Wairau memorial defaced

Press, 2 February 1982, Page 3

Wairau memorial defaced

Blenheim reporter A memorial in Tuamarina cemetery, near Blenheim, listing the names of 22 pakehas who were killed in the Wairau “massacre” has been defaced in what is believed to be a protest by political activists against the Waitangi Day celebrations on Saturday. The memorial says the pakehas were killed “by natives of New Zealand.” These words have been blacked out and the words “by New Zealanders defending their land” substituted. The “massacre” took place at Tuamarina on June 17, in

1843, when 22 pakehas were killed in an incident involving the chiefs Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata. The president of the Marlborough Historical Society (Mr N. L. Matthews) said yesterday he was confident the damage was not done by local Maori people who lived in harmony with most pakehas. Political activists had however recently moved into the area and stirred up racial differences that had not been apparent for many years, he said. “I would be very disappointed in fact very surprised if this was the

work of our local Maori people,” he said. On other sides of the memorial are written the names of Maoris who also died in the incident. Captain Arthur Wakefield a police magistrate, a Mr Thompson, and about 50 men travelled from Nelson to deliver a warrant against Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata on a charge of arson arising from their protests against attempts to survery disputed land in the Wairau Valley. According to the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, the chiefs refused to submit to the pakehas and refused to

be treated like criminals. A j gun was fired by one of the white men arid fighting be- I gan. j The wife of Rangihaeata, Te Ronga, was killed during the incident and vegeance was demanded by the chief. I Wakefield and the men I who had joined him in sur- ; render were summarily to- | mahawked. Te Ronga is one | of the names which appears I on the now defaced monument. I The Maoris could have I erected their own tombstone over their dead saying they I were shot by the pakeha and I it would not have been defaced, said Mr Matthews. I