A MAORI WAR VETERAN. THE LATE MAJOR PARRIS. A STORY OF STIRRING TIMES.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 81, 3 October 1904, Page 2

A MAORI WAR VETERAN. THE LATE MAJOR PARRIS. A STORY OF STIRRING TIMES.

: It is but a short time ago that there were living in Taranaki two old men of whom the Maori were wont to speak as "tho 'kaumatua' of New Plymouth," emphasising theroby both their great age and strong title of respect. Of ihese two, one, tho Yen. Archdeacon Govett, died a few months ago, and now the other, Major Parris, has passed peacefully away after a long and strenubus life, over sixty of which .were spent fn New Zealand. With him he carried to his grave a knowledge of the native troubles of Taranaki, both their causes and their results, such as has never been equalled by any one person* It is indeed but the literal truth that during the* most troublous times of Taranaki' s existence a biography of Major Parris would be a history of the province. But it was not a great stage, the little bush-covered province, and even when rifles cracked and the haka thundered from the pa the actors mostly played their parts in an obscurity unillumined by the brilliant limelight of modern jonrnalism. Hence it happened that, unless a man spoke out loudly for himself, deeds of strong endurance and lofty courage went often unrecorded, and, the results only being known, credit went chiefly to those whose high places drew notice down on them. Nor were the men. who cam© from England to make their homes in the 'shadow of Mount "'Egmont made of the stuff that seeks , advertisement. Men of Somerset arid Devon, most of them, they had inherited the strong hearts^ and nands of those forefathers who impelled by a like love of freedom and adventure had sailed the Spanish main with Drake, or (fought the great fight of the Reyenge with Sir Richard GrenviU&. Such an one was the late Major Parris, a man careless of honours and popular glory, and to whom no possible punishment or reward was even a temptation to deviate one -hair's breath from that path in which his judgment told him duty l»y. It is close on sixty years now since Major Parris, then a ydung man of twenty-six, arrived with his wife at New Plymouth by the good ship Blenheim. For many years he, with his fellow-col-onists, farmed and traded as the best they might, hampered always by the land troubles which beset the settlement from the outset. For a time also he worked with Bishop Selwyn in his native school at Auckland, and formed with him a life-long friendship. Here also he gained that perfect mastery of the native tongue and of the manners and customs of the v native . races which afterwards helped to .make him the best friend and the most dangerous . enemy of the Maori people in his district. Perilous times soon came for the struggling, settlers. In 1854 tho Anti-Land Selling League reared its head of disaffection, and from then on to 1889 the Puketapu feud with its internecine warfare kept the province in a perpetual turmoil and anxiety. Of this period, and of this alone, Major Panis was persmded to leave some connected record, and his intimate acquaintance with the natives and tho trust they reposed in him is well shown in the simple "Narrative of Some Native Troubles in Taranaki from 1854 to 1859," published some years. ago in tho Christchurch Eress. Abart from its purely narrative interest the paper was of great historical value, if only tor the fact that it clearly showed the early connection of that adept at duplicity Wiremu Kingi Whi6i Rangitake with the notorious Land League — a connection which whose wild bh'ampioned his cause both vyilhih and outside of the Houses of Parliament claimed to have been brought about solely by the "tyrannical action of the Government in refusing to recognise his right to veto tho sale of certain land at Waitara in 1859." It was in 1857 while the Puketapu feud was. wasting the countryside with rapine and bloodshed that Major Parris received his first Government appointment, that of District Land Purchase Commissioner. Shortly afterwards it fell to his lot to save the life of Wiremu Kingi from a treacherous ambuscade planned by a chief whose life the Major's influence had but just persuaded Kingi to spare. All this time the smouldering fires of rebellion were being fed by the agitation of the Land Leaguers. 'ihe flames of open war were bound to uiaze out ere long unless the Government consented to recognise the very imperium in imperio which placed a veto on future progress. It was not long, before «.ae breeze eamo that was to fan those fires. One Teira offered for sale at Waitara a certain block of land. Major Parris, in his capacity of Land Purchase Commissioner, made a searching investigation into Teira's title to the block, and decided that thoie was no outside claims which could disentitle him to part with it. On 7th March, 1869, a meeting was held) at New Plymouth in a paddock adjoining Major Farm's house. There were present among others, Governor Gore Brown, Kingi, and, Teira. Telra, with dramatic gesture, offered the land to the Governor. He was followed by .Kingi, who in angry words refused, to permit the sale to proceed, and at once left with his followers. In. February of the next year, Major Parris, accompanied by two members of the Survey Department, and a -member of the armed police, proceeded to Waitara for the purpose of surveying the olock. Resistance was offered^ and the survej prevented. Marfciai law was now proclaimed, and a pa which had been already erected by Kingi" at Waitara having been ascertained by Major Parris to be on t'he land sold by Teira, the military under Colonel Gold moved out to, reduce it. This was the famous L Pa, and from this time to the conclusion of hostilities, Major Parris was present at almost every conflict between the English forces and the rebels, being attached to the staff of the officer in command, with the rank of Major. His intimate acquaintance with the natives and the country made him indispensable. Unfortunately his advice, was too often neglected by officers whose training had sometimes been but the parade ground, and who, while brave enough m most instances, were utterly unable to adapt themselves ,to their changed circumstances. To all entreaties to ■write- a history of this period Major Parris had been deaf. Governoi Jervois, Judge Richmond, Sir John Hall, and many others exhausted all their eloquence to this end, but to' no avail. He could write nothing he believed that would not involve a severe criticism of the methods of the Imperial troops and a condemnation of the actions of brave men who had been his companion's in those old days. His ' advice and his suggestions had so often ' been sought and his services so often called for at times when it was impossible to give them official recognition, that he, fsared that what he wrote" would savour of egotism. And for these reasons, and because he was unwilling to open up wounds long closed, he kept resolute; science, heedless of the bitter criticism which th# sharp partisan spirit of those times called into being. For all' the weary six years during which hostilities dragged on, he exposed himself continuously and fearlessly to death in the discharge of his multifarious duties. Frequently ho was absent for weeks at a time amongst hostile natives, among whom he went unarmed and alonej trusting, and 'not without reason, to his great "mana" among them, and con-

