FAMOUS MAORI ATHLETE

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 April 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

FAMOUS MAORI ATHLETE

WILLIAM MINHINNICK, OF OEO.

Mr William Minliinniclc, of Oeo, appeared in this district about 1875, coming- with his parents and a large family of brothers and sisters from their previous homo on the Manukau harbour. As is well known to pioneers, he early distinguished himself in athletic circles, being "discovered" by some local enthusiasts who had seen him running down pigs, in his bare feet, through the fern. As he was then about 25 years of age he was in the full zenith of liis powers, being a magnificent sxiecimen of muscular manhood, standing over 6ft. in height, and of matchless symmetry. He was persuaded to attend the first athletic meeting held in Hawera (in a paddock off the South Road, just opposite the N.Z. Loan Co.'s saleyards). By all accounts, he practically "cleaned up" the programme, notably in the leaping and sprint events, and started on that long career of pedestrian performances which placed him in the front rank of

New Zealand, athletes. About 1878, having won the champion sprint race at Inglewood (run, by-the bye, over a rough track, newly stumped), he was challenged by the late J. J. Russell to a match for the championship of Taranaki. Mr : k M. Joll, of Princes Street, who won the boys’ race at this Inglewood meeting, relates how Minhinhick was obliged to run round a stump to head his field in his race. The match with Kussell took place on the racecourse at New Plymouth, the distance being fixed at a quarter-of-a-mile, and the stake, put up by Mr O 'Dea, a publican, was no less than £IOO. The Huwera man did not profess to be too good at this distance, but nevertheless, specially trained by J. Blake and carefully catered for by Mrs W. Mathieson, he had little difficulty in downing his doughty opponent. The time, if reported correctly, was 45 3-5 seconds, the race being run on a straight course. Shortly afterwards he was challenged by the famous professional, Rod McIvor, to a hundred yards match for £3O aside. Again the man from Ketcoueten prevailed, and thereafter he was held in the highest respect by brother athletes and handicappers throughout the 'colony. At the Hawcra sports meeting on New Year’s Day, 1883, he had to strike his colours to “Plying Jack’’ Hempton, who had previously won the Maiden Race and 100 yards handicap at the same meeting. That Hempton was much above the ordinary is proved by the fact that in later years, as an amateur, he held (conjointly with J. H. Owen, junr., of America) the world’s record of 9 3-5 seconds for this distance; consequently it was no disgrace for a man of 34 years of age to. have been beaten by this phenomenon. Again at the following meeting at Hawora on January 1, 1884, we find Minhinnick just losing the 220 yards Champion Cup to C. E. Major, owing largely to the former running wide at the bend into the straight, as reported in the “Star’s” account of this fixture. As evidence of his versatility, ho is stated, in the same medium, to have vaulted 10 feet 2 inches when in his 35th year, and to have. given brother Steve (no mean performer) four yards and a beating in a 120 yards hurdle race. Formerly in a match with Curtis, the celebrated Stratford pole-climber, the pair were reported to have tied at 11 feet 4 inches. Unfortunately this great athlete’s records of performances, achieved in the late ’seventies, when he was at the height of Ills physical prowess, have been lost or destroyed, but sufficient is known of his deeds on the track to warrant what has already beeu said of him, that “lie was perhaps the finest all-round athlete who ever donned the spiked shoe in New Zealand.” JRNGAO El) ON, A MAN-HUNT.

*• t the oiid of KSf-S, our friend, attracted by :i large reword offered for the apprehension of the outlaw Hiroki, tendered his services, to the authorities, aAd was enrolled as a special constable

foro-the occasion. With a party of three other volunteers, comprising Johnny Blake (brother of the captain'), the late Charlie Hunt (Fraser Road), and Kaitau (a .Maori guide), they wen* armed and proceeded on the man hunt. Having heard that Hiroki had taken temporary refuge on Iho Upper i’atoa, where an irreconcilable veteran of tho Han huu wars, named Tamatana, hud fled and made a clearing called Rnluimoana. the parly proceeded to lluka-

tere, and after some difficulty obtained a canoe from the chief, Tauroa, who had also been out with Titokowaru, but had now returned to the Queen’s mana. Paddling and poling for several days they at length reached the point where the Hauha stream debouches into the Patea on its eastern bank. Here they were astounded to see a white man eelfishing in the stream. This was no other than Kimble Bent, the notorious deserter. Bent’s agitation on being discovered was extreme, for he fully believed the posse had come to arrest him. He was speedily set at ease when told that Hiroki, and not he, was the man wanted. In Mr Cowan’s book, “Adventures of Kimble Bent,” there is a reference to this incident, relating how “a party of four, headed by a tall,'active, half-caste, appeared suddenly on the river in a canoe.” The leader was our friend and narrator, Wm. Minhinnick. Bent, who knew that Hiroki was in the district and, sympathising with the fugitive, gave the party false directions as to whither lie was heading, and the quartette returned down stream, covering the dangerous journey over the snag-studded river in one fourth the time occupied in toiling against the current.

Emerging in' due course on the open country, they obtained definite information that the man they wanted was fleeing along the edge of the bush bound for Parihaka, and was, in fact, expected at a certain hapu in the Kau-. pokonui district the following night. With all haste they procured mounts and rode into a clearing inland from Otakeho, awaiting the coming of the hunted man. Sure enough, just before dusk, Hiroki emerged from the shadows of the bush, carrying a gun, and accompanied by a mongrel dog. Immediately, Minhinnick, who was on guard with a rifie in his hands, cried out in Maori: “Hands up!” The fugitive appeared to acquiesce for a moment, then suddenly wheeling round he bolted for the shelter of the scrub. fired low, and the ball took effect on, the hunted man’s thigh, and he fell. But with surprising agility and stamina he arose before they could close in on him, and calling out, ‘ ‘ From the setting '■ to the rising of the sun let no man fol-

low me!” he darted into the bush, now dark with'the shades of night. A brief search was made for the defaulter, but it was deemed unwise to track him closely in the darkness, as he had all the advantage of cover, and was known to be armed ana aesperate. As a matter of fact, the hardy fellow staunched the flow of blood with a rough bandage of flax over a padding of mahoe leaves, and travelling all night eventually reached Parihaka, where lie resided three years before he was apprehended for the crime of killing the surveyor, McLean.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiismiiiiitiiuimiiiiiniMimiiiiiiiiriMiMi* Mr Minhinnick considers, in the softened light of 50 years’ memories, that tliis man was not a murderer in the criminal sense of the, word, but was merely, in slaying his victim, exacting utu (payment) for wrongs done him by the pakeha abstracting some of his stock, despite repeated warnings; and his sympathies go out strongly to the young man who faced his end so gamely on the scaffold in the winter of ISS2. With the dread platform oscillating beneath his feet and the panorama of sea and sky fading before his eyes, this reputed criminal, only one generation emerged from savagery, terminated his career like a Christian gentleman, and his last words may well have been those of the dying bandit on the tree of shame: “Lord! Remember me when Thou contest into Thy kingdom!” With the passage of eightv-one veai’S over his head, Mr Minhinnick might

well be excused if his frame were bent and crippled in their flight. But instead we find him standing upright, and apparently almost unaffected by the passing of the years. Reduced from comparative affluence by the bursting

of th(> land boom of ten years ago, he now resides tranquilly on his son-in-law’s farm, not yet content to be idle, but assisting in gardening and minor farming operations, and going about his self-appointed tasks almost as erect in stature as of old. Betimes, perhaps, he thinks of his younger days, when, at the ciack of the starter’s gun, he sped down between the extended tapes, or cleared the hurdles, leaping like a stag, in his powerful stride.