A MAORI RAID.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 29 June 1926, Page 8

A MAORI RAID.

RAUPARAHA’S PRIEST IN SOUTHLAND.

For most people the history of Otago began for all practical purposes with the first white settlement m 1848, but when one comes to think ot it 4ne people who inhabited this land hundreds of years before must also have had a history, and in all probability a most interesting one. One ol the few who have long made a hobby ot Maori antiquities in Otago, and .found it an increasingly fascinating study is Mr F. Waite, M.P., of Waiwera,. The announcement that he was_ to address the Otago Institute on ‘ Puoho s Raid Into Otago” drew last evening an audience that crowded one of the lecture rooms -at the Medical School. The meeting of the institute was held in conjunction with a meeting of its archaeological branch. The president (Mr W. Martin) occupied the chair. The election of three new members to the institute was reported. Mr. Waite said that the' story he had to tell was one of the bad old days before the days of the League ot Nations. Urged on by Mr. H. D. Skinner, some of them had been trying to collect material for a pre-Etoopean map of Otago. They found this a most difficult task, and there were clear traces of Maori settlement in many places where the Maoris of 1840 or 1850 had not claimed a reserve. He described a midden near Pounawea that he had recently examined, and exhibited a large bone and a flint that he had taken from it. Over this midden Avere growing trees from 200 to 300 years old. Speaking of Maori tracks, he referred to the well-known one up the Waitaki River. Puoho and Rauparaha were both northerners, living up near Kawhia, and the question was ivhy did they come south. Rauparaha was born about 1770. About 1820 firearms began to come into the country, and were greatly prized by the Maoris as a means of vengeance on their enemies. On the death of a chief, Rauparaha became head of the Ngatitoa, and .as the result of a prolonged feud Avith the Waikatos he and his tribe passed to Kapiti Island. Further feuds led him to go on to the South Island where he raided and destroyed Waiapoi Puoho was a priest of Rauparaha. With a small party of 40 he raided, and destroyed', the settlement of Tuturau. -- From the neighbourhood ot Kingston the raiding party went down the valley where the railway now runs to the Whakaea (now spelt Waikaia) they surprised a party of N”gai-Tahu just at the junction of the Waikaia Avith the Mataiu-a. This eeling party, 12 in number, had come up from Raupuke, or Tuturau, and, as they had accumulated an immense stock of eels, the war party was better fed than it had been for months. An account of the murder of Tuolio, and the subsequent massacre of his people followed. Confirmatory evidence of the route indicated by Judge Chapman Ava.s found in the account of a trip by an Englishman from the neighbourhood of Tuturau to the Waitaki in 1853. All the evidence of the southern nations Avas that the raiding party came across the Waimea Plains. At the A’ery beginning there Avas a difference of opinion as to Avhether Tuolio’s party came south to Wanaka by canoe or overland. The lecturer brought evidence to show that at any rate at times the Chitha River is navigable, although it might not be a very pleasant trip. The southern Maori evidence was to the effect that there was no surprise or massacre at Tuturau, as all the people of that place happened at the time to be at the mouth of the Waikaia, near the spring called Otama. It Avas there they Ayere surprised. When the Raupuke natives surprised Tuoho, he himself and one of bis Avives was certainly killed, but there was much conflict of evidence as to lioav many others Avere killed. He believed that most of them were taken prisoners. As to the date of the massacre there Avas evidence for 1836, 1837, 1838. He produced, several lines of evidence to show that the true date Avas December, 1836. He concluded by referring to the map, and saying there was no evidence at all for the route to the mouth of the Clutha, but a great deal for the direct route he had indicated.