PROPHECY-FULFILMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1930, Page 11

PROPHECY-FULFILMENT

DEATHS OF MAORI LEADERS STRANGE COINCIDENCE OCCURS. SIX DIE WITHIN HALF-MOON. An extraordinary coincidence of deaths amongst the Maoris of North Taranaki amounting in all to a fulfilment of a prophesy made by a Maori chief of rank nearly three years ago has occurred during the past fortnight. Whereas in these enlightened days one can hardly describe the events as due to makutu, the mysterious combination of witchcraft and hypnotism that was such a strange and powerful influence on ',ho natives in former days, and medical opinion can, indeed, explain the deaths as duo to very material and natural causes, the fact remains that the recent sequence of events can only be regarded as something very remark-" able. It will be recalled that three years ago or more the findings were announced of the commission that sat in various parts of New Zealand to investigate the matter of payment of compensation to the natives for land confiscated by the Government from the Maoris in days gone by. To the Atiawas it was proposed to pay the sum of £5060 a year for all time. Many Maoris were opposed to the acceptance of this offer, some on th© grounds that the amount was insufficient, others because they thought that the payment of a sum of money could not atone for the shedding of the blood of their forefathers. Amongst the objectors on the latter score was Rangi Watene, better known in pakeha circles as Rangi Watson, and on numerous occasions he advocated the non-accept-ance of the Government’s offer. “The blood of your ancestors can never b© bought with money,” he said, “if you accept that, money disaster will overtake you, and within the space of. half ft moon six bf the leaders of our Atiawa tribe will be stricken unto death.” DEATH OF RANGI WATENE. Amongst those who more than once heard Rangi Watson utter this strange warning was the Rev. K. Hadfield, of Waitara, whose work amongst th© Maoris of the district is well known to most North Taranaki people. Early in November, <1927, Rangi Watene died, and on Saturday, November 12, he was accorded th© most touching and impressive tangi known in the province for a long time, as befitting his rank and high standing in the community. Many pakehas were" present at the ceremony, which took place at Rangi’s homestead on the southern bank of the Waitara River, and which was described in an article in the Daily News on th© following Monday. The Atiawa Maoris decided to accept the offer of the Government, and gradually, with the laps© of time, Rangi’s grim foreboding faded into the oblivion of the past. Nor was any particular attention drawn to it when nearly three years later, on Saturday, June 21, 1930, the death occurred at Waipapa, north of Waitara, of Jack Taieki, a young Maori farmer of . rank in the Atiawa tribe. The doctors were able to give a reasonable explanation of his death. On the following Tuesday, June 24, great grief was occasioned in Waitara and the surrounding district by the death of Hoani, better known as Jack Taylor. Though only a labourer in Waitara he was one of the best-known natives amongst both Maoris and pakehas, and was of ‘high rank’ in the Atiawa tribe. The doctors had no hesitation in ascribing his death to natural causes when he died in the New Plymouth Hospital, but the nurses who attended him were struck with the conviction he had that he was going to die, and his apparent desire not to live. He . was a member of the Rev. Hadfield’s church committee in Waitara, and his funeral was the largest native funeral known in Waitara for a great many years. His body was, it is understood, the first Maori body ever taken into a Taranaki church during the funeral ceremony. ' On Monday, June 30, came the news of; the death in- California of Sir Maui Pomare, the most honoured leader in the whole, of the Atiawa tribe. Sir Maui had been’born.at Onaero, just .north of Waitara, and in anticipation of his remains being brought hack to Taranaki, the natives set about preparing for a gigantic tangi. PASSING OF RUIHA. Two days later, last Wednesday, July 2, the death occurred suddenly at Manukorihi pa, near Waitara, of Ruiha, blitter known as Mrs. White. She was a woman of high rank in the Atiawas, and throughout tho ensuing few days the pa resounded to the sustained wailing of those who were lamenting her passing. Within the space of ten days foui' notable Atiawas had lost their lives.

In the early hours of yesterday morning there passed away suddenly at the Ngapukcturua pa, about three miles on the New Plymouth -side of Waitara, Katharine Keenan, a leading Atiawa chieftainess —no less a person, indeed, than grand-niece of the famous warrior Te Rauparaha and a close blood relation of Sir Maui Pomarc, , She was aged 95 and had been lingering oh the verge of death for some time,. so her decease in itself, did not came as a great surprise. She was ohe'of the oldest members of the Kaitangata hapu near Onaero. “It certainly has been very strange,” said a well-known resident of the Waitara district, in describing the above sequence of events to a Daily News representative in Waitara yesterday afternoon. “Old Rangi Watson was not so far out after all. Taking half a moon as 14 days, it is a half moon tonight since Jack Taieki went, and counting him five famous Atlawas have passed away.” Even as he Spoke a native hastily entered the room with the news that Pareiri, a woman of high, rank in the Atiawa tribe, had died at her home on the road that meets the main north road at the. Bell Block factory. She was between 55 and GO years of age, and had been prominently associated with a considerable amount of public work. “It is a most extraordinary coincidence of events,” said the Rev. Hadfield to a News representative last night. “Of course we can explain in each case that death resulted from a natural cause, but in all my experience I have never known of anything like it. I ccrtaihly have never known of so many notable '.^fftquiis<o.f high .rank dying', with-: injsuch a short space of time.”