The Patriotic Schoolgirls.

Te Kooti is still the popular hero among many tribes, although he has been dead so long. And not only among the old people. A pakeha woman, who is a teacher in a girls’ college, and is particularly interested in New Zealand history, told me of her meeting with some loyal young worshippers of the Ringatu prophet, priest and king. It was in the train in Hawke's Bay. Five or six young Maori girls were returning from holidays to their college. She began a conversation with those intelligent, handsome and neatly dressed girls, and presently asked them by way of a quiet test of their knowledge, about the history of New Zealand. Te Kooti's wars were discussed. Their eyes lit up when she mentioned his name. They all admired Te Kooti, he was the greatest Maori warrior, he was a great general, and a very good man indeed.

“But was he not a very cruel man?” the teacher asked, to elicit their opinions further; really she rather admired Te Kooti, being a bit of a rebel herself.

Maori eyes blazed with indignation at the suggestion. “No, no! He was badly treated by the Government, and he was only avenging his wrongs. The Government sent him away into exile on Wharekauri without trial, and took his land away from him. When he escaped he was only doing the right thing. The pakehas were cruel to him, and why should he not have his revenge? He was a very, very clever brave man.”

That teacher heard enough from young Maori womanhood in the burst of sturdy patriotism to convince her that the memory and mana of Te Kooti will not soon fade. There is hope for the race, she affirms, when the young generation hold so tenaciously to their national hero-worship.

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Te Kooti acquired fame among the Maori people for his gifts of healing. His magnetic personality, his strong will-power and his mystic influence gave him reputedly supernatural powers over the sick and the distressed. An old Arawa soldier, Pirika Hohepa (see photo.) told me in 1920 that although he had fought against Te Kooti he became a strong believer in his mana and his religion. In the ‘Eighties several of his children died, one after the other. In despair, he went to Te Kooti for help. The head of the Wairua-Tapu faith gave his spiritual ministrations, and there were no more deaths of children in that family.

As to the origin of the adopted name Te Kooti, Captain Preece, N.Z.C., who fought against him in the wars, told me that Rikirangi took it from a Government notice signed by Mr. Coates, Colonial Secretary, an official of those days, in Auckland; the Maori translation displayed was signed “Kooti.” It has also been said that he was called after a Dr. Scott, of the East Coast—a prominent pakeha-Maori resident of Wairoa—whose name in Maori is Kooti. However, I believe Captain Preece's version was the correct one. Most pakehas mispronounce the name. Te Kooti being the native form of Coates, it is given the sound of that name with the “o” long. The word “court” is also pronounced and spelled “kooti” in Maori. The English “vote” similarly becomes “pooti.” So do not fall into the common error of sounding the prolonged “o” as “u,” as in Kuiti, kura, mura.

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