MAORI CHIVALRY

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3280, 25 February 1926, Page 4

MAORI CHIVALRY

MAN < WITH EMPTY GUN A dramatic and touching incident in the battle of Orakau, sixty-one years ago, still vivid in the memory of Colonel Roberts, of Rotorua, is narrated in Mr. Cowan’s history of the Maori War, and has been pictured for Mr, H/udall Hayward's big film ‘■Rewi|s:Xiast Stand." It occuts in the screen version- of the Maori retreat through l the' swamps and fern after the evacuation of the Orakau redoubt, Coionei; Roberts was then a young subaltern in Von Tempsky’s Forest Rangers, ami he was (as Von Tempsky wrote in his journal) the foremost man 'of the corps in the pursuit. The strongest runners of the Rangers and two or three men of Captains Rait'6 Mounted Artillery did not stop at the PUnlu River, but crossed it and Went on In chase of the pursuers for a little distance/ Roberts and another Ranger caught up on one Maori, who several times deliberately turned, knelt on one knee and levelled his i Single barrel shot , gun at them. Ho was endeavouring to cover the retreat of some of' the wounded, but the Rangers did not know that. Roberts and a man near him took cover ! among 'thfe rushes and manuka and fired. and reloaed as they lay there. The Maori retreated a few yards, then turned and presented his gun at his pursuers.as before. Several shots -were fired at htiji, but he did not reply. At last One. oj&:'the rangers shot him dead. They wentti up to the plucky rebel and andypgtriSj;. as he lay there in the rushes aM they found that his gun was empty—ho had not a single cartridge leit. On the middle finger of his left hand he wore a little bag which ihfeid. a few percussion caps. "1.-WMa terribly grieved; we all were,", said Colonel Roberta, "to think wo did' nfelrknow that he was pointing an unloaded gun at us; we had to save ourselves from being potted, as we thought.- Had he dropped his useless gun and stood up and showed that he was unarmed and helpless we would have been only too glad to hayo spared him. But at that time none-.Of us knew enough Maori fo call on . him- This was of "’many stirring and pathetic incidents in the siege of Orakau Bush, which were re-enacted' at Waitaruna recently under Mr. Hayward’s direction for “Rewi’s Last Stand.” That unknown hero of the Maori rearguard I fight was one of scores of brave felllows who. fell in the retreat on April 2nd. 1864. The unmarked graves are scattered ever several miles of country southward of the present. monument on th e roadside at Orakau. Some bluebum trees on a hilt above the swamp indicate the Spot Where a number were burled by the troops, but there is no stone On any of the graves. Forty Maoris wdre buried ift the trenches of the pa; the place is just alongside the main rOad Which passes right through the site of th‘6 redoubt. The uneven turf inside the fence on tthe north Side tells the tale of ancient earthworks; though the spot has been ploughed over it is not enclosed and is part of a COW paddock. The plain stone monument on the other side of the road Commemorates the battle of Rewi’s name, but there is no reference to the Maori dead. The dust Of forty brave men and women deserves at least the honour of a fence antTa wayside cross and inscription. ___