THE HAU HAU FANATICS

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 34 (Supplement)

THE HAU HAU FANATICS

But while the Waikato campaign had been thus fought and won Taranaki, that centre of rebellion and unrest, had become the birthplace of the next problem. It took the novel and alarming form of a new fanaticism started by a native named Te Ua. Excitable and hysterical, this man claimed to have been visited by the Angel Gabriel, who commanded him to go abroad among the tribes and convert them to the new religion of the "Pai Mairere" — peace and goodness. Having chosen assistant teachers and propagandists, Te Ua sent them forth, carrying the dried heads of the recently-killed Captain Lloyd and Private Kelly as messengers of the aforesaid peace and goodness. An important feature in the propaganda was, Pakeha was to be annihilated or swept into the sea at an early date. Chanting the strange gibberish which Te Ua announced as inspired, the wild rhythm of its monotones punctuated by frenzied shouts of "Hau, hau !" the .propagandists of the new religion swept inland and along the coast, making converts as they went. The most ferocious- of these fanatics was Kereopa, the wretch who murdered and mutilated the Rev. Mr VoUaier at Opotiki, achieving thus a triumphant repudiation of the missionaries and all their works. Bishop Selwyn characterised the Hau Hau movement as "simply an expression of the loss of fa : th in everything that is English, clergy and all alike."

Unable to root out the honw of this frenzied delusion, Bishops Selwyn, Williams, and Hadfield were able with and through the influence of loyal Christian, chiefs, such as Tamehana te Rauparaha (son of the great warrior), to oppose and limit its influence. Out of evil good may, and often does, come, and this instance was a case in point. Out of the sorclid gloom of hateful murd rs and savage orgies shone the compensating glow of courage, loyalty, and strength, which will make the names of Major Ropata Wahawaha and Major Kemp, Chiefs Mokena Kohere, Henare Potae, and others forever notab'e in the rollcall of New Zealand nobility. A wet-drilled, capable, and most intelligent officer, Major Ropata hid beneath the uniform of a British offioer the impetuous instincts of the Brown Sea-Rover. It was toM of him that at Tiki-tiki, where Jus small following of loyal natives was outnumbered and outarmed by the Hau Hau rebels he sprang to the front, seeming to bear a charmed life amid tha rain of bullets, and, hurling fiery taunts at the Hau Hau chief, drew him to a duel a I'outrance. A few momeii<ts proved Ropata the victor ; the rebels, seeing their leader flung to the ground with a shattered skull, fled in disorder.

In Taranaki the Hau Hau movement was soon put down, but the fanatics bad gained a large foEowing on the Wanganui River. General Cameron appeared to Sir George Grey to procrastinate and to misunderstand. Prompt measures in stamping out so menacing an element were imptrat've. Grey took command himself of a mixed force ot natives and colonists, and in two days took the Wereroa Pa without the loss of a single man. That date, July 21, 1865, marked the end of the first Maori war, though ints rmittent sparks of the Hau Hau delusion w<>re still fanned to flame and quenched in blood for some time.