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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 3 (June 1, 1934.)

Tamehana's Early Efforts

Tamehana's Early Efforts.

While the scheme for a Maori King for the Maori people originated with two chiefs of the Ngati-Toa, Tamehana te Rauparaha and his kinsman Matene te Whiwhi, at Otaki, in the Fifties, it was not long before the head of the Ngati-Haua tribe at Matamata emerged as the great advocate of the doctrine page 18 of native self-government. In one of his letters to the Governor of the day, Gore Browne, Tamehana described how he had striven for peace, ever since the first missionaries came, and were driven out by the constant wars and the looting of their stations.

“That war (with Rotorua) had been carried on for two years when I commenced to worship. The name of my minister was Joseph Brown. He was plundered by my tribe. … I worked at quarrels about land, and through my exertions these troubles were with difficulty ended. … I then sent my thoughts to seek some plan by which the Maori tribes should become united, that they should assemble together and the people become one like the pakeha. … Various meetings were held, but the quarrels and the flow of blood continued. At last I looked into your books, when Israel cried to have a king for themselves, to be a guide over them, and I looked at the words of Moses in Deut. 17, 15, and I kept these words in my memory for many years; the land, feud continuing all the time and blood still being spilt. I still meditated upon the matter.” Then came the conference of tribes at Pukawa, Lake Taupo, at the end of 1856. Twice 800 were assembled there. He read the book of Samuel, 8, 5, “Give us a king to judge us.” “That was why I set up Potatau. On his being set up the blood flow at once ceased, and it has so remained up to the present year. Potatau was a man respected by the tribes of the island.

“That, O friend, was why I set him up—to put down my troubles, to hold the land of the slaves, and to judge the offences of the chiefs. The king was set up; the runanga [councils, courts] were set up, also the Kaiwhakawa [judges], and religion was set up. The works of my ancestors have ceased; they are diminishing at the present time.”