ABOARD THE CUTTER KATE A Boy's Adventures On The Bay Of Plenty Coast

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

ABOARD THE CUTTER KATE A Boy's Adventures On The Bay Of Plenty Coast

The great morning star that the Maoris call Tawera had just risen elear of the dark wall <>f hill* behind the Whakatane village, when two whaleboats tilled with armed Maoris pushed, olf silently into the estuary. A white-bearded mail, a Hauhau priest, held out his hands towards them as they left the shore and muttered an incantation for success in their secret mission. The night was clear; "the stars shone like lamps.

The Maoris used paddles instead of the whaleboat oars, so that they could make a noiseless passage. The crews paddled so cautiously down stream that not a splash was heard in that hour when all sounds travelled far. The old tohunga who had uttered the Pai-marire charm-words over them was Horomona; lie had come from Taranaki witli, the prophet Kereopa, who had shortly 'before the events to ha narrated here hanged the good missionary Yolkner on the willow tree near his own church in Opotiki.

By James Cowan.

The first boat was steered by a man named Kiri-mangu ("Black Skin'). a leader in the murderous work ot the Pai-marire. _ With the utmost caution the padrilers, with easy dips of their blades, drew alongside a small cutter which lav anchored just outside the bar at the entrance to Wliakatane liaruonr. Blacl* Skin, with raised hand, signalled to the crews for silence, then stepped up on to the cutter's deck. Most of the Maoris, all barefooted, as quiet!v followed -him; the others held the' boats alongside without making ropes fast. Xot a sound from the cutter s people. All slept the sound slumber that comes just 'before the first signs of dawn. The. - little vessel boarded by the piratical-looking crew was the cutter Kate, a coast-trading craft chartered by Mr. Bennett Wliite, of Whakatane, to bring, &_ cargo ■of goods from Auckland for ins store. White and his young half-caste son, a boy of about 14 years, were passengers. Another. passenger from Auckland was a Mr. James Fulloon; he was a surveyor by calling, and was at this time engaged on special- service for the Government, inquiring into Mai,ori. affairs following on the murder of the revered missionary, Mr.' Volkner'.. There were two white - ' mien* aiitl 'several Maoris 1 and ' half-castes in the crew. All lay s asleep, unconscious 'of danger. Th'e cutter, was awaiting high water -.in the early .morning in order to cross the bar "into the river.

Slowly and with. ; the .utmost caution Kiri-mangu: drew hack ,the halfclosed hatcHway to the email cabin.

He beckoned to a young Maori boy I ><)i;11<'<l to one of the sleepers in the four luniks. "Feel under his pillow for a little gun,'' he whispered. A swinging lantern was burning dimly in the cabin. The bov crept across the floor and presently turned grinning in triumph and holding out a loaded revolver. Black Skin took the weapon, and advancing to Fulloon's bunk side shot him through the head. Another shot. Then tlie Maori handed the revolver to one of his men. Several of the tribesmen of Xgati-Awa in turn fired a shot into the man who had died from the first bullet. Meanwhile the other Maoris, in the forepart of the cutter, killed the two white sailors, and took a half-caste youth prisoner. Mr. Bennett White and his son were not attacked. White was considered a member of the tribe, as his wife was a chieftainess of Xgati-Awa. The cutter was brought into the Whakatane River, opposite the present town, when the contents of the hold were looted by the tril>e. The large village ' there was a scene of !■

terrible excitement. The people were desperately determined to show they were Hauliaus now, and disciples of Kereopa. The cutter's mast was chopped through at the deck and was taken ashore. Presently it was set up as a Xiu. a Hauliau pole of worship, at the nearest settlement out on the plains. Our story now centres in Mr. Bennett White and his young halfcaste son. The trader and his hoy were in a position of great danger, for in spite of their close relationship to the triJie they were liable to he tomahawked at any moment. They were separated as soon as they w>re taken 011 to the beach. The XgatiAwa held them prisoner. Here it should be explained that Bennett White was an educated Englishman. and had been trained for the profession of, medicine. He had passed most of his examinations for a doctor, and had he been content to go on in the accustomed way of his tamily, he would presently have taken up duty in the Army Medical Service in India. Hut towards the

end of the 'forties of la9t century he embarked on a voyage to New Zealand, to see something of th« strange wild south land before h® settled down in India for life. He found his way to Mercury Bay, where an uncle of liis was a pioneer settler and trader.

