A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19942, 31 May 1930, Page 7

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

FIRST VISIT TO KAIAPOI. (SriCIAW.T WRITTE* FOB TUB THESS.) [By W. F. Alexander and H. D. Skinneh.] No. IV. Still lives the rat-eating owl, The fish-eating cormorant, The fierce-eyed gannet, The dread of tho land, To avenge thee. —Tc Rauparaha's Song of Revenge. To liauparaha was now to make liis first acquaintaance with Kaiapoi, or Kaiapoliia—the Natives, according to Ganon Stack, used both names—the most important pa of the South Island. Before continuing further with tho war party it is desirable to give some account of that place. Joseph Price saw it, as wo have noted, just about this time, and possibly ho and his companion were the first white men to do so. They may have been the only white men to seo it before its fall. But Prico was not much more than a boy, and though ho had travelled further ho had not the imagination to describe for us what he was the first to see, as tho wonders of Kubla Kliau's capital have been described by Marco Polo, only a little older when ho first viewed its strangeness. In tho interview whicli passes as his "diary" Price just tells ua that he was there, without mentioning the grim shadows that threatened it. Ho would know nothing at that time of the Maori language. Events in an alien history on which he intruded, as an. incident in voyages between Sydney and New Zealand, in which his ports of cull were at different times Port Cooper, Alcaroa, Otago, Port Underwood (at tho Wairau). Tauranga, would be a closed book to him. Prico lived till tho age of ninety-one, whaling, and afterwards farming on Banks Peninsula, but in tho late years when it was attempted to sound him, he was not minded, or not able, to be discursive on his oarly adventures. We do not oven know tho name of the man who was his companion on tho visit to Kaiapoi.

The Siege of Kaiapoi. Canon Stack has written an account of the pa, and of tho siege of it, which should be a treasuro book with all Now Zcfllanders. Unhappily, it cannot be, because, liko too many books that doal with tho early phases of New Zealand's history, it is out of print. Canon Stack went to Kaiapoi in 1859, and his accounts of Maori history are thoso which wore given him by survivors. Tho pa was foundew about a convivors. The pa was founded about a centhe attention of northern invaders. It was situatod about three miles north of tho present town of Kaiapoi, nearer to tho Ashley Bivcr than to the Waimakariri, and was erected on a promontory which extended into a deep swamp lying between Hi 3 sandhills and tho bank of tho river. The swamp protected it on three sides, and tho only front of attack, about 250 yds long, was dofended by a double lino of palisades 18ft to "Oft high, and a deep ditch, with two largo outworks from which a flank fire on intending assuilants could be maintained. Tlicro was an opening in tho wall on tho western side, with a bridge over tho lagoon. Tho pa was considered so impregnable that a saying in regard to it was: "Who can scale tho iuaccessiblo cliff of Godt" Not less famous was it as a food depot, tliu use which its iwvio denotes. Food was scarce naturally in this neighbourhood. " 'Kai' (food) must be 'poi' (swung) to tho spot," said its founder: "potted birds from tho forests of Kaikoura in the north, fish and mutton birds from the sea coasts of tho south: kioro and weka and kauru from tho plains and mountain ranges of tho west." A system of food exchange which was established involved the journeys of porters, carry- [ ing heavy loads, between pas extending from tho north to tho south of tho island, with depots between tho pas to ease their journeys. Tho pa served as tho capital and citadel of a population numbering perhaps a couple of thousands, who in times of peace lived for tho most part in tho kaigas (undefended villages), spread over a wide expanse of country, fishing, fowling, and cultivating tho soil. Tho most aristocratic families of tho tribe, liav. ing relatives as far uway as tlje West Coast and Otago, had their headquarters, or alternative residences, at Kaiapoi, and its wealth was proverbial. Tho kumara was sedulously cultivated. For a hundred years and more tho precious greenstono had been brought to it from tho Woat Coast. In the "wnro purakaunui" the wise men, or tohungas, held their meetings. Inthe "wharekara" (red house) education, as it was understood by tho Maoris, was imparted during the winter months to all boys of "rangatira" (chieftains') rank. The life of Kaiapohia was an ordered, not altogether barbarous life.

The Maxell of tho Hundred. On this treasuro house, as much as stronghold, To Bauparaha had set his eyes, but ho had no force that was equal to assailing it immediately after his victory at Omihi. The first thing to do was to reconnoitre, to disarm the suspicions of destined victims by an offer of friendship. Part of his force was left to guard the prisoners or to take them back to Kapiti, and the rest, under Te Rauparalia, turned their faces towards Kaiapoi. Stack says that it was only a hundred men who made the further journey, travelling by sea as far as the Waipara Eiver, and then beaching their canoes and completing the journey by land. Their camp was pitched to the south-west of the pa; and at this stage it is necessary that wo should take stock of one or two of the principal personages then at Kaiapoi, or soon to bo involved dramatically in its affairs.

