Hare Hongi/Henry Matthew Stowell

Ngā Puhi

1859 - 1944

Hare Hongi was born at Waimate North and was educated at Singer’s School, Parnell and Three Kings College in Mount Roskill. He worked for nearly three years with a surveyor’s party in the north. He studied te reo Māori and tribal customs under the direction of Nga-kuku-mumu at Waitaha. "Hare Hongi" was his self-chosen name. He travelled throughout the country recording and studying tribal lore and customs and was an interpreter in the Native Land Court. He wrote some 25 articles which were published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society. He also wrote poetry.

Biographical sources

  • Chapman-Taylor, M. "Obituary: The Late Henry Matthew Stowell (‘Hare Hongi’) (1859-1944)." Journal of the Polynesian Society 53 (1944): 107-110.

    Non-fiction

  • "Manuscript Papers." Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, N.Z., n.d.
  • "He Waiata Whangai Ariki, a Chant at the Offering of First-fruits." Journal of the Polynesian Society 2.2 (1893): 119-124.
  • This is an introduction to the poem "Lament Over a Fallen Warrior Chief" which is written in Māori with English translation. Hongi writes of the "He Waiata Whangai Ariki" ceremonies when the first-fruits of the season were presented to the ariki. During these festivities Uenuku-o-te-Rangi, high priest and paramount ariki of Hawaiki, was tricked by Rongotea into eating his young relative, Hawepotiki. In his great anger, Uenuku decided to destroy all Rongotea’s people; they in turn quickly prepared to flee from Hawaiki and travelled to New Zealand following the directions of Kupe. Rongotea’s son Turi took command of the Aotea canoe and Potoru was chief of the Ririno canoe. In his disregard for the ritual sacrifices, Potoru loses his senses and he and his canoe are lost at sea while Turi proceeded on to New Zealand and settled in Patea.
  • "Notes on T. Tarakawa’s Paper ‘The Coming of Te Arawa and Tainui Canoes’". Journal of the Polynesian Society 3 (1894): 37-40.
  • Hongi provides a critique and commentary on various aspects of Tarakawa’s paper "The Coming of Te Arawa and Tainui Canoes" in Journal of the Polynesian Society 2 (1893): 220-252. He also comments on S. Percy Smith’s translation.
  • "The Contest between Fire and Water/Te Pakanga O Te Ahi Raua Ko Te Wai." Journal of the Polynesian Society 3 (1894): 155-158.
  • In this Māori text with English translation, Hongi writes an account of the battle Kaukau-a-wai fought by Fire and Water. He tells the story of Toitipu and Manatu destroying Matuku the taniwha, and gives an explanation of the saying "Hei kai i au, me ko Whakatauroa, te kete i takoto ai te Pou-o-te-Whenua; tonu kawe, ko te Rangi-whaka-okoa". He quotes an old chant in Māori and English.
  • "Concerning Whare-kura: Its Philosophies and Teachings." Journal of the Polynesian Society 7.25 (1897): 35-41.
  • In his notes accompanying this text, Hongi writes that "[t]he whole of these parts of history were recited to [him] personally, together with the accompanying whakapapas. They are entirely original, and quite unconnected with anything which may have appeared in print up to the present time." Hongi provides short stories about different ancestral figures including Whiro, Whakatau, Wahie-roa and Rata, Tu-whakaro and Whakatau, Hema and Tawhaki, and he includes an extensive whakapapa table beginning with Toi-Te-Huatahu and Te Uiarei. The stories are in Māori with English translation
  • "A Māori Cosmogony." Journal of the Polynesian Society 16 (1907): 109-119.
  • "Rongo-ma-Tane." Journal of the Polynesian Society 17 (1908): 166.
  • "The Word Tupa." Journal of the Polynesian Society 17 (1908): 167.
  • "On Ariki, and Incidentally, Tohunga." Journal of the Polynesian Society 18 (1909): 84-89.
  • Hongi writes in response to a Journal of Polynesian Society editorial request for further comment on the term ‘ariki’ arising out of Rev T. G. Hammond’s article "The Tohunga Māori" in Journal of the Polynesian Society 17 (1908): 162-165. Hongi provides a definition of the term "ariki" and describes the importance of primogeniture through the male line in Māori society, while acknowledging the difficulties of maintaining such a line in the event of first-born daughters or premature deaths of first-born sons. He discusses issues concerning the residence of the Ariki within the stronghold of the tribe, female ariki (ariki-tapairu), and provides whakapapa tables of "the principal ancestors who have controlled and shaped the destinies of the North Auckland tribes from the earliest traditional times."
  • "Māori Numeration: Being a Reply to Mr. Elsdon Best’s Paper on ‘Māori Numeration’ in Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. xxxix." Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 42 (1909): 625-640.
