SYDNEY TAIWHANGA: HIS WIFE AND FAMILY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3503, 28 September 1882, Page 4

SYDNEY TAIWHANGA: HIS WIFE AND FAMILY.

At the Auckland Police Court on 19th inst., a dejected-looking woman, dressed in a long cloak and black straw hat, appeai'ed to make an application to hare the boy -who was by her side, nine years of age, admitted to the Industrial School. The applicant, although bearing traces of sorrow and trouble, was still in youthful life. She is the wedded wife of the famous Sydney Taiwhanga, who is now starring in England as the exponent of Maori wrongs from colonial intrigues, the advocate for the absolute fnlfilment of the Treaty of Wailangi, and who has been belauded in Exeter Hall, feted and accompanied by titled nobility, and who has had the audacity to attempt a policy on his own account in regard to dealings with native lands. Sydney Taiwhanga has been from first to last an unstable man, indeed, one of the most effectual waiters on Providence in the shape of an obtuse Government that has ever grown under the native policy regime. Sydney was all things to all men. Insignificant in person, and unlikely to attract attention, he has exhibited a wonderful cunning and a skill in playing his carde which entitle him to the respect accorded by Bret Hart to tho ' heathen v Chinee.' Sydney "with a long family of aborigines resided in the North, and by skilful tactics succeeded in having himselE appointed a teacher to instruct his own children, and a few others. Then he propounded an enlarged idea worthy of the man. He wanted the Maori children instructed in English. Well, he had examples to guide him. The code roughly recommended by old hands was 'if you want to learn the lingo, get a Maori dictionary.' This meant ' take a Maori wife.' Taiwhanga has improved on the precept. He wanted to teach his children English, so he not only took an English wife, but her family as well, soon after the arrival of the ship which bore them from England. Marriage was duly solemnised by the Registrar at Auckland about six years ago, and the happy pair proceeded on their mission, the lord and master to draw his salary, and the unhappy wife to do drudgery. Now, Sydney Taiwhanga is delighting Exeter Hall; is introduced as a model by retired colonists, and put forward as a Maori of advanced ideas, whose near descendants will fulfil Macaulay's prophecy. But how about the house of the wretched wife ? She brought up her son Frank, the stepson of the ' mitey ' Taiwhanga, yesterday, to beg the Justices to allow of his being sent to the Industrial School until ho was 15 years of age. The only plea the poor woman could urge was that she had no means to support him. Mr Pardy tersely explained the position of affairs to the Bench, and said the boy, Frank Moran, was a stepson of Sydney Taiwhanga, who is now starring in England. The mother had two other children, and an infant in arms, and had no means whatever to support them. The boy was ordered to be sent to tho Industrial School for five years. The wretched mother, although her request was granted, cried bitterly afc the prospect of parting Tritb, her boy.—W.Z. Herald.