MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 25 June 1936, Page 6

MAORI MEMORIES

(By J.H.S. for “The Daily Times.”) THE PIONEERS’ YEARS. In that year of enterprise 1841, New Zealand held out more hopes and fears for British adventurers than even the Polar regions could offer. ’Twas then the Manakau Company sent out ‘/a shipload of 27 settlers” to pioneer the 19,000 acres on Manakau harbour allegedly purchased frorii the Maoris in 1835. These settlers squatted there, but as the Company’s title was not valid they'never took root. After 12 years of persistent letter writing, the Colonial ■ Government’s arguments' were exhausted, find si) the company was allowed 10 per cent, of their 16 year old claim. Again in ’4l the fourth settlement, brought out in the “Whitby” and “Will Watch,” under. Capt. Arthur Wakefield, R.N., which sailed into Waka tu (canoe at anchor) and thus began the ever restful city of “Sleepy Hollow, ’ ’ Nelson. In ’42 a Maori boy named Maketu confessed to. having murdered Mrs Robertson, her man servant, and family at Koroareka. He was hanged at Auckland, and the Maori tribes were amazed at the- barbarity of first killing the spirit by fear, rather than mercifully striking him on the back of his head at an unexpected moment. Governor Hobson-died of paralysis at Auckland in that year. In the Auckland cemetery his graye is a mere-moss ■grown floor of cement; but buried out' of sight and memory ’tis said that on his coffin is a handsome plate engraved: “Beneath lie the remains of William Hobson, Esq., a Captain of H.M. .Royal Navy, and.first Governor .of New .Zealand, who departed this life on the 10th September, 1842, aged 49 years.” In St. Paul’s- Church, 7 Auckland, a mar-' 1 ble tablet engraved in Maori and English commemorates the fact that he was an Irishman.

Bishop Selwyn came 28 days before Governor Hobson died. In replying to the address given by the people of Auckland he spoke fluently in Maori, learned from a book/ and in English. His Maori was perfect save only in pronouncing which made it obscure. He said: “That under Divine aid, and the exertions of the British people," New Zealand would one day be the brightest gem in Britain’s Crown, her noblest effort of colonisation.” In November - , 1842, the “Duchess of Argyle ’ ’ and the ‘‘ J ane Gifford ’ ’ brought 541 immigrants to Auckland. The ample yet homely hospitality of the Maoris was 1 a pleasant surprise, coming from the “Horrible Cannibals” of the British Press.