MAORI MEMORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAORI MEMORIES

A JEST AND ITS SEQUEL

(By

J.H.S

.—Copyright)

Eight months before the Wairau massacre there came a mere diversion for Nelson's first settlers, which in the minds of the Maoris, at least, was the very key to that tragic event. Finding that coal and lime could be profitably exchanged for comforts and luxuries in Nelson, the Maoris at Massacre Bay concluded that, although they had sold the land, they had not sold or mentioned coal or limestone deposits. Their chief, Te Kawa, therefore destroyed the lime kiln which had been erected by a Nelson syndicate. This was reported to the magistrate who swore in 25 special constables and proceeded by boat to Massacre Bay to arrest Te Kawa. Then for the first time the magistrate and his conscript policemen discovered the amazing fact that whilst the New Zealand Company had bartered thousands of efficient firearms to the Maoris in other parts for land, the only weapons available for defence by the pioneers were a large number of muskets which had been rejected by the makers in England as defective. These had been bought from the munition factory for a few pence and were retailed at 20s by a Nelson patriot. Thus armed, the police, magistrate and his special constables frightened Te Kawa into submission. They came home with flying colours, and the little joke of the toy muskets and the easily frightened Maoris was told from one end of New Zealand to the other.

Just eight months latei' a similar expedition, armed in the same way, was sent to Wairau, when the accidental discharge of a defective musket had such disastrous results. Rauparaha and Rangi Haeata resented theA taunts of cowardice which had been so unwisely and unjustly directed against their brave warriors to whom cowardice was a deadly sin. The sequel was “if we are a cowardly people—then let us seek satisfaction.”

Rauparaha’s Version. Rauparaha’s own narrative of the Wairau massacre, given to’ Governor Fitzroy in the presence of the Rev. Octavius Hadfield, who had a very remarkable moral influence over the Maori chief and his followers, is important because it harmonised in detail with other fragmentary evidence. In these days of telegraph, telephone, wireless, car, steamer and aeroplane it is difficult to realise that this national catastrophe was not even heard of in Nelson, seventy miles away, until nine days after the event. Rauparaha, speaking to the Governor eight months after the tragedy, said “Thompson, Wakefield, a constable and others crossed the creek and accused me of burning the white men’s property. I replied that the Maoris had destroyed nothing but the raupo and rushes grown on their own land. They produced handcuffs and the Queen’s warrant for my arrest. I replied that I would sooner be killed than be tied up. If you are angry let us talk quietly, even if it is all day and all night; but I refuse to go with you. Thompson. laid hold of me and I pushed him away; he then called on his men to fire. As their men crossed the creek, one fired. Our women and children were seated on the ground roasting potatoes. Then more shots came.

“Two Maoris fell dead and three were wounded. We fired a volley and all ran except their leaders, whom we captured and killed as due payment. Thompson asked me to spare their lives, but it is not the Maori way to spare the lives of chiefs taken- in fair fight, for they cannot be made slaves.” Of the forty-six men who were led like sheep to slaughter, nineteen were killed, five were . wounded and twentyfive escaped. The twenty-seven who survived were grossly libelled by the Governor as cowards and deserters; but their fellow pioneers, to their honour be it said, absolutely refused to believe, and but for their loyalty to Queen Victoria, would have served him as Rangi Haeata did Thompson for shooting Rongo, his wife.

Voice of a god. The first New Zealand newspaper, “The Gazette,” appeared at Wellington on January 20th, 1840. It was a somewhat feeble production until Dr. Evans and the three F’s—Fox, Featherston, and Fitzherbert—took it in hand, when it became a shining political and literary light. The next paper, another “Gazette,”, was launched at Kororareka in June, but died in infancy. On 12th. March, 1842, the first number of the “Nelson Examiner” was'published, the staff and plant having arrived by the “Mary Anne” a few weeks earli-' er. The nominal proprietors were the brothers James and Charles, appropriately known as Political Elict and Printer Elict. It was not openly avowed that the paper and plant were the property of the New Zealand Company, and completely at. the service of Captain Wakefield. The many little devices to throw doubt upon the fact did not succeed; and both land purchasers and labourers felt that the Nelson press would give no help in their genuine grievances against the Company. Still the little paper was worth reading, and was eagerly supported at a shilling a copy. To the Maoris, who had never previously seen or heard of writing or printing, the novelty was a real miracle. Many of them bought a' copy for a kit of potatoes or a bundle of fish, and besought the few Pakeha friends who could speak a little Maori to tell them the Whakatauki Ngaro (the lost secrets) of the Pakeha, and let them hear the voice of the Atua. ,

The New Examiner published many able contributions for and against taxing improvements, secular education, and universal suffrage, though all three questions remained in air for nearly half a century. Little Nelson was rich in public spirited men. Even after the Wairau Massacre, she sheltered four future Premiers of New Zealand, besides such very able writers as Barnicoat, Jolly, Young, Monro, and Greenwood.

Many of the farmers at Leeton, Australia, have lately been gathering cod fish on the rice fields as the water has been drained off. The rice plants have to be flooded until the grain begins to ripen, when the paddocks are drained so that the ground will be dry and firm for harvesting. The fish entered during the early flooding by the way of the irrigation channels, and for four months had been fattening among the rice. Burrinjuck Dam, which supplies Leeton’s water, contains many large cod; one, 631 b. weight, was caught recently. Four hundred doctors emigrated from Germany during the past year, it is officially announced, including 284 from Berlin. Of these 284 Berlin doctors 117 went to Palestine. 25 to France, 22 to England, 13 each to Switzerland, Italy and Spain, 11 each to Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, and nine to ScanI dinavia.