Hamuera Tamahau Mahupuku 1837 1934

edmondsallan - hello . " Hamuera " also had a mind of his own and quite often did not go along with the " official establishment " be it Pakeha or Maori. Although nominally a member of Te Kotahitanga, Tamahau did not share its aim of self-determination. He was a member of a committee working outside the legislature to support Seddon's 1900 Maori Lands Administration Act (which had eventually been passed as a result of the 1898 bill) and Maori Councils Act. These acts seemed in the early years of their administration to meet at least some Maori aspirations to local self-government and Maori-controlled reform. Their potential benefits were enthusiastically discussed in Te Puke ki Hikurangi , and the surviving leaders of Te Kotahitanga, beginning with Tamahau, praised for having achieved this result.From 1894 to 1904 Tamahau was said to have spent more than £40,000 on various projects. These included his financial support of the Wairarapa Mounted Rifle Volunteers, a Maori company. In 1901 he offered to raise and finance a Maori force to fight in the South African war. The offer was refused by the British government, which had decided to use only white troops in the war.Tamahau died at Papawai on 14 January 1904. He left no children but had adopted Aketu Piripi, who died at the age of 17. An Anglican service was conducted in Maori, and the body was taken for burial at Kehemane, followed by a large crowd. His mourners included Seddon and Carroll. By contemporary Europeans Tamahau was regarded as one of the most 'progressive' of Maori. To the large Maori community at Papawai he was father and leader.
After his death the glory of Papawai as the rendezvous of two governments - of the colony and of Te Kotahitanga - faded. No one replaced him, and few could afford to finance the huge gatherings of the past. Many felt that the Maori councils, whose setting up he had supported, would make such leaders redundant. Aotea--Te Waipounamu blew down in a storm in 1934, and a marble monument to Tamahau's memory, unveiled at Papawai in 1911, was damaged by earthquake in 1942. The totara palisades gradually collapsed, and at Kehemane on 31 December 1911 Takitimu burned to the ground. As Te Kooti had predicted at its opening, now only the wind blew through the site.
I can only admire " Hamuera " He was a man among men in any ONE'S language . Till we meet again -Regards -edmondsallan