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Pah-Pasihaka [Parihaka] in Südwesten belagerte und sie bei dieser Belagerung einen Ueberfall
fürchteten, gegen welchem sie sich vorbereiteten.” 178 Sterbende Welt’s contribution on the matter,
however, gives unequal weighting to the present state of affairs through the assumption that it is
their hatred and mistrust of the British which could bring about a new conflict, as the Maori
prophet, Te Whiti-o-Rongomai, was at that moment besieged by British troops (193), 179 and that
Reischek’s place among the ‘Hauhau’ was therefore a “recht gefährliche” one (187). Despite a
fine of £50 for selling Maori weapons and ammunition, “hatten diese doch genug Gewehre,
Säbel, Revolver und Fässer voll Pulver; sie hatten auch ihre Officiere und die Mannschaft
einexercirt, und ausserdem ist der Maori ein tapferer Kämpfer”. 180 Even aged warriors, he notes,
were still in peak physical condition for fighting (206).
The most contentious issue that arises out of Reischek’s perceptions of the Maori is
without a doubt his son’s claim (although it is commonly attributed to his father) that the explorer
had been adopted as an honorary Maori chief, 181 which naturally would have held more weight if
he actually had been the first and only European to enter the King Country. Importantly, this
statement says as much about Reischek’s image of the Maori as it does about his self-perceptions,
or at least his son’s perceptions of his father. Furthermore, the validity of the above assertion
must also be taken with a grain of salt, as nineteenth-century Europeans were rather liberal in
their claims of Pakeha with Maori chieftainship. 182 Nevertheless, it should not simply be
dismissed altogether without viewing the available facts and placing it within the context of
nineteenth-century Maori-Pakeha relations. In Sterbende Welt the scene unfolds with the surprise
of Te Whitiora presenting Reischek with a huia tail on behalf of Tawhiao, “die höchste
Auszeichnung, die der König oder Oberhäuptling verleihen kann”:
Sie bedeutet die Verleihung der Häuptlingswürde, die insoweit erblich ist, als sie auf das
erstgeborene Kind der Hauptfrau, 183 gleichgültig, ob Knabe oder Mädchen, übergeht. Sollte mir,
nach glücklicher Heimkehr zu meiner lieben Frau, ein Sohn oder Töchterchen beschieden werden,
dann wird Österreich um ein Fürstengeschlecht reicher sein!
Der Häuptling hielt folgende Ansprache an mich:
178
Reischek, “Meine Reisen auf Neu-Seeland”, 617.
179
Parihaka had in fact been stormed in November 1881, and Te Whiti and others were arrested without a fight. (See
Danny Keenan, “Te Whiti-o-Rongomai III, Erueti ? – 1907: Taranaki leader, prophet” in: DNZB 2, 530-32;
Kirkwood, Tawhiao, 92-99.)
180
Reischek, “Meine Reisen auf Neu-Seeland”, 617.
181
See 189f., 316.
182
Hochstetter, for example, refers to Sir George Grey as having reached the “Rang ihrer höchsten Häuptlinge”
(Hochstetter, Neu-Seeland, 499), and also mentions a William Bailey Baker at the Native Department in Auckland
who had been adopted as a chief by the Ngati Kahununui under the name Te Huia (ibid., 522).
183
Priday omits reference to the principal wife having to give birth to the first-born child (YIM, 163).
265