ESCAPE OF TE KOOTI

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 72, 20 January 1930, Page 8

ESCAPE OF TE KOOTI

FROM CHATHAM ISLANDS IH 1868. OLD HAPPENING RECALLED -O EGENTRY the Governor-Gen-ei'al, Sir Charles bergvusson, unveiled a monument to a famous Maori Chieftian, Renata Kawepo, at Omaha, Hawke's Bay. Kawepo was a valuably ally to ike British forces in q gelling the Hau Hau rebellion in 18T‘J. The 11,a,u Hans were led by Te Kooti who escaped w ith a large piirty of Maoris from the Chatham Islands, where they were imprisoned, in 1.868 “Old Timer,“ a resident of the Inglewood district, who was an ■eye-witness of tlie escape, forwards, the following interesting account of the events leading up to and including the escape: Te Kooti and his followers, 18(1 fighting’ men, were sent as prisoners of war to the Chathams in 18(17 during the war in New Zealand. The interned Hau Hans, as they were called, were located in a large pah or village at Waitangi, about a ((iiarter of a mile from the redoubt where the guard were quartered. The redoubt was built on the flat above a low cliff which overlooked a litttle horseshoe beach. A flight of steps led up from the beach to. the gate of the redoubt. These particulars were important because later on they will explain the movements of the Hau Hans the day they escaped. Along the little beach were two,public-hous-es, jail, courthouse,, store, etc. Our house was about 400 yards from the redoubt, together with a few other houses, occupied by ■non. corns, of the guard with their families, and, some settlers. It bad been discovered that Te Kootr had been carrying on the Hau Hau religion in the village and a hut had been built for him under the wall of the redoubt. Here he was located with his two waves under the eye of the sentry and wans not allowed to communicate with* the other prisoners. Nevertheless, lie managed, to plan their escape to perfection. Friday, July 4, 1868, broke with nhovvers of rain which continued throughout the day. The schooner, “Rifleman,” had arrived from New Zealand with stores for the Hau Hans and guard and these were being landed by the ship’s boat.;, there being no wharf. The schooner was anchored about half a mile front the beach. A number of the prisoners were engaged in transporting the stores from the beach up the steps into the storehouse within the redoubt. Each Hau Ham had a kawe or sling, two lengths of plaited dressed flax, which, was used in carrying the stores. The sling was passed around a hag of flour, box of tea, etc., and the ends tied together, forming two loops, through which the arms were passed. The loop was then hoisted onto the man’s back. When a. shower of rain came on the Hau Hans, a,s many as fifty at a. time, went into the guards’ quarters for shelter. During one of these showers Te Kooti rushed out of his hut and waved a towel. This was the signal. Immediately the prisoners sprung on the guard, who wore reading and smoking On their bunks, and tied them hamh and foot with the before-mentioned slings. One poor fellow, Heartnett, a,member of the guard, was tomahawked as he lay on his hunk. A prisoner, Rawiri by name, forced the door j of the room where the spare rifles, about 50 in all, and ammunition were kept. Guns and revolvers were looted from houses on the flat, leaving us without any weapons of defence. Small parties of the successful rebels then went round the settlers’ houses, demanding weapons, monev, jewellery. As you may imagine they did not meet with any resistance, though the landlady of one of the public houses, who had GO sovereigns in a hag, deceived the Maoris by putting the hag in a large pot of water on the stove. She told the rebels, when they demanded her money, that she had sent it to a hank in New Zealand, and gave them a pound or two to satisfy them. A t the first alarm a. number of settlers and officials on (he bench came rush inn’ up the steps to the redoubt. When halfway up they were met by an armed body of native's who tiered'a volley point blank at the crowd 5f whites, fortunately without loss of life. The latter, being unarmed, had no recourse but flight. The Hau Hans then left the redoubt, locked all the white men on the beach, including the Resident Magistrate, in looted the courthouse and houses, and seized the boats as they came in with stores. The sailors, of course, thinking they had come for another load, let them come beside the boats before they realised their mistake. They were tied up and the Maoris, expert sailormen, rowed out in the “Rifleman,” meeting with no resistance from the three unarmed sailors.

