3-011-730 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Tomb of Te Where Where, alias Potatau, the first Maori king, at Ngaruwahia, New Zealand, 1864. 'The personal career of King Potatau was a very remarkable one. The name of Potatau, which signifies "He who counteth by night," was given to him on account of his sleepless attention at the deathbed of a lamented wife. He had formerly been called "Te Where Where," or, the Red Man, because he was the first who wore a red blanket when English cloth was imported into New Zealand...Potatau, who had resided some years near Auckland, was a friendly old man, and had rendered much service to the Colonial Government, which allowed him a pension...Old Potatau, it seems, died of a broken heart. He had been reading the cruel and insolent language of one of the Auckland newspapers, which threatened the "niggers" with condign vengeance...to the Maoris around him he said, "Hold fast to love, to law, and to the faith." The tomb of Potatau, as shown in our Engraving, is a curious wooden structure, something like a small summer-house, painted white, and surrounded by a ditch and bank. A British soldier stood centry [sic] over the place at the time the photograph was taken'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.