1876: Maoris Demand Extermination of Te Reo
January 18, 2019
By AHNZ
Te Reo, the Maori language, was indeed quashed at one time in our history. I hope you haven’t had enough of me holding the State responsible for life’s ills yet because the history of this will have our usual theme..
“In recent years the fact that Maori children were punished for speaking Maori in the government schools and playgrounds is recalled with bitterness, as evidence of enforced assimilation; but in the 1870s Maori parents themselves petitioned that this should be so.”- Alan Ward (1973)
Ward is correct, citing an 1876 petition from Wi Te Hakiro and 336 Others to The House of Representatives*. It was not the only petition of this sort.
“There should not be a word of Maori allowed to be spoken in the school, and the master, his wife and children should be persons altogether ignorant of the Maori language”.- ibid
Indeed, MP Karaitiana Takamoana (Eastern Maori) in c.1871 tried to pass legislation to force all Maori school children to learn only in English. According to Parliament’s website, he did not himself speak English. However, he did dress himself up and otherwise indulge in expensive Western ‘urban sophisticaiton’. For example, this chief went into debt building his own, large, Maori Club House in Napier and ended up having to sell off his people’s land to cover the damage.
The use of compulsion as a means is never justified by the ends. Forced public schooling once again was used as the instrument of damaging the young, taking away their volition in a one-size-fits-all uni-lingual policy. In a new twist of today, the Government in Coalition (The Green Party) has a policy promise to force all New Zealand children to learn Maori even if they don’t want to.
Do we ever learn?
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Image ref. Takamoana standing with his interpreter; Parliamentary Collection
Image ref. Green Party leader James Shaw standing with his interpreter; politik.co.nz
* Ref. APPENDIX TO THE JOURNALS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1 JANUARY 1876; Papers Past
Ref. ‘Greens lay out plan for compulsory te reo Māori in all schools’; Stuff, 2017
note: What could be a more detestable regard for Maoris by Maoris than to use the law to compel its inheritors to attend State schools where the use of your people’s language would illicit punishment? Physical beatings. How traumatising and alienating to be unable to verbalise according to one’s own conscience. See also
Update:
Some highlights from the Petition of Wi Te Hakiro and 336 others. Presented to the House of Representatives on 29th June, 1876, and part ordered to be printed.
“If you want to pull up a kauri tree, you must do it when it is little;”
“…little children should be taught English, &c, so that the first language which they might be able to speak should be English… It would be very difficult for them to pick up again the Maori customs from which they had been separated when quite little… they would have to be taught those customs in a school for that purpose, if they wanted to learn them for their amusement. “
“There should not be a word of Maori allowed to be spoken in the school, and the master, his wife and children should be persons altogether ignorant of the Maori language. “
Update: Question to AHNZ: Just curious about timeline, did he go in to debt before or after the petition?
Thanks for asking. Short answer: Takamoana’s Club was built in 1866, he pressured himself upon becoming an MP in 1871 (first speech he gave, I think), and the particular petition mentioned is 1876.
So I assume the debt came first.
Long answer:
“Messrs. Miller and Lindsey are about to erect, on behalf of the chief Karaitiana and other natives, on native land at the extremity of the White Road, just outside the town boundary, a large building intended for the accomodation of natives upon their visits to Napier. It will contain two large reception rooms — one 17 by 20, and the other 16 by 18 — in one of which (intended for the use of European visitors) will be a five bay window fronting the road ; seven bedrooms, a detached kitchen, &c. The building will be well finished, and will be an ornament to that part of the town. It is the intention of the chiefs interested to engage a European man and his wife to take charge of the place, cook meals, &c. — Independent.”- The Daily Southern Cross, 27 August 1866
“During the 1873 Hawke’s Bay Lands Alienation Commission Inquiry, some Heretaunga Tamatea rangatira testified that some of the debts they incurred resulted from expenditure to develop farms on their land or to provide supplies and benefits for their people. Karaitiana Takamoana incurred significant debts purchasing general supplies, clothes, ploughs, and horses, as well as paying for fencing around the Karamu reserve, and the construction of a Māori Club House in Napier. These debts eventually led to Karaitiana selling his share of the Heretaunga block.” – Heretaunga Tamatea Deed of Settlement, 2015; www.hetoatakitini.iwi.nz (accessed 2018)
11 thoughts on "1876: Maoris Demand Extermination of Te Reo"
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Great to see the truth put out there .even know their will be many but hurt snowflakes. To whome claim the truth as being racist. When will this abhorrent rubbish ever end.we live in nz as kiwis. the lies and propulsion of this seemingly never ending gravy train needs to be halted now not later.this country is not South Africa we need not the segregation and racism being bred and taught and forced upon us.
I’ll take some knocks for telling the truth. This victimhood era came and it will pass into history as it has before. Thank you
It’s good to see the othe side to the story instead of the one sided push all the time.
Thank you. Ain’t on no team of $55 million.
In 1983, I went to Zambia to help setup an agricultural school, I had been raised on a Waikato farm and learnt valuable farming skills in animal husbandry, cropping, fencing, tree planting soil management, the list goes on.
I arrived in Zambia to find a classroom of students who could all speak english. This is because when Zambia became independent in 1964 the first Zambian President proclaimed , there will be one language taught in our schools and it will be english, now all Zambian youth have an opportunity to be educated in some of the best institutions in the world. Zambia previously and to some extent still does speak more than 35 languages. There is no confusion in communication now. News papers, TV, radio, all schools. wow what great wisdom in that decision.
The then president could have chosen his own language who were the majority tribe the bembas, but no. The Maori elders who pressed for english to be taught to their children was a necessary difficult course but they have done it, their sacrifice has been rewarded. My great grandmother and mother were both teachers in rural school around NZ from the Hawkes Bay to the Hokianga.
Thank you for that. Zambian Rewi Alley.
The Zambian President’s decision is at great contrast to his counterpart in the Waikato. King Tawhiao insisted his people not learn English and as a result doomed generations of his people to remain backward.
Some people need to cut out been grizzle guts, and strive to be happy . Stop been cry babies for diss and datss.
A good basis for striving to be happy: The Truth.
Hello,
Just wondering if you have any evidence of the petition making it through parliament as an actual amendment to the act and as such law?
Ive been searching high and low and cant find anything.
I saw on another page “that minutes of Waima School committee show that as early as 1883 this school developed a policy forbidding both parents and children to speak in Maori” was it possible that this was only implemented via regional committee’s? I cannot find a link or document showing the minutes claimed at Waima School.
Thanks
Well, it was 10 years too late to ammend the 1867 Act. I doubt the intent of the petition was ever seriously about creating a new Native Schools Ammendment Act. I think Takamoana was simply showboating to his electorate the same way the Greens were in 2017.
By 1879 Maori schools were transferred from Native Affairs to the Education Department. It would have been up to them to regulate. The idea of having a specific law on the matter would be using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut. The man in charge now would be James Pope who I have written about before. Ref. https://ahnz.anarkiwi.co.nz/1884-health-for-the-maori/
His emphasis was on English in schools which is not the same as being anti Maori language. The State didn’t have to be as Maori leaders were doing that all on their own as we see. It would have been enforced at the Education Board or school level. Even Ngata didn’t change his views on this until World War 2.
I have a couple of videos to upload about this and a little book to read that might become a post.