Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Tales of Banks Peninsula

Te Mai Hara Nui

Te Mai Hara Nui.

The Ngai Tahu chiefs who exercised the greatest influence over the fortunes of their people in modern times were Te Mai hara nui, Taiaroa, and Tuhawaiki, better known by the whalers' sobriquet, "Bloody Jack." All three took a prominent part in the later history of the Peninsula. Te Mai hara nui was the highest in rank, while his cousin Tuhawaiki came next; but, though slightly superior by birth, both were inferior in mental and moral qualities to Taiaroa, a noble man, whose conduct stands out in pleasing contrast to that of the two cousins. For while they will only be remembered by the story of their cruel and evil deeds, he will always be esteemed for his brave and generous actions in war, and his wise and kindly counsels in peace. Te Mai hara nui was the Upoko Ariki, or heir to the ancestral honours of Ngai Te Rangiamoa, the noblest family of Ngai Tahu, but he gained still further distinction from the fact that several other noble lines met in his person. As the hereditary spiritual head of the tribe, he was regarded with peculiar reverence and respect; the common people did not dare to look upon his face, and his equals felt his sacred presence an oppressive restriction upon their liberty of action, for even an accidental breach of etiquette while holding intercourse with him might involve them in serious loss of property, if not of life. His visits were always dreaded, and his movements whenever he entered a pa were watched with great anxiety by the inhabitants, for if his shadow happened to fall upon a whata or rua (the storehouse for page 20food) while he Was passing through the crowded lanes of a town, it was immediately destroyed, with all its contents, because the sacred shadow of the Ariki having fallen upon it, the food became tapu. and fatal to those who partook of it There was little in Ta Mai hara nui's personal appearance to mark his aristocratic lineage, his figure being short and thick set, his complexion dark, and his features rather forbidding. Unlike most Maori chiefs of exalted rank, he was cowardly, cruel and capricious, an object of dread to friends and foes alike At the same time be was a man of great energy and considerable force of character. He was distinguished daring his early years as a traveller, being continually on the move up and down the east coast of this island, engaged in visiting his numerous connections. He was amongst the first to discern the advantages to be secured by encouraging trade with Europeans, and entered keenly himself into business transactions with the traders who came from Sydney to procure flax fibre. To facilitate his intercourse with them, he took up his permanent residence at Taknpuneke (Red House), in Akaroa Harbour. He married Te Whe, a descendant of Manaia, and the eldest sister of Mrs Tikao's mother. By her he had three children—two sons, Te Wera and Tutehounuku, and a daughter, Ngaroimata His eldest son died when a child. The next son, on attaining manhood, went off in a whaling ship, and was absent for many years, during which he was mourned for as dead, and did not return till after his father was carried off and put to death at Kapiti, by Rauparaha. The peaceful course of Te Mai hara nui's life at Takupuneke was interrupted by the outbreak of a terrible blood feud amongst his near relations, a feud distinguished, not by the incident that caused it, but by the fearful atrocities that were perpetrated during the course of of it, deeds that shocked even the hardened hearts of those who committed them.