THE GREAT TE KOOTI.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 402, 7 October 1911, Page 7

THE GREAT TE KOOTI.

Colonel G. Hamilton - Browne's book, 'With the Lost Legion in New Zealand." is reviewed in a London journal by Dr Artnur Lynch, M.P., the Nationalist member who fought on the Boer side in the South African war. Dr Lynch has some interesting stories to tell on his own account of the Maori rebel Te Kooti. "That was a man," he writes. "Again and again during the coach journey through the North Island his name had been pronounced with a mingling of respect and hate, and the story had been retold of his terrible exploits. The generation that had passed away had wrought marvellous changes in New Zealand, and when the oid settler who accompanied us pointed out the Very field from which the Maoris ha 1 rushed, tomahawk in hand, upon the troops, the tale seemed one of ancient history. "Then suddenly, unexpectedly, oi the hilly road near Pohui, we encountered Te Kooti and his men. He had been shot at, although we did not know it, the day before. He was shot at again a few days afterwards. Some weeks later he was killed, and the score of the massacre at Poverty Bay was wiped off the slate for ever.

"Pohui was remote from civilisation, but Te Kooti's warriors were well dressed, well mounted, all with new saddles. Te Kooti was reclining in the shade of a tree. Delighted at meeting the famous old warrior, I called out a greeting in Maori. He sprang up and cams forward. His sixty years sat lightly on that magnificently athletic frame. Hl3 step had the spring of a young brave, his eye the fire, his manner the courtesy of a noble of Castile. He was dressed in a well-fitting blue serge suit, his boots were polished, he wore gloves, he carried his tall hat in his hand. Te Kooti, after having a price on his head for a generation, had recently received a free pardon, but with a warning not to go near Gisborne, And this was the one place to visit which his soul kept hankering. Hence the shooting, for the descendants of his victims had sworn to have revenge."