DEATH OF WAHANUI.
[By telegraph. - Own correspondent].
Otorohanga, Monday.
Wahanui died yesterday at his settlement, near Te Kuiti. A large
number of natives are leaving for the tangi. He is the last of the
old war chiefs. He has been in ill-health for some years, and was a
complete wreck physically for some months past.
Wahanui was one of the great chiefs of the Ngatimaniapoto, and
consequently one of the principal owners of the territory known as
"the King Country." Like all the men of influence among the Maoris,
Wahanui could count a long descent. The possessions of his family
lying in the centre and west of the island, Wahanui's people came
under the influence of the Wesleyan missionaries, and Wahanui, when
a boy, was sent down to be educated at the Three Kings Institution,
near Auckland. Endowed with great natural ability Wahanui was an
apt pupil of all the religious and secular knowledge communicated
at the Three Kings, and whatever other effects it had upon him it
certainly sharpened his intellect. Wahanui returned from school to
his people in the upper part of the Waipa Valley during the years
of inquietude and restlessness which preceded the war. He became at
once, like all his kindred, decidedly hostile to the Europeans, and
his residence amongst them and education seemed only to make keener
the edge of his hostility. He was then known as Reihana te
Whakahoehoe, and by this name he was known by old settlers as a
prominent orator at King meetings. Then came the war, and Reihana
was present at most of the fights on the line of the Waikato up to
the defence of Orakau. During the years succeeding he lived mostly
in the interior of the King Country, never seeing any Europeans,
preventing them from coming into the country, and being more
bitterly hostile than any of the other chiefs. Wahanui was the
Prime Minister and principal advisor of Tawhiao. He belonged to
Ngatimaniapoto, the owners of nine-tenths of the land in the King
Country; he was not a land-seller, but always kept Europeans at
their distance. He had a powerful dominating mind, from whose
influence Tawhiao could not escape. He accompanied Tawhiao on his
formal visit to Auckland after the war. Wahanui was a very tall
man, and of late years had become enormously stout. He was a
splendid orator. He had fine command of the language, and when
occasion required could adorn his speeches with all those graces of
poetic allusion and quotation, of reference to ancient tradition
and the deeds of famous ancestors, essential to the Maori
orator.
Herald
7/12/97
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