This
is a Maori memory of their ancestors' actions against
the British in the 19th century land
wars. It
helped make The Howard Morrison
Quartet extremely popular in the 1960s. It is a
variant of The Battle of New Orleans.
C
ln 1840
F we all had to go
G Along with old Te
Kooti
C To the mighty Waikato
C We took a little puha
F And we took a little pork
G And we caught some blooming horses
C So we didn't have to walk
Chorus:
C So
we threw our spears
And the British kept a'coming
There wasn't quite as many
G As
there C was
a time ago So we threw some more
They all began a'running
Down to Te Kawata ("TEE
ker WOT ter") On the G
mighty
WaikaC -to
They
fired their muskets
Till the barrels melted down
And they powdered our behinds
Until we rolled round the ground
They laughed so loudly that
They all began to sing
While we hid beneath the rata
And we never said a thing.
Chorus:
Now
Old Te Kooti said
We'll take them by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets
Till we'd looked them in the eye.
We stood quite still
Till we'd seen their faces well
Then we ran out and faced them
And we really gave them ----well.
Chorus:
Origins
of the song
Andrew
Jackson's small, poorly equipped American army routed
eight thousand front-line British troops at New Orleans on
January, 8th, 1815 thus ending the War of 1812. A fiddle
tune "Jackson's Victory" was written to be played at
dances and parties commemorating the victory. Later the
tune's name was changes to "The 8th of January."
In
1958, history teacher Jimmy Driftwood slowed "The 8th of
January" down and used its tune to describe that 1815
battle to his class, very vividly and accurately. The song
was quickly taken up by other singers and "The Battle of
New Orleans" was a big commercial hit in 1959. Merito
changed some of the words in 1960.
Howard Morrison was born in Rotorua in 1936, in a
rugby-playing family. In 1955, while working as a surveyor's
chainman, he started putting together vocal groups to
entertain at rugby club socials in Rotorua. In 1956 he
toured Australia as a member of the Aotearoa Concert Party.
Wi, Gerry, Noel
and Howard
On
his return, he heard guitarist Gerry Merito and
put together a group with Gerry and two others, Wi
Wharekura and Noel Kingi, and named the group Howard
Morrison Quartet. In 1958 they became part of Benny
Levin's touring 'Pop Jamboree.' A recording they made of
"Hoki Mai/ Po Karekare Ana" sold well, and in 1959 their
parody of "The Battle Of New Orleans," recorded as The
Battle Of The Waikato, became one of their biggest
hits.
In 1960 they were so popular their managers released 13
singles, 3 EP's and 2 LP's. Another parody of Lonnie
Donegan, "My Old Man's A Dustman" was rewritten by Gerry
Merito as "My Old Man's An All
Black." This was highly topical because of the huge
controversy over Maoris not being allowed to tour South
Africa with that year's All Blacks.
Moving into 1962, two of their singles were more parodies,
with Ray Steven's "Ahab The Arab" becoming "Mori The
Hori" and Pat Boone's "Speedy Gonzales" becoming "George
The Wilder Colonial Boy", celebrating the exploits
of escaped convict George Wilder.
Due to the constant touring and absence from families, the
quartet disbanded in 1965.
Gerry
Merito merges Maori memories of three wars against the
British here.
1840s
The first battles against the British were in 1844, in
the far north at Kororareka and involved the war chief
Hone Heke and a detachment of 140 soldiers of the 96th
Regiment,
The
Waikato invasion
The Land War battles for British control of the rich
Waikato farmlands were in the early 1860s. In July 1863
there was a massive British Army invasion south from
Auckland of the Maori King Tawhiao's ancestral
home area, the Waikato. Skirmishing at Koheroa and
Meremere followed by a major engagement at Rangiriri.
With Rangiriri taken, the British Army pushed south,
ultimately defeating Waikato and allies at Orakau in
1864. The Maori King Tawhiao and his people fled west,
and took refuge in what later became known as the 'King
Country'.
Te
Kooti
Te Kooti Rikirangi of the Rongowhakaata iwi escaped from
imprisonment on the Chatham Islands in 1868 in an
attempt to claim land in the Waikato. And with adherents
was pursued across the breadth of the North Island. A
long and complex series of engagements involved Maori,
settlers and the Armed Constabulary. Te Kooti finally
accepted the offer of refuge and terms from Tawhiao, and
in 1872 retired into the King Country, where he
consolidated and propagated the Ringatu religion. He had
persistently claimed that, if he was left alone, he
would live in peace and this is exactly what he did.
