Rāwiri continued to divide his time between managing the cropping and pastoral farming that Dilworth had initiated, and his work for Te Kotahitanga, as an elected member of the lower house of its Parliament, and now also as a family man with a wife and a child at home. Kelly kept an eye on the business in his absence and stepped in and supervised whenever it was necessary. He asked Rāwiri on his return from a Kotahitanga meeting in Rotorua, what exactly it was they were trying to achieve. “Are you going to contest a general election as a political party?”
“No, we’d never get elected,” Rāwiri said. “We’re trying to work with the government to achieve some of the political objectives that the Kīngitanga failed to achieve because they lost their way.”
“Not Home Rule then?”
“No, we know that’s never going to happen. We’re stuck with British sovereignty, and a Prime Minister who tells us that Māori are incapable of self-government and that there can be only one parliament in New Zealand.”
“What then? Are you trying to get confiscated land returned?”
“We know that confiscated land that’s passed into private ownership won’t ever be returned. It’s more a matter of protecting what’s left. We have to set realistic objectives and work with the Māori members in Government.”
“You’re sounding like a politician,” Kelly remarked. “I’ll give you that. You still haven’t said what your real objectives are.”
“The most we can hope for at this stage is a limited form of autonomy to improve the position of Māori in the colony. We want better laws. We want the rights that are guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi. But we’re constantly working against the precedent set by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge Prendergast, some years ago, when Wī Parata took Octavius Hadfield, the Bishop of Wellington, to court over a land dispute. It was a landmark case. It was a breach of contract and breach of the Treaty. Parata lost the case because Prendergast ruled the Treaty was ‘a simple nullity’.
“Really? When was that?”
Rāwiri thought for a moment and said, “Late seventies.”
“How could he just sweep the Treaty aside?
“He said that Māori are “primitive barbarians, who are ‘incapable of performing the duties, and therefore assuming the rights of, a civilised community.”
Kelly shook his head and said, “What can you do against such injustice? How can you get laws changed?”
“Well, we’ve drafted the Native Rights Bill and the MP for Northern Māori, Hone Heke, introduced it in the House.”
“What’s that about?”
“It’s about land rights, property rights, and civil rights.”
“So is that going to become law?”
“No, the bill was defeated. But at least it was voted on. The same bill was debated last year but there wasn’t even a quorum to vote on it because a lot of MPs walked out during the debate. We had a similar bill before the House the year before and it wasn’t even debated. It was just ignored.”
“The Liberals, eh,” Kelly said.
“They’re not very liberal with us,” Rāwiri said.
“I have to admire your perseverance.”
“It’s all we can do.”
*
Te Kotahitanga did eventually make some substantive progress when they, the ‘pro government’ faction and the Kingite ‘Home Rule’ faction worked collaboratively, for a time, as per the meaning of kotahitanga: unity. Mahuta, the third Māori king roused the Kingites to political action and they boycotted the Native Land Court. Mahuta, sent thirty delegates, including Tana Taingākawa and Ᾱwhina, to a Kotahitanga hui to draft the Māori Council Constitution Bill to establish a Māori Council which would replace the pernicious Land Court, and assume full authority over Māori land and take control of tenure, sale and lease. The Council would also exercise authority over fishing grounds, land tax, the contentious dog tax, and liquor licensing.
The coalition split soon after the hui and, not much later, Te Kotahitanga itself split along tribal and regional lines. However, the bill went before Parliament and was passed by the Seddon government. Ᾱwhina, Rāwiri and Wiremu were gratified to have reunited, politically, and been part of a significant achievement for Māori. Ᾱwhina was proud that her son had been active in the struggle for justice for Māori, even though they had not always agreed over strategy and affiliation. She now foresaw the baton of political activism would be handed on to Wiremu. Wiremu had moved into his own home in Parnell when Rāwiri and Maraea had their first child and now with two children at home, Rāwiri’s priorities were more domestic.