The purpose of all my efforts is to become able to read rongorongo texts. It is encouraging to find different glyph expressions for similar concepts, that is exactly how language works - there must be different expressions in order to distinguish.

 

Tarupu 1. To oppose, to prevent, to hinder, to shackle, to interfere, to interpose, to intervene, obstacle, to dissuade, to stop. Hakatarupu, to set an obstracle. Tarupuhaga, obstacle, hindrance. 2. To aid, to contribute, to defend, to interest, to protect, to help, to save, to succor, to sustain, to support, to urge; favor, zeal, service, protection, advocate, mediator. Tarupuhaga, protection, succor, support. Churchill.

The chief (ariki) is opposing (tarupu) the old year from moving further. But he is 'at the same time' also helping (tarupu) the new year on its way. The Polynesian language offers a Rosetta stone:

(Wikipedia)

 

Hatu 1. Clod of earth; cultivated land; arable land (oone hatu). 2. Compact mass of other substances: hatu matá, piece of obsidian. 3. Figuratively: manava hatu, said of persons who, in adversity, stay composed and in control of their behaviour and feelings. 4. To advise, to command. He hatu i te vanaga rivariva ki te kio o poki ki ruga ki te opata, they gave the refugees the good advice not to climb the precipice; he hatu i te vanaga rakerake, to give bad advice. 5. To collude, to unite for a purpose, to concur. Mo hatu o te tia o te nua, to agree on the price of a nua cape. 6. Result, favourable outcome of an enterprise. He ká i te umu mo te hatu o te aga, to light the earth oven for the successful outcome of an enterprise. Vanaga. 1. Haatu, hahatu, mahatu. To fold, to double, to plait, to braid; noho hatu, to sit crosslegged; hoe hatu, clasp knife; hatuhatu, to deform. 2.. To recommend. Churchill. In the Polynesian dialects proper, we find Patu and Patu-patu, 'stone', in New Zealand; Fatu in Tahiti and Marquesas signifying 'Lord', 'Master', also 'Stone'; Haku in the Hawaiian means 'Lord', 'Master', while with the intensitive prefix Po it becomes Pohaku, 'a stone'. Fornander.

Huri 1. To turn (vt.), to overthrow, to knock down: huri moai, the overthrowing of the statues from their ahus during the period of decadence on the island. 2. To pour a liquid from a container: ka huri mai te vai, pour me some water. 3. To end a lament, a mourning: he huri i te tagi, ina ekó tagi hakaou, with this the mourning (for the deceased) is over, there shall be no more crying. 4. New shoot of banana: huri maîka. Vanaga. 1. Stem. P Mgv.: huri, a banana shoot. Mq.: hui, shoot, scion. 2. To turn over, to be turned over onto another side, to bend, to lean, to warp; huri ke, to change, to decant; tae huri ke, invariable; huri ke tahaga no mai, to change as the wind; tae huri, immovable; e ko huri ke, infallible; huhuri, rolling; hakahuri, to turn over; hakahuri ke, to divine. P Pau.: huri, to turn. Mgv.: huri, uri, to turn on one side, to roll, to turn upside down, to reverse. Mq.: hui, to turn, to reverse. 3. To throw, to shoot. 4. To water, to wet. 5. To hollow out. Hurihuri: 1. Wrath, anger; kokoma hurihuri, animosity, spite, wrath, fury, hate, enmity, irritable, quick tempered, to feel offended, to resent, to pester; kokoma hurihuri ke, to be in a rage. 2. (huri 4) hurihuri titi, to fill up. 3. To polish. 4. (uriuri). Hurikea, to transfigure, to transform. Churchill. Mq. huri, resemblance. Sa.: foliga, to resemble. Churchill.

As to hatu huri we will understand too. The new year is released like a little clod of earth (hatu), a resemblance (huri) of the old year, knocking over (huri) the old one by its arrival.

Time is folded (haatu) at the joint and the old and new years are plaited together.

Hatu is the 'favourable outcome of an enterprise' - at least if the earth oven has been alighted: He ká i te umu mo te hatu o te aga, to light the earth oven for the successful outcome of an enterprise.

