Ngapuhi speaker 'mistaken' in war tally

A Ngapuhi speaker at Waitangi on Friday exaggerated numbers when he said about 8000 servicemen from the iwi had fought in World War II.

Wira Gardiner, author of Te Mua o te Ahi: The Story of the Maori Battalion, said yesterday that using a rough measure, about a fifth of the 3600 who volunteered and saw action with the 28th (Maori) Battalion would have been Ngapuhi.

The speaker at the dawn service said that about 8000 Ngapuhi had fought and five out of seven had not come back.

"I think Stephen Franks was much nearer the truth," said Mr Gardiner, referring to the Act MP's assertion that 8000 Maori had served overseas and about 650 had been killed.

In all, more than 11,600 New Zealanders in the country's forces died in the war, including 649 Maori on active service with the Maori Battalion.

Mr Gardiner said it was "highly possible" that 8000 Maori served overseas because they also served in the Navy, Air Force and other New Zealand units.

The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History says 15,744 Maori volunteered for service at home and abroad between 1939 and 1945, "a figure made all the more remarkable by the fact that the Maori population of New Zealand at the time was just under 100,000".

Mr Gardiner said the Ngapuhi speaker at Waitangi was mistaken but would not have set out to mislead.

"It is just part of the rhetoric of marae and part of the rhetoric of speech-making."

Mr Gardiner joked: "He is entitled to boast because they were good soldiers. But he was not entitled to boast in front of historians who want to check the accuracy."