GOVERNOR FITZROY

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 25 (Supplement)

GOVERNOR FITZROY

When Captain Fitzroy arrived in 1843 to take over the administration of New Zealand affairs he had a singularly difficult task before him. His decision in the Wairau matter filled the Maori mind with contemptuous scorn.

It was expressed in these words, and their utter justice will appeal to every Englishman : 'Hearken, oh chiefs and elder men, to my decision. In the first pl.ice the Pakehaa were in the wrong, having no right to build houses on land

the sale of which you disputed. . . . "Wrong in trying to arrest you who had committed no crime. As they were to blame, and as they brought on and began the fight, and thus hurried you into crime by their misconduct, I will not avenge their death."

Strict justice, and. yet utterly inexplicable to the native mind. More, to them it savoured of the rankest cowardice. Blood spilt and no reparation claimed ; land stained with the blood of a white chief allowed to remain in the hands of his slayers ! From one end of New Zealand to the otheir as the story of the Wairau was told the prestige of the Pakeha sank, and the arrogance of the Maori rose. In 1844 Tei Whero, a powerful Waikato chief, and others) gave a great hakari (feast) at Eemuera, inviting the Governor to be present. The Waikatos alone numbered 800, and representatives from seventeen tribes swelled the imposing ranks. Armed with muskets, tomahawks, and clubs, the warriors divided into two parties of about 800 each, and performed a war dance with the precision and regularity of welldrilled soldiers, joined to the ferocious gestures of savages.

Such a display of force could not fail to impress the new Governor. The bearing of the natives was courteous to their Fakeha guests, over a thousand of whom — men, women, and children — wandered about the hakari as freely as at an English fair; but an ominous menace was felt to be behind the surface cordiality. In truth the constant friction arising from fraudulent land transactions, the growing want of confidence in the integrity of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the consequent sense of injustice on both sides, was too deeply seated to be remedied by surface friendliness. The constant efforts of the missionaries, headed by Selwyn, Hadfield, and the Williams family, were powerless to controvert beyond a certain point the unfortunate influences of unprincipled traders and greedy speculators, working upon turbulent and disaffected Maori chiefs. On the other hand it was in Ibis year of 1843 that Tamahana te Rauparaha and Matene te Whiwhi, son and nephew respectively of the famous Ngatitoa chief, began their two j r ears' mission in the South Island. Moved by the desire to repair in some measure the evil brought by the head of

their house among the southern Maoris, these twoyoung men moved from place to place among the Maoris, preaching the Gospel and exemplifying in. their own, lives the beauty and power of the faith they spread abroad. A moment's reflection will show the imminent danger which surrounded Tamahana and Matene, for at any moment tho overwhelming instinct to avenge a blood-feud, or wipeout an ancient wrong, might have resulted in their death.

In the north many of the chiefs, converted toChristianity, threw their influence upon the side of patience and peace. Tamati Waka Nene, chief of the historic Ngapuhi tribe — 12,000 strong — spoke thus at the Remuera hakari : "We are at present like children, and need 10 be borne* with as childrenwhen they are receiving instruction" — a touching appeal truly to the superiority of the P&keha. Inland at Taupo the great chief Te Heu Heu had distinctly stated, "We will receive you (the Pakeha)as visitors, but w© will not part with the land which is sacred to the bones of our fathers." In reference to Government interference in intertribal conflicts and forays, no matter how ferocious, the idea of Pakeha interference was perfectly intolerable to the Maori. In 1842 Taraia, who had jiist consummated a victorious raid by reverting to the horrible cannibal practices now deemed extinct, had thus replied to Governor Hobson's remonstrance : "I was angered concerning my land and' the bones of my fathers. Don't let the Pakeha presume with the Maori. With the Governor is only the settling of Pakeha affairs — it is with us toadjust Maori matters." And these brief sentences indicate yet another cause of intermittent irritation: between the two races 1 , while ihe European inability to understand the solemn obligations of the law of Tapu constituted a standing menace to peace. In the