OUR HOMELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR HOMELAND.

nr ELSIE K. MORTON - .

FROM PICTON TO BLENHEIM.

THE WAIRAU MASSACRE.

la a sheltered valley backed by high, bueh-clad hills, neetiad the little town of Picton, placidly dreaming away the summer days on the beautiful shores of Queen Charlotte Sound. The main street, ran straight down to the beach, and tho first object to attract tho attention of Pixie and Pat was a building like a small white castle set almost at tho water's edgo—Picton's war memorial, erected to the memory of the men who never more would come sailing home down tho blue waters of tho Sound. ...

" We aro now beading for Blenheim, which is 20 miles from Picton," said the guide presently, as tho .Silver Plane flew over (he steep Picton hills, and across n landscape where golden hillsides, tall kahikatea treos, dark clumps of flax and marshy pools appeared a* a chequer-board all patterned in sunlit green and gold, "How peaceful it all looks," remarked Pixie. " T don't suppose wo shall hear any more ancient stories of battle and bloodshed now we aro in tho South Island. Ihero was never any war v.ith tho Maoris, or serious trouble liko wo had in the North, was there?" " Strangely enough, this very district we aro flying over now was the scene of f'tio of the most terrible massacres in tho history of British settlement in New Zealand," replied the guide. "This is Tuamarina, and it was bere that the attack took placo that is known in New Zealand history as the Wairau Massacre." What was it all about?" queried Pat. " Who started it?" That is «i long story, but briefly, a dispute arose between tho New Zealand Company and tho great chief To Rauparaha over tho title and purchase of the Wairau Plain. If you know anything of Now Zealand history you will remember that the New Zealand Company was founded by those great colonisers of early days, Edward (ribbon Wakefield, and his brothers, Colonel William and Captain Arthur Wakefield. The white men in thoso days—the massacro took place in 1843—had very little knowledge or understanding of the Maori and his ways, and mado the fatal mistake of adopting " high-handed " methods and trying to arrest To Rauparaha. They roused the anger of tho natives to such a degreo that the latter attacked the party r.nd killed no fewer than 22 white men, including Captain Wakefield himself." " What a frightful affair!" shuddered Pixie. ' And to think of such a thinj happening in that beautiful valley down there." " Vou ;;oo the monument on that hill?" queried the guide, and although all the hills were flattened out from the altitude at which the voyagers wero travelling, the children followed iho direction indicated and saw on the hillside a tall pyramid of s'oro surmounted by a white cross.

" That is Memorial Hill, and Libido that monument are tlio graves of tho victims. The story will always live in tho history of our land, fo» it was tho Wair.au Massacre that first opened the eyes of tho whito men to tho fact that tho Maori, v.-hom they had hitherto regarded as littlo more thai) an ignorant savage, was a formidable foe, quick to resent insult, swift und deadly ir> reprisal. But tho knowledge tamo too lata to save the lives- of tho men who lie beneath the quiet Tuamarina. hillside. The Wailau Massacre was tho only ferious dash between Maori and pakeha in the South Island, but as you know, many terrible encounters took place in the North before peace was finally sealed between tho two races."

o A cordial welcome is extended to tlio following new members o ° of our Circles:— q ® Senior Circle:—Madge Melville (Tokanui, Kihikjhi). Pen-friends' ® nnd Artists'. Circles: Desmond Pocook (Grey Lynn). Kathleen 9 " W'hitaker (Epsom), Winnie Johnston (Alt.. Eden*. Maurice Cooper 2 q 'Grsy Lynn). Fred Harrison (Avondale). Roma Chatlleld (Parnell), ;; g Norman Dorset (Edendale), Lesley IJamo (Epsom). Nancy Hnttou 0 q (Otahuhu), Phyllis Wallis (Remtiera), Mirjoric Spottiswoode (Mt. 0 q Eden), Graco Silcock (Mt. Eden), Phyllis Brunaoin (Mt. Albert), o Ci Jean MeGechio (Remuera). C'vril linker (Newton), Joan Harvey 0 O 'Ellersliu), Joyce Booth (Onenunfa), Patrick Vooda (Edendale), o O P<Mtfy (To Puke), Gladys Bluck (Cambridge), Mary Potts o O (Opotlki), Neliie Bailey (To Kuiti). Ethel Munro (Waihi), Uulciti o O Dickey (Waiuku). Daphne Buchon (Pukeitohe), Jean Peck (Bay of O O Plenty), Hilda Capper (Npprunwahia), Merle Gibson (Tauranca). O O Phyllis Old (Dargaville l . \Vynford Stuekey (Morrinsville), Mary O O Phillips (Otorohfinpa), Josepn Bothwoll iSlaiitfore). John Ormo O O (Ma'.jngaturoto), Isabel Parker (New Plymouth), Esther Mr reliant ° ° (Njjutca), Putty Earl (Raglan). Beryl Kelly (Ohaupo), Evo Beatson ° 2 (Pultekohe). O o o 90 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001?