Rewi Manga Maniapoto : a study in the changing strategies of nineteenth century Maori political leadership

Abstract

This study is essentially an attempt at a political biography of Rewi Maniapoto. The writer sees him as the representative figure of nineteenth century Maori political leadership, uncertain of its future, groping for direction, and struggling beneath the weight of enormous social and political tensions created by the onslaught of British colonial expansion. Because of the obvious lack of sufficient documentary evidence available, it has been impossible to narrate the early and middle periods of Rewi's life in its cutivity. Accordingly, this work has been limited to a study of Rewi's politics rather than the affairs of his private life. However, the writer has tried to fill part of the gap by drawing upon the nature of the background circumstances that would most likely have influenced him - either directly or indirectly - at the various crucial stages of his life.