Tin* boats thou took off all the rebels in relays. Their wivestand children meanwhile flocked down to the beach with their blarukets ami clothing' on their, backs and were taken off to the vessel as fast, as possible. As there was h considerable amount of stores still on board they had ample provisions to last them to New Zealand. The strong- head wind blowing' made the task of beat logout of the bay somewhat difficult, but eventually, however, they were out of sight, to our great relief. That was the last of Te Jvooti and bis followers at the Chatham?!.

It happened that with the reliefs was a half-caste named Peka Makarini, or Baker McLean, who was educated and understood navigation. As soon as they were on board the “Rifleman” he said to the. first mate (the captain had been captured ashore), “Now, von steer a course to—” he named a place a short distance from Gisborne—“Any funny business and you know what to expect!” The sailors whom they overpowered had to work the ship. HUAI OR OT T S INCIDENT S. The uprising had its humorous side as well as its tragic, as the. following incidents will show. The step-father of the writer, un officer of the guard, was absent in New Zealand at the time of the escape. He happened to have three swords and two revolvers which were cleaned each Saturday by the two Maori prisoners who were appointed to serve each officer. On the Friday morning of the escape one of the Maoris said to mother, “We had better clean the arms as it is a wet day” Thte they proceeded to do when we were astonished to see the pair of them sprinting for the redoubt, one with the swords under his arm and the other with a revolver in each hand. We then realised that something was amiss and, looking at the redoubt, we

could see the Han flans -swarming around the walls . We had the wind up then, to say the least.

A lady, wife of one of the non.coms., was scrubbing the passage in her house when a native rushed in through the front door in search of loot. His feet were covered with mud so the lady’s feelings can well be imagined.' “Get out, you dirty brute!” she said, not knowing that only two hundred yards away his companions had overpowered the guard, tomahawked one of them, and were complete masters of the situation. As showing the completeness of their plans of escape, prisoners who were working on runs thirty miles away came riding in fifteen minutes after their fellow prisoners had seized the redoubt. The Hau Ha us a few weeks later, after landing in New Zealand, perpetrated a horrible massacre of a party of defenceless men, women an dchildren at a place near Gisborne. This was afterwards known as the Poverty Bay Massacre. We in the Cbathams had a narorw escape from a like fate. My brother, who was a member of the guard, was at home that morning. When the natives had gore down to the beach, he ran down to the redoubt and liberated the guard, but of course they could do nothing, as the Hau Haas were in possession of all the arms.

I am just remimlod that when the Hun Hans were in possession ofi the redoubt a party of five of them (fully armed with rifles and fixed bayonets) led by a native who had worked for a sergeant next door to us, passed our house as we stood on the front verandah Mother railed out to them in Maori, “What are you going to do?” One of them replied “You keep quiet, Missis, you all right.” They then went on to the sergeant’s house, rushed in and found it empty. They smashed the furniture, tore up the clothing and even thrust their bayonets through the children’s dolls; all because the sergeant had been hard on their leader, when in his employ. Fortunately the sergeant’s wife and children were on a visit to the other side of the Island, He, on the first alarm, had bolted out the back and into the bush, otherwise the whole family would certainly have been slaughtered.

One other incident. As 1 have mentioned a hove, the “ITilemau” Diet with a head wind. This continued for some time, when Te Ivnoii said i 1 1 :s was because they had a traitor on hoard. This was one of (heir, number who had informed on them when Te Kooti was preach ini*’ lus I’ai Mairire or Han IT a u relindon before referred to. This eliap they tied hand and foot and threw overboard. Strange to say the wind shortly afterwards was fair. This of course greatly enhanced Te Kooti’s prestige.