Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1909. SEVENTY YEARS AGO.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7829, 23 June 1909, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1909. SEVENTY YEARS AGO.

The so-called claim of the " American Government against the Government I of New Zealand, for five hundred thousand pounds sterling revives the memory of one of the most interesting incidents m the colony's early history As the case stands, it is stated that the claim is made on behalf of the descendants of an American citizen named Webster. This person was no fictitious character, but a very real man, some of whose characteristics were singu- ! larly like some of the characteristics of the late Mr Seddou. Seventy years ago Webster exercised as much _a"tliority on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf, and elsewhere m the Auckland district, as Mr Seddon did at a later day throughout New Zealand. When Dr. John Logan Campbell—now known as Sir John Logan Campbell, nonagerian and donor of Cornwall Park —arrived m New Zealand at the end of 1839 when he was twenty-three years of age, he found Webster, who had married the daughter of the powerful chief Tanewha, settled at the beautiful bay of Waiou, m the Herekino district, now known as Coromandel, on the shores of Te Hauraki. Webster's story is told m the pages of Sir John Logan Campbell's Poenamo with a simplicity which enables the reader to realise the charm, the romance, and the risks of life m those early days, and especially the arcadianism that prevailed at Waiou under its American monarch. " The king"—we quote from Poenamo —" was not a Maori king; he was a Yankee one, known as Webster by the Pakehas, and as Waipeha by the Maoris. Waipeha reigned supreme, not only m the harbour of Waiou, but along the whole shore of Te Hauraki, even unto the mouths of the Waiho and Piak'o rivers, if not a good way up them. W raiheki, Ponui, and adjacent islets owned his sway, and m not a few places utterly unknown to Pakeha the name of W raipeha wa& *. power. From whence this power, which extended over so wide a territory, came, I shall m due course explain. Waipeha was a big man: he was, though a Yankee, as burly as a veritable John Bull. He was not only big m body but also m brain, whence came his retention of the power he wielded, though not the power itself. Waipeha had taken a wife—native fashion, and ' without the benefit of clergy'—from the tribe of the great chief Tanewha, who could muster his three hundred fighting men. Under the shadow of the great Tanewha, who was known by the sobriquet of Old Hook Nose, from a certain resemblance to Wellington—under his shadow lived and reigned Waipeha. But he ruled through the talismanic effects of two words, and throughout his dominions no two words were more often repeated by his subjects than the whare hoko—trading house —of Waipeha. His strength lay m an unpre-tending-looking little building m one corner of Herekino beach—this whare hoko; for if a tribe offended him, he simply shut the door of his whare hoko m their faces; ho tabooed all his blankets and guns, his calico and spades, his cotton prints and tomahawks. It was terrible enough to have to stand this dire punishment, but when there was also included the ambrosial weed and the clay pipe, human nature could stand it no longer, and tho proscribed humbly sued for pardon at the wharo hoko door of Herekino that they might be admitted within its dearly-loved precincts and be at peace with its master." Later on m his book, the author tells of the decline of Webster's power and fortunes. After describing a farewell occasion, he says: "Many were the occasions upon which afterwards for a I decade of years I stumbled across Wai-! peha, but from that day when we left him standing on the shore of his deserted kingdom, his former glory, which had now so completely waned, never returned, and the King of Waiou, by slow but inevitable degrees, was robbed of his once supreme power. For the influx of Pakehas, consequent upon the colonisation of Maoridom, killed his monopoly with the aborigines. He was elbowed on all sides, but he strongly held his own for a good long time through his early knowledge of the natives and their language. When the Californian diggings were discovered m after years, ho, with many others, sailed for the Golden Gate, and Poenamo has known him no more." Apparently, however, if the telegrams of the day are to be trusted, the modern New Zealander may have to pay pretty dearly for the interest which the early history of his country derives from its association with the name and adventures of Webster— Waipeha, King of Waiou, when Waiou was a Maoriland Arcadia seventy long years ago.