THE TARANAKI WARS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26692, 11 February 1948, Page 2

THE TARANAKI WARS

Literature

A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY Mr Justice Richmond and the Taranaki War. By W. Downie Stewart. A. H. and A. W. Reed.

4s 6d. Mr W. Downie Stewart reveals an undiminished zeal for pamphleteering in his latest book, a small volume on a matter of historic accuracy concerning the Maori War in Taranaki in 1860. Historians have laid the blame for this incident on the shoulders of the Governor, Colonel Thomas Gore Browne, and his Native Minister, the Hon. C. W. Richmond, but Mr Stewart here makes a re-examination of the evidence and presents a telling vindication of both. On the other hand, he has some criticism to make of what he describes as Sir George Grey’s “ highly discreditable ” abandonment of Waitara when he took office for the second time.

The controversy arose out of the purchase by Colonel Gore Browne from certain members of the Ngatiawa tribe of the Waitara Block, a transaction which was disputed by the Native leader, Wiremu Kingi. A question of seienorial rights appears to be the crux of the matter. Mr Stewart defends the purchase but contends that the war was “ the inevitable culmination of preceding events with which 'heither Gore Browne nor Richmond had anything to do.” This interpretation is one which accords more with the known humane character of Mr Justice Richmond than the verdict which history has passed. Whether or not his view is accepted, this footnote is one which must be examined by the historians of the future.