MAORI MEMORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1935, Page 17 (Supplement)

MAORI MEMORIES

GOLDEN SILENCE

(By

J.H.S.

—Copyright.)

Among the colonial troopers who had taken the place of the British regiments now returning to England, were scores or rather hundreds of young or old horsemen, hard fighting, swearing and drinking men. Sailors there were, bushmen, stockmen, remittance men, and broken down gentlemen. Their habit of cursing and swearing on any and every occasion was a mystery to every Maori friend or foe, who was silent in difficulty, pain or pleasure. The pakeha always attributed such conduct to the necessity of impressing activity upon the slow moving mules and bullocks employed in the transport of passengers, goods and munitions; but Maori philosophers, quick to learn our language and use their own methods of reason, declared it to have arisen from a desire to conceal the ignorance of the average pakeha by bluff and bravado. Be that as it may, no discreet bullock driver with a limited vocabulary was ever permitted to retain his job. Having no swear words with which to inspire himself with courage and instil fear in his enemy, the Maori rolled his eye balls, thrust his long red tongue beneath his chin, yelled like a maniac, and cut capers beyond the power and experience of the stately soldier on red coated parade. As the success of the yelling Maori over the silent dignity of regular soldiers was not infrequent, our young colonials quickly acquired the demonstrative attitude in open fighting, thus beating the disconcerted Maori at his own game. Colonel McDonnell, on a bitter winter’s night of sleet and hail, decided that the Maoris encamped on the river bank had concluded that both parties would make it the opportunity for a much needed night’s rest. Under pain of court martial, dead silence was enjoined upon every man. Chilled with cold and numbed with pain 250 of us crept in a circle to within 50 yards of the sleeping men and women in the whares. Every man with fixed bayonet was to stand, three at each open doorway and thus imprison every household. Not a shot or sound. None doubted its success, but one minute too soon an overwrought youth swore and the whole company cheered. The enemy in headlong flight escaped in the dark. Jealous Talk. The 12th of July, '6B, saw the attack on Turuturu Mokai, an old redoubt three miles from Hawera, then occupied by Captain Ross and a small garrison of 27. Ross and seven of his men were killed. Most of the others were wounded and would have met the same fate but for the timely arrival of the gallant Von Tempsky with his infantry from Waihi Normanby. Two parties of Hauhaus, numbering 80 in all, under Tautai, and some say Titokowaru, collected and drove a herd of sheep, silent as themselves, up to, the trenches, thus deceiving the sentries, one of whom, however, saw a dark figure and fired. The Maoris charged for the gateway, where they met Captain Ross, whose tent was outside the wall. The brave fellow accounted for several stormers before falling dead in the ditch. As he fell he called loudly “Take care of yourselves, boys, I’m done for.” Foui - men interpreting it as “every man for himself,” mounted the parapet and jumped over the heads of the Hauhaus in the ditch. Three escaped and were ever after wrongly regarded as cowards. Sergeant McFadden and Corporal Blake stepped into command. Only six men remained, until the Waihi footmen rescued them within five minutes of the end. That brief respite was gained by a ruse. Knowing that in the open the Hauhaus feared the mounted troops more than our cannon, the men shouted “Hurrah! the Cavalry are coming.” This gave pause until the voice of a rebel, believed to be the notorious deserter, Kimball Bent, urged the attackers to renew their efforts. When the flash and noise of guns were seen and heard at Waihi about two miles away over flax and toitoi swamps and gullies, Major Hunter’s mounted men and Von Tempsky’s footmen stood to arms; but to the surprise of all, the cavalry who could have reached the scene 30 minutes sooner and saved half the casualties, were left to guard the stores and ammunitions. Hunter and his troopers were keen as mustard, but dared not desert their charge or disobey orders. Tohunga a Thinker. If Tohu means “to think,” then the Tohunga is far from being merely a sorcerer who depends solely upon his priestly craft for success in prophecy. In considering the apparently miraculous power of divination possessed by the old Tohunga, we ignore his inherited and acquired capacity for meditation and concentrated deduction. Not so his Maori followers, whom we dismiss with the idea of their credulity and superstition. Tire origin of the name Tohunga may cause us also to think (tohu.) This then may help us to look upon these prophets with something more of respect than we give to witchcraft and sorcery among our own people. Gravely alarmed by the continuous success of Titokowaru’s raids, the whole countryside cried aloud for his death or capture. Major Kemp’s seventy (hokowhitu), the magic number of gallant Maori bushmen, were dying for a fight. Colonel McDonnell, though aware that his newly enrolled newchums were useless in the bush, yet was determined to attain what the country clamoured for, and to do or die in the attack on Ngutu o te Manu, perhaps the most formidable stronghold even seen in the Maori wars. He was worried over many small failures, the inefficiency of his small force, and the recent desertion of his most useful spy, Katene, to the Hauhaus.

All this came under the silent review and careful contemplation of the Kupapa Tohunga, who urged in the orthodox manner of his kind that the time was not ripe, because he had foreseen disaster in the recent seasonal disappearance of Matariki (the wanderer) from the group of the Pleiades. In a flash enthusiasm fled. Te Kepa and his trusty Maori warriors besought McDonnell to postpone the Taua (war party) for 24 hours, but in vqin. Things looked black and the Maoris threatened refusal to meet certain death, when a grim old warrior spoke. “We are bound in honour to fight Our white comrades will be cut to pieces for ignoring the warning. Having protested, we will be protected.” As one man they bounded forth to the coming fight, and fight they did with the utmost gallantry. How strange that more than a third of our men fell dead, or wounded, whilst the Maoris in the thick of it, fighting and rescuing our broken comrades were unscathed. Official records confirm it. So when you incline to deride a Maori Tohunga. just I think of him as a thinker. [