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

A Pakeha Viewpoint

A Pakeha Viewpoint.

A learned professor in his course of instruction of New Zealanders in the right use of their English language incidentally referred to the excellent orthography adopted for the Maori tongue as contrasted with the grotesque treatment of Australian native names. This was due to Professor Lee, of Cambridge, who, he said, “with the assistance of the notorious Hongi, devised in 1820 the phonetic script which we now use.” That statement of history is correct, but I must cross tomahawks with the writer who could not give Hongi Hika a more complimentary adjective than “notorious.” His point of view is the typical Englishman's, where native races are concerned.

Would he describe Napoleon, or Wellington, or Cromwell, or any other great figure in military history as “notorious”? By comparison with European leaders our Hongi was very small potatoes indeed, so far as numbers slaughtered went. Hongi, it should be remembered, was always the friend of the whites; the English should be the last to call him uncomplimentary names. He fought his Maori enemies according to the ancient code of his race, and he was not without a touch of chivalry. An implacable foe certainly, but “notorious,” Professor, is decidedly not the right word.