THE WAIRAU MASSACRE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 234, 11 February 1911, Page 9

THE WAIRAU MASSACRE

A NEW VERSION. A correspondent has contributed to an exchange a new version of the story of the Wairau massacre, one of the saddest events in the earlv history of New Zealand. The new version is particularly interesting, as it is the story of a Maori who was present at the massacre. The accepted historical account is to the effect that the New Zealand Land Company, represented by Captain Wakefield, had completed negotiations with certain natives for the acquisition of land in the Wairau Valley, but Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeta. considered that the land had not been sold, and when surveyors and'settlers arrived ejected them from' the valley. Captain Wakefield, with a party of forty-eight, visited the Wairau to negotiate with the chiefs, but while a parley was proceeding one of the Europeans accidentally discharged his musket, precipitating a conflict. A number of the party, including Captain AVakefield, were captured and put to death. Te Rauparaha's version exonerated the chief himself from responsibility for the murder, alleging that Te Rangihaeta ordered the massacre because his wife, Rongo, Te Rauparaha's daughter, had been shot in tTie melee. The" new storv is that of Erenora Tungia, Rongo's daughter. It is to the effect that at the time of the massacre the Maoris were camped at the mouth of the Wairau, where they were engaged, according to their custom, in snaring Paradise ducks and preparing supplies of food. The few European settlers in the neighborhood ran short of provisions and decided to send to Wellington for supplies, eight of their number setting out in a small boat. The frail craft was upset on the bar of the Wairau and its occupants were all drowned. A short time afterwards some Europeans discovered the boat and a body on the beach, close to the remains of the Maoris' ovens, and they jumped to the conclusion that they were at the scene of a cannibal feast.' They carried theil storv to Wellington, and the expedition led by Captain Wakefield was sent out to punish the Maoris. The story does not seem very probable, in view of the accounts of the massacre that have come down to us from reliable sources, but there still may be something to learn concerning the Maoris' conception of the deplorablo affair. j