A Hundred Years Ago

Evening Star, Issue 20504, 7 June 1930, Page 4

A Hundred Years Ago

[Written by W.F.A. and H.D.So for tho ‘Evening Star.’]

No. V.

Tho dead body of an enemy always smells sweet. —Feudal proverb. , The old-time Maori uad many virtues. No ordinary European who came in contact with him could feel him as a mental inferior. Ho could be a loya. and devoted friend. When ho acted badly towards Europeans wiio had not ill-treated him it was generally because there had been id-treatment by then predecessors of which they had no know ledge, or because some point in bis elaborate code ol manners hud been outraged by tnem in their ignorance ol the code. When his acts appeared most inexplicable to them, and perhaps repellent, they were usually, entirely consistent with a philosophy oi life and a system 01 reasoning ..meront altogether from theirs, but both rational and rngi cal once the foundations of it were understood. But a prime, part of his cone made revenge, or “ utu,” for- injury—“an eye ior an eye and a tootu for a tooth ” —a sacred necessity. As an enemy he could be treacherous, and it was more common for him to Iw callously and also ferociously cruel. Though it was rare for him to torture his victims slowiy, in cold blood, like the North American Indians, the orgies by which he would express his triumph over them, when ills worst passions were aroused, are described mildly as devihso. Yet he found Europeans who did not shudder at them, or if they shuddered, were quite ready to abei him in them, for their own interests, among tho rough class who made his first contact with “civilisation.” The next chapter in Te Rauparaha’s history, and in his conflict with the southern Maoris, is one that wo might well wish could be omitted, for tho credit of both races. The story of the brig Elizabeth does not need telling again in detail. It is all contained in the evidence given during the preparations for a trial at Sydney. on which J)r M'Nab has worked in ‘ The Old Whaling Days.’ There are additions from Maori sources which con tradict one another, and which are not needed to augment its horrors. Te Peln had been killed at Kaiapoi. For that “ ntu ” compensation was imperative, and the most perfect “utu” was that as it had been done to Te Pehi. the chieftain of Ngati Toa, so also should it be done, with interest, if pos-. sible. to Taraa-i-lmi;a-mii, the most exalted chieftain of his slayers. How to get possession of Tama-i-faara-nui was the problem tb winch Te Rauparalm applied his resourceful brain. His ingenuity was equal to tho demand on it. fn October, 1830, the brig Elizabeth, Captain John Stewart, was at Kapiti, trading in flax with Sydney. (Aij advantage of this story, involving F.nropean courts, is that it gives us. for the first time absolute dates to work upon, from which those of preceding and succeeding events can, ho. cnlqu kited.) -- Te UauparahS' ‘"to Stewart that, for a payment tobemade in flax,;:ho should place his shiplgt 'the 'Maori chief’s disposal, and convey a party of his warriors to Aknrpa to capture Tama-i-hara-nui' and' bring him back to Kapiti. Ho had made tho overture previously to Captain Briggs, of the Dragon, who refused to have anything to do with it. No doubt on this occasion Eio same representations were used. Te Pehi, who, had been killed, was a friend oi the white man. Tama-i-hara-nui wasm human monster, who had been tlm cause of more than one of them being killed. This last charge was apparently an invention. Captain Stewart, we can imagine, felt the least, concern about tbo merits of the feud. He wanted flax, and against the advice of Briggs, whom he consulted, received Te Rauparaha and 120 of his men. armed with musket's and native weapons, on board his vessel A party so large could not fail to be. in effect, the masters of the vessel. Te Rauparalm had chosen tho best means for his adventure. The sight of a northern war fleet entering their harbour would have sent the southern Maoris scurrying at once to th nr strongest jwvs. They could have Bo suspicions of a trading ship. The unspeakable Stewart did Ins part to ensure that they should not have any. For two of dhree days the ship lay at anchor in Akaroa Harbour. Te Ra ■>- paralin and his men were kept out of night below, while Stewart fnv.ted the natives to trade their flax for muskets, and sent a message to Tama-i----hara-nui, who was at a distance, to come and do biriness. When he arrived at last, .with his little daughter, he- was escorted to a cabin, and then clapped in irons and confronted with his enemy, To Rauparalm, and Te Hiko, tho son of , his victim, Te Pehi. Their taunts can' bo easily imagined. , Other natives, including the chief’s' wife, innocent pf all suspicions, came on board to trade, and as they came were forced down into the hold. If- Stewart had returned then he would have more than fulfilled his contract and enough devilry would have

