NEW ZEALAND’S PAST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18025, 28 February 1933, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND’S PAST

A HOME OF HEROES “ROMANCE SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DIE”

' “New Zealand is'the home of heroes, arid I often think it is a neglect in our ■schools that this fact is not drawn to the attention of the younger generation, for romance should not 'be allowed to die,” said Mr W. Toomath when speaking at the annual meeting of tho Wellington Early Settlers’ and Historical Association oh Saturday.

“Within the confines of our little country,” said Mr Toomath, “we can see pages of history being unfolded before our eyes. And what a history it is! •France boasts of a Napoleon, but if one stop's to think, was Napoleon as great a. man as our own Te Kooti or Te Rauparaha? It may seem strange that the •son of a white man should speak in terms of admiration of two Maoris who are often described as scoundrels and murderers. But were they* TE KOOTI AND HI'S STORY “Let us take Te*Kooti—a man of little standing among his own people in Poverty Bay, but sufficient of a •nuisance to arouse the exasperation of the white men. To rid themselves of this nuisance they pad Te Kooti transported with some 'of his followers to the Chatham Islands. Te Kooti, unarmed, uneducated, and a scoundrel in the eyes of the whito man, would not consent to imprisonment in Chatham Islands. He captured a schooner, in spite the tho arms in the captain’s cabin, and was taken back to Poverty Bay in a ship commanded by a white -man in the same way as a ship commanded by a whito man had taken him away. “Is that the action of a man to be spoken of in terms of disrespect? Just •think what he was—almost unknown, certainly not educated, with no one to fall back upon but himself. On his return to Poverty Bay he started the war ■for which he is so much blamed. But how could it be a war to a man who was fighting for his own country? He •killed because it was the only way to •remove the obstruction in his own path. A GREAT MAORI FIGHTER “Now let us take Te Rauparaha,” continued Mr Toomath. “This great Maori fighter set out in a canoe from the island of Kapiti, sailed through the Strait, and down to Kaiapoi, where he wiped out an unfriendly tribe. Personally, I would feel seasick at the idea of •sailing to Nelson iu a steamer, but Te •Rauparaha braved the terrors of the sea in a canoe, and then fought and won a battle.

“We are told to look down upon Te Rauparaha because he sold two or three sections of land which he never owned in the first place. That really is our quarrel with Te Rauparaha. But what a wonderful race his people in Otaki have become. How loyal they have remained to the Church of England. Otaki to-day is an outstanding landmark in the history of New Zealand.” 1