

smoking and alcohol from her marae, and she never stopped working

seven day weeks until her death. Te Puea led by example and restored

hope for a people decimated by war, poverty, and disease. Her efforts

rank with those of the greatest New Zealand leaders, although she would

never have liked the title of Princess imposed upon her by Europeans

ignorant of Maori social organization. She died fully aware that many

changes remained to be made before Maori could achieve any kind of

meaningful partnership with Pakeha.

Te Rauparaha

(7-1849).

Tribal leader, warrior, builder of alliances. This

astute but minor Ngati Toa chief completely changed the Maori settlement

patterns of the North Island during a major migration he led in the 1820s.

His small tribe, based on the coast at Kawhia, could no longer withstand

constant attack by larger inland tribes, so Te Rauparaha led his entire tribe

south to escape constant harassment. He also took some of his Ngati Rau-

kawa relations with him, along with Ati Awa allies he made in Taranaki.

After overrunning several small tribes including Muaupoko and Rangi-

tane,

he eventually settled at Kapiti Island on the southwestern corner of

the North Island. Ngati Raukawa, meantime, settled at Otaki, and Ati Awa

at Waikanae. Te Rauparaha made a good living from whaling and sup-

plying other whalers with flax but soon began to raid the South Island.

In 1830 he hid in the hold of a ship captained by a European and kid-

napped and killed the leading Ngai Tahu

chief,

Te Maiharanui. Major

conflict with Ngai Tahu ensued over the next few years, with Ngati Toa

winning major victories until Ngai Tahu turned things around in 1836,

when they wiped out the last Ngati Toa raiding party. Thereafter, an un-

easy peace ensued. Te Rauparaha next turned his attention to the top of

the South Island. Even though he signed the Treaty of Waitangi, he pro-

tested British efforts to take his land around the Wairau River in Marl-

borough. An attempted arrest turned sour in 1843, and Te Rauparaha and

his more warlike nephew, Te Rangihaeata, killed some 22 settlers in re-

venge for the death of Te Rangihaeata's wife. Te Rauparaha thereafter

retreated to Kapiti, only to be kidnapped by Governor Grey in 1848. After

living under house arrest in Auckland, he returned with his mana, or au-

thority, in tatters, and he died in

1849.

His cunning and unerring survival

instinct nevertheless changed the balance of power within the Maori

world, slowed the European settlement of the southern North Island, and

earned the undying distrust of Ngai Tahu.

Te Whiti

Rongomai

(7-1907).

Tribal leader, prophet, and pacifist. The

leader of pacifist resistance in Taranaki, Te Whiti o Rongomai infuriated

Notable People in the History of New Zealand

207

the colonial government but inspired his followers to resist British domi-

nation down to his death in 1907. The son of a high-born Ati Awa

chief,

he was deeply influenced by the Lutheran missionary Johann

Riemen-

schneider as a young man. During the early 1860s he also fell under the

influence of the prophet Te Ua Haumene. Then from the

mid-1860s

worked with his cousin Tohu Kakahi to establish a viable community at

Parihaka near New Plymouth. After the failure of Titokowaru's military

resistance in 1869, Te Whiti counseled peace and began to use the tech-

niques of nonviolent resistance long before Mahatma Gandhi did. In par-

ticular, his followers ploughed up confiscated land that they believed had

been wrongly taken by the settler government. In a shameful incident on

November

5,1881,

John Bryce invaded the peaceful community with 1,589

armed men. Te Whiti, Tohu, and many followers were sentenced without

proper trial and sent to jails in the South Island. Upon their return in

1883

the leaders modernized Parihaka by overhauling its sanitation systems,

building new villa-style houses, and even introducing electric lighting.

Further periodic arrests followed, along with stints in prison in

1886

and

1897.

Each time Te Whiti returned he upgraded the settlement, which

irritated the settler government even more. In 1895 Premier Seddon vis-

ited but made the mistake of trying to produce more elaborate metaphors

than this master orator. Seddon retreated in humiliation. Unfortunately,

Te Whiti and Tohu fell out in the 1890s, and two divisive factions soon

undermined the effectiveness of this resistance. After Te Whiti's and

Tohu's deaths in 1907, the settlement largely collapsed, but the charismatic

prophet left behind an example that has inspired Maori resisters ever

since.