A Story of Horrors Capture of the Brig Elizabeth

been done, or made possible. But. Te Rnuparaha was not satisfied, and Stewart was not the man to baulk him ot any more satisfaction ho might require. Twenty years before Maoris had seized and burned the Boyd, after massacring her crow,' in Whangaroa Harbour, and this party was large enough to do what it liked with the Elizabeth. Stewarts part in wild excesses which followed was not limited even to helpless toleration, for, when a party of the northern Maoris went ashore that night and, approaching it from two sides, burned Tama-i-hara-nui’s village, opposite Akaroa, Stewart and a number of his crew , went with them, in the ship’s boats, and appear rather to have enjoyed the atrocities which followed. It is alleged that the sailors took prisoners, and handed them over to their Kapiti enemies. The Ngati Ton took captive those whom they did not kill, or who failed to escape in the smoke and darkness which alternated with the flames of bla'zing whares. • The village was still burning in the morning, when the cannibal feast Look place on shore. What was not) eaten was packed in baskets to be taken, with about twenty living prisoners,' to Kapiti. 1 Such was tho sack of Takapuneke. It was nbt a pa, but an unfortified village, which Tama-i-liara-nui, some years before, had made one of his dwelling places in order to be near the European traders. It was on the site of an earlier pa. It was not- on the Akaroa side of the harbour, as has been sometimes stated, but close to Wainui, on the opposite shore. Wainui to-day is a favourite spot for launch picnics from the small town which, with its old-world charm, imparted by the associations of French settlement and its languorous climate, is itself best known as one of tho most delightful, and in earlier days one of tho quiestest, of holiday resorts. Except that the bush which formerly clothed everywhere the hills of Akaroa Harbour has mostly gone, giving place to cultivation, and European trees mingle now with the earlier flora, where that remains, Wainui has not changed much since th > day when its hills rang .with cries of slaughter, and tho cannibal invaders feasted on tho scene of their outrage. The date of this horror was November 6, 1830. Akaroa Harbour was to see only one other such scene before the curtain was rung down on primitive Maoridom. The repulsive drama was not yet completed. On the voyage back to Kapiti Tama-i-hara-nui and his wife strangled their little daughter, appro priately named Karoimata, “Tear Drops,” to save her from a slower death. The chief mate and some ot the sailors threw the body 'overboard. When Kapiti was reached the prisoners, except Tama-i-hara-nui f were marched onr shore and- seated m rows .on the beanty, and tho preserved flesh—in a horrid condition by this time—i-carried Off to tho nestcy banqueting : place. Stewart did not witness the vile : orgies that followed, fiiit' would hear all about them. When another three week* had gone by he had- not received more than a fraction of the flax promised him, which might have been his excuse for not going further with his bargain. But he did not hesitate to hand over the Akaroa thief, who had been- his-prisoner till then', to the tender mercies of his enemies. He was carried round as a spectacle, from village to village of the mainland, for several days. Accounts differ as to the manner of his death, hut they all'agree

‘v't 't was horrible. His wife was also killed. The prisoners brought from Akaroa were divided as slaves among their captors.

A Sydney merchant who heard of it had the grace to protest against Captain Stewart’s behaviour, and depositions were taken in Sydney, when the Elizabeth returned- there.' with a view to court proceedings. But the authorities were about aj> dilatory as they could be in their handling of the matter. The outrage in which only Natives were victims, did not -shock them, par tieularly, it would seem. They were slow to believe chat there was' a law to covei it. When proceedings were commenced, finally, against Stewart, all the material witnesses. and all those who might have been prosecuted with him, had disappeared, and eventually Stewart was' released untried. The authorities in- England took a very different .view of the offence when it was reported to them An inquiry was held there, and. if Stewart’s ship had returned to any English port, and evidence could have been obtained by any moans, he would have swuitg for his villainy. . Stewart was not seen again. It was reported that ,he was lost—washed overboard from his vesselgoing round Capo Horn It was another Stewart, a quite respectable personage, who gave his ha me to Stewart Island(To be continued.)