FAMOUS MAORI CHIEF DEAD.

Waikato Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1477, 9 February 1903, Page 2

FAMOUS MAORI CHIEF DEAD.

(BY TELKQRAPH — ASSOCIATION). CiißisTCHDßcii, Last Night. Wiremu Naiiira Tehoika, a celebrated Maori chief, born at Kaiapoi in ISI2, died on Tuesday laat. He w«r ■■• witness of the tribal wars from 1812 to 1830. and, though escaping one of the raids of Te Rauparaha at the bead of the Ngatitoa in 182" at the seige of Kaiapni, he was captured and released on parole in 1544. He was present at the sale of Maori lands in the South Island to Colonel W. Wakefield, the agent for the New Zealand Company, and also when the money (£2000) "was paid on the Fly in the Akaroa Harbour in the year 181 S by M.jir Henry Kemp for land extending from Mount Grey in Canterbury to Mau igitua in Otago. It was Wiremu Nahira'» contention that at all the native commissions that M-jor Kemp had threatened if the £2UOO was not accented by the Ngaitahu (Nahira's tribe) the money would be handed to the Ngatitoa (Rauparaha's tribe), and that if the natives delayed their consent to what is known in history as ' Kemp's deed,' for the purchase of the native land of the Middle Island, soldiers would be sent to clear the laud for the pakeha. At the Native land Court in April, 186 S, and at the koyal Commission in May, 1879, Nahira adhered to those sentiments. In 1850 Wiremu settled dowu at Tuahiwi and remained there till he died.