Vogel, Julius (1835-1899). Journalist, entrepreneur, politician. Vogel was

man of grand visions who tried to expand the New Zealand economy

spectacularly in the 1870s. He left his family of Jewish merchants in Lon-

don after brief training as a mining engineer to try his luck in the Victorian

gold rushes in Australia in 1852. After failing as a retailer and assayer he

turned to journalism as a means of earning a livelihood. He moved on to

Dunedin in

1861,

where he set up New Zealand's first daily newspaper,

the Otago Daily Times, which survives to this day. An ambitious and able

man, he soon made his mark in politics, working his way up through the

Otago Provincial Council and service as an MP for the Goldfields elector-

ate to become colonial treasurer in 1869. In this role he promoted a large

loan of £10 million (which eventually rose to £20 million) to build infra-

structure and bring in large numbers of immigrants. Vogel believed that

such large-scale expenditure was required to develop the colony and end

any hope of further Maori resistance. The policy proved popular, and he

won the premiership between 1873 and 1876. He was subsequently blamed

for New Zealand's problems during the depression of the 1880s, but the

208 Notable People in the History of New Zealand

colony would have stagnated without his daring loan. Vogel also led the

move to abolish the provincial system in 1876 because he found it much

easier to raise funds on the London market as a larger entity called New

Zealand rather than as a little-known province. After 1876 he served until

1880 as agent-general (forerunner of the high commissioner) in London

and became embroiled in many speculative money-making ventures. One

known as the New Zealand Agricultural Company went so badly that he

returned to politics to save it and served as colonial treasurer under Robert

Stout between 1884 and

1887.

Thereafter he faded into obscurity and re-

turned to England. He remained a devoted supporter of both the British

Empire and women's suffrage. He even wrote a novel in 1889 entitled

Anno Domini 2000; or

Woman

s Destiny, in which he imagined what the

world would be like when women got the vote in the twenty-first century!

He also tried to conserve forests against chopping and burning in 1874,

but largely failed as a conservationist.

Wakefield, Edward Gibbon (1796-1862). Advocate of colonization, politi-

cal economist, lobbyist, promoter. Wakefield was the somewhat erratic

dreamer and schemer who first promoted New Zealand as an ideal site

for an experiment in colonization. The difficult eldest child of a radical

family, Edward ended up eloping with an underage heiress, Eliza Pattle,

in 1816. After she died tragically in childbirth in 1820, he tried marrying

up again to an underage heiress in 1826. Ellen Turner's family objected,

and Wakefield spent three years in Newgate Prison, dreaming about how

colonization might be carried out more successfully than in Australia or

America. His "Letter from Sydney" published in 1829 outlined his schemes.

In this and larger works, such as England and America (1833), he argued

that the wild frontier of America and Australia could be avoided if the

price of land was set sufficiently high to debar laborers from immediately

becoming landowners. Wakefield also insisted that migrants be carefully

chosen and that women and children should equal adult male immi-

grants. Civilization rather than crudity would thereby be encouraged. His

dubious behavior scared off officialdom, and after his unsuccessful at-

tempt at colonizing South Australia between 1834 and 1836 the Colonial

Office refused a charter to settle New Zealand. Wakefield then converted

the association into a private company and sent his brother and son off

to buy land in late

1839.

Settlements following his principles were founded

at Wellington (1840), Wanganui and New Plymouth (1841), Nelson (1842),

Otago (1848), and Canterbury (1850). Only Canterbury really flourished

because it attracted capital and wealthier immigrants. A chronic shortage

of capital undermined the other settlements, as did absentee ownership

and inadequate preparation. Wakefield came to live in New Zealand in

1853,

only to see extensive sheep raising replace his favored wheat farm-

ing as the engine of the colonial economy. Settlers now scattered far and

Notable People in the History of New Zealand

209

wide rather than concentrating in civilized towns as Wakefield had hoped.

