Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Marlborough Press, Volume IX, Issue 607, 2 September 1868, Page 3

Drowning Jonah. —The following statement confirmatory of the horrible practice which was carried cut on one of their own number, by the Maoris on their late voyage from the Chatham Islands to Poverty Bay by throwing him overboard to appease the God of the winds, has been furnished to the West Coast Times by a gentleman to whom it was related by an eye-witness nearly thirty years ago. “ Rauperha, the fighting chief to Te Pabi, having avenged his master’s murder at old Kaiapoi Pa, about fifteen miles •from Christchurch, Was crossing Cook’s Straits from Tiiupo Pa in Porirua Harbor, to Te Arioiti. Queen Charlotte's Sound, in a large wrtr canoe, a heavy gale of wind came on, and terrified Rauperha that he vowed to the god of the winds if he safely landed he would sacrifice two children who were with him in the canoe. They reached the land in safety, and no sooner did the canoe touch the shore than Rauperha jumped into the water, and seizing one of ,the children by the legs whirled it round his head and having smashed its brains out against the canoe, he threw the body into the sea—the, barbarian then served the other child in a similar manner, and thus fulfilled his horrible vow.”