Tuku: gifts for a king and the panoplies of Titore and Patuone: Philip G. Parkinson: Tuhinga 23

Tuhinga 23: 53-68

ABSTRACT: The customary practice of tuku, or gift exchange, by Māori chiefs is exemplified in the formal gifts of two mere pounamu (greenstone clubs) by Tītore and Patuone to King William IV of the United Kingdom in 1834, in the expectation of a formal return. The formal return was of two sets of plate armour, that for Tītore arriving in 1835 and that for Patuone two years later, in 1837. The former is in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) but the latter is lost, although a receipt and a detailed description survive, along with good documentation. The two mere pounamu (as far as can be determined) have also been located and are illustrated for the first time; they are still in the Royal Collection, at St James’s Palace, London. ‘His Highness Titore’ was killed at the Bay of Islands in 1837, but a formal salute to him was fired from HMS Rattlesnake on the orders of Captain William Hobson at that time. Patuone dined with Hobson on HMS Herald on 6 February 1840, presenting him with a further mere pounamu for Queen Victoria, as he had for her late uncle. This mere is one of two that were retained in Hobson’s family after his death in 1842, and is also in Te Papa, here illustrated. Patuone’s gifts to the Queen symbolically confirmed his cession of sovereignty to her.

KEYWORDS: tuku, mere pounamu, plate armour, Tītore, Patuone, panoplies, King William IV, Captain William Hobson, Treaty of Waitangi, archival records.