THE RAIDS OF TE RAUPARAHA

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 23 (Supplement)

THE RAIDS OF TE RAUPARAHA

"One star sets that another may rise" ; and while the red star of Hongi Hika was sinking low upon the northern horizon another baleful forerunner of death and devastation rose over the southern skies.

The victorious campaigns of Hongi Hika had clearly demonstrated to the whole Maori nation that henceforth the possession of firearms was essential to their very existence. The most valuable article the Maori had to offer in exchange for firearms was flax. Realising this the Governor of New South Wales nade every effort to keep the flax trade entirely

under Government control. Outside pressure of rapidly increasing trade, and eagerly unprincipled traders, rendered this impossible. Free trade asserted itself. In 1830 vessels representing an aggregate of 5888 tons burthen cleared out of Sydney for New Zealand, and no less than twemy-six vessels, averaging 100 tons each, arrived in Sydney with full cargoes of New Zealand flax. So keen was the desire for muskets among the Maoris at this time that they would gladly barter a small shipload of flax for a few guns. During the disastrous inter-tribal wars which raged from 1830 to 1840 there was practically no demand at all for such goodsas would add to the comfort or pleasure of the tribes. Life was a mere panic-stricken struggle for existence berlwoen the armed tribes and the unarmed. What time had m?n whose nightly visions were reddened with the dread of JTongi Hika or Te Rauparaha to think of such luxuries as> blankets o." tobacco?

The raids of Te Rauj.araha exercised too great an influence on Maori history of this period to 1 be passed over in silence. 1

shall, however, mention these as briefly as possible In describing the character and wars of Hongi a sufficient presentment of the peculiarities of a great Maori chief of this period has been given, and no good purpose would be gained by dwelling on the individual characteristics of the group of powerful and turbulent chiefs who, between 1820 and 1830, lavaged, plundered, and devastated their country by intertribal wars. In vain apparently was the zeal and courageous devotion of the missionaries, who came and went among the marauding tribes in daily and hourly peril of their lives. Yet not a hair of their heads was harmed, nor did the insult of a coarse word or look ever affront their wives, though horror and fear must often ha,ve well-nigh paralysed these heroic women. It has been estimated that twenty thousand Maoris met their death during this twenty years of intertribal wars.

Rauparaha, who rendered his name infamously famous, came originally from Kawhia, where he and his tribe were overshadowed by the more powerful Waikato tribes. The great trading station at the Bay of Islands was in the hands

of Hongi Hika; but presently Te Rauparaha heard ot another in Cook Strait, where he might, if equipped for barter, gradually acquire plenty of firearm?. The man wag not only a born fighter, but he was a diplomatist as well . and as an orator he knew how to enlist the sympathies as well as the passions of his hearers. So it camci about that in his gradual passage down the coast Rauparaha attached to himself so large a following of oppressed or ambitious tribes that, when he finally settled with his people along the coast between Wellington and Wanganui, with the Island of Kapiti as his stronghold and sanctuary, he bngan to rival Hongi at the zenith of his fame. He made expeditions to the South Island, raiding and destroying the Ngai-tahu ; finally the circumstances of his last raid in 1830 galvanised the indifference of the New South Wales Government into action as regarded the need for official supremacy in NewZealand. Briefly, the circumstances were as follows: — An uncle of Te Rauparaha having bepn slain at Kaiapoi, Banks Peninsula gave the 1 pretext for a horrible vengeance. A ruffian named Stewart, at the price of a cargo of flax, undertook to convey the chief and. eighty picked warriors to Banks Peninsula, in his vessel, The Elizabeth. Stewart entered, with brutal ferocity or callous indifference (who can now say which ?) into the schemes of Te Rauparaha. The wir party was effectually hidden below.

Stewart, representing himself as a flax-trader, encouraged the Ngai-tahu to freely come aboard. By holding out inducements of barter he lured the Ngaitahu chief Tamai-hara-nui, his wife, and daughter on to The Elizabeth, where they were securely imprisoned. Under cover of tho darkness Rauparaha and his warriors landed, attacked the pa at Kaiapoi, and annihilated its inhabitants. Baskets of human flesh were brought on board and cooked at the galley fire that Te Rauparaha and his warriors might celebrate their victory in the usual cannibal feast. Tamai-hara-nui suffered tortures and insults in stoic silence, happy m the knowledge that already he had slain his daughter with his own hands, that her spirit might go to her ancestors undefiled. Not in vain had the little one received her pathetic name of "Roimata" (Then Tears). Stewart was tried in New South Wales for the part he took in the abominable tra^idy, but escaped for lack of evidence He met a miserable end, however, not long after, dropping dead on the deck of the little vessel his evil deeds had made infamous ag she rounded Cdpe Horn. "Hi=» body, reeking of rum," says Thompson, :- was pitched overboard by his crew with little ceremony, and no regret."

The news of the Kaia]:>oi massacre, openly aided and abetted by an Englishman, stung the Sydney authorities to action, and in 1833 Mr James Busby was formally inducted as British Resident at Auckland He was a sensible, practical man, and used his limited powers wisely, travelling amons; the Maoris with the missionaries, and patiently listening to native excuses and native grievances. In ] 835 he formed a confederation of the northern chiefs with power to make laws; styled them "The United Tribes of New Zealand," and nominated the British King Protector of tho Confederacy.

MISSION STATIONS.

The British King, however, had other and more pressing claims on his attention, and neither time nor inclination to think of New Zealand. Fortunately the number of missionaries was increasing with every year, and their civilising and Christianising influence began to make itself felt from ever-multiplying centres. In 1834 mission stations were formed on the Thames and Waipa Rivers; followed in 1835 by others at Tauranga, Rotorua, and Kawhia. In 1838Bisihop Pompallier arrived with several priests, and settled at Kororareka, and in 1839 missionaries! penetrating- among: the tribes of Te Rauparaha, in Cook Strait, made their influence so truly felt that the prisoners! taken from Kaiapoi, several of them men of note and family, were released and sent back to their homes.

On the work and influence of the early missionaries I cannot resist quoting a few wordsi from Thomson's "History of New Zealand" : "They voluntarily exiled themselves from society and civilisation ; they often fasted, from want of food, on days which were not fast days in the Church, and wore out their lives, half forgotten by their kindred, entirely unknown to fame, and only cheered by the consideration, of their high calling."

Wesleyan, Anglican, and Roman Catholic, their influence was all alike for good, and if the names of Anglican clergy come most into prominence it is because their strong personality and vigorous influence made itself felt in history, while Wesleyan and Roman Catholic priests laboui'ed no less effectively in more exclusive religious paths. By the year 1830 the work of printing selections from the liturgy and Catechisms of the Anglican Church, as well as some spelling books, was completed in New South Wales, in 1 535 the Rev. Mr Yate rendered into Maori and printed

several portions of the New Testament, and Bishop William Williams succeeded in completing the whole work by 1837. Subsequently with the aid and energy of Wesleyan, Roman Catholic, and English clergy other portions of the Bible and Psalms were rendered into Maori, and in 1858, largely owing to the exertions of the Rev. Robert Maunsell, he whole Bible was completed and sent to England to be printed. To a people which for many centuries lad preserved unbroken such a system of oral education as T have already described, it will easily be understood that learning presented few difficulties. Eager to enter on this novel species of education young men vied with each other in learning to read and write. In the course of an hour or so a student would completely master the alphabet and be teaching his friends-. Looking back at the long list of aggressions, misunderstandings, and retaliations between Pakeha and Maori, it seems impossible to comprehend the long imction of the Home authorities. The miserable fiasco of the barque Harriet, wrecked at Tar an aki in 1834, and all the tragic sequel, was relegated to the same limbo which apparently engulfed the misdeeds ot Te Rauparaha, but, at last, a more potent i ause for protection and interference than thab presented by a few murders or atrocities among savages, aroused the Home Government. This was nothing less than the rumour of a threatened