THE OLD DAYS

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11932, 12 September 1924, Page 8

THE OLD DAYS

INCIDENT OF N.Z. HISTORY interesting sidelight on , MAORI REBELLION. POVERTY BAY MASSACRES. An interesting incident of early New 1 Zealand history is dealt with in a petition presented to the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr J. A. Lee (Auckland East), on behalf of Albert Plummer, Symonds street, Auckland. “In the year 1864,” states the petitioner, “I ■ resided at Waipawa, Hawke’s Bay, iwhen the Native disturbances broke out, and every settler was [ called upon to take up arms in the_defence of the country, and was promised a grant of 40 acres of land. In 1865, matters became so serious, by reason of Kareopa harauding that port of the dolony, that the Government called) for volunteers to pursue him and his followers then in rebellion. I volunteered, and was promised 50 acres of land, and one town acre. A company of 100 was sworn in, and we pursued the Natives, and ultimately captured about 2000. When we returned, I was deputed by the Government to take charge of about 700 of the prisoners which I had helped to take, and to accompany thorn to the Chatham Islands. Having finished the time I had agreed to serve as a volunteer, I was asked to enter into a contract with the Government, in the year 1868, to supply the Maori prisoners with rations for the period of two years. . . . , a purchased a large number of .cattle and sheep, bought stores, and laid out between £I2OO and £I3OO for the purpose of my contract. All the conditions were fulfilled by me to enable the contract to be carried out. PRISONERS REVOLT. “Everything went well for about four months, when one morning all the 700 'prisoners on the island revolted, and broke into a magazine and took 200 stand of arms. They bound all the officials and the eight sentries with dressed flax, and put them in the guardhouse, and gave them very rough treatment. Indeed, a number of the settlers fled across the river. When I saw everyone helpless, my wife and I stood at the fence of my house, and the Natives covered us with the rifles they had taken from the magazine. As I had always been oivil to the Maoris, finding ourselves in this trying position, I made a humorous remarK to them in Maori, which caused them to iaugh; and they then dropped their rifles, and spared our lives. In the meantime, some of the Natives had broken in and ransacked my house and robbed me of £44 10s in gold and goods. They then helped themselves to stores and everything they wanted., end seled the vessel Rifleman, which was lying at anehor in the bay, and sailed away, I need not speak of the Poverty Bay massacres that followed,” j SHEEP BOILED FOR THEIR FAT, 1 The petitioner added an interesting

touch in the fact that in those days sheep were boiled down for their fat. He states that Sir Donald was Native Minister at the time, and fully acquainted with the case, and promised to make good his losses, “bub he was so distracted by the massacres which took place and so worried .with other matters, that he died before being able to compensate me for my losses under the contract.” Sir George Whitmore, Sir George Grey, and Sir Harry Atkinson, he says, also knew the facts of the case. He had presented petition after petition to Parliament without avail. Mr Hall, of Waipawa, would identify him as the person who was ruined through the contract. He lost about £2OOO by the breaking of tha contract with the Government, besides the £44 10s in gold end goods abovementioned. He did not make any speoial claim, hut would leave the matter in the hands of the M to Z Pnhlia Petitions Committee, who had recommended his case for compensation last! session.