tinuously preaching to them the unpalatable doctrine of submission. Of the hair-breadth escapes from accident and treachery he had enough to fill a volume, could they but have been collected. At one time he appears as a solitary volunteer to carry a keg of blasting powder at his saddle bow through come ten miles of hostile country. At another he is being hauled through flooded rivers by attendant natives, almost drowned, for he could not swim, and scarred and gashed by the sharp grasses. Then again he is only rescued lrom hid-, den death by the chivalrous conduct of hostile natives to whom, at their request, he waa on a, visit, and who preferred to risk their own death rather .than, be dishonoured by allowing another band, of rebels to murder from ambush. His only fault in the eyes of the Ministry whom he had served was a contempt of danger so absolute as td cause them to beg him to consider that if his life was nob valuable to himself, it was intensely so to hir country. For an appreciation of his military services one .has biit to read the letter which Major Paris Received at the closfe" of his official career from Major-General Wprre - and many others. In "1866 Major Parris was appointed Head of the Native Branch of the Civil Service in Taranaki with the title of Civil Commissioner, and a year later was gazetted to the positions of Judge of the Native Land Court and Resident Magistrate with extended jurisdiction. He retired from the Civil Service in 1876, but his services were almost immediately afterwards requisitioned by the Government in connection with the administration of the lands confiscated from the rebels, and in 1880 he was attached to Sir Wnliam Fox and Sir F. D. Bell in their capacity of West Coast Commissioners. The report of this Commission was presented in 1884, and some of its concluding words form a fit recognition of th'e services of Major Parris. ' "Nor must I omit to says Sir William Fox, -"the -grateful sense which I entertain of the invaluable assistance rendered by ( -Major Parris (of whose services I was able ' by an arrangement with the Government. to avail myself) in laboriously working out the practical details of a Vast amount of very difficult business. His long experience in the service of the Government as .Civil Commissioner in the Taranaki district, his entensive acquaintance with all the natives in it, his exact and minute acquaintance with the | land titles and "tribal relations, the great personal respect deservedly entertained for him by the natives, his. entire abstinence all through a long career from all speculation in native lands ; these and many other qualifications which no other living persou known to myself combined in an equal degree were faithfully and zealously, during the whole period of my operations, brought to bear by him in contributing to 'their success." ' Perhaps the greatest tribute to his strength and impartiality was the extraordinary veneration and esteem in which he was held by the native? with whom he came ill contact. Those even who longest maintained their Opposition to the Faieha learned long ago to regard him as their steadfaet'friend before whom all - troubles could, be laid with the certainty of advice being given, unpalatable perhaps* but, as they knew, bpth wise and sympathetic. As a stcVn-tfnd loving father dials with his children, so was he wont to deal with the Maori people, over whose brave. but hopeless attempt to stem the tide, of a white civilisation he yearned and sorrowed in a way that was guessed by but few. But he was no sentimentalist, and - condemned unflinchingly that policy which sought merely to palliate the symptoms of a disease which needed the surgeon's knife. His justification, if one were needed, would be Jound in that universal love and respect in which he waa held when the angry passions of war had died .away. "Tht green twigs," to quote from the eloquent words ."spoken by the Rev. Mr. Bennett, Native Missioner, at the funeral service, — "The green twigs have been stripped from the kawakawa, and, from the' bitter-tasting leaves have been made wreaths, emblems at" once of the bitter grief of the Maori for him who has departed, and of a memory that. will be kepf preen, for r a time that, like the wreath' itself, has no erjd. Farewell, then, farewell! farewell! farewell! Thou grand old totara tree beneath whose branches so many sought shelter not in vain, farewell!" And so lulled to his last rest by mournful tangi and beat of muffled drums he lies now beneath the shadow of Marsl*nd Hill — Ropata Parete, one of Britain's Empire builders. '