An Anxious Night

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 April 1930, Page 20 (Supplement)

An Anxious Night

Threatened by the Han Haus

An Incident of 1874

The following copy of a letter written by Mr C. E. Gibson to the editor of the “Weekly Herald” (Wanganui) on February 28, 1874, is interesting for the picture it gives of the alarms and dangers faced by the settlers of the period. It will be seen from the following narrative that a situation developed, which, had it gone a little further, might have added another chapter to the history of the Maori war incidents in this district. Present-day readers will be impressed by the writer’s comments on the brand of justice meted out to palcehas when they came into conflict with the Maoris in law courts of those early days. The letter, as published here, was written by Mr Gibson following upon the publication by the “Weekly Herald” of a correspondent ’s account of the incident and editorial comment thereon.

Sir, —The explanation given in youi issue of the “\Veekly Herald,” of tht 31st ult. of your Hawera correspondent’s telegram concerning the disturbance with the natives here, falls very wide of. the mark. Being one of the principal actors in the affair myself, 1 have deemed it advisable — to prevent an erroneous impression being formed in the public mind —to give you an account of the whole affair from beginning to end. But first of all 1 must contradict the statement that the row was the upshot of the tangi that was held over Hatoi’s wife, as that ceremony hud been concluded, and nearly ail the natives had returned to their respective kaingas some four or live days before the disturbance arose. How for the facts of the ease. One day in the early part of January, a considerable number of natives came here from the villages on the other side of the Waingongoro River; they met with their friends and relatives who reside here in the clearing, and a considerable stir was kept up by them amongst the three stores here, until after mid-day, when they began to clear away by degrees, leaving at last about half a dozen of Titokowaru’s lot and one of Hone Piliama’s men. Hone’s man and two or three of the others came into my store and stayed talking the rest of the afternoon. One of these natives was a man whom I had never seen before, and my attention was drawn to him on account o: a pair ot leggings which he wore having a bullet hole through one of them. 1 asked him if he had been shot; .he isaid, ‘‘No,” that lie had taken the leggings from a pakelia whom he had round wounded after the second attack on Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu. w hen asked what became ol the paneha, lie described how lie himself had tomahawked him, taken his heart out, and eaten it. I turned to Hone’s man and asked him if this was true; he replied ‘"yes,” it was all true,” and that this same man was one of the murderers of Cahill, Squires, and Smith, that it was his work to do tiro butchering business on any unfortunate pakelias who fell into their hands after the various engagements. I then risked him his mime n.nd lie seemed

’ the door, and told him to clear out, ! which he did. Nothing more was seen of him until Tuesday, January 27, when he and a lot of" his confederates again made their appearance in the clearing. The day before, a lot of natives had come down from Pa rill aka, with hides and funguis for sale, and tnese, with a lot from across the Waiugongoro, who had been transacting some business in grass seed the day before, were still hanging about, and made up as nice a lot of scoundrels as one would wish to meet. During the morning, Pepe, the native chief of this place, came down, and, during a conversation between him and some four or live of the natives in my place, Whaknwhiria came in. 1 immediately entered him

out,, lmt Pepe stopped me, and said mat he had asked him to come in, arm wanted to know what was tiie matter. I. tokt JL-epe all about trie stealing oi the axe. W luucawhirni denied it, arid Lius brought on an altercation between us, wiiich ended in my rattier liasti.y taking a loaded re»oner, and >.,a., nig, ' ‘j.ooa here, do you see tins." j.l e*er I-do catch ton stealing ai.,.tning uom here, j. wnl put on 3 of these into you; and mind you t mean it. for J will -stand no mnnouggnig

