Commentary by Sir Apirana

This Composition has come down the generations and had its greatest revival with topical adaptations in 1888, when the Porourangi meeting house was formally opened. Led by the late Tuta Nihoniho, a noted chief of the Hikurangi sub-tribes, a section of Ngati Porou registered their protest against the rating of their lands and the taxation of articles of every day consumption, specifying the “pua torori” or the tobacco plant. It was revived again at the Waitangi celebrations in 1934 and was adopted by the men of the 9th and 10th Maori Reinforcements as the “piece de resistance” of the recent celebration of the opening of Tamatekapua at Rotorua. Its main theme is not outdated, the complementary, yet seemingly, contradictory features of civilisation with the still novel but bitter pill of taxation. In the circumstances the vigour of the recitative and concomitant actions may be appreciated.