MAORI WOMAN WARRIOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20721, 14 November 1930, Page 12

MAORI WOMAN WARRIOR

HENI PORE'S ADVENTURES. . A DEFENDER OF THE GATE PA NINETIETH BIRTHDAY TO-DAY. 2t In many respects one of the most in it teresting personalities in New Zealand h Mrs. Jano Foley, or Heni Pore, to giv< a her her Maori name, will celebrate a e Rotorua to-day tier 90th birthday. Ai n educated half-caste, she has first-han< knowledge of many red-letter events ii n her country's history. As a young j she witnessed the sack of Kororareka later she went to school in Auckland j where sho played with European chil e dren who have since risen to high posi tions in the land; she fought against th< British with the Kingite natives in tin j 'sixties; and with spado and gun sho as sisted in the building and defence of th< ® famous Gate Pa at Tauranga. 0 Although she was born in Kaitaia n North Auckland, on November 14, 1840 Heni Pore is, nevertheless, connectec with the Arawa people, among whom sh< '• now lives. Her mother, Maraea Tauna d kiwehe, had lived as a girl on Mokoiz e Island in Lake Rotorua—the island mad( n famous by tho beautiful Maori legend oi r Tutanekai and Hinemoa—and was one o: t tho women taken back to the North ai ? captives by Hongi Ika, when, with hi; e Ngapuhi warriors, he raided the. Rotorus t district in 1823. She was afterward: o married to a European, William Kelly, J and Heni Pore was a child of the mart riage. Plight from Kororareka. When Heni Pore was still a child her o father was drowned at Mangonui and a she was taken to the English mission sta--0 tion at Paihia, Bay of Islands. There j in 1845 she listened to the roar of guns 3 from 11.M.5. Haziyd as they fired on Hone Heke and his warriors, who had > captured and burned Kororareka. The - occupants of the mission station fled into f the bush for safety and were later * brought to Auckland with other refugees in the Government brig Victoria. } In Auckland Heni Pore's mother was 5 married to Mr. Thomas Russell, and ; the family lived in a house next to W. S. Graham's bonded store, tho site of which , is now occupied by the warehouse of L. , D. (Nathan and Company, Ltd. Heni , Pore's education commenced in earnest , and among her schoolfellows were Sir . Thomas Buller and Mr. J. B. Russell. She remembers Sir Edwin Mitchelson as 1 a boy three years old. At the age of ! about 14 she was appointed as an assist- ' r ant teacher at the school for Maori girls near Three Kings. Later Heni Pore returned to North Auckland with her family, and there sho married Te Kiri Kararou. For the next few years she lived a free, open-air life, learning to ride well, use a gun and even to break in horses. At the ago of about 20, when she already had several children, she went with her family to live with relatives near Maraetai, on the western shore of the Hauraki Gulf. She was with them when the Maori wars broke out and, after much family debate, decided to follow her brother on the warpath in the ranks of the Kingite natives. Fugitives in Hunua Ranges. For five months, with other Maoris, she lived practically tho life of a fugitive in the Hunua Ranges. For some weeks, beforo they - finally found their way through the British cordon and joined tho main- body of Kingites,'- they lived on bush honey, berries and water. ■ Daring- her' sojourn ' in Iho'-" Hunua Ranges, Heni Pore made tho famous flag for the Maori "King's" party. 'lt was of red silk', on which 'were worked a white cross and six-pointed star. The flag was never officially unfurled. She gave it to a chief, Wi Woka, who was captured by Forest Rangers under Major Jackson before, ho could deliver it at the native headquarters. The flag now reposes in the City Library. Heni Pore remained with the Kingites until, .toward the end of 1864, the lastpa in tho Waikato, situated near the present site of Cambridge, was e% racuated secretly at night. With her swag strapped on her back and her gun slung across her shoulders she plied a paddle in tho bow of one of the canocs in which the natives crossed . the Waikato-River. Water for Wounded Soldier. But Ifene Pore's fighting days "were not yet over. She assisted in the building of tho Gate Pa at Tauranga, and it is stated that she was the only .woman permitted to remain with tho garrison. Sho figured, too, in a heroic incident connected with the defence of tho pa. An attack by the British troops had been repulsed and a British officer, Colonel Booth, was seen lying 1 wounded in tho lino of fire in front of tho pa. Heni Pore crawled out through the palisade, drew tho wounded man to a'position of comparative safety and left him with a bowl of water until his own men were able to rescuo him. Liko many other natives, Heni Pore then realised that it was in the interests of her own people that British rule should bccomo suprcrrro' in New Zealand, and before long she joined a party under Major William Mair in his campaign against the Ilauhaus of Matata and To Teko. When peace was restored sho married Mr. William Foley, a farmer and hotelkeepcr at Maketu. He was drowned in the Kaituna River many years ago and his wife became a licensed native interpreter and a recognised authority on native land titles. Seven of her nine children are still living in tho Rotorua district.