PARIHAKA 'INCIDENT'

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 266, 10 November 1938, Page 10

PARIHAKA 'INCIDENT'

ARREST OF TE WHITI.

An active particijiant in the aliove stirring incident would not t-ee so much of what went on as impartial observers who had listened to or read perhaps a dozen or more accounts of what took place, all true, but varied because of the parts the narrators took in such an historical event. Yet I must congratulate Mr. A. Julian, a noted athlete in my boyhood days, 011 the account he gave 111 the SaturdayV issue of your paper of the arrest of Te Whiti and the dispersal of the natives at Parihaka. He state* Te Wliiti's age at about 84, and I am glad he did this, because it is sakl that 011 the prophet's tombstone at Parihaka it is stated that his age was SK). Calculating from the main periods of the events of his life, I have often put his age down at 80 years, or a little over. The point I want to make is that the early Maoris took no account of their age. If you asked them the a re of any of their children they could, only guess; they did not know exactly. We often read of Maoris dying at a great age and the number of their years stated, but I know from my own experience that it is ofttimes a mere guess; they may be younger or older than Ihe ase stated. The younscer relatives often thought it was an honour for the ages of the old Maoris to he given as much older than they really were. The Mesmeric Titokowaru. Mr. Julian describes Titokowaru as an undersized old man. 111 his extreme old age he may have appeared to lie such, but it appears to me this is ;1 wrong <le=:ri|ition of this ruthless but great Maori warrior. Tn his declining years he was much bent by rheumatism, but he was certainly not an undersized man. In his prime lie was noted for his strength and endurance, with almost mesmeric influence over his followers. Till lie lost an eye he had a striking appearance and very often compelled those who <1 i<l not want to fi..]it for him to do his behests, laurua —a direct descendant of Turi, a great chief who lived at Tlukatcre. Patea—was a case in point. Taurua did not want to fight the pakehas. but live at peace with them. Titokowaru overruled his peaceful wishes and compiled him to tight. The result was that Taurua and his followers were arrested and imprisoned at Dnnediu. was not a high-grade chief and owed his great influence over his men. and his success as a warrior solely to his magnetic personality. He had been a cannibal more recently than many Maoris after the European occupation, and that was one aspect of li is campaigns which made his character so repulsive to early settlers. He clung to the old Maori methods of showing 110 quarter to enemies, whether they were men. women or children. Meiha Keeua Te Arangihiwinni. lietter known as Major Kemp, a 'Maori chief who fought for th© Government against Titokowaru. always loathed the latter's clinging to his barbarous methods of conductinc warfare, which had been eschewed by all other Maori leaders and warriors in their later campaigns. —W. K. HOW ITT.