KORERORERO TORONGA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12000, 13 February 1920, Page 4

KORERORERO TORONGA.

TALES THAT ARE TOLD OF' MAORI AND PAKESA. ,

Bj' Ingoa Kore. (Written for the Rangitikei Advocate. —Bights Reserved.)

CONCERNING THE RANGITIKEI MANAWATU PURCHASE

Among the stories of olden days told by the late Mr John Stevens of Palmerston North was one which will interest the land owners of Rangitikei and Manawatn concerning the origin of their titles In 1866' Dr Featherstou was negotiating, with the aid of Dr Bnller as officialinterpreter, for the purchase of the Rangitikei-Mauawatu block, com - - prising a quarter of a million acresfor the sum of- £35,000 or two shillings per acre. Tho principal owners wore the Ngatiraukawa tribe represented by Ihakara Tuku--maru, a tattooed old warrior chief. Tne deed of cession to the Crownwas ably prepared in orthodox Maori ; fashion, detailing every item and. appurtenance of the transfer. It was ; carefully read over and patiently examined by the interpreter, a tediousprocess occupying nearly two hours, at the conclusion of which the meanwhile silent old Maori, pointing overhead, asked in a studiously casual voice, “What is that picture on the wall, Bnller?’’ With equalpatience, Dore’s picture fromDante’s Inferno was explained as being the great painter’s imaginative idea of Te Reinga (Hell). With ashrug and an expressive “Huh,” Ihakara looked past and Ignored the mah who for hours had so ably described the laud, the boundaries, and the intricate tribal transactionswith their legal aspects, and said, “Featherstou, yon have a clever linguist in Bnller, an able lawyer, a capable translator, a most interesting man who knows the laud, the boundaries and its history, the trees, the rivers, and the lakes, and the birds in the trees, and the fishes in the water, all of which he asks for your people and your great Queen? He knows, too, all about the future hoine of the Pakeha who deludes the Maori people, Te Reinga; I will not sign the deed,’’ Maorilike, because of his personal objection to or difference with the interpreter, ho definitely refused to ratify the purchase. Equally charac teristic was his aciiou, when, a month later, as soon as the translator again began to read Ihakara said “Heoiaua, enough, I know all about it. Give me the paper, ” and he signed without another word Thou followed the payment of tho £35,000 in notes and gold at Parewamii, font miles from the township of Bulls, on the 13th Docemoer 1866. On that occasion over a thousand warriors danced their ancient war dance beneath the groves of karaka* many of them stripping naked in their mad frenzj'. They fed upon “riripi, ’’ a mixture made of half a dozen hags of flour and one of brown sugar poured into a canoo with boiling water, which they audibly supped from the curved palms, using both hands. There were bullocks, sheep and pigs spitted whole over a huge trench fire, also innumerable kits of potatoes, puha, axul rauriki steamed in the native ovens with hot stones, green leaves, and earth. Fortunately the Waipiro (putrid water) had not at that time drawn its net over these fine people. Among the many interested spectators were Mr John Gorst, who was afterwards Sir John, Chancellor for the British Exchequer. At that time he was a native Magistrate in Waikato and was intimately asaociaated with Sir George Gray in work among the Maoris. Prior to this purchase, earlier in the year 1866 Mr Janies Alexander, a well known Wanganui farmer, and Mr W Barnard Rhodes of “The Grange,” Wellington, had offered the Provincial Government £35,000 for the sole right of purchase from the Native owners, with a guarantee that they would pay the Maoris not less than £50,000 clear of all costs. To the loss of the Maoris and the gain of tho settlers this was refused by the Government. The unimproved value of this block to-daj' is well over £5,000,000 exclusive of the towns within its boundaries. The capital value of the whole block exceeds £30,000,000— a wonderful transformation in fifty years.