FIFTY YEAKS AGO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16233, 19 May 1916, Page 8

FIFTY YEAKS AGO.

MYSTERY REGARDING REWI.

IMPERSONATION SUSPECTED.

'From the Herald of May 19, 1866.) "Is Rewi, the great fighting chief of tho Ngatimaniapoto tribe, still alive," is a question which for months past wo have thought of putting seriously before Die minds of our readers, and of tho governing powers of the country. We may say that the rumour that Rewi was no longer living came first from tho Maoris themselves as a taunt, made to an official of tho Government, that the pakehu, . with all his wisdom and means of pro- ' curing information on native matters, | was so easily deceived as to be led to believe this man to be still alive, though he had been dead fully twelve months. Rewi, they said, had died of the wounds received in the retreat from the Orakau pa, and has since, with the connivance of the Ngatitnaniapotos, been personated by a young man of tho same name and tribe; communications by letter with i other tribes passing through this man's j hands, and in some instances, when it' could be safely acomplished without fear of detection, personal interviews having taken place between himself and native messengers from southern tribes. The pooh-poohing of this statement drew from the Maoris making it the retort. "Has any white man seen the face of Rewi since Orakau?" (April, 1864). There is no getting over this piece of • ollaleral evidence in support of the native statement. No European has ever seen Rewi since that time. j