BY NEW ZEALAND WRITERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 17

BY NEW ZEALAND WRITERS

ECHOES OF MAORI FIGHTING.

fThe Old Frontier." By James Cowan, F.R.G.S. Te Awamutu : The "Waipa Post" Company, Ltd.

Decentralisation, which gave to New' Zealand four cities instead of one great metropolis, like Sydney to New South Wales, or Melbourne to Victoria, has its disadvantages. The populations of Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Wellington, if. kneaded into one, would have the advantage of affording one standpoint from which the history of tie Dominion could be seen as a whole.

-i.« it stands, there are four separate and rather wide-apart points of view, and each city is become the metropolis of Lur parts of the Dominion. What prowundly interests Auckland, especially in respect to its Maori history, may not su. up the same emotions in, say, Duntain; and yet' the history of" certain incidents in the early days of New Zealuid, no matter with what locality they are associated, should have an interest £01 the people as a whole, inasmuch as tlisy had some bearing, more or less impvitant, on the national life of the Dominion as a whole- as well as in part. JUr. Cowan's latest book, "The Old 1-untier," for instance, will possess, a particular interest to Auckland readers, because it relates to stirring events in the 'sixties around Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, and the district generally on the borderline of the King Country, and to the inhabitants of that territory in the past as in the present. Auckland City was the natural centre. To localise interest in this way, however, is not Mr. Cowan's intention. Very properly he regards and treats the happenings in the \\aipa Valley recorded in this book as oi profound importance to the Dominion generally. So they were; for through the once closed and decidedly hostile King Country runs the main, line of railway connectiong Auckland . with Wellington, a link indeed in the chain pf communications from the extreme north to the southernmost point of settlement of New Zealand. He writes with the knowledge and both interestingly and] in sound literary stye, of all that has to do with the Maori, .avoiding such technical terms as the trained ethnologist must employ, yet appealing quite asmuch to the general as to the scientific and erudite reader. He writes in; this book, too, with first-hand knowledge of his subject, for he was born and brought up in the country of the Old ontier. He opens hi* work with a ■:ef description of the natural characteristics of the Waipa Country, making Might referr.nces to the Maori legends assuciated with it. Then he describes the c-iuing of the missionary to the site of Te Awamutu, in 1839. The courage oi these; men, venturing into the fastnesses of ferocious and cannabalistic tribes, haying.no other, •weapon than their faith; almost passes belief. Nevertheless, the Rev. B. Y. Ashwell, in 1839, pot only literally induced Maoris to -leave, their great feast* of human flesh but to become Christian and even build a church. Mr. Ashwell, as Mr. Cowan shows, was essentially a man of faith; Us successor, the Rev. John Morgan, was a man of both faith and works. He taught the Maoris English methods .of farming and fruit-growing, and especially the raising of wheat and erection oi communal watermills for grinding h into flour. One quaint incident in the life of this remarkable man—surely one of New Zealand's greatest—is told by Mr. Cowan. Mr. Morgan (who was over 20 years at work in the Waikato) never went without his dog into new country. Round the dog's neck he tied a bag of clover eeed. There wag a tiny bole in the bag, and as the dog ran by hh master he sowed clover seed until "to this day in some of the old Maori villages there is a beautiful eward that goes back to the good parson of. Te Awamutu and to Wharepapa, not many years since the Natives used to go for the seed of the 'mission grass,' esteemed alike by Maori and pakeha for its making of pasture." Mr. Morgan, when war between the Maoris and the Government was fast becoming impossible to stave off, kept Sir George Grey accurately informed of all that was going on among, the hostile tribes.

From the missionary days to 1860 was tliß golden age in the Waikato. The outbreak of trouble in Taranaki spread to the Waikatp. The king movement, however, originated in 1851-52, and it. was growing all the time up to the arrival of Mr. John Gorst in 1860, arid his appointment as Resident Magistrate for Upper Waikato; Gorst's days were full of trouble—not of bis making, however. He was eventually evicted, and this precipitated the Waikato War, which is the main subject of Mr. Cowan's book. Incidentally, in after-years—in 1906—Sir John Garst and his daughter visited the Waikato, and there met with a number of his old Maori opponents. They niet on the battlefield of Orakau, and the Maoris who had fought against the Government and Gorst, and those who had remained loyal exchanged compliments. Maori chivalry was seen' in fullest flower then, especially when the bent, toothless, and highly tatooed Patara-te-Tuhi, then a very old but exceedingly cheerful warrior, hhook hands with his stout opponent of 1863. A New Zealand journalistic interest attached to this meeting. Mr. Cowan himself was then an active journalist, and the writer of this review was present when, after over fifty years, Sir John Gorst again met Patara-te-Tuhi, former editor of the " Te Hokioi c Rere Atu Na" ("The Soaring War Bird ), which. was bitterly opposed to the Gorst, or Government organ, "Te Pihoihoi Mokemoke i Run'ga i te Tuanui" ("The Lonely Lark on the House-top '). The journalistic feeling of those days can be gauged from the fact that Patara-te-Tuhi?s friends not only resented the policy of the " Lonely Lark" b"t broke" into the'printing office, carried off the press, the type, and the printed copies and paper. All was afterwards restored to the Government. When the printing office was broken into nothing but the press, type, and paper were taken and kept. War quickly followed, and with it epics were-made in those days. Yon Tempsky's gallant exploits, the fight at Hairini, the invasion. of Kihikihi, and the battle of Orokau, with its brilliant (U-fence—these are all. described by Mr. Cnv.an,_ who has documented his narrative- with sound literary workmanship :• n 1 excellent judgment in the discarding f inessential matter. It was here when i.!:f; 'sse of the Maoris was hopeless that their historic cry of defiance was shout- ,;:;! hack to the overwhelming British fortes against them. '.'Friend,! shall i'jZJit against -you. for ever and. ever." •Vnd when Mair (then an ensign and in-

terpreter) reminded the warriors of the fate of the women and children, a voice made answer: "If the men are to die. the women arid children must die also!" Mr. Cowan's work includes a graphic description of pioneer life on the Old Frontier, in which he remarks:

Descendants of the old King-llke Wahanui and the one-time followers of the Pai-marire »ide w r!k°f fanatiC^ aith9 have 'ouiht be* SS. J.-S? «K£ o Kf ln!a» \A* n t. .Tories " ?'"?i e8 °r tl! e Old trail-breaker "The '™.°' the, K h«°lC missionaries, soldiers, •urveyors, road-builders, should not be forgotten by those who look out from their SffWaSj faVnoLs^ & US o!d YOUA ru ekVf nfron Ot fie r the W"»». *»« «- &

A specimen of Maori Folk Tales a weird story of "Kiharoa, the Giant," is published in this work for the first time." ,

An index would have been a useful addition to this exhaustive work. It is, however, copiously illustrated, and contains many plans and diagrams.