PASSING MAORI MEMORIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 123, 24 April 1936, Page 2

PASSING MAORI MEMORIES

(Recorded by J.H.S. for “The Mahawatu Evening Standard.”)

Legality or Benevolence.

Reticence in Parliament is a strong point where party politics demand it. Whether in his expressive mother tongue or in polished English', either of which the Maori is privileged to .speak, he easily surpasses the average member; but he is surprisingly and convincingly silent. Thus, he has held the balance of party power, whilst he listened to the tales of his down-trodden race. Doctor Grace who did much for the Maori people, both in the capacity as a pioneer medical man and in the Legislative Council, says: “For a quarter of a century he has escaped payment of his legitimate portion of land tax, whilst benefiting by railways, roads, and bridges leading to his lands.” He alleges also that the Maori has convinced editors and public opinion that he has been robbed of his land. We must concede that the Maori title to land was conquest and occupation. There was no constitutional law to guide him. Reference to “The Law of Nations 1834” proves that Britain had no legal sanction to .accept the interpretation placed upon the Treaty of Waitangi by Exeter Hall under pressure of the Mission Society. The true meaning of the treaty as understood by the Maori and according to British law and usage was “that the Maoris were protected in the possession of all lands over which they hunted or cultivated.” But Europeans were cheated into buying millions of acres which the Natives had never even seen.

The missioners interpreted the Treaty of Waitangi for the Maori, who took the profit and repudiated his benefactor. It is true that sometimes the Maori had the worst of a bargain; but frequently it was found that when a European had paid _ for land, the Maori seller subsidised other claimants to upset the title, and remained in enjoyment of his tribal claim after he had spent its price in feasting his relations. Taken all in all from start to finish, it was diamond cut diamond; but tlie brown tinted diamond cuts deeper. How An Irishman Loves.

“College days in the fifties amid rival Scottish clans and turbulent soft hearted Irish boys fitted me for tribal disputes and guerrilla fighting found here when we came m 1800. My sympathies are with the Maori, though my affections are with the British soldier, who, in adversity or success, is ever a child of Nature.” So wrote the good old doctor just before he passed on. When he first stepped ashore he said: “I have seen many beautiful cities in. Europe, Asia, Australia, and America, but doubt if any can compare with Auckland in situation and surroundings. No one could believe that in this lovely country, peaceful and attractive, war could be possible. Yet our company of soldiers brought fresh hope and joy to those anxious colonists as we marched with our military band up Queen Street. The affair at Waireka had left alarm, anxiety, and doubt in their minds as to the efficacy of British troops in Maori warfare.”. The doctor was detailed for duty at the Auckland General Hospital, and had no sooner settled down to the work when a gentlemanly brother medical officer introduced himself sayjng, ,“I have orders to proceed to the front. Your arrival has played the devil with everything. 1 am making love to the sweetest girl in the world, the Commandant’s daughter. Before I return, if ever, some officer will have carried her off.”

The doctor’s Irish sympathies went straight out to the handsome girl whom lie had met with a thrill of conscious anticipation, and though a shiver ran down his back, and the sound of a Maori bullet hummed in liis ear, he said, “My dear fellow. I‘m dying to go to the seat of war. I’m a poor divil of an Irishman accustomed to a turbulent people. I’ve seen the lady—she’s a beauty for her sake I’ll be off and get tomahawked. I’ll volunteer for active service in vour place. You have friends at Court, you can manage the rest.” And lie did. Not till grey hair and heard had mellowed his secret romance did the dear old Doctor Grace confess the real reason for his aged singleness, gratiffied only by leaving her a handosme legacy in liis splendid sheep run at Akitie. A Joke And The Tragedy. It cannot he denied that in the ea.rly stages of the Maori war, just prior to the memorable sixties, rivalry and jealousy between the various regiments and companies were absurdly like the mock warfare of two Maori tribes in their preparation for mutual self defence. A soldier’s opinion of the cause of war is at least illuminating and convincing. “You see, this was only a bit of a ruction about land. We could have settled it all ourselves. We had been here with the 65th about eighteen years. We all talk the language more or less, and some of us have close relations among the Maori. They are a decent civil spoken race and we know many of their chiefs and people as we do our own messmates. We would have had one big fight, then a big feed together, then gone on comfortable and easy. “Wiremu Kingi insulted Governor Gore Brown by saying ‘Waitara is mine, I Will not allow its sale. It’s for me to talk —others keep silent.’ The'Governor then hurriedly ordered the purchase to be completed from Te Teira who was friendly to the pakelia, a.nd a great ruffian. Wiremu’s land title pa was oil the land; we were ordered to storm it. This was all in good blood, and some of Wiremu Kingi’s men actually marched with ns 1 At the word of command we stormed it gallantly. All was going nicely till some men of a tribe, also at va.ri-ar-e with Wiremu, murdered several white people south of New Plymouth. “Our men of the 65th were marching irregularlv to town, and met the party of sailors who had landed to cut into the sport. We chaffed and hobnobbed with them till nearly dark, then pointed out the dummy land title pa. telling them it was full of curios and pigs and all kinds of sport. . The officers and men rushed right at it. A few old Maori men had gone there to cook potatoes. Tliev fired on the attackers, and several soldiers were wounded. Two Maoris were killed and the rest bolted. “This was the real cause of the wa.r. The Maoris were of the Ngatiawa tribe Few of our people knew one tribe from another. We attacked Wiremu King’s tribe because his rivals the Ngati ruanui had murdered some of our people I”