HISTORIC MERE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10392, 9 May 1927, Page 2

HISTORIC MERE

OWNED BY FAKEHA “FATHER

OF THE. NATIVES.”

RELIC OF BURNING OF THE

BOYD

(Special to the Times.) AUCKLAND, May 6. “Matua,” which means the “father of the natives,” was the name given to Mr J. Hare>, a North Auckland pioneer who now lives in retirement at Remuera.

Sixty-two years ago Mr Hare arrived in New' Zealand and went to live at Wliangaroa, where natves were just beginning to emerge from the hostile period. Mr Hare has in his possession a historic mere. It belonged to' Hore, cabin boy of the ship Boyd, which vessel in 1809 was burned to the waters edge in Wliangaroa Harbour alter the massacre of the crew. The mere next’ passed into the hands of a chief named Merimaia Te Ara. Mr Hare offered to buy, bjut the native said if he sold it lie would lose Ills mana, but when he died the pakeha could have it. Some years later Herimaia’s end came, hut the mere vanished. “The mere came into my possession in an extraordinary way,” said Mr Haro. “Some time later an old tohunga came to me, tipped three; or four charred pieces of stuff out of a kit, and exclaimed ‘lt is yours.’ After a pause the tohuijga added, ‘I coveted that mere, but the pakeluv’s atua has burned my house, and so I firing you the remains of the mere.’ ”

Air Hare was the only white person who saw the hstoric re-burial of the Ngapuhi’s dead at Wliangaroa. “I knew, that the Maoris ‘were gathering their dead from oaves in the hills,” he said, “and one day I met a big procession. A Maori rode in front carrying a flag. Then came a wagon conveying 28 sacks of bones. It was followed by another native with a flag, and behind was a following of Maori men, women and clr’ldren. They proceeded! to Waihi Tapu (Sacred Plate) and in a, great pit the bones were reinterred. They were shaken out of the sacks, and the latter were then placed over them as a covering. A great war dance was given to mark the occasion.”