The Evening Star : WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News, and The Echo. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1880.

Auckland Star, Volume XI, Issue 3167, 13 September 1880, Page 2

The Evening Star : WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News, and The Echo.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1880.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in ths distance. And th c eood that we can do

" Wiremu KINGI, says a ISew Plymouth telegram to-day, "isboing borno to Parihaka on a stretcher, accompanied by the remnant of his tribe, to ond his days there." Only twenty years have elapsed since this chief was tho absorbing topic in tho Legislature and the Press. Commissioners waited upon him, long dispatches to tho Imperial Government were filled with his sayings and doings, and an army was summoned to oppose his crusade against the Pakeba : and now only thirty adherents icmaiu to awaKen in the minds of old colonists recollections of the past. The molancholy pilgrimage of the old chief and tlio few survivors of his tribe in search of a resting place might bo taken as typifying the decline of the native race. With startling rapidity tho people- are fading away before advancing civilisation. What war began with Wi Kingi, land sales, frontier grog stores and blankets are completing with a groat majority of the tribes throughout these islands, and another twenty years inny see changes with respect to tho whole Maori people in comparison with which Wiremu Kingi's decline is only v faint prototype. It is perhaps worth while for the benefit of the now generation that haa sprung up since Wi Kingi was the most conspicuous figure in New Zealand to revive the story of his doings, especially aa it involves the origin of the Maori war. Kingi's tribe was never a strong one since European colonisation became an important factoiin New Zealand history. A largo proportion of it had been slaughtered by the Waikatoa, and the balance driven into exile. When Colonel Wakefield arrived as tho agent of the New Zealand Company in 1840, he found only about 40 natives of the Ngatiawa tribe settled in the vicinity of tho site choson for New Plymouth, and from these he purchased a very large tract of land, satisfying the claims of the conquerors by a payment of £ 1,50, a pair of horses with saddies and bridles, and 100 red blankets. But two years later tho main body of the tribe returned, and re-asserted their rights over tho territory from which they had been expelled. Mr Commissioner Spain investigated the matter and declared that the natives had lost their land by the fortunes of war, and that the New Zealand Company were tho lawful purchasers. But the natives becoming more hostile in their demonstrations against the young and helpless settlement, Governor Fitzroy set Mr Spain's decision aside, purchased tho site of New Plymouth for £350, and awarded the New Zealand Company 60,000 acres around it. The territory beyond was left, like tho Waimate Plains in subsequent years, an open question. Continual disputes aroso. Not only did Wi Kingi, the chief of the tribe, refuse to recognise the European title, but he forbad any natives from selling. A chief named Kawiri, who offered land for sale, was killed by the natives when taking surveyors to lay it off. ]n 1859, when Governor Gore Browne was at Taranaki with tho object of settling tho difficulty, a chief named Teira (Taylor) offered to sell the Waitara block. Wi Kingi warned tho Governor against buying it, and declared that Europeans should never occupy the land. Taylor pressed the purchase on the Governor, and after some correspondence. — Teira urging, and Wi Kingi protesting against the bargain—the sum of £200 was paid to Teira, and a survey was ordered. When the surveyors commenced their work, Wi Kingi, with about fifty followers, many of them women, pulled up the pegs and smashed the theodolite. Troops were ordered to protect the surveyors ; the natives built a pah : and the first Taranaki war was begun. In a few weeks the handful of Imperial troops found themselves opposed by 1,200 natives. Wi Kingi's words came true, for a few years later Sir George Grey, who had succeeded Colonel Browne in the Governorship, found that Taylor had no title to the Waitara. block and restored the land. But the flames of war had been lighted, and it continued to blaze, with inter-

missions, for eight years, during which time homesteads were wasted, settlement stopped, and a large number Of lives lost.

For many years Wi Kingi lias lived quietly On his land, but has never been fully reconciled to the Europeans. His journey to Pavihaka with his few remaining belongings proves that the tradicions of his raoe maintain their sway over the feeblo old man, All his contact with Governors and Commissioners, with Christianity,with railways, and tho appurtenances of civilization, leavo him as they found him—a savage.