It is the old lady (nuahine) in the moon (marama) who 'holds' (ma'u) the embers (maramara). She will set the new fire into motion. We can now understand why Metoro said the opposite in i mamau i te ahi - it is the same idea as tarupu, to stop a season is necessarily the same thing as forwarding a new season:

 

Mau, ma'u Mau. 1. Very, highly; ûka keukeu mau, very hard-working girl. 2. To be plentiful; he-mau to te kaiga, the island abounds in food. 3. Properly. Ma'u. 1. To carry, to transport; he-ma'u-mai, to bring; he-ma'u-atu, to remove, ma'u tako'a, to take away with oneself; te tagata hau-ha'a i raro, ina ekó ma'u-tako'a i te hauha'a o te kaiga nei ana mate; bienes terrenales cuando muere → a rich man in this world world cannot take his earthly belongings with him when he dies. 2. To fasten, to hold something fast, to be firm; ku ma'u-á te veo, the nail holds fast. 3. To contain, to hold back; kai ma'u te tagi i roto, he could not hold his tears back. Vanaga. 1. As soon as, since. 2. Several; te mau tagata, a collective use. 3. Food, meat; mau nui, abundance of food, provision, harvest; mau ke avai, abundance. 4. End, to take away. 5. To hold, to seize, to detain, to arrest, to retain, to catch, to grasp. 6. Certain, sure, true, correct, to confide in; mau roa, indubitable, sure. 7. Fixed, constant, firm, stable, resolute, calm; tae mau, not fixed, unstable; mau no, stable; hakamau, to make firm, to attach, to consolidate, to tie, to assure; pena hakamau, bridle; hakamau ihoiho, to immortalize; hakamau iho, restoration. 8. To give, to accord, to remit, to satisfy, to deliver; to accept, to adopt, debt; to embark, to raise. Mamau. To arrest. Churchill. OR. All. Fischer. T. 1. Really. E ari'i mau teie vahine = this woman really is a princess. 2. Things. Te mau mautai = plenty of things. 3. Hold. A toro te a'a, a mau te one = the roots spread and held the sand. Henry.

As Fornander said, to cut is to send away, to make a distance to:

... I am well aware that most, perhaps all, prominent philologists of the present time - 'whose shoe-strings I am not worthy to unlace' - refer the Latin sequor, secus, even sacer, and the Greek έπω, έπομαι, to this Sanskrit sach. Benfey even refers the Greek έκας to this sach, as explanatory of its origin and meaning.

But, under correction, and even without the Polynesian congeners, I should hold that sach, 'to follow', in order to be a relative to sacer, doubtless originally meaning 'set apart', then 'devoted, holy', and of έκας, 'far off', doubtless originally meaning something 'separated', 'cut off from, apart from', must also originally have had a meaning of 'to be separated from, apart from', and then derivatively 'to come after, to follow'.

The sense of 'to follow' implies the sense of 'to be apart from, to come after', something preceding. The links of this connection in sense are lost in Sanskrit, but still survive in the Polynesian haki, fati, and its contracted form hai, fai, hahai, as shown above. I am therefore inclined to rank the Latin sequor as a derivative of seco, 'to cut off, take off' ...

Hati is the closing word of certain songs:

Hati Hati 1. To break (v.t., v.i.); figuratively: he hati te pou oka, to die, of a hopu manu in the exercise of his office (en route from Motu Nui to Orongo). 2. Closing word of certain songs. Vanaga. Hahati. 1. To break (see hati). 2. Roughly treated, broken (from physical exertion: ku hahati á te hakari) 3. To take to the sea: he hahati te vaka. Vanaga. Ha(ha)ti. To strike, to break, to peel off bark; slip, cutting, breaking, flow, wave (aati, ati, hahati); tai hati, breakers, surf; tumu hatihati, weak in the legs; hakahati, to persuade; hatipu, slate. P Pau.: fati, to break. Mgv.: ati, hati, to break, to smash. Mq.: fati, hati, id. Ta.: fati, to rupture, to break, to conquer. Churchill.

A synonym to hati, I discovered while investigating marama, mamara, mamari, and similarly sounding words, is mamao, a word peculiarly similar to Metoro's mamau: