A NEW HISTORY OF THE MAORI WAR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 5306, 12 March 1884, Page 2

A NEW HISTORY OF THE MAORI WAR.

BY KOWHAI NGUTU KAKA.

[all rights reserved.]

Some time siuce, a pakeha, who wishes us we'l, and whose warnings have ever been for our good, wrote a parable — a history of a pretended outbreak. The plob was that we were made to kill numbers of people, but the result told heavily upon us, and in a fight on the slopes of Mount Egmont we %vere all slain— only one man, the last of our race, was left to 1 ell the tale, and then he died, too. But even a better organised and re il plan had been talked about amongst Titokowaru 's people. It was nipped in the bud, however, by Te Whiti and Tohu. Afterwards