Most important of them was Taina-i-hara-nui, the leading chief and high priest of Ngai Tahu. Anoihcr of his homes was on Akaroa Harbour, opposito tlii. present town of Akaroa, but he travelled much between Kaiapoi and Otago. His person was so sacred that if bis shadow happened to fall upon a food house the house, with all its contents, had to be destroyed, because, having been rendered "tapu," it would have been fatal for any person to touch them afterwards. He was the most inconvenient sort of guest, therefore, at any place where he stayed, and his character did not make him more welcome. His worst qualities had been shown in the Kai Huanga, "Eat Relation" feufl which divided the Kai Tahu of North Canterbury and Banks Peninsula immediately before this date. The feud began when a foolish woman, misled perhaps by her vanity, put on a dogskin mat belonging to the arehpriest. Under the Maori law that was a profanation, only to be atoned by blood. Cruelty and treachery marked Tama-i----hara-nui's part in the war which followed. Some of the natives who came up from Otago and Southland to take part in it possessed guns. They were the first which the Kaiapoi Maoris had seen. Tama-i-hara-nui could not conceal hi#

fear of them. In an encounter in which they were used on tho other aide, he had to be forcibly restrained from running away. Yet, when their (ask was done, j he could kill with his own hand the carriers who had accompanied him on a long journey, trusting to his promise of protection. Their bodies were cut up, and he sent portions of them to all the pas and villages of the peninsula. Even the Maori code shuddered at that infamy. The chief's figure was less than 1 commanding, being short and thick-set, and his features were in keeping with character. Unlike Tama-i-hara-nui was Taiaroa, tho chief of the southern natives, next to him in authority. Tuhawaiki ("Bloody Jack") was of higher birth, but we do not hear much of him till a later time. Taiaroa's family had removed from Lake Ellesmero to Otago, and his part in the Eat Relation feud was to warn the intended victims before every attack, with tho object of diminishing bloodshed. He did this because ho had relatives on both sides, and his conduct was highly approved, in virtuo of that fact, by Maori ideas of chivalry. Ho was reputed to be as wise in counsel and as generous as he was courageous in fight. Ho was not at Kaiapoi when Te Rauparaha or his emissaries paid this first visit, but he was soon to be associated with its fortunes.

To Rauparaha's Enemy. A guest of the pa was one Hakitara, a member of the Nga Puhi (North Auckland) tribe. He had been on a whaling cruise. We have seen his type in Te Pehi. We have it again in Quee(lueg> the South Sea Island harpooner of Melville's "Mohy Dick." Queequeg was a native of Kokovoko, but he might quite well have been a New Zealander. Consumed by a desire to see tho world, he paddled out to a passing whaler, sank his canoe with a kick of his foot, climbed up tho chains, and, "throwing himself at full length upon tho deck, grappled a ring-bolt there, and swore not to lot it go, though hacked in pieces. In vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard; suspended a cutlass over his naked wrists. Queequeg was the son of & king, and Queequeg budged not." So they made him a harpooner, and a rough life he led. Hakitara knew Te Rauparaha from early days. Some of his people had been killed by the latter'a friends, and vengeance was due.

It was unfortunate for To Bauparaha that this old enemy of his tribe should have boon in the pa of his destined victims when he approached it, offering friendship. Hakitara had landed, only a short time before, at one of tho Peninsula bays. The invader must have felt, for another reason, that ho was on dangerous ground in venturing so near tho stronghold of tho southern tribe, because ho had scarcely arrived there, making professions of peace, before fugitives from Oinihi begau streaming into tho pa, telling what he had done to their kinsfolk. To Bauparaha must have expected this, and tho only explanation ,of his hardihood in attempting a reconnaissance in tho circumstances is that ho must have thought his band of a hundred strong enough to extricate itsolf from any peril that could arise. They were picked men, doubtless, of a conquering force that had been fighting continually for twolve years, that had never entered an oncmy's country except to possess it, or fought with him except to provail, that knew every trick of battle and strategy, and must, by this time, havo had much tho same kind of advantage as that of "Wellington's army after his Peninsular campaign, that of being equal to anything, and knowing it. In their earlier triumphal progress down tho coast of tho North Island tho allied warriors must havo owed more to this expericnco and mana than to any other circumstance, because they had then comparatively few muskets, and the tribes whom they defeated were not without them.

Treachery for Treachery. On this occasion, howevor, To Bauparaha was either too contemptuous of his enemies' intelligence, or too bold. He announced thpt he had come to trade muskets and powder for greenstone. There were palavers between tho leaders on both sideß, and then, according to tho Kai Tahu account, Te Bauparaha did an inexplicable thing. Ho —or a party of his warriors—put an unpardonable affront on Tama-i-hara-nui, tho chief of ineffable mana on Kai Tahu's side, by digging up the newlyburied body of his grandmother (or aunt) in a cemetery that was a fow miles from tho pa, and eating it. That might havo gone unknown, but in an interview with Taina-i-hara-nui and Hakitara, tho presumptuous leader from

the north vontured to indulge iu a warchant, which to Hakitara, who understood it better, it is explained, than tho southern natives, suggested defiance. Hakitara set himself to coufirm his suspicions that the visitors, who had como with tho flesh of the Kaiapohians' kinsfolk "sticking to their teeth," came with no better intentions than they had shown at Omihi. He soon had ail tho confirmation ho required, and tho Kaiapohians determined to meet troachery with treachery, and get their blow iu first.

On a day which followed. To Pehi and some more of tho native chiefs were in tlio pa, exchanging muskets for greenstone. A plebeian put an affront upon Te Pehi, who taunted him with his bad tattooing, which would make his head useless for trade purposes if ho took it back with him to Kapiti. A second Kaiapohian whoso brother had been taken prisoner at Omihi, noticed his captor outside the gate, and with smooth words invited him in, clubbing him dead as he stooped to enter. Te Pehi rushed to the wall to save his own life. Several shots were fired at him as ho clambered up the palisade, and a chief named Tangatahara, who was to know some after-fame, grappled with him and dispatched him with a hatchet. There was a general fraeas, more shots were exchanged, and, in all eight of the northern chiefs, men of might and valour and old friends of To Rauparaha, were killed. Tho invaders drew off from Kaiapohia, marched back sullenly to the Waipara, where they .had left their canoes, and. nursing threats of vengeance, returned to Kapiti. (To bo continued.)