A Story Of Maori Strategy

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 56, 8 March 1941, Page 9 (Supplement)

A Story Of Maori Strategy

CONTINUING my references to that story -haunted Kawa Hill, jverlookjng the historic, spot where the M 4/11 Trunk railway enters the King Country, I give now the narrative of a skilfullycontrived escape of a besieged tribe from the little mcAmtain. The (?tory is quite unknown to t lie young generation of the Maori, and unknown also to the ' pa.kelia settlers who see every day those trenched and scarped slopes of a long-ago volcano. I have mentioned in previous stories the similarity between the geological ■ •rigin and the history of Kawa and its companions and our Auckland isthmus cones with their craters and their obvious suitability for the fort-building needs nf a warrior people. The principal figure in this story of nearly three hundred years ago was Tarao, chief of a small clan which owned the valuable lagoons, prized for their wealth of eels. over .the shallow saucer of country below. Tarao's. name is on our ma|)s, though not for his generalship and his engineering at Kawa. I'oro-o-Tarao, the tunnel 011 the Main Trunk line through the watershed range which forms a natural boundary between the northern and southern rivcr>ysteins. commemorates the chiel of Kawa, who with his people tunnelled a way to freedom. It is a cufious and rather appropriate coincidence, though, ■if course, the railway tunnelmaking by pakeha workers was made long after Tarao's day. and the Maori naming of the Meep range now penetrated by the railway was given because of a trifling incident on Tarao's travels southward after he escaped from bis hill fort. These traditions were related to me by several of the ciders of Ngat i-Maniapoto. who lived all their lives within sight, of Kawa ;i ud its fellow mountains —the last survivor of these "old chiefs was Te Muia Haureti, nephew of Ibe great ltewj Maniapoto—Kawa Mill was forfilied ami held specially to defend those precious silver re Is iii the great lagoon. The pa Was encircled by palisades of split timber and whole -mall trees, and bv earthworks. This work occupied the utmost

The Hidden Way Of Kawa

efforts of Tarao's tribe for many moons; the whole of the work was done with wooden spades and stone cutting tools. On the hilltop, the "tihi," where the head chief and his family lived, the space was very limited, and the ground was hollowed out somewhat to afford safety. The hill

BY JAMES COWAN

lVil away steeply on the south ami south-west, into a deep gully; this faces the present railway line between Kawa ami Kakapuku. The gilllv was in the head of a winding valley, which cut right into the heart of Kawa at the side. It was, in fact, the ancient crater, which had hurst out the mountain side iij that direction. In this Midden depression there was a spring of water from which the women of the pa drew daily their supplies of water, in large calabashc* or "kiaka"' C'laha" in other districts.) High hushes grew all around and sheltered the water fount, and lower down there was a thick growth of forest. On the side facing the south, end cm the right as you face the hill for the railway, the forest grew light up to the outer stockade; there was a jungly and bti.shy wasteland, extending to the deep swatn|>s and the little lakes, from which runways of dark water led to the Wajpa River. The lagoons had .'a great variety and abundance of water bird*, and these and the eels and the bush birds supplied Kawa with food in plenty. But Tantp's rights, and t lie rights of near-by chiefs and people to the creatures of the bush and the marsh were not undisputed. He had troublesome neighbours, and the most trouble some of all was his wife's brother whosp name was Karewa —aftei whom the rocky isle Karewa standing yonder in the ocean out side Kawliia ' Heads, is named Tarao had brought his wife iiilaiu from Kawliia. in the peacefu but ,when Karewa and hir friends on the coast tasted, til' delirious a|ii( fat "tuna." the eel* of Kawa lagfion. they began ti covet the rii-h food reservoir They all moved inland ai)d spttle< on the western side of the lagoon

about the foot of Kakepuku. When Tarao on his hill-top surveyed the wide scene below, and saw how Karewa's fires increased and spread around the lake and swamps, lie felt uneasily that Karewa and he would presently come to argument and then to a clash of arms over that territory of the "tuna." Karewa, from being a squatter there at the invitation of his brother-in-law, became a permanent settler and eel-lisher; and his Kawliia warriors assumed airs of proprietorship, and 'they an<l their womenfolk went on cut dung and sundrving those eels in immense quantities. After much useless argument with the Kawhia men, Tarao returned to his liill-top fort and sulked there for many days, wondering how he could o e t the better of his brother-in-law. At last he came to the conclusion that there was nothiug for it but war. It must be decided by the strong arm. He set his pa in order for war. :He pud bis jneu—and women, too — deepened their trenches with their spades of haro. They hauled more timbers from the bush and strengthened the stockades with new posts and bound all the palisades afresh with "aka,"' the strong forest vine. Hut hit? clan was, after all, a s>lia]l one. and he feared the garrison would lie too weak to hold 1 lie lines of ditch and terrace and stopkade. and that they must in the.end yield to greater numbers. Then, like a wise military engineer, he prepared a secret means of escape to the forest in the rear. He determined to hold tlie fort to the last, for be foresaw a sieae, and he must, if possible, withdraw his force with as little loss as possible. Then he would recruit his weakened clan and return in formidable numbers to send the invaders flying for their lives. Such a predicament faced many a military commander in recent times in a very different world; the present Greek-Italian war, for example. But not every out-fought general has been so clever or so fortunate as Tarao, who would "no have been called an ignorant savage by Europeans. , The Battle for the Eel Bights. .\hKtcriiig all his able-bodied I men and women, and even the , children, too, as time went on,

Tarao The Tunneller

Tarao attacked a double task. The most active warriors were detailed to keep the enemy busv on the plain below and on the approaches to the hi)). There was fighting along Die lake edge, there was destruction of the lishing camps, the headquarters, stored with eels and birds, ami sharp little battle* between groups here ajxl (here. .Meanwhile, Jarao began the secret way, 'by a route he had planned out and explored. He should have begun the work, he knew, before the actual fighting began; however, his warriors fought with the utmost fury and determination, knowing that every day of j successful battle was so much time gamed for the spade work on the hill. Tarao's Tunnel and the Diggers. Tarao's plan was partly an open cutting, roofed over with ligttt timbers and camouflage of bushes, 'slanting downwards on the southern side, the most difficult and unlikely for the enemy to carry by force The tunnelling part of it was where the defenders would have to under the stockade itself. It was a great and desperate enterprise, but the route planned was a wise one and many lian<ls lightened the labour. Some worked away with wooden, sharp-poijited "ko" or digging implements to loosen and break up the soil, others used the "kaheru" or spade, which was somewhat the shape of our steel spades 'but with a narrower 'blade. Others carried out the earth in flax baskets and threw if down the inner hollows in thp pa and covered it over with reeds and bushes. The work was begun at night, hut the tunnel was carried on continuously. The outer end was carried put under cover of the rough ground and the straggling bush. The /actual tunnel was not long in comparison with the covered way; the engineer-* were careful to strengthen it- from collapse bv roofing it roughly, and supporting tllP roof, as tliev went 011. with stout timber already brought from the bush and with the timber obtained fivjin part" of the houses in the pa. (Continued Xext Week.)