THE POVERTY BAY MASSACRE

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 997, 17 November 1868, Page 3

THE POVERTY BAY MASSACRE

(From the "Inrlepeniont," Nov. 12.) The intelligence from Poverty J3ay tells of an atrocity, the meagre details of which are absolutely sickening and appalling. The escaped Chatham Island prisoners have commenced their work of murder. The Poverty Bay settlement has been utterly destroyed. . Some settlers fortunately escaped in time to Napier and Auckland by two coasting vessels, but the rest were killed in cold blood and their bodies frightfully mutilated. It is. sickening to read the telegrams, each curfc sentence of which will stir the hearts of brave men to vengeance, and cause gentle women to weep bitter tears of distress for those of their common sisters who, with babes at their breast and little children clinging round them, have been, with their offspring, mercilessly tomahawked. We cannot dwell over the details. Suffice it to say that the band of escaped Hauhaus from the Chatham Islands, under Te Kooti, on Monday morning, at three o'clock, entered the Poverty Bay settlement and commenced the work of slaughter. Neither age nor sex was spared — the armed men, helpless women, and prattling innocents all shared the same fate. Twenty-eight persons were murdered in cold blood, and as the telegram significantly adds, "many others are missing." Those who had not got away in the coasting vessels to Napier and Auckland, took refuge at Turanganui, but as another attack was immediately expected, it will not be surprising if in a few hours more, we learn by telegraph, that further murders, with all their accompaniments of disembowelling, mutilation, and burning, have been committed. Apart from its brutalities, this affair is a terrible disaster in another point of view. The brave Captain Biggs, whose gallantry in many a sharp skirmish, and dashing rush is known to the whole colony, has been murdered, with, his wife and family ; probably without the opportunity of striking a blow in defence of his life and those whom he held dearer even than that. Then, gentle and kindly, yet intrepid and brave, Capt. Wilson, — our old Turakina fellow colonist — has shared a similar fate, and lies mutilated beside the corpses 'of his wife and child. We cannot write move on this aspect of the case. Only think of a peaceful settlement at the darkest hour which precedes the dawn. The inhabitants are wrapped in slumber: the little children repose peacefully in cots by the bedside of their parents ; the fathers and mothers sleep in fancied security. Suddenly dark forms emerge from the fern and bush, climb over the palisades, and, with, a ferocious yell, rush on tlio nouses. Then there is wild confusion. Lights flash, about, men spring from bed to seek vainly for arms ; helpless women cower in corners, commending their souls to their Maker, while little children shriek out in unmeaning fear. God help them all ! for the crack of the rifle is heard, and some meet a merciful death at once, while others are massacred under repeated blows of the deadly tomahawk. Then there is a bloody saturnalia to follow. 'i.The heads and thighs of the murdered victims are chopped off; their bowels ripped up; while tattooed men eagerly drink the blood from the palpitating corpses, and the burning of a woman's body finishes the terrible scene. Who are to blame for this ? We solemnly assert that on the head of Mr. Stafford and his colleagues in the Ministry, the blood of the men, aud women, and children who have thus been slain will rest ; and when the last, awful day of reckoning comes they will require to account for it. We make this accusation advisedly and with due consideration. The facts warrant it. Months ago we warned the Government that by.withdrawing the original guard from the Chatham Islands, and sending fifteen men to keep watch and ward over 180 desperadoes, who had proved by their past conduct that they wore capable of the most daring { deeds, was simply asking them to escape, j Of course the escape of the prisoners followed as a natural consequence. It was not the Hauhaus, but the guard, who were the real prisoners. The former could have risen and torn their keepers limb from limb, at any moment they thought fit. Of course the guard were armed ; but what of that ? In a sudden rising, a few of the assailants might havo been shot ; but ere the rifles or revolvers could be reloaded, the struggle would have become hand to hand and numbers would have gained the victory. All that was necessary to make a rising effective for an escape, was the presence of a vessel, and the arrival of the [Rifleman at the Chathams supplied the desideratum. The Maories rose, the guard were overpowered, the arms seized, and then the mate and crew of the Rifleman were forced, on peril of life, to convey them to Poverty Bay. If the Government had wished to bring about this result, they could not have taken measures more admirably calculated to facilitate it than they did. And afterwards the Government committed the criminal blunder of following up those ex-prisoners with an inefficient force, which was worsted and driven back, the only effect of the expedition being that the Hauhaus were exasperated and resolved to retaliate at the first opportunity. If the Government, through criminal negligence — we had almost said connivance — allowed these men to escape, they might at least have avoided exasperating them. The Hauhaus, when unopposed, did not murder the Chatham Island settlers, and, had they been left alone, it is possible they would have given no further trouble. As it is, they were attacked unsuccessfully, and now they have retaliated with a terrible vengeance. But above all this, the Government are criminally responsible for the lives of those who have been murdered, seeing that, in the face of Mr. M'Lean's resolutions relative to the defenceless state of the East Coast, — resolutions -which would have been carried but for the casting vote of the Speaker — they persisted in depriving it of the trained men who were j stationed there for its protection. Nay, more, they treated -with, flippant discourtesy the urgent remonstrances of a large and influential body of settlers who solemnly warned them of the consequences which would inevitably follow their action. And now we have the result of all this in the curt words of the telegram : — " The Poverty Bay district has been wiped out through the criminal laches of the Stafford Ministry." May God forgive Ministers ! We would not have the blood of these brave men, these helpless women, and these innocent children upon our heads for all the wealth, in Christendom.