A tapu is lifted at Parliament
A ceremony unique in the experience of parliamentarians was performed yesterday in the House of Representatives. The occasion was the formal opening of the room that has been set apart for the Native Affairs Committee. It is a room containing beautiful and grotesque carvings, so that it represents in a large measure a whare runanga, or Maori meetinghouse. About the entrance are also Maori carvings, the significance of which to a considerable extent has been lost in the mists of antiquity. As the hour of 11 approached, a grey
bearded man of over 70, barefooted, and clad in the old mats and feather headdress of the tribes, was seen approaching the long corridor in which the committee room is. He was Mita Taupopoki, of the Tuhourangi tribe (Whakarewarewa). With him came the carver of the Maori designs, one Te Kiwi Amohau, a paramount chief of the great Arawas, who landed centuries ago in the famous canoe from which the tribe derives its name. A third of a younger generation, the Wihopu Te Maka, and an interpreter completed the band. As they came in sight of the members of Parliament and their wives, who were assembled in front of the meeting room, the old chief began to brandish his ‘‘mere’’, and presently his fine voice resounded down the long corridor in a warlike chant. It was the commencement of the ceremonial which was to exorcise the evil spirits that had no doubt gained entrance into the meetingplace during or since its building. The old chief next commenced a chant, in
which his fellowtribesmen took part. The significance of this chant, it was explained, was to enable women to enter the house, for to a holy house the entrance of women was barred by Maori custom, until the ban had been removed. A Maori member of Parliament, who was standing by, explained that no Maori could enter that room until the ‘‘tapu’’ had been lifted from it.
The tapu having been removed and the evil spirits driven away for ever, the Hon J.G. Coates (Minister for Native Affairs) made a short speech.
He related the history of the Native Affairs Committee, and spoke of its high traditions and the connection with it of many famous New Zealanders. With the removal of the evil spirits from the room, the Natives could enter, certain that they would receive from the committee equity and justice. The committee was the final court in all Native matters, and Maori sentiment and atmosphere would assist it in upholding the traditions
under which the Maori race had proceeded, step by step, and pace by pace, along the same road as the Pakeha. Following Mr Coates’ address, the Maori chiefs commenced an incantation which suddenly changed into a war dance. For now that the rites and ceremonies of the olden times had been satisfactorily completed, the Maoris were in the mood for exultation, and the worldfamous ‘‘Ka mate, ka mate’’ chorus resounded through the building. The old, greybearded chief excelled himself in this, and the youngest member of the party, an educated man and a great footballer in his day, for the moment became transformed into the savage. Beside us the Hon Mr Ngata, the silvertongued orator of the House, could scarce refrain from taking an active part, and the hand of ‘‘Timi’’ Carroll, now a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, was nervously twitching in time to the stirring words and music of the ancient chant. — ODT, 24.8.1922