AFTER THE MASSACRE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10392, 9 May 1927, Page 5 (Supplement)

AFTER THE MASSACRE

•aoW OF THE ARMED CONfi'ORE c g PA BULABY.

r W'VLSH TELLS OF HIS jtfK* J - experiences.

.. san d, little grass and much W f fvPie the most prominent feati'trf J Gisborne’s landscape some tures or according to Mr &! T Sl \Valsh, of Mangapnoa, who town at that stagg Jits existence, A PECULIAR PLACE. , r , vfalsh was born in Newtown, Cork, Ireland, eighty three O ulltj ’„n and, at the very early age years a=. > ; o i n cd a man-o’-war. He of ele 'Li’ce in the Chinese War of Sriod but, shortly after this, that PO Hi s parents, in the left had settled in Canada and Twined’them there. After a short he nil he a-min took up the sea-far-amf ioined on with a mern?S S-n sailing for the then little- £ , land of New Zealand. Sixty ■ a-m, this vessel touched Jport Chalmers and Air Walsh,

leavino- her, once more adopted a life on laud. For a time he lived m Ota« r o, lHit then came noith to A<uonaki where lie joined the 2nd bcirpst Rangers and saw some service gainst the Maoris. Commg t o Taupe, in this district he.changed from the Rangers to- the Armed Constabulary and, in 1871, was allocated for dutv in Gisborne. Since then, for this* period of fifty-six years, Mr Walsh lias resided in and about , GisI borne. In 18S1, he left the A.C. and took up land out near Matawhero. “GisDrne was a peculiar place then " said Mr Walsh, in chatting of those old days, “and it really is marvellous when cne considers all the changes that have taken place. 1 remember the time well when the present site of the Government buildin 2* was simplv a large clump of very high ti-tree. Right along by the British Empire Hotel the; scrub .stretched and the major portion of the town was made up of houses peeping from among patches of the growth. CHASING PHANTOMS. ■‘When T came' here in IS7I I did Armed Constabulary duty. There were only one or two civilian police in the whole district. The old A.C. did most of the work of this nature. We were always ready for a clash out ia»to the country after any nativejnfho threatened to become troublesome, but. during my time, we never actually came to grips with them—they knew the _ country too well It was disheartening work, for we would he out for two or three days, with only such food as we could pick up en route, and we always , seemed to be chasing phantoms, in j those days we had no modern con- ! veniences such as ration parties aim field hospitals to- follow us. We picked up such grub as we could and when a man fell, generally speaking, he lay there, for most fights were Or a running nature, and the unbounded men had to carry on the chase and hope to pick up their wounded comrades later when time permitted. The male residents of the town were all members of the Militia and paraded one day every month or so. at Ormond, where they were __drilled and instructed in various points of service work.- These parades were compulsory and each man was paid 4/- or 5,'- a day to compensate for his loss of working time. It was considered a very serious crime to be absent from a parade, except through sickness. TOWN’S LAST LINE OF DEFENCE i “As a Inst- line of defence, should the town ever he over-run by natives, we had an old bloc K-house on the site of the present police station. This was of wood, with the lower par strongly fortified by sand-hags and freely loop-holed. It would have been a hard propositou for anv hand of natives to tackle. From the block-house, a- trench communicated with the old court house situated on Adair Bros.’ site—apparentlv intended as an outlet for the defenders who could use it and then fall on to attackers in a surprise attack from ■ the rear. This court-house,- bv the way, was later shifted on to l Mr Townley’s property in Gladstone Road and was pulled down only a short while ago. F3WLTNG MAD NGATIPOROUS. “1 came after most of the Maori trouble had finished,” said Mr-Walsh in conclusion, “but I remember one little experience of .my police duty in the town. The people were very law-abiding, as the laws went in those days, but, when the NgatijKtrous came' down to 'sell grass-seed, there was usually excitement. A lot . of grass was growing on the_ flats about Pntutabi and Tahunga in those ■days and the natives used to make a good thing out of gathering and ■selling it in town. Twenty-one or the Ngatiporous came in _ one day with a big stock of seed, disposed of it well, and then* started out to drink up the proceeds as fast as they could. By evening, every man-jack of 'them was fighting mad and things became very serious. I was the only policeman on hand and so I gathered up any passers-by and went along to see about quietening them. Talk was useless, so we separated l them as best we could and took them in batches along to the lock-up—only a small cell. Bv 'the time the last of .them was packed in. this cell was a solid mass of swearing, fighting, Maori's on the verge of delirium. Gradually they quietened clown, as the strong liquor took effect, arid they fell into a drunken sleep. Next morning one of . the •sorriest bunches of men I have ever seen appeared before tbe J.P. and "ore severely admonished/ before Irelug escorted out of tocyn and sent 'their wav -in peace.”