Ill health soon sidelined his influence, and he died a bitterly disappointed

man in 1862. Little remains of his experiments other than the deep-seated

New Zealand belief that the free settlers who migrated to these struggling

settlements came from vastly superior stock than did the convicts who

settled Australia.

Williams, Henry (1792-1867). Missionary leader, author of the Treaty of

Waitangi. Henry Williams was probably the most important of the mis-

sionaries, even though he was not an expert linguist like his younger

brother William. After his arrival in

1823,

this Church Missionary Society

(Church of England) leader set out to break dependency on the warlord

Hongi Hika. He succeeded by shifting emphasis toward civilizing Maori

before attempting to Christianize them. Slowly he began to win their sup-

port. The tough former naval midshipman won the respect of Maori and

played a key role in drafting the Treaty of Waitangi. Many chiefs signed

only because of his advocacy. This man of modest, lower-middle-class

origins never got on well with the new bishop, the aristocratic George

Augustus Selwyn, who arrived in 1842. Soon after, Williams also fell out

with Governor George Grey, who arrived in 1845. This loss of support

ended any hope Williams had of building some kind of theocracy. Wil-

liam's

children, for whom he gained substantial landholdings, enabled

this large family to become something of a dynasty that exercised an im-

portant influence in New Zealand life into the twentieth century as clerics,

politicians, and farmers.

Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipi Te Waharoa

(18057-1866).

Tribal leader, war-

rior, pan tribalist, intellectual. King maker, Christian, and man of princi-

ple,

Wiremu Tamihana remains one of the most remarkable individuals

in New Zealand history. As the second son of the leading Ngati Haua

(one of the Waikato tribes and part of the Tainui Confederation) chief Te

Waharoa, Tamihana held considerable inherited mana. He built on his in-

herited leadership rights by acting as the key player in crowning Te Whe-

rowhero as the first Maori king in 1858. Always a reluctant warrior who

stopped the constant raiding of nearby enemy tribes from the

mid-1830s,

Wiremu converted to Christianity in

1839.

He spent the

1840s

developing

farming in the Matatmata district and built schools, flour mills, and

churches. During the

1850s

he promoted the King Movement to maintain

Maori control over their land and destiny. He also believed that Maori

had to implement their own variant of law as promised under clause 71

of the 1852 constitution because European law seemed unable to stop

Maori killing Maori. He also set up a newspaper,

Hokioi e Rere Atu

Na,

to communicate the Kingite perspective to other Maori and worked hard

to cement relations with neighboring Ngati Maniopoto. Wiremu brokered

a peace to end the Taranaki war on April

8,1861,

and always argued that

210 Notable People in the History of New Zealand

it was the settler government and the governors who had breached the

treaty rather than the King Movement. He tried hard to keep the peace

but was outmaneuvered by wily Governor Grey and other settlers poli-

ticians who refused to listen to his reasoned arguments. After assisting

Maori resistance during the wars, Tamihana again secured a peace on May

27,

1865. His people's lands were ravaged by confiscation, and he pro-

tested against both this injustice and the label of rebel imposed upon his

people. No reparation occurred until 1995, but Wiremu Tamihana started

the long fight for redress by always working to secure full partnership

with the new settler government.

Glossary: Maori Names

and Terms

Ahi ka. Literally, keeping the fires burning on the land; a Maori system

of claiming rights to land through regular reoccupation.

Ariki. Paramount

chief.

Atua. Spirit.

Haka. Chant of defiance accompanied by warlike dance.

Hapu. Group of extended families or clan.

Harakeke. New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax).

Hine-ahu-one. First woman created out of the earth.

Iwi. Tribe.

Kahanganui. Parliament or great council.

Kahikatea.

Tall,

soft-wooded native tree of the podocarp family (Dacry-

carpus

dacrydioides),

which dominated the wetlands but was heavily milled

to make butter boxes, among other things.

Kainga. Village, often of a single hapu.

