THE MAORI KING MOVEMENT This article, by the late E. H. Edwards, appeared in “Tupu Whakarangi” in the May-June issue, 1968, by permission of the “Morrinsville Star”.
About the middle of the 1800s, Te Rauparaha, a Maori chief from the Otaki area, visited England. He was the son of the famous Maori warrior, Te Rauparaha, who was well known for making war on the South Island tribes. However, many of the fighting warriors’ sons were turning to Christianity, and were determined not to follow the examples set by their fathers, in slaughter, bloodshed and cannibalism. The dignity, power and unity of the British people under Queen Victoria’s rule, so impressed the younger Te Rauparaha that he decided to return to New Zealand and to endeavour to establish a king for the Maori people. His object was to unite the tribes, and thus end the bloodshed which was slowly destroying a noble race. Te Rauparaha was welcomed home by a large gathering of chiefs and tribesmen at Otaki, where immediately he put his plan to the people. Queen Victoria, he said, had advised him to establish a Maori king. Te Rauparaha himself offered to become king, but he was rejected because his own ancestral home and birthplace on Kapiti Island was in enemy hands. This was considered a disgrace, and for this reason he could not be honoured with kingship. At this stage Te Rauparaha dropped the whole idea, but a cousin, Matene Te Whiwhi, who had listened to the discussion, became so enthusiastic that he travelled from tribe to tribe trying to persuade the various paramount chiefs to support the election of a king for the Maori people. He went first to Waitotara, in southern Taranaki, where chief Whitikau refused to become king. Returning to Whanganui, Matene met refusal from Opia, a paramount chief, on the grounds that, because of poor fishing in the Whanganui River and on the nearby coastline, he would be unable to feed the crowds. Plenty of kai was considered essential to kingship. Determined to find a king, Matene travelled to Taupo, where Heu Heu also bemoaned the shortage of fish in the lake. Then he went into Hawkes Bay where refusal came again, this time from Karauria, the Ngati Kahungungu chief, and continued on to the East Coast where his proposition was put to the chief Kani. Refusal this time was based on the fact that the East Coast was too far removed from the centre of the island. The king, according to Kani, should live at a central point, convenient for all tribes. Returning to Taupo, Matene was advised by Heu Heu to approach the well known and powerful Waikato chief, Potatau and, accompanied by Heu Heu, he journey north.
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