MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 September 1939, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

NIGHT PROWLERS.

by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”)

In those strenuous and anxious days and nights when Te Kooti’s wild Chatham Island escapees were intent upon reprisals for their long imprisonment, the garrison and sentries of the redouts had many false alarms which were given by the enemy with the object of leading our men into a condL tion of indifference or false security, After several such ruses there sometimes followed an unexpected tragedy. One Maori trick was to dress in a pigskin, crawl on all fours, grunt and champ the jaws in perfect imitation of an old boar, and approach the inter? ested and unsuspecting sentry as if in search of scraps of bread which were sometimes thrown to him. When within reach, the Maori would bound upon his prey, catch him by the throat and despatch him by a blow of his stone patu without a sound, then seize the rifle and ammunition and vanish in the night. Two such experiences warned the sentries of the 65th near Mohaka, and on a dark night a black object crossed and recrossed the track near the redout several times just to show that he was really a pig and quite ig? norant of danger. The sentry was alert, so shot the prowler, finding to his great surprise and gratification that he was really a Maori intent upon murder. Cattle and horses were hard put to it by want of grass, and new arrivals at the front were often gravely alarmed during their first night’s bivouac by the strange wailing sound of blades of flax being pulled for food.