DICKEY BARRETT AT THE SIEGE OF MOTUROA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8800, 9 June 1890, Page 2

DICKEY BARRETT AT THE SIEGE OF MOTUROA.

Any information having reference to the early history of New Zealand, whether conveyed in dry details of events or in the ehipe of fiction, is always acceptable. Mr Hood prefers the latter mode of relating events, and in his " realistic story " of " Dickey Barrett, " gives us a vivid description of the rough old times in New Zealand, which the fertile imagination of even Dante would scarcely be able to depict in language sufficiently harrowing the hellish atrocities, the unparalleled fiendish carnage and ghoulish feasts on human flesh which took place on the very ground which now is so peacefully settled by an industrious population. The story which we have now under notice opens with a letter from a gentleman named George Shaw, ! who was a passenger in the brig Annie, in which a description is given of Moturoa fifty-seven years ago. The writer then goes on to particularise the state of society ia those times, and tells us " there waa no Church established ; no judicial bench; no licensed victuallers — still for all that there were with both races a sort of tacit regard for morality, law, and order." " Did not at this time," says the author, " Bill the j preacher hold forth daily. Did not Mr Richard Barrett, a grand type of a good old English yeoman stock, sometimes quite unbeknown to himself, act in a judicial capacity." In those days it was aot an uncommon thing for one tribe to come down upon another and carry off all the young men and women they coald make prisoners, who were made slaves. Amongst those taken from the Taranaki tribe was a girl named Rawhina, whom Mr Barrett rescues, and brings back to her father, the chief of the tribe, but in doing so a Waikato chief was killed. The Waikato natives being displeased, at once take steps to wreak their vengeance on the tribe, and accordingly the chiefs collect their forces for the purpose of invading Taranaki. The preparations to meet the enemy, the massacre at Pukerangioro, and the siege at Moturoa, are, perhaps, the best portions of this work. The Waikatos are beaten off, and the siege raised, when Rawhina consents to become Barrett's wife. They are married "by the rites of an orthodox church;" and the tale ends. The story is full of thrilling episodes, the descriptive portions of the fight being very vividly told. It is evident the author obtained the details which he has worked up into a narrative from native sources, for there is a degree of truthfulness in the events described, and the characters stand before the reader with a life-like force. The book will be sure to find many readers, and we must congratulate Mr Hood on the successful way he has portrayed one of the most interes'ing events in the history of Taranaki.

• Diokey BarreJfc, with his ane'ent mai"nere, and much more ancient oannon, at the siege of Motur ja, being a realistic story of the rough old titnea in Nrtr Zealand amvngst the turbu'ent Maoils and the adventurouß whalers ere settlement took place by A. Hod, author of the "Sunken Island," &c., Hmald Office, New Plymouth.

" Tom Collins" is not dead it would seem, for that mythical gentleman has been at work in Dunedin. It appeare that a policeman there was told that Tom Collins had revealed to several persons episodes in his life that left him with even a less respectable character than that of the worst criminals he had been in the habit of bringing forward to the dock. The policemen armed himself with the regulation Colt's revolver, loaded with a compound of sulphur and treacle, and went on the war path, determined to raise the hair of Tom Collins. One hotelkeeper after the other told him that Tom had moved along to another place. The individual had been so accurately described to the policeman that there could be no difficulty in picking him out from a crowd. He wore an eyeglass, parted his hair down the centre of his cranium, was dressed in a light and highly fashionable suit, etc. At one place the thirster for Thomas' bl-u-ud was told he had just gone down to catch the Sydney steamer, and the policeman cut along to catch the same boat. After searching the steamer thoroughly he at last espied an individual whe answered to the description, and with a threatening gesture demanded to know if his name was Tom Collins. The Dundreary individual jumped high in the air, and on coming down yelled out, " For the twentieth time to-day, I am not Tom Collins." He had evidently been made the Tom Collins of all the jokes, and was no doubt leaving the colony to get rid of the persecution.