THE POVERTY BAY MASSACRE

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

THE POVERTY BAY MASSACRE

one of the bloodiest pages of New Zealand history.

From this time the name of that gallant officer, Major Ropata, Wahawaha, w«s prominent in the conduct of the campaign. At the Ngatapa, Pa, where the now blood-stained rebels w ere strongly entitnched, he won, by his distinguished condmct, the New Zealand Cross. Among the rebels killed aL the seige of the iSlgatapa Pa were several Urewera chiefs of note, men as brave as those fighting "tangata-iwi" (tribesmen) of theirs, who, at Orakau, had answered General Cameron's summons to surrender with the proud "For ourselves, we fight to the last, for ever and ever." During those long months of guerilla warfare, when Te Kooti and Tito Kowaru, a rebel cannibal and savage far more detestable tlian Te Kooti, terrorised the settlers with threats of murder and lobbery, a long, bright bead-roll of names came into prominence. Majors Kemp, Topia, and Ropata vied with each other in the services they rendered to their Queen. Mokena, as we have s-een, had already distinguished himself; and among the colonial troops the names and achievements of Colonel Whitmoie. Major Yon Tempsky, and Colonel M'Donnell will never be forgotten.