Old New Zealand: A Tale of the Good Old Times: And a History of the War in the North against the Chief Heke, in the Year 1845Maning, Frederick Edward
History
Old New Zealand: A Tale of the Good Old Times: And a History of the War in the North against the Chief Heke, in the Year 1845
Maning, Frederick Edward
Māori (New Zealand people) -- Social life and customs; New Zealand -- Description and travel
Now, when all the people saw this they were very much vexed, and began
to say one to another, "It is wasting our labour coming here to see
this Governor," and the chiefs began to get up and make speeches. One
said, "Come here, Governor; go back to England;" and another said, "I
am Governor in my own country, there shall be no other;" and Paapahia
said, "Remain here and be Governor of this island, and I will go to
England and be King of England, and if the people of England accept me
for their King it will be quite just; otherwise you do not remain
here." Then many other chiefs began to speak, and there was a great
noise and confusion, and the people began to go away, and the paper
was lying there, but there was no one to write on it. The Governor
looked vexed, and his face was very red. At this time some pakehas
went amongst the crowd, and said to them, "You are foolish; the
Governor intends to pay you when all the writing is done, but it is
not proper that he should promise to do so; it would be said you only
wrote your names for pay; this, according to our ideas, would be a
very wrong thing." When we heard this we all began to write as fast as
we could, for we were all very hungry with listening and talking so
long, and we wanted to go to get something to eat, and we were also in
a hurry to see what the Governor was going to give us; and all the
slaves wanted to write their names, so that the Governor might think
they were chiefs, and pay them; but the chiefs would not let them, for
they wanted all the payment for themselves. I and all my family made
our marks, and we then went to get something to eat; but we found our
food not half done, for the women and slaves who should have looked
after the cooking were all mad about the Governor, so when I saw that
the food was not sufficiently done, I was aware that something bad
would come of this business.[9]
[Footnote 9: This is a common native superstition. The natives believe
in omens of a thousand different kinds, and amongst others think it a
very bad omen if, on an occasion when any business of importance is on
hand, the food happens to be served underdone; or before a battle it
is a particularly bad omen.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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