  • Communicated by A. Hamilton. Hongi asserts at the beginning of this paper that little controversy surrounds the study of Māori numeration because it is “at once so methodical in its arrangements, so well defined in its parts, and so comprehensive in its form that apparently no sufficient ground for disputation has presented itself”. However, he proceeds to take issue with Elsdon Best’s paper on the subject published in Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 39 (1906?): 150. In this paper Hongi proposes “to demonstrate that Mr Best’s observations on (a) the numeral prefix are entirely inadequate, and that those on (b) the term ngahuru and (c) the term tekau require considerable modification.” This paper was read at the Wellington Philosophical Society on 1 September, 1909.
  • "Ruatapu, Son of Uenuku." Journal of the Polynesian Society 19 (1910): 89-93.
  • "Māori Numeration." Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 43 (1910): 30.
  • Hongi provides the Māori text and English translation of four proverbs on "Ngahuru" and four proverbs which Hongi describes as "[i]ronical references to those who avoided the labours of tillage"; these were intended to accompany Hongi’s paper on Māori numeration in Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 42 (1909): 625-640.
  • "Whiro and Toi." Journal of the Polynesian Society 20 (1911): 63-70.
  • Hongi writes of the debate concerning the genealogical placement of Toi and Whiro in whakapapa lines and contends that they are contemporaneous. He discusses other issues surrounding Whiro and he compares Large’s account of Whiro in Journal of the Polynesian Society 12 (1903?): 135, 137-8, with other traditional Māori sources.
  • "Whiro and Toi." Journal of the Polynesian Society 21 (1912): 29-38.
  • Since the writing of his previous article, Hongi rediscovered notes and whakapapa of Whiro-nui which he gathered from Turi Ngahau of Manutahi, Patea, in 1894. In this article he reproduces these notes and whakapapa which are written in Māori (he supplies an English translation also). The notes include an account of Uwhenga and Rau who were part of the Takitimu migration. Rau married the daughter of Turi, and Uwhenga devised a complex and successful plan to marry Taneroa. Hongi also provides the full Māori texts and English translations of two "old Māori epics": "He Waiata Tautitotito/A Disputation Chant" and "He Tangi Mate-Aitu/A Lament for Calamitous Death". He also provides explanatory notes in Māori with English translation; these he collected in 1891 from "two worthy old exponents of Māori lore, namely Ngeru and Te Kuku... [who] lived together... at a remote village known as Taukokako, outside of Hawera, Taranaki".
  • "Kuranui as a Name for the Moa." Journal of the Polynesian Society 25.98 (1916): 66-67.
  • Hongi writes this short essay in response to a query by H. T. Fletcher in "Notes and Queries" [203] in Journal of the Polynesian Society 25.97 (1916): 31; this query concerned the meaning of Kuranui in a proverb in Sir George Grey’s Proverbial and Popular Sayings of the Ancestors of the New Zealand Race. 64. Hongi states that Moa-kura-nui is the name of a type of moa; he lists the various kinds of moa noted by the Ngāti-Kuri. Hongi records the recollections of his heinga Ngakuku of Waitaha-Kuranui kainga in the region of Herekino and Whangape, who recalled trips to the South Island by his people to procure greenstone and moa. Hongi also writes of the memories of Te Manukariori, of Taranaki, concerning the moa.
  • "On Mummification." Journal of the Polynesian Society 25.100 (1916): 169-172.
  • Hongi writes in response to H. D. Skinner’s review of a study on mummification by Prof. G. Elliot Smith, published in Journal of the Polynesian Society 25.99 (Sep 1916): 122-124. In this article, Skinner calls for proof "that any system of mummification, apart from the preservation of heads, has ever existed in New Zealand." Hongi quotes in Māori with English translation the testimony of Harata Te Kiore of Maramaihoea, Bulls, and Te Karere-o-Mahuru, who witnessed the mummifying process. The Journal of Polynesian Society editor adds a short account from Dr Wyatt Gill concerning burial customs practised in Mangaia Island.
  • "The Period of Iro-nui (Whiro-nui)." Journal of the Polynesian Society 26 (1917): 88.
  • "On the Greenstone ‘Tiki’: What the Emblem Signifies." Journal of the Polynesian Society 27 (1918): 162-63, 199-201.
  • "An Ancient Flute Song." Journal of the Polynesian Society 27 (1918): 222-224.
  • "Did the Māoris of New Zealand Use the Sling?" Journal of the Polynesian Society 27 (1918): 226.
  • "Is Pihareinga a Genuine Māori Term; and is it an Original Māori Name for the Cricket?" Journal of the Polynesian Society 27 (1918): 226.
  • "The Gods of Māori Worship Sons of Light." Journal of the Polynesian Society 29 (1920): 24-28.
  • "Māori Hermaphrodites and Albinoism." Journal of the Polynesian Society 32 (1923): 48.
  • "Māori Proverbs Connected with the Term Ngahuru." Journal of the Polynesian Society 35 (1926): 173.

