(ka) mahue te ...
1. why didn't [you], [you] should have, could have, could've, instead of, rather than, rather than doing what is right you do something else - an idiom used to criticise someone's thoughtless action, or something that should have been done but was not.
I mākū au i te ua. E hoa e! Ka mahue te hari tāporena. / I got soaked in the rain. Good grief! Why didn't you take a raincoat.
Porowhiua ana e Kui ōna kaka papai tonu ki te rāpihi. Mahue ana te hoatu ki ngā pōhara o tana whānau (HJ 2012:35). / Nan threw her good dresses into the rubbish. She could have given them to the poor of her extended family.
Ka mahue te mihi atu i konei, waiho rawa kia tae rā anō ki reira. / Rather than doing the greeting here, leave it until we finally arrive there.