very reluctant to tell it, but before lie could stop him, Hone’s man blurted it out, “YYiiakawliiria.” He was very angry then with Hone's man for telling me, and soon after they all went away—as I thought—home, lint, instead, they all turned up again after dusk—with the exception of Hone’s man. A. IN' OMINOUS VISIT. YVhakawhiria and three others came into my store. I was very suspicious of them, but they appeared very friendly with me—Whakawhiria especially ■ but still I could not divest myself of the impression that they were up to no good, I tried several times to get them away, but to no purpose. About 10 o ; eiock another of their number came in, and 'YVhakawhiria said to me, ”11 you will give this man a glass of rum, we will all go away.” I said ‘‘all right” and went to get it for him, trusting to my younger brother to keep his eyes upon them, but he being tired and sleepy, did not keep as good a ‘*bok out” r..s ne ought to have done. I had a few things to remove before I could get at the rum, and when 1 returned with cue glass, Whakawhiria—whom I had left standing near a case of axes —had gone. J gave the native lii.s glass of rum, and they stood talking for a few minutes, then suddenly cleared out. I jumped over the counter to lock the door arter them, and happened to look into the case Ot axes and found that there was one gone. I’ immediately went out after the natives, but they had all mounted their horses which were close to, and were galloping away towards the Waingongoro. i returned into the store and found that several other articles were missing. Well, of course, 1 could do nothing, for although there is plenty of law, there is no justice for the pakcha in these matters. So I thought the Lest thing to do would be to keep Whakawhiria and his friends clear of the place for the future. AM-OTHER MAORI VISIT. About ten days afterwards, YVhakawhiria turned up again. I bad been up at the clearing on some business, and on i iiv return I foam] him in the store talking with my brother. i spoke very strongly lo him about, Ins conduct, and I old him that unless be returned the axe never lo come near the place again. I then showed him V

irom you.” .1 tnen put tue revolver away, as 1 was out of temper, and feu a strange itching to. use it. .Peps was eery much frightened, but when he had got over it, and we had all cooled down a little, toey began to taltc tne matter over, and Pepe advised him to go over to Capt. Hlaice’s anti loclye u complaint against me. Lap-' tain .Lslalve- l>eing auay in J/a/tea., JV.ir Langley came o>er to enquire into the matter. I told him all about it, and be told them that if they wanted to do anything in the matter, they would have to wait until Captain Hake's return from ha tea. They were very much annoyed at this, and sent over lor Mrs Blake at on.e. YY hen die came, she .said they would have to wait. The natives began to gather into the store after this, till the place was md ol them. Pepe then wanted a bottie or brandy, which J. refused to give him, telling him that if i gave it to him they would get drumc and create a row. He said lie did not want the bottle to drink in the place, but wanted it to tune with him, and that when lie went away all the other natives would go also. L then ga. e lum the bottle on the promise that he would go away home, and take tue other natives with him. Immediately he got it, if was opened and served rou'ftd, and another called for, which 1 would not give them, ‘they became very insolent at ter tins, and demanded tbe revolver. I could sec now there was a serious row brewing, so L kept quiet, aim pretended to read a newspaper, at the same time wat-hino; them closely, and listening to what they were saying. L soon saw that l ; epe was the prime mover in the whole affair, and that they intended to have a ‘'mum’' (it robbery by force;, and • burn the place down aitervvards, but that first of all Pepe must have his men down to take ' part in it. He then asked for writing ' material, and wrote a note To trial 4 ehect. i as .ceil him why he was send- j ing tor his men. Pie rc-piieci. ”1 am sending for them to protect the place until the vvild men go away.' j 1 Ihouuht il was time to write too, < sii I s ribbled :i hasty note to (apt. ; Lapel, informing him licit I he natives \ were going to burn the place down, , and to send assistance without delay, i 'hi- i gave to my brother, and toldens

version of the story, said that he knocked the revolver up with liis hand, or else the man would have been shot. Now this J. deny, as Pepe never put a hand near it. But, however, ifter hearing all that had to be said, L'aptain Cupel told them that they had letter leave the matter in the hands >f the law, and summon me to court, tut this they would not listen to at ill, and demanded that the revolver md £5 should be given up to them at >nce, or they would proceed to pull the dace clown. Pepe also, when told by .'apt. Cupel that, as a Government native, and one |.vho was receiving Government pay. lie ought to try and xirsuade the natives to let the matter ;o to court, replied ‘‘l am a rebel and i. lum hau, always was, and always rill be. YY’e art* all hau bans and do nit recognise your laws, and this afair must, be settled according to our tom.”

