A MYSTERIOUS ESCAPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 258, 31 October 1925, Page 28

A MYSTERIOUS ESCAPE.

THE FLITTING FROM KAWAU ISLAND. The hulk on which the Maori prisoners were kept when in Auckland was the Marion. Subsequently the hulk foundered, and the wreck was blown up by the Provincial Government, which in those days had control of the harbour. The manner in which the Maori prisoners escaped from the Kawau has always been mores or less of a mystery. On the island the guard consisted of the Rev. B. Y. Ashwell, an emotional little man, who had been in charge of a mission station in the Waikato, a doctor, an interpreter named White, and one warder, or according to other accounts a few warders. One September morning Auckland was astonished by the report that all but two of the prisoners had escaped from the island. How they got away no one seems to know. Mr. if. B. Morton, in some reminiscences of old Auckland, says: Several small vessels had been noticed in the vicinity of the island, and it was supposed they helped the Maoris to get over to the mainland. As he points out, to ferry two hundred men over in one night would be a tedious task. The well-known writer on Maori

THE REV. WILLIAM GITTOS. It was fortunate that the first Albertlanders found such a remarkable guide, philosopher aad friend as the Rev. William Gittos. Wesleyaa missionary to the Maoris on the Oruawharo and Otamatea Rivers, he exercised quite a partriarehal sway ever his flock, and it was mainly owing to his wise influence that the Northern natives were kept right during the exciting time when the Maori war was raging in the Waikato. Mr. Gittos was a splendid stamp of the pioneer missionary, earnest, forceful and just; to which he added a wonderfully sympathetic knowledge of the Maori. Each respected the other, and the natives obeyed him as a dutiful child does his parent.

topics, "W. 8.," of Otorohanga, says a Maori told him the prisoners were helped by their compatriots on the mainland, and we*e all ferried over the channel one dark night, four canoes being used. With regard to what happened on the mainland, Mr. Morton says that the prisoners appear to have had a considerable 6um of money with them. He further says the only serious and definite charge against them while in the North was that they shot a few bullocks that were running in the bush. According to Mr. Morton's reminiscences a deputation of Matakana settlers came to Auckland and reported that the prisoners were fortifying Mount Hamilton. Sir George Grey (who was accused by rumour Of having connived at the escape from Kawau) dashed off to the scene in H.M.a. Miranda, but the natives only laughed at him. Mr. Searancke, a Government interpreter, was sent to negotiate with the " rebels," but they refused to listen to suggestions that they should return to Kawau. <'How many birds having escaped from the trap return to it?" they very pertinently asked him. Weeks were spent, in" fruitless negotiations, and eventually, says Mr. Morton, these erstwhile prisoners were allowed, probably assisted, to filter through to their old homes in the Waikato, and the fanje came to an end. ItHras saichthat boats were left in suitable places on the Manukau to enable them to cross at the Heads on their long overland trek. , a . (Next Weak: Mr. B, M. Cubb'a Reminiscences), 10 — ~