Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1927 TE RAUPARAHA'S REVENGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 2 April 1927, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1927 TE RAUPARAHA'S REVENGE

WHEN Te Rauparaha had__ returned, discomfited, from Kaiapoi and lmd received the upbraidings of the forlorh widows of Te Pehi arid his companions, the crafty chief of Kapiti brooded on revenge. And ho was not long in devising it. There came into the Strait a brig, the Elizabeth, commanded by a Captain Stewart, who was looking for a cargo of flax. Rauparaha said be would give him plenty of flax, it be would do him si small service, which was to convey him and a chosen party of warriors to Akaroa, and while there to act under'his, Rauparaha’s orders. Nothing could be easier. Stewart agreed. Rauparaha told his plan to nobody, lie had beard privately that Tamaiharanui, the chief of Kaiapoi, ,vho had punished the intended treachery of Te Pehi and his companions with death, was at Akaroa, where there were important hftpus of the Ngaitahu tribe, of which he was chief. Rauparaha told Stewart that ho was to tell no one of their destination and the arrangement

between them, and to have no communication with other ships or with the shore. Then, one night,-Rauparaha and his band of cutthroats went on board the Elizabeth, which, when day dawned, was over the- horizon and out of sight. No one know where Rauparaha had gone, No one knew on what errand he was bent.

It- did not take the brig long to reach Akaroa. When 'the captain dropped anchor, various canoes put off from the shor?, but no one was allowed on board. Enquiries l were made for Tamniliaranui. Rauparaha and bis men kept themselves out of sight. To ah intents and purposes the Elizabeth wa* »« innocent- trader, looking for a cargo. Stewart was told that Tamaiharanui was at Little River, whence messages were sent to bring him. But the Ngaitahu chief did not appear immediately. For some reasqp he hesitated to respond to the cordial invitation to visit the brig—lie would have been wise if he had absolutely refused it—but at length he pul in an appearance, and with him his wife and his pretty daughter. Captain Stewart received them at the side, and welcomed them mi board, but apparently allowed none of their follower., to accompany them. He took them below to the cabin, with all the protestations of friendship; \ placed refreshments before them, and completely convinced them of his friendship. Then while his visitors were accepting his hospitality in all good faith, an inner door opened, and Rauparaha and several of his followers suddenly appeared. Tamaiharanui wa3 seized and bound, his wife and daughter were forcibly detained, and Rauparaha taunted the caplive chief with being so simple as to ict himself be so easily entrapped. The anchor was weighed immediately, and the brig stood out from the harbour. But before he shaped his course for home, Rauparaha instructed Stewart to convey him to Takapuneke, an unforti-

tied, undefended pa, on the seaward side of Akaroa. .Here he landed his warriors, massacred about a hundred of the people, and took fifty prisoners on board the brig, and clapped them under hatches. Then the Elizabeth sailed for Ivnpitt. On the voyage there occurred a terrible tragedy. Tamaiharanui was put in irons and chained to the bulwarks, but his hands were left- free. Ilis daughter seems to have been under no restraint, and appears to have wandered about the dock. One night when the vessel was sailing under a starry sky, and only the man-at-the wheel and the officer of tiie watch and one. or two men forrard were awake, i'amaiharnnui took a. belay-ing-pin from its socket, and called his da lighter to him. Obedient, she came, anil thou the father, lightly hitting her on ihn head, so as to stun her, threw her into the sea. When it was found what the captive chief had done, lie was taken between decks by his captors, who were enraged ft being baulked in their design to make, the dead maiden the slave-wife oi one of their number, 'flic lather s hands were tied, “and they then fastened him by means of a hook, placed under his chin, to the. cross-beams oi the hold." They were determined that he should not escape from them hy committing suicide, hut they also made sure that lie- should have no rest during '.in* voyage. Of what happened to his wife we have no record. But when the. Elizabeth reached Kapiti, Tamaiharanui was handed over to the widows of (he chiefs who had been killed at Kaiapoi, and they put him to death by slow and nameless tortures which cannot- be described.

Such was Raiipnraha’s revenge. In such manner did he reinstate himself in Die high opinion of his tribe, and restore tire mana which he had lost

through his failure at Kaiapoi and the death of the chiefs who had been Die victims of that failure. Such was the man with whom, some fourteen years later, Captain Arthur Wakefield was lo have a fatal encounter at the Wairau. It, is difficult to understand how Die two Wakefield brothers, who must, have known the story which wo have been telling, came to regard Rauparaha as a harmless savage whom they could intimidate with ;v display of force .so feeble as to he ridiculous —fifty undiiilcd labourers who hardly knew one end of a musket from Die other! The cunning which Raupurnha displayed at Akaroa, and the military aptitude which lie subsequently displayed at the siege of Kaiapoi, should have been enough to warn tho Wakefields that they were dealing with a desperate, savage whose i(‘.markablei career proved him to be running, resourceful, energetic, and bloodthirsty. But what arc we to think of Captain Stewart of the Elizabeth. He must have guessed the cruel nature of the enterprise on which Rauparaha was bent at Akaroa. He must be included

among the horrible ruffians who were responsible for tho lopg drawn out agony of Tamaiharanui and the death of his daughter and Die massacre of the defenceless people of Takapuneke. The blood of the murdered people lies on his head as well as on Rauparaha’s. For a cargo of flax Stewart was ready to be accessory to one of tho blackest crimes which stained the records of New Zealand during the terrible second decade of the last century.. But there was a difrerence between Rauparaha and Stewart : they must be judged by different standards—the one by the standard of the Maori of that day, the other by the standard of civilisation. Tho chief acted in accordance, with the instincts of his horrible nature, the skipper acted with a view to obtaining a cheap cargo ot flax. '1 o such a low level of morality could tiie love of gain reduce a supposedly civilised man !