Affairs now began to look very serious. There was every reason to believe tiiat a large body oi natives nad assembled on tliis side of the W'aingongoro, and only awaited the signal to attack. By this time they considerable number or Europeans had arrived, and as things seemed to -be drawing to a crisis, 1 served them out a lot ox pick handles tiiat were in the store, and we determined to make a stand lor it if they attempted anything. Their “bounce” now cooled down considerably, and Pope’s men began to leave them, so they were persuaded to wait for Major Turner’s reply to the teiegram. This did not arrive till about nine o’clock in the evening ana was to the eilect that Captain Blake and himself would be up next morning. The natives were in a great rage at this, a.s it was not what they expected at all, and they vowed that if I did nob settle it there and then, they would return in the night with all their force, and settle it their own way. Capt. C'apel told them tiiat it they would only keep quiet and not resort to extreme measures, lie would send a. mounted orderly down to the Major to come up at once. “VYhat do we care for tilake or Major Turner h” they replied; “our quarrel is with (<ibson; Jet him settle its or take the consequences.” The orderly was sent to Paten. The natives cleared out. Captain Capel sent his men for their arms, and set oral of the civilians went with them, and were served out with what few spare riffes there were. Pepe’s excitement had cooled down by this time, so he sent oil' a. messenger to his hau hail iriends, warning them, 1 suppose, that we were all armed and ready for them, ami that they had better wait lor Major Turner’s arrival. The rest of the night passed away quietly. Captain Capel and two ol his men were on the look out, ami while the armed party were posted in a small clearing behind Captain Blake s house. Major Turner and Captain Blake arrived about live o’clock on the morning of ' the 28th. The natives began to come in about seven o’clock. When they had all arrived, and Major Turner had heard how matters stood, .1 was sent, for, and quietly informed that I had better settle the matter amicably by giving the natives £5; that if I did not he would have to arrest me as a disturber of the peace; that two charges would be brought against me; one for assault with intent to kill, and the other for selling liquor. Wall, we all know the sort of justice pakehas meet with in cases where the natives are plaintiff's, and the authorities here seemed to he quite powerless to protect the property if I refused. I paid the money, at the same time telling Major Turner that I did not believe in knuckling down to a lot of lawless savages, and that if I had done wrong, no matter wluit the charge was they had against me, it should have gone to court; and further, that this would form a precedent for them in other affairs of like -nature which j might arise in future. You now have all the facts of the , case l>3iore you; and if I have gone into Kiicli a long detailed account, it is

him to deliver it- as quick as passible. I was now left all alone with the place full of Maoris. One fellow got on the counter, and was going up to where he saw 1 had placed the revolver. I ordered him down, and put- the revolver, while they were not looking, in another place. Then Tope jumped over the counter, ■and said lie wanted a pair of trousers. I told him he had better go home, and come on tire morrow if he wanted anything; but no, he must have them there and then. I kept him arguing, as long as possible iso as to gain time, but at last I had to humour him 1. took the trousers down one bv one until he got a pair that suited him, taking care not to lay any on the counter, for as sure as 1 had done so

Captain Capel, finding that no good could be done with them, and that they were bent on mischief, immediately despatched an orderly to Hawera, with the following telegram to Major Turner: “Serious row between Glibtson and' natives —Gibson presented a revolver at a native —they threaten to pull down and burn his store, and will not recognise the law unless paid £5. Gibson refuses to pay the money—natives have sent for reinforcements—what shall 1 do.” PREPARING FOR TROUBLE.

I the muru would have commenced, and i nothing would have stopped it. Just at this time a sergeant of the t A.C. Force accidentally dropped in. 1 .1 told him how* matters stood, and got ' - him to stay with me until assistance 1 r arrived. Soon after tliis, something I outside attracted the attention of the ] ' Maoris, and a lot of them rushed out i - to see. I then jumped over the conn- \ [ ter and told the remainder to clear 1 i out’. One fellow, who was rather re- j i luctant to go,, I took by the shoulders i ' and gave him a shove towards the I door. They all cleared out then, and I I locked the store, up. \ Captain Lapel arrived soon alter I with several of the A.C'. force. At 1 , the same time Pepc’s men, whom he ' had sent for, came up, and fresh at;- ( rivals began to drop in from across • • the Waiugongoro. Captain Cupel at once proceeded to enquire inti the <- matter, and Pepe. in giving I .i« i

because I considered that the public had a right to know every circumstance connected with it. * I cannot conclude, however, without returning thanks to the bold and fearless hearts who stood with me that evening, and who would have shed their blood had need been in defence of me and my property. Yours truly, CHAS. E. GIBSON. Ketemurae, February 25, 1874. [The following editorial footnote was appended to the letter at the time of its publication: “The above letter speaks for itself —no lengthy comment, is necessary. Its perusal proves in the istrongesi possible manner, that an urgent necessity exists for the demonstration to these turbulent individuals, of our determination to compel their observances of law and order.”