WAIRAU MASSACRE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21534, 25 July 1935, Page 20

WAIRAU MASSACRE

TO THE BDITOa O? THE P£IES3. Sir, —"The Press," with its contemporaries, has ventilated very well the story of the Wairau massacre. We know only too well that the pakeha was in the wrong, that Captain Wakefield and Te Rauparaha had shaken hands at the end of the actual fighting, and the slaughter of the white prisoners was brought . about by Thompson, the magistrate, and Te Rangihaeata losing their tempers. The real cause dates further back. Three years previously Colonel Wakefield bought from the widow of a whaler named Blenkinsopp (who held a regular conveyance) the Wairau valley for £3OO. Colonel Wakefield bought up dubious land titles from the Maori on the advice of Dick Barrett, the whaler, of Taranaki. "Dicky" Barrett was i icpresentat?ve of "one type" of Irishman,, and a monument was erected as recognition of his whaling aefvitiei. an-d also breause he laid down th" tail oi his coat at Motu pa for Te Whorowhero's tribe to tread on. which they duly did. with disastrous results to themselves. With four carronades loaded up with miscellaneous articles, he kept the Maori at bay. He eventually turned land and estate ajrent for Colonel Wakefield, and from his unscrupulous land grabbing we can traco a lot of the trouble between Maori and pakeha. The Rev. Rugby Pratt is undoubtedly boiling over with enthusiasm for the history of the Wesleyan ministry, and it sometimes leads him too far, but in this instance I think he ought to recognise tlie Maori chief Puaha, who went to the actual Tua Marina, Bible in hand, and from start to finish acted as. a Christian gentleman in the interests of peace. Mr Ironside's good work is in no way belittled by a proposed namitig after a Maori hero. A kindness in this direction may help better than anything else to dispell any grudge the Maori may feel towards the pakeha over the discreditable Wairau business.—Yours, etc., * W. A. TAYLOR.

July 22, 1935. PS.—lronside is not a fluent sounding name, and that would deter its universal usage.