DEATH OF OLD WARRIOR

Taranaki Daily News, 29 October 1935, Page 6

DEATH OF OLD WARRIOR

SURVIVOR OF TE NGUTU

PART IN DEATH OF VON TEMPSKY.

CLAIMED TO HAVE SHOT PAKEHA. PASSING OF TUTANGE WAIONUI. Tutange Waionui, last of Titokowaru’s warriors at Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu and the man who claims to have killed von Tempsky, is dead. Another link with Taranaki’s stirring past has been broken. Aged between 83 and 84 years, Tutange Waionui died at Pariroa pa on Friday, “full of years and honour.” Rumour, and the rather awe-stricken if modern young men of the pa have it that the veteran fighter was 100 years old, but the truth is that he was a lad of some 16 years when Titokowaru led his Hau Hau warriors into battle on the fateful morning of September 7, 1868. The colonial troops were overwhelmingly defeated on that day when they made a sally from Waihi redoubt. Major von Tempsky, the most renowned fighter of the war, was killed by a fusillade from cover. In that disastrous engagement Tutange Waionui distinguished himself as a daring warrior, though little more than a boy. In his classic story of the war, “The Adventures of Kimble' Bent,” James Cowan says of the young man: “He was a strong, athletic youngster, full of fire and courage, agile as a monkey. He was of the momo rangatira, or blue blood of Taranaki, tracing a direct descent through a line of high chiefs and priests from Turi, the great sailor who navigated his mat-winged canoe Aotea to the black ironsand beaches of Taranaki from the far distant Hawaiki, the beautiful palm-fringed island of Rangiatea, in the Society group. His father, the old warrior Maruera Whakarewatua, had carefully schooled him in the business of arms. .... Young Tutange was on his first war path,” ACCOUNT OF THE FIGHT. The account given of the Te Ngutu fight by Tutange to Mr. Cowan was circumstantial and colourful to the highest degree. Tutange was prominent throughout the battle, and his comment on the disaster to the British was that the affair had been badly bungled. The Govern force outnumbered the Ngaiti Ruanui Hau Haus in the pa by more than five to one, but was not aware of it—or the story might have been a very different one. The Maoris poured in a terrific fire from the bush and terrified the British recruits, to whom everything was strange. It was tragic that in such an affair so remarkable and picturesque a leader of skirmishing forces as Major von Tempsky should have lost his life. “When the attack on the pa began,” recounted Tutange, “two or three of us climbed up on an old, partly hollow rata tree in order to see if it would not be a good place from which to fire at the pakehas. However, we found that it did not suit us, so we rushed into the forest seeking our enemy. There were two large rata trees outside the stockade, but the statement that von Tempsky was shot from a rata is incorrect.

“When we rushed out at the rear of the pa the soldiers were rapidly approaching the stockade. We crouched down amongst the undergrowth close to the creek and directed our shots at the thicket which grew between the pa and the creek. Some of the soldiers crossing the creek were in this part of the bush, and I saw von Tempsky, when many of the men had retreated, swbrd in hand, remain with those who stood their ground. He came into clear view of us. I fired with the others. One of our bullets struck him\ I have always believed it was mine. “When the Government forces had fallen back before the charge of the Hau Haus I ran out to where Manu-rau 1 was lying. He .seemed to be still living and I took my tomahawk out of my girdle and dealt him a cut on the temple to make sure of him, and killed him instantly. I took his uniform cap, his sword, his revolver and a lever watch he had in his pocket. These I carried to the pa and laid before our chief, Titokowaru. I was given the revolver and used it afterwards in the war.”

Some time later Tutange was taken prisoner by the British and exiled to Otago, being permitted to return to his native Taranaki only after all signs of trouble with the Maoris had died out. Of these men Pokai, of Parihaka pa, is now the sole survivor.