Difficult times - the Maori War Effort Organisation
Threats to continuation
When the Maori War Effort Organisation was established, the government had estimated that it would have a six-month life at a cost of £7,000. In 1943 Paikea asked that the timeframe be extended. He reasoned that as well as being essential to meet the country's wartime needs, the MWEO had a key role in post-war Maori development. It had given Maori a new confidence: government had allowed the Maori people to organise in their own way, to move into the mainstream of economic and social life, and to assume positions of leadership in the wider community. This last had probably been decisive in overcoming Maori suspicion of government at the start of the war. Other significant factors were government's promises that confiscation claims would be settled at the end of the war (particularly important in securing help from Waikato leader, Te Puea) and that there would be adequate rehabilitation for Maori servicemen.
Maori objection - conscientious objection in the First World War
Resistance to conscription - Maori and the First World War
For whose 'King and Country'?
In his recruitment waiata, 'Te ope tuatahi', Ngata made it clear that the replacement recruits that he and his colleagues had raised had come from Te Arawa and the East Coast tribes of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngati Porou and Ngati Kahungunu. These were all tribes noted for their loyalty to the Crown. Their tribal elders were influenced by ideals of patriotic service and the obligations of citizenship inherent in their ancestors' signed commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi. Naming them was an expression of honour and also an implied criticism of those not mentioned.
Te Kirihaehae Te Puea Hērangi (Princess Te Puea)
Biography of Te Puea Hērangi, grand-daughter of the second Māori King. Te Puea was a prominent advocate for Tainui in the first half of the twentieth century.
Te Puea Herangi
This photograph of Tainui–Waikato leader Te Kirihaehae Te Puea Herangi was taken about 1938. It shows her wearing the New Year's Honours medal she received in 1938, the Commander of the British Empire (CBE).
Te Puea was a staunch opponent of conscription for Waikato. She was guided by the words of her grandfather King Tawhiao. After he had finally made his peace with the Crown in 1881, he forbade Waikato to take up arms again:
Listen, listen, the sky above, the earth below, and all the people assembled here. The killing of men must stop; the destruction of land must stop. I shall bury my patu in the earth and it shall not rise again ... Waikato, lie down. Do not allow blood to flow from this time on.
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