Karakia. Prayer or incantation.

Kaumatua.

Elder, family head.

212 Glossary

Kauri. A native conifer tree (Agathis australis), among the largest in the

world, which produces excellent timber suitable for both house building

and boat building and resin that can be used in industrial processes such

as varnish manufacture.

Kawanatanga. Governance.

Kereru. Native pigeon (Hemiphaga

novaeseelandiae).

Kingitanga. Maori king movement.

Kotahitanga. Unity.

Kowhai. Native tree (Sophora spp.) famous for its yellow flower.

Kumara. Sweet potato brought to New Zealand from Polynesia

(Ipomoea

batatas).

Mahoe. Small native tree (Melicytus ramiflorus).

Makutu. Sorcery.

Mana. Prestige and status reflected in genealogy, attachment to place and

achievement, generosity, caregiving or compassion.

Mana whenua. Right of an iwi, hapu, or whanau to claim land through

genealogy, occupation and use, or conquest.

Manuka. Shrub with small leaves and usually white flowers, though col-

ored forms are widely cultivated (Leptospermum scoparium).

Mapou (pronounced with a long a) or Matipo. Small native tree some-

times cultivated for its reddish stems and foliage (Myrsine australis).

Marae. Open space in front of meeting house, used for assembly

Matai or black pine. A native tree of the podocarp family (Prumnopitys

taxifolia).

Mauri. Life force or vital essence of an individual, species, or place.

Miro.

A native tree of the podocarp

family

(Prumnopitys ferruginea).

Moa. Extinct native ratites (flightless birds) ranging from small to even

larger than modern-day ostrich and emu (Dinornithiformes spp.).

Moriori. Separate tribe of Maori who lived on the Chatham Islands from

the fifteenth century, rather than an earlier non-Polynesian stratum of peo-

ple in New Zealand as imagined by the early twentieth-century ethnog-

raphers Percy Smith and Elsdon Best.

Muriwhenua. Northern area of North Auckland, with which the Rarawa,

Te Aupouri, Ngati Kahu, Ngati Kuri, and Ngati Takoto tribes are associ-

ated.

Glossary 213

Ngati Toa. Iwi (tribe) from the Kawhia area that migrated south to Kapiti

Island and Otaki in the 1820s under the leadership of the chief Te Rau-

paraha, and also ventured into the north of the South Island in the early

1830s and clashed with the major South Island tribe of Ngai Tahu.

Nikau. New Zealand palm tree (Rhopalostylis sapida), literally frond on

coconut palm tree.

Pa. A fortified place.

Paepae. Special place; horizontal beam on the

marae

from which speeches

are made.

Pai

marire.

Good and peaceful religion founded in the early 1860s by Te

Ua Haumene in Taranaki and revived by Princess Te Puea of Tainui and

the Kingitanga in the

1920s.

Pakeha. Person of non-Maori descent who arrived after Maori, usually

but not always European.

Papatuanuku. Earth mother.

Paua. Black-lipped, iridescent-green, univalve shellfish (Haliotis spp.).

Poi. A dance performed with poi, that is, a light ball on a string.

Rahui. Prohibition on harvesting of food supplies, normally enforced in

the interests of resource management and conservation.

Rangatiratanga. Full, chiefly authority.

Ranginui. Sky father.

Rimu or red pine. Native podocarp tree (Dacrydium cupressinum), which

produces top-quality timber ideally suited to furniture making.

Rohe. Territorial area claimed by an iwi, hapu, or whanau, including all

resource rights.

Ruaumoko.

God of earthquakes and volcanoes.

Tane mahuta. God of the forest.

Tangaroa. God of the sea.

Tangata whenua. People of the land; in other words, all Maori rather than

the iwi or hapu occupying a

rohe,

who are known as manawhenua.

Tangi. Death ceremonial; cry or lament.

Taniwha. Water monster; often a guardian.

Tapu. Under restriction (sacred). Once a food resource, such as an eel weir

or a tree housing nesting birds, was declared tapu, it could not be touched