The country and the people greatly attracted the" young Englishman, and he was not long in making the decision that altered his fortunes. It was verv agreeable at first. The land was peaceful; English and Maori traded peacefully together; there was abundance of food, and. the people lived comfortably in their many pretty villages, many of them surrounded by groves of fruit trees. On the levels of Opotiki and Whakatane there were large cultivations of wheat and maize, and there were small flourmills driven bv waterpower.

Having married a rangatira girl of tlie Kgati-Awa, and being possessed of some money, Bennett Wliite l>eeame a man of influence along the coast. But the coming of the rebellious Pai-marire faith from Taranaki fatally interrupted the pleasant peaceful life. After the cutter Kate tragedy, Bennett White was taken away by the Xgati-Awa lip the Rangitaiki River in a large canoe. The tribe anticipated an attack by the (ioveriiinen forces, and so retreated inland. Most of them took refuge in a large fortified pa which the Hauhaus of the plains built at Te Teko—quite close to the present township there, at the bridge across the Rangitaiki on the Rotonia-Whakatane highway. This fort was presently to surrender to Major William Mair and his Arawa forces. But, the lone White was determined to escape, and he managed to elude his wife's tribe one night, and set out to make his way toward tlie coast. After wandering about the hills he was found and taken to his friends at Matata.

The hoy Cleorge White and a companion. a Maori lad. escaped from a palisaded pa in which they were held in the great Rangitaiki swamp. The pair swain across a river, and their signals with a flag made from tattered shirts were seen by a Militia party on a near hilltop.

Now both fatlier and son were safe and soon were together again. They gave evidence in Court some months later when the murderers of Mr. Fnlloon were tried. The venerable wliit'e-liaired Solomon the prophet and Mr. Black Skin the gunman were two of those hange<l for the murder. Penetito. tlie hoy who secured the revolver from under Fulloon's pillow, was sentenced to death also, hut was reprieved, and ■served a sentence of imprisonment. We used to see him at Te Teko, where he died a few: veare ago. Several others who were prominent in the Volkner tragedy also met due punishment.

Xow tliere was comparative peace on £lie Whakatane-Opotiki shore, hut not for long. The fierce warrior Tamaikowha (the subject of an illustrated article on this page a few weeks ago) ■ was on the fighting path once more, and one of his first victims was Bennett White.

One day well on in 180", Mr. White was riding along the beach road from Whakatane to Opatiki. The Hauhaus laid an ambush for him ■ and other ]»akeha travellers at the beautiful avenue of poliutukawa trees that shades the present road at the Waiotahi River month. He was shot down from behind the trees and rocks, and his head was cut off and stuck on a rock near the track. (In 1921, when we were travelling along this road, Captain Gilbert Mair showed me the place of ambush and the spot where the victim's head was set as a warning to all pakelias passing that wav.)

Mr. Wliite was not the only traveller who met his death on that beachside trail of danger. A Maori mailcarrier in the employ of the Government was ambushed and killed near the eame spot.

The killing of the white man was believed to be an act of revenge for the part lie and his son had taken in bringing the slayers of James Fulloon to justice.

The young lad George White, a man before his time, had his share ill other exciting events of the dan-ger-filled 'sixties. He saw Kereopa, the cannibal prophet, with a white man's head which" had been brought from Taranaki. Kereopa was to rove the bush for several years yet, but he was captured at - last and was hanged in Xapier gaol.

In quieter years George took up peaceful trading work with his uncle at Mercury Bay. In time he handled a large timber business, in the days when immense quantities of kauri were shipped away in sailing vessels. He became a great oarsman; and in 1878 he and his two brothers and James Brown won the four-oar outrigger race at the Auckland regatta. In 1884 he married a daughter o:' Captain Thomas Short, who was a busy pioneer of the trade of shipbuilding at Mahurangi. There are many descendants, and one of the daughters, Mrs. L. Wilson, of Papakura, has given me numerous details in this real life adventure romance. The grand old native-born settler, who witnessed sad scenes of savagery and who so nearly met the fate of his father and friends, is still living. His age is eighty-sis. His home is in Gisborne, where he and Mrs. White four years ago ceWfcated their golden wedding.