OWAKA NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4871, 6 July 1901, Page 3

OWAKA NOTES.

[Occasional Cobbespondknt.]

In common with all New Zealand, bis Majesty's liege subjects here are just recovering from the effects of a great outburst of loyalty. We were nearly all in town to meet the Duke and Duchess, and I add with a feeling of pride that the district was exceedingly well represented in what NoahOlaypole called the " Milingtary. Our rifle corps was there almost to a man, and a large proportion of those members of the Glutha Mounted Rifles resident here was there as well. We all agree with a late utterance of Sir Charles Dilke's that a republio is not suited for the Empire— we must have a hereditary Chief Magistrate. [ have read that remark of Sir Charles' in a good many papers lately and have wondered as I read it if he had just found it ont. It is long since I did. How often in oo«* own eolonv has Sir George Grey, when, in sore straits in his dealings with the Maori, succeeded in persuading them oub of wrong ways by reminding 'hem of the great interest taken in them by the Queen and how •-he would be hurt with the news of more strife. It was an abiding article in many an old Maori s heart that the knini loved his race. Sir (Jeor?e used the same charm with the Kaffirs and wi h equal uuccess. Indeed I know that amongst the Southern Natives Grey's own name, as representative of the Queen, was one to charm with.

I have read in two papers lately, one was the " Otago Daily Times ' and, I think, the other one was the Tuapeka Times, that every scrap of fact and incideut relating to the Maori race and the early days of the colony should bo preserved. Acting on the advice of these two highly-esteemed journals I'll embalm in print two small incidents which are not foreign to my subject and which may be read with interest.

In the winter of '65 £ was present at a sale of Maori horses in Waikouiti. They were bding sold by a Dunedin bailiff. A dispute arose between the bailiff and a middle-aged Maori, called Mick Peacock, about the ownership of the horses. Mick's English was of such a quality that the other man easily understood him, but his reasoning had no effect on the hardened heart of this lower limb of the law. Mick appealed to me, but I was powerless. Then he lost his temper, and with it his English At length he turned to go, but just as he was at the gate he looked round and said this : " I'll write to Sir George Grey ; he'll tell the Queen and the Maori will get justice." Many a shaft at random sent Finds mark the archer little meant. Mick never thought of swelling the tide of my patriotism by this remark, but he did. His undoubting faith in the justice of the Queen and her Viceroy made me proud of my country. This poor Maori's heart I know went out to her Majesty and her representative, Hori Kiri (George Grey) because he believed theirs went out to him. Could this feeling have been evoked by a ruler who was changed every few years? Or could you have got the darkened minds of men like this to comprehend such a way of being ruled even ? I don't think so. Her name acted like a charm amongst many races of half-savage men where the name of a President— here to» day and away to-morrow — never would. My next story re'ers to this difficulty of getting men just emerging from savagery to understand us and our ways. If I be a little prolix it is because I want to flash my feeble lamp for a moment on early times. The men who were at the head of the long extinct New Zealand Company understood what they were about, at least in one particular. They were laying the foundation of a new country and they judged it best to let the early inhabitants be of mised blood. They were Englishmen but they sent an agent into Lochiel's country amongst the glens round the base of Ben Nevis. The result was that a small vessel of 300 tons left Greenock for Port Nicholson in April, 1840, carrying many families who spoke Lochiel's language and wore his tartan. Amongst these was a little fellow of nine years whom I am now living with on terms of the closest intimacy. What follows is one of his yarns. About '46 Governor Fitzroy was recalled and Lieutenant-Governor Eyre sent in his place. Now this lieutenanoy the Maoris could noo understand. Sere was a m&u who was & governor and yet he wasn't. One day, just after Eyre's arrival, my friend and his father were engaged in bush clearing when an elderly Maori, whom they knew quite well, came along. The conversation turned on the status of the Governor. The Maori showed a good deal of anxiety to grasp the idea locked up in the word " lieutenant." Old Mac illustrated and gesticulated but all to no purpose. At length, putting his hand in his pocket he drew out two coins, a half-crown and a sixpence. Holding up the larger one he said, " That's the Governor," then the smaller one and added, " That's the LieutenantGovernor." The Maori broke into a genial laugh exclaiming, " Kapai, kapai, bikapenny gubana." Mac's illustration was by no means perfeot, but it is the difficulty in tbe native mind that I am concerned about, not the illustration. The incident caused a little amusement anaongst the few white men then resident in our infant capital. Amongst the natives, Eyre's raana was rather damaged. He was known to both races as the " hikapenny Governor ' until his retirement. When his successor arrived it was seen by all men that there was no " bikapenny " abont him but the full two-and-six. He was Captain Grey from South Australia,

1 intended to have said something about the compliments paid to the Rector of your High School and his staff at the raising of the Union Jack, but my Maori stories have grown too long. Let me ask just one question and answer it as well. What is the reason we hear so many stories about our educational system being defective, whilst about the Lawrence school there is not a word to say but what conveys the highest praise? The answer is: The Lawrence school has been properly worked. There has been at the head of it all along a teacher who apparently has a resolute determination to render fall value in service for his salary.

Wade's Worm Figs are mosb effective and not unpleasant ; children thrive after taking them. Price, Is.

The expenses of the case Aitoheson v. the Kaitangata Coal Co., which lasted 23 days, will be between £1,300 and £1,400. It will be remembered the plaintiff got the verdict.

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