  • Other

  • "Te Tangi A Te Rangi-Mauri Mo Tonga-Awhikau: He Mea Tuku Mai Na Karepa-Te- Whetu/The Lament of Te Rangi-Mauri for Tonga-Awhikau." Māori text by Karepa Te Whetu and English translation and notes by Hare Hongi. Journal of the Polynesian Society 5 (1896): 112-120.
  • "Tama-Ahua." Journal of the Polynesian Society 5 (1896): 233-236.
  • Hongi presents a Māori text of the legend of Tama-ahua with an English translation, and he also provides the Taranaki and Ngāi Tahu Poutini versions of the legend.
  • Māori-English Tutor and Vade-Mecum. Christchurch, N.Z.: Whitcombe and Tombs, [1911]
  • While noting previously published Māori language studies, Stowell asserts in his preface "that the efforts of previous writers are not altogether adequate to the scientific study of the subject." This publication, Stowell writes, is "the result of three years close labour"; nine chapters are devoted to grammar, six chapters deal with Māori vocabulary, culture, music, literature, customs and concepts of astronomy and the appendix is a detailed review by Stowell entitled, "Critical notes on the Rev. R. Maunsells’ Grammar of the New Zealand Language: [Fourth Edition, 1894]".
  • The Strange Māori. [Microform] Henry Matthew Stowell. [Wellington, N.Z.: National Library of New Zealand, Microfilm Production Unit, 19--]
  • Further reference in Benton

    • Poetry

  • "The Defence of Orakau." No details.
  • "Māori Hymn to the Creator." Māori-English Tutor and Vade-Mecum. Christchurch, N.Z.: Whitcombe and Tombs, [1911]. 229-231.
  • In this song of praise to the Māori gods, Rangi, Rongo, Tane and Tu, the speaker alludes to the "aching hearts" of Māoridom. He closes each stanza with "Oh Rangi! Rongo! Tane! Tu! /Be with us still, however few." A curious mix of Victorian hymn incorporating Māori imagery.