RANGIWAHIA'S CROWN GRANT

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 119, 4 June 1881, Page 3

RANGIWAHIA'S CROWN GRANT

AN EPISODE OF PARIHAKA AND

THE GAOL.

Rangiwahia is a native of Punehu and a widower, having lost his wife during the early part of last year. In common with the generality of the natives on the coast, he frequently visited Parihakn, and became a staunch adherent of Te Whiti's. During his visits to that place he had met and become enamored of a bright-eyed daughter of the Ngatiawa tribe, and his love was, he fondly imagined, reciprocated. When, by orders of Te Whiti, the adherents of that chief began their opposition to the Government by fencing in their wheat fields, and thus obstructing the road in course of construction, Rangiwahia felt that he was called upon to join the martyrs who were being sent to gaol for carrying out the behests of their chief in asserting their right to maintain the fences about the wheat fields. He consulted his lady love, and she commended the idea, but wept sorely at the loss she felt .she was about to sustain by the absence of her well -beloved. Fears of the ultimate designs of the pakeha, doubt of the length of time before he should return, and considerations as to the uncertainty of that return at all, made the damsel waver for some time between her love for Rangiwahia and her fealty to Te Whiti and belief in his inspired rale, but at length the latter feeling prevailed, and she bade her betrothed be of good heart, go cheerfully and manfully to prison for thosake of the right, and have as implicit bolief in the power of Te Whiti to obtain the release of all in his own good iime as he had in the good faith of herself. And Rangiwahia did believe in her, and as he looked into the bright eyes beaming on him he felt that he could serve as many years as Jacob of old, if his patience should be ultimately rewarded by possession of his beloved. And then when Raugiwahia was prepared to start in company with many others, to face empty handed the armed troops of Col. Roberts, his beti-othed came to him, and with a face in which smiles and tears struggled for the mastery, called him on one side. " Go, Rangi," said she, " and when you return you shall take me to your whare, and we will commence a life of happiness, well earned by your fealty and truthfulness to the good cause. Think not that I shall be happy duriug your absence, for never will I cease to remember you, and hope for your return when you have conquered the evil meted out to you by tli.- 1 good and patient way in which you will bear their oppression. And let this be a sign to you ; keep it alwaj's about you, in remembrance of one who remaius at Parihaka disconsolate." And thereupon she presented him with a dainty silk handkerchief from her neck. White, with cherry-colored border, the delicate silk trifle was handed into the horny hand of the man who was leaving her, and who received it as a sacred pledge of their affection, to be consummated on his return from pakeha gaols. And then the girl turned away to hide the grief she could not control, and Rangiwahia proceeded on his way, and with his companions erected the defiant fence in the sight of the armed soldiers of the pakeha. No sooner was their fencing concluded, than their work was destroyed by the soldiers, and Rangiwahia remonstrated with the colonel in command for thus frustrating their attempts to protect their wheat from trespass. But the colonel explained that, if they wished to fence, they must fence parallel with the road, and thus protect their wheat aud leave the road open at the 6ame time. But Rangiwahia and his companions had their instructions from Tc Whiti, who had said the fence must only be erected on the spot where it previously stood, and it was useless to argue with one who was as determined to carry out the instructions of his master, the Government, as they were to fulfil the commands of their chief, Te Whiti. So when evening came, they returned to Parihaka, having escaped arrest for that day. Rangiwahia did not seek his sweetheart when he returned. He had bidden her farewell in the moming, and, although not arrested that day, he knew that lie and his companions would pei-severe until they were sent to piison, and he did not wish to again open the wounds of grief by peeking an interview, which could only end in another parting. So he remained within the

great meeting house of Tohu, in the runanga house of the kowerawera, and received instructions from the colleague of Te Whiti. The next morning they again departed for the fence, and in the evening again returned with the same result as formerly. Aud that evening Tohu told them that it depended upon themselves and their demeanor whether or not they were arrested, and bade them be brave and determined to maintain the fence, but to carefully abstain from blows aud personal encounter with the soldiers. So the third day they again went to fence, and as soon as they had finished, they stood by the fence and held on to the stakes which the constabulary tried to pull up, and by their display of determination made it manifest that nothing short of their arrest would cause the discontinuance of their defiant fencing. So they were all arrested aud taken into the camp of the Europeans. Now Rangiwahia had made a little bag to contain the silken gage he had received on the plighting of his troth, and suspended it from his neck by a slender cord. Inside his clothing, it rested on his heart, which beat with love and constancy for the donor. So when he was searched by his gaolers, this escaped their scrutiny and remaiued to comfort him in his captivity. When a sufficient number of prisoners were collected in the camp, they were taken to New Plymouth, and finally shipped on board the Hinemoa — suggestive name — to Lyttelton, where they were lodged on an island in the harbor. During the months of his captivity, Rangiwabia was remarkable for his quiet and orderly demeanor, aud when others displayed an inclination to be refractory, he always came forward as a peacemaker, and should any of his companions refuse to do any of the menial offices which

prison discipline obliged all to perform, Rangi was always to the front to do the work others refused, and so save his comrades from trouble. Each clay when th y were at liberty to take exercise, they were searched for contraband, in the shape of matches, before they were permitted to return to their rooms, and every clay Rangiwahia persuaded one of his companions to pass his hands carefully over his person, outside his clothes, to see if he could detect the presence of anything hidden beneath, and in this in nner he guarded against detection, when a like search was made by the prison officials. His cherished keepsake remained undiscovered during the whole time of his sojourn in gaol, and when, with others, he was liberated, and conveyed back to Tarauaki, he carried his treasure with him, full of glad pleasure, in the hope of ere long presenting it to the eyes of his betrothed, as a sign of his fealty. Meanwhile the dear object of his affections had remained at Parihaka ; but, alas 1 as days grew into weeks and weeks became months, the image of Rangi grew less and less vivid in her thoughts, and " absence made her heart grow fonder" — of some one else. Taking advantage of the absence of Rangiwahia, a chief of Ngahaira, of the Chatham Islands, paid his addresses to the temporarily deserted beauty, and not in vain. Apitea is a man of substance, the owner of flocks and herds, houses and lands, in distant Wharekauri, a native station, owner on the lands despoiled from the clotheless Maoriori ; and from thence he received money, and with it he made purchases of presents wherewith to gladden the heart of Rangiwahia's easily-consoled betrothed. Apitea also sent for cargoes of the dried tunas and preserved sea-birds of Wharekauri, and these he gave to Te Whiti, and thus became a great man and a favored adherent of the prophet ; and his indiscretion in the matter of Rangiwahia's promised wife was condoned by the people of Pavihaka, and she became to him even as a wife. At length Rangiwahia re-

turned to Parihaka, and with his companions was lodged in the house of Te Whiti. the far-famed Tacwapirau. His thoughts were of his loved one, and her keepsake s*ill rested on his heart. But he said not a word, made no enquiry ; for doubt had never entered his heart, and having waited so long, he could wait a little longer, till the business of the tribe left him at liberty to seek his betrothed. But when night drew on, Te Whiti called to Raugiwahia, and told him all ; and then he knew that he had cherished a serpent in his bosom, and that his noble and faithful heart had been discarded for the sake of the finery which his Chatham Island rival hail bestowed on the girl during his absence. And Rangiwahia was wroth : angry with the man who had despoiled him : angry with Te Whiti, who had stood by consenting to his shame, even as Saul stood by consenting to the death of Stephen. And after a few moments he spoke, aud denounced them I both as thieves and robbers. Of Apitea he said he could expect nothing better, for had he not, with his tribe, left his home in the North, and made war on the Ngatikuhunguuu, who owned the laud about Wellington, which Apitea seized; and when they again in their turn were attacked by Ngatitoa and Ngatiraukau, had they not beguiled an unsuspecting Euroj>oan into taking them to Wharekauri, where they slow the harmless inhabitants ? And it was with the fruits of his robberies that Apitea had stolen his love away. But to Te Whiti, Rangiwahia was more severe, and he chilled him for his insincerity to one who was suffering imprisonment for his sake. " Out upon j^on, Te Whiti, for very shame," said ltangiwahia; " you pretend to preserve our land and property, our wives, our dignity aud influence, our chieftainships, and all intact, and you have become as great a robber as Apitea, lor you two have stolen the only bit of land for which I cared — the small portion of mother earth which was dearer to me than my own life. You are a robber, Te Whiti ; a wanton, merciless robber." Aud Te Whiti said he did not know she was Rangiwahia's property. And then Rangi replied : " Mine ! of course she was mine, by her own free will and voluntary action, and here is the " Crown grant. And with this he pulled from its concealment the bag containing the sillk handkerchief, and opening it, f showed to all the pledge of his plighted troth, the Crown grant of his property. " And now," said Rangi, " as the land is gone, the Crown grant is useless to me. Pure and tmsoiled I have kept it as the motive which led me to accepl and cherish it, but it is useless to me now, and I return it to the purpose for which it was intended. Take it, my niece, and do with it as you" will, for I wish never to to see it more." With this he handed it to his niece, Kariroto, and retired into silence to nurt;e his grief.-