A DILKE MEMORY.

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 1404, 31 January 1911, Page 4

A DILKE MEMORY.

SIR CHARLES TELLS OF HIS VISIT TO PAREWANUI PAH.

The pas-sing of Sir Charles Dilke caiuscd iis to take down our copy of his most interesting hook, "Greater Britain," being, a record of liis travels over the Empire away back in 1866-7. We cannot resist reprinting a portion of chapter iv. of the Polynesian section of the book, headed Parewanui Pah, which gives an account of the preliminaries to the purchase of that valuable area near Bulls •which is- now closely settled. Sir Charles writes:— A thousand kilted Maones dotted the green landscape with patches of brilliant tartans and scarlet cloth. Women lounged about, whiling away the time with dance and song; and from all the corners of the glado the soft cadence of the Maori cry of welcome came floating to us on the breeze, sweet as the sound of distant bells. ' The purchase of an enormous block of land—that of the Manawatu had long been an object wished for and worked for by the Provincial Government of Wellington. The completion of the sale it was that had brought the Superintendent, Dr. Featherston, and humbler paKehas to Parewanui Pah. It was not only that the land was wanted by way of room for the flood of settlers, but purchase by Government was,' moreover, the only means -whereby war between the various native claimants of the land coiuld be prevented. The Pakeha and the Maori had agreed upon a price; the question that remained for settlement now was now the money should be sha-red. One tribe had owned, the land from the earliest times; another had conquered some miles of it; a third had had one of its chiefs cooked and eaten upon tho grQund. In the eye of the Maori law, the last of these titlss was the best: the blood of a chief overrides all mere historic claims. The two strongest human motives concurred to make war probable, for avarice and jealousy alike prevented agreement as to the division of the spoil. Each of the three tribes claiming had half-a-dozen allied and related nations upon the ground; every j man was there who had a claim direct or indirect, or thought he had, to any portion of the block. Individual own- j ership and tribal ownership conflicted, j The Ngatiapa were well armed; the j Ngatiraukawa had their rifles; the Wanganuis had sent for theirs. The greatest tact on the part of Dr. Featherston -was needed to prevent a fight such as would have roused New Zealand from AiuckTand to Port Nicholson. No sooner were we seated on our mat than there ran slowly into the centre of the ring a plumed and kilted chief, -with sparkling eyes, the perfection of a savage. Halting suddenly, he raised himself upon his toes, frowned, and stood brandishing his short feathered spear. It was Hunia te Hakeke, the young chief of the Ngatiapa. Throwing off his plaid, he commenced to speak, springing hither and thither with leopaxd-like freedom of gait, and sometimes leaping high into the air to emphasise a word. Fierce as were the gestures, his speech was conciliatory, and the Maori flowed from his lips—a soft Tuscan tongue. As, with a movement full of vigorous grace, he sprang back to the ranks to .take his seat, there rail round the ring a Iram and buzz of popular applause. "Governor" Hunia was followed by a young Wanganui chief, who wore hunting-breeches and high boots, and a long black mantle over his European clothes.,. There was something odd in the shape of the cloak; and when ivo came to look closely at it, .we found that it was the. skirt of the riding-habit of his half-caste wife. The great chiefs paid so little heed to this flippant fellow, as to stand up and harangue their tribes, in the middle of his speech, which came thus to an untimely end; Karanama, a, small Ngatiraukawa chief' with a white moustache, who looked like-an .old; French concierge, followed Maru Maru, and, with much use of his sceptre, related a dream foretelling the nappy issue of the negotiations; for the little man was one of those "dreamers of dreams" against whom Moses warned the Israelites. Karaiiama's'was not the only trance and. vision of which we heard in the course of these debates. The Maories believe that in their dreams the seers hear great bands of spirits singing chants: these when 7 they wake the prophets reveal to all the people; but it is remarked that the.vision is generally <to the -. advantage of the seer's tribe; Karanama's ""speech was answered by the head-chief of the Rangitane Maories, Te Peeti te Awe Awe, who, throwing off his upper clothing as he warmed to his subject, and strutting pompously round and round the ring, challenged _ Karanama to immediate battle, or his tribe to general encounter; but he \ cooled down as he went on, and in his last sentence showed us that' Maori oratory, however ornate usually, can be made extremely terse. "It is hot," he said—"it is hot, and €he very birds are loath to sing. We have talked for a week, and are therefore dry. Let us take our share —£10,000, or whatever we can get— and then we shall be dry no more." The Maori custom of walking about, dancing, leaning, undressing, running, and brandishing sgears during the delivery of a speech is convenient for all parties: to the speaker, because it gives him time to think of what he shall say next; to the listener, because ifc allows him to weigh'the speaker's to the European hearer, because it permits the interpreter to keep pace with the orator without an effort. On thie occasion, the resident magistrate of. Wanganui — Mr Buller

lar of eminence, and the attached friend of some of the chiefs—interpreted for Dr. Featherston.

The day was wearing on before Te Peeti's speech was done, and, as the Maories say, our waistbands began to lip down low; so all now went to lunch, both Maori and Pakeha. During luncheon we had heard that Dr." Featherston's proposals as to the division of the purchase-money had been accepted by the Ngatiapa, but not by Hunia himself, whose vanity would brook no scheme not of his own conception. We were no sooner returned to the ring than he burst in upon us with a defiant speech. "Unjust," he declared, "as was the proposition of great 'Petatone' (Featherston), he would* have accepted it for the sake of peace had he been allowed to divide the tribal share; but as the Wanganuis insisted on having a third of his £15,000, and as Petatone seemed to support them in their claim, he should have nothing more to do with the sale." "The Wanganuis claim as our relatives," he said , ; "verily, the pumpkin-shoots spread far." . . At last Hunia sat down.

Karanama, feinting and making at him with his spear, reproached Hunia with a serious flaw in his pedigree— a blot which is said to account for Hunia's hatred to the Ngatiraukawa, to whom his mother was for years a slave. Hunia, without rising from the ground, shrieked "Liar !" Karanama again spoke the obnoxious word. Springing from the ground, Hunia snatched his spear from where it stood, and ran at his enemy as though to strike him. Karanama stood stockstill. Coming up to him at a charge, Hunia suddenly stoj>ped, raised himself on tiptoe, shaking his spear, and fl'Uing out some contemptuous epithet; then turned, and stalked slowly, with a springing gait, back to his own corner of the ring. There he stood, haranguing his people in a bitter undertone. Karanama did the like with bis. We had prevously been told to have no fear that resort would be had to blows. The Maories never fight upon a sudden quarrel: war is with them a solemn acfy entered upon only after much deliberation.

The chieftains at last became exhausted, and the Mission-bell beginning to toll for evening chapel, Hunia broke off in the middle of liis abuse: "Ah! I hear the bell!" and turning, stalked out of the ring towards liis pah, leaving it to be inferred, by those who did not know him ? that he was going to attend the service. The meeting broke up in confusion, and the Upper Wanganui tribes at once began their march towards the mountains 2 leaving behind them only a delegation of their chiefs. [Before Dr. Featherston left the district the natives agreed to the sale of the lands, and £25,000 was broiught from "Wanganui and paid over.]