A PRIZE ESSAY

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 10

A PRIZE ESSAY

VICTORIA LEAGUE COMPETITION. The winning essay in the secondary schools division of the annual competition promoted by the Victoria League is a worthy effort. The subject is “The Treaty of Waitangi and the Last Maori War,” the writer being James Munro Bertram, aged 15 years and 8 months, a pupil of Waitaki Boys’ High School. The essay follows

"Were Britain to leave behind her no other memorial than the example of the tactful and sympathetic understanding she has always displayed to the native races of the various countries which have come beneath her administration, and which, welded together, form her present mighty Empire, then, for this great legacy to future generations alone, she ife deserving of lasting fame. As Sir Godfrey Lagden says: ‘Since the time that the British nation established settlements overseas, its people have stood for the ideal of uplifting subject races from a state of barbarism and of giving them opportunity to raise themselves to higher standards -of life.’ Here in New Zealand we have ample evidence of the truth of this statement in the relations existing between the official representatives of the English crown, and the savage Maori chieftains to whom our land originally belonged. The Native population of the islands, at the time of the first, settlement by the whites, was far from barbarian; nevertheless, many barbarous rites and customs were common in practice, and the task of subduing and civilising this fierce people was one calling forth all the tact and wisdom of which the earlv authorities were capable. Nowhere in the short but eventful history of our Dominion have the executive and administrative powers of the Government been shown to greater advantage than in the negotiation of the strongest bond of unity ever cemented between the Native tribes an the Empire—the Treaty of Waitangi. “This celebrated and sorely-needed agreement between i_aori and pakehn was drawn up and translated at the orders of Governor Hobson early in 1840. On February 5 Hobson summoned a mass meeting of the tribes on the bank of the Waitangi Rivei, and propounded to them the term* of the treaty. The three articles included proposed that the Maori chiefs should cede all powers of sovereignty over their respective territories to the Queen’s Majesty; in return Cor this act they should retain ‘full, exclusive and undisturbed possession ot their Lands and estates, forests and fisheries,’ and assume all the privileges of British subjects. The provision was made that the chiefs should yield to the Queen the exclusive right of "re-empti .1 over all such lands. The following day & second assemblage was called, and after heated opposition, the treaty was eventually 'signed’ bv forty-six head chiefs. Copies of the original document were then despatched to various centres, with the object of obtaining as manv signatures as possible from the local leaders. By July some 512 such chiefs had subserved to the treaty. ‘'The immediate result of the Treaty of Waitangi was seen in the d'seomfiture of the New Zealand Company, who held any each important agreement with 'savages’ in contempt; this view was

supported by those of the colonists affected by ' the clause regard!..g the protection of the land. It can here be stated that the terms of the treaty have been meticulously observed: no better proof of the good faith of the Government could be supplied than the recent concession of £3OOO made to the North Island Maoris for the fishing rights on Lake Tanpo. The period between the ratification of the Waitangi Treaty and the renewal of hostilities cover some twenty years, and the causes leading up to the outbreak of war are many. It is doubtful whether some of the chiefs realised the full significance of the terms to which they signed consent. The sheet anchor of the Maoris was the ensurance of the protection of their lands; as time went on, and the band of pakehas, from inhabiting at first a narrow strip of coast line, began to penetrate further and further 1 into the interior, the Maori, net unnaturally began to have fears concerning the safety of his possessions and the strict observance of the agreement by the whites. A clash between civilised and uncivilised nations such as these was practically inevitable, and the first actual conflict broke out in Taranaki in 1860. The war was mainlv the result of the action of Colonel Browne, who was Governor at the time. As a consequence of the unfortunate Waitaito purchase of land, the Maoris saw their immemorial rights and customs violated by these' white-skinned iconoclasts; in this view they did not entirely lack support from some of the European authorities. In the campaign that followed the militia and settlers had a decided superiority in arms ami ammunition; the Maoris, however. possessed the advantages of hetter knowledge of the country and greater mobility. These conditions held true throughout all the Maori wars. Ihe tribes would make sudden swift raids upon the communities of the whites, ana. owing to their greater speed in the hush, would evade any attempt at a punitive expedition. On the whole, the Taranaki War was favourable to the Natives’ rather than to the white men’s cause. Matters had, by this time, arrived at a crisis; war seemed likelv to spread down into the Waikato and the King Country. Browne had been recalled, and Sir George Grey, fresh from his successes in Australia, was appointed Governor In the north the Ngapuhi tribe remained loyal to the Queen’s cause: but the lower districts of the island were a powder magazine, liable at any moment to explode in a series of wars that would drench the countryside in blood. Grey, with the hope of conciliation, made overtures of peace but hostilities again commenced, and this time tha war was not confined to & single province. The chief leaders of the Maoris at this period were Wi Kingi, in Taranaki, and the bellicose Rewi. In these later campaigns greater success attended the British arms, ami the tribes in the north received a crushing blow with the fall of the Orakau pa, heroically defence J to tho end by the redoubtable Rewi.

“Interest now centres in the Bay of Plenty, where the storming of the defences at Tauranga marks a decisive point in the history of the wars. The Waikato and Tauranga districts were thus subdued; there still remained fighting, however, in Tanyiaki, rendered vet more fierce and bloody by th* introduction of 'Hauhnuism.’ By this time the selfreliant policy had gained considerable support, and the colonists were determined to end the wars themselves. Fresh outbreaks occurred in Poverty 'Bay, and

the Maoris found a new leader in Te Kooti Rikirangi, perhaps the best known of all their chieftains. This celebrated strategist carried on several campaigns with great skill and energy, and defied the combined forces of the whites for a considerable time. Finally, hunted from one end of the island to the other, with a price of £SOOO on his head, lie broke through the cordon which- surrounded him and sought refuge in the King territory, where the Government wisely left him undisturbed. So at last, in 1871, pe3ce succeeded to eleven years of practically incessant warfare. “Thus closes the chronicle of the most stormy and troublous period of New Zealand history. Pitted against the tired veterans >f England, outnumbered, and opposed by forces with artillery, superior in arms of every description, the Maori, nevertheless, refused to yield up.what he considered his rights without struggle. No native race n the world has ever conducted a *ampaign with a better know ledge of military strategy and tactics or of entrenchment and fortification than were shown by the Maori tribes in these wars. Surely we whites who have occu pied the land first sought out by these intreoid warriors have reason to be proud of the indomitable spirit of our predecessors and present neighbours, a dauntless courage that found expression in the memorable defiance of Rewi at Orakau, ‘Be strong, for ever, and for ever, and for ever.’ ”