CAPT. THE HON. JOHN BRYCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 August 1929, Page 6

CAPT. THE HON. JOHN BRYCE.

A VINDICATION. (By “Old Timer.’’) Most, people must have thought ait one •time or another that this, or perhaps .any country, could be governed betted and certainly more economically than by the present system—by four or live honest, capable and impartial men. Jhi.s is hut a dream, but Jiad it been feasible, •‘Honest John Bryce." as lie was trained, would have been one «l the few men the writer has known who could have tided the bill. In spite of his character, or perhaps because of it, he was set up as a. target for 'the -darts of ignorant, would-be historians, ft is to refute some' of the charges levelled against him that this article is written. Many columns could be written on the subject, but brevity- bias to- be studied.

When the victorious Maori general was approaching his objective—Wanganui—Bryce, then a young man fanning in that district, was given a- cometcy in the Kai J.wi .Oavailry. While ,scouting with some of his men they surprised a. party of rebels looting, etc., at a neighbour’s, Mr Handley’s farm. Several natives were killed in the resulting skirms'h. among them two uads. A Mr Rusden, in his hook ‘‘New Zealand,” in referring to the incident, stated that the cavalry “cut down women and children.” There were no women there, and it is a common knowledge that lads from 14 to Id often aceo mummied war parties, and no doubt enjoyed themselves hugely in looting and finishing the wounded.

Mr Bryce sued Rus-den, and on the case being tried in London, obtained £SOOO damages. A Professor Oondlo* eliifc. of (Tuistohm'oh, New Zealand, in a. tiny book with the large title “The History of New Zealand,” in attempting to l describe what has been called the •'Bald on Pari ha-ha-,” wrote: “Captain Bryce (then Defence Minister in Major Sir Harry Atkinson’s Cabinet, 1881) mustered a. large force and marched on Pari ha ka. to arrest the Prophet To Whiti, which two or three police could have accomplished, and thereby made himsdif the baft giving stock of the whole Dominion.”

(Considering the largo nuiri‘)>or of natives assembled. there is m> doubt that Mr liiyoe right in making a strong demonstration in force, as it is ineonceva.ble that the Maoris would have handed over their beloved prophet and the chief Tohu to a. I‘eiw constables, and would have taken some action that would probatAy have involved the country in yet a third disastrous war. The incidents which made some decisive action necessary may he ~stated in a few words, as the events ate of comparatively modern date, and must be well known to many now riving. About the d/ate mentioned —1881 —Te i YVliiti and his councillors decided to !mako a. protest against the confiscation of their lands, and this took the form of sending strong hub unarmed parties down the coast, where they entered on i■settlers’ farms, pitched camp and started ploughing up paddocks, and when evicted front one farm they shortly repeated this perl'odmanco at another, until a serious breach of the peace being eminent. Govern men t had to taken, hand, the result being that after the airrest of two leaders and their imprisonment for two or three years, there was no more trouble in this connection. When the Royal Commission which has lately given its finding with regard to native claims to confiscated _ ‘lands was sitting at Wa.ita.rn, a native, a son of To Whiti ,told the old fairytale. In speaking of the raid on Pnrihaka, he said (as reported in the “Hawera Stair 2/18/27): “The soldiers were told to ride down children and women assembled in the street leading to the prophet’s house, and to cut- off the leadieds’ heads with their swords. They looted and pulled down houses and destroyed crops.” There is protooibfly no foundation lor any of these charges, and as to owing swords, these weapons had long been abandoned as unsuitable for our brand of warfare. The eminent commissioners and learned counsel accepted this evidence without question apparently. As many of the 1300 men concerned must be still alive, it is up to them to : come forward in defence of their own ■ honour and that of their leaders.