Te Rauangaanga Mahuta's Story

How would you feel if you were forced to go to war?

When the number of men volunteering for service started to drop, men like Te Rauangaanga Mahuta were forced to either enlist, or face jail.

The young men of Waikato-Maniapoto did not participate in the First World War because tribal leader Princess Te Puea Herangi had encouraged many of her people not to enlist. She, with many others, was following her ancestor King Tāwhiao's call to his tribe never to fight a war again after he had made peace with the Crown.

When conscription began the enlistment age went from twenty to eighteen. They needed more soldiers, and they were going to get them. When they came calling in the Waikato, those who said no were arrested and sent to Narrow Neck Military Camp in Auckland for training. One of them was the fourth Māori King Te Rata's youngest brother, Te Rauangaanga Mahuta.

His attestation isn’t like the ones handwritten by men volunteering to serve. It was typewritten, and because they didn’t know much about him, barely any of the questions were answered.

They forced him to sign. He marked an X.

In the section declaring his age, they’d written “Unknown, About 20 Years.”

He was sixteen.

Discover more parts of Te Rauangaangaa's story.

what were the words of king tawhiao that tainui held fast to?

In June 1860 Tāwhiao became the second Māori King. Tāwhiao's reign was dominated by the consequences of the British invasion of the Waikato in 1863. As a result of this war Tāwhiao and his people became refugees in Ngāti Maniapoto country (which became known as the King Country). About 1.2 million acres (just under half a million hectares) of Waikato land was confiscated by the government in 1864. After he had finally made his peace with the Crown in 1881, he forbade Waikato to take up arms again.

What were the guiding words that he used?

find the article describing what had happened at te paina pa.

A crowd greeted police when they arrived at Te Paina on 11 June 1918. After being escorted into the meeting house, they read out the names of those who were to be arrested. Nobody moved and Te Puea made it clear that she would not co-operate. King Te Rata's 16-year-old brother, Te Rauangaanga, was also seized. Police caused great offence by stepping over the King's personal flag, which had been protectively laid before Te Rauangaanga. Use Papers Past to locate articles that describes this event. Do you think this is a fair reporting of the event.

find the records of tainui soldiers who enlisted  

Records of Tainui soldiers conscripted during the First World War are not able to be searched for on Cenotaph. Use Discovering Anzacs to locate the records of the soldiers who were called in the Ballot.  Identify the methods of passive resistance that Tainui devised to subvert the enlistment process. You can see several on Te Rauangaanga's file - Refusal to sign his name; "forgetting' his parents names; "forgetting" his place of birth or age. Mis-spelling of names happened on both sides - the pakeha side from lack of attention to detail and the Tainui side as a strategy to avoid identification.

Ask why this story isn't told?

what happened to the soldiers imprisoned at narrowneck prison?

Find Narrowneck Prison on the map. What happened to soldiers sent to Narrowneck? How did Princess Te Puea show her support to the men imprisoned there?