ANXIOUS DAYS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 104, 27 January 1931, Page 11

ANXIOUS DAYS

Massacre at Wairau

ACT OF SLAUGHTER

Rare Historic Papers The anxious days experienced by the settlers of Wellington, who feared a general Maori uprising following the Wairau Massacre, are recalled by some rare historic papers which have come into possession of the Dominion Museum at Wellington. The njpst notable of these is an original supplement to the “New Zealand Gnzette and Wellington Spectator,” bearing the date Port Nicholson, Saturday, September 2, 1843. and comprising eight large pages, closely printed, setting forth accounts, drawn from various sources, of the Wairau affair. These accounts, although conflicting, are an invaluable index to the times and. show plainly how great was the upheaval caused by the act of slaughter by the Maoris.. A Disputed Claim. The valley of Wairau lies in the north-east corner of the South Island. Grassy, open, rich in alluvial soil and close to the sea, it is just too small to be one of the finest districts in New Zealand. The New Zealand Company claimed to have bought it from the chief Rauparaha and Rangihaeata, signatories to the Treaty, of Waitangi, who, with their tribe, lived at the time in the neighbourhood of Porirua. Though these chiefs did not live In the Wairau Valley, they based their claim to ownership on right of conquest and on occupation by some members of their tribe. At Porirua they resisted all attempts of settlers to occupy the laud professedly sold by the Maoris to the company, and at times they attacked settlers in the Hutt Valley and drove them from their clearings. These chiefs denied the sale Wairau and when the company’s surveyors went into the valley, warned them off and burned dowu the huts they had erected. One of the surveyors was John gylvanus Cotterell, one of w’hose descendants, Mr. A. P. 1.. Cotterell, of London, has sent through a brother in N.Z. the papers, that now rest in the Dominion Museum. It was through the information given by John Cotterell that the warrants for the arrest of Rauparaha and Rangihaeata were issued. (When the fighting began Cotterell, being a Quaker and also on friendly. terms with the Maoris, was the’ first to surrender and was among the nine killed immediately afterward by the bloodthirsty Rangihaeata.) The police magistrate at Nelson, Mr. H. A. Thompson, determined to execute the warrant himself, accompanied by an armed force, expressing the opinion that such a demonstration would _ prevent bloodshed and impress the Natives with the authority of.the law. No resistance was anticipated. Of the 49 of the party 40 men were of the labouring clas? and most of tliem had never handled a firelock. There were only two or three pistols and a fowling-piece among ,them all. Refusal to Surrender. On Saturday, June 17, 1843, the party came upon an encampment of Maoris, consisting of 80 or 90 men, 40 of whom were armed with muskets and the rest with tomahawks. Mr. Thompson crossed the stream with an interpreter and several others, presented his warrants, and called upon the chiefs to surrender. It is stated that he was greatly excited and he pointed to the armed men with him. Rauparaha and Rangihaeata refused to give themselves up. Mr. Thompson presented the warrants two or three times, and on each occasion a number of Natives who had been sitting sprang to their feet and levelled their muskets at the Europeans. The magistrate ordered those with him to retire across the stream by a canoe that had been placed as a bridge, and they were doing so when someone stumbled and a gun went off. Instantly the Maoris poured a volley into the Europeans and all was confusion. Several were wounded as they attempted to cross and fell wounded into the water.

Captain Wakefield called upon his men to retire up the hill at their back and form on the brow. The Maoris were at that moment on the point of taking flight when Rauparaha, seeing the retreat, shouted to his men. They, raising a battle cry, darted across the rivulet and pursued the Europeans. Completely disorganised and many of them unarmed, the survivors who were not able to escape showe*d a white handkerchief, hoping by surrender to save any further bloodshed. Under Captain Wakefiejd’s orders they delivered up their arms and became prisoners of the Maoris. Prisoners Slain. These men were standing quietly in a group when Rangihaeata, who had just discovered that one of his wives had been killed by a chance shot, went up to Rauparaha and said: “Don't forget your daughter.” Rauparaha sat still, and consented, while Rangahaeata, with his own hand, put to death the whole of the prisoners. .

Some of the survivors found their way to the beach through the swamps, and were picked up by whaleboats the same night, but others wandered into the mountains and were lost for several days. The last of these reached Port Underwood the following Wednesday, having tasted no food but thijee turnips which he picked up on the Tuesday. The printed casualty list on the European side gave 20 killed, six wounded, and two missing. The Maoris lost only four killed and eight wounded. Question of Blame. The official account of the massacre, issued in Wellington on June 26 by Mr. A. E. McDonagh, police magistrate of the southern district of New Zealand, laid the blame almost entirely on the settlers. This raised the fiercest indignation in Nelson and elsewhere, and led to protests and representations being made to the Government in New Zealand, and also at Home. At the same time Mr. McDonagh Issued an appeal to the Maoris, not asking them to obey the law, but offering “sincere regrets” for the “painful occurrence,” and assuring them that no white man would injure them in the slightest degree. He afterward made some kind of a qualified withdrawal, and admitted that no order was given to the settlers to fire on the Maoris, and that the general conflict originated from an accidental shot. Wellington, fearful of further trouble, formed a committee of safety, and enrolled 669 volunteers for self-protection, but certain officials held that the Maori chiefs concerned were aggrieved persons. A company of 53 Grenadiers was sent to Wellington, and a man-o’-war to Nelson, and strict orders were given to the disgusted settlers not to meet and drill. Nothing was ever done to revenge the massacre. One historian remarks that on the whole, in the helpless state of the colony, inaction was wisest, but that had Wellington been the seat of government at that time instead of Auckland, the Wairau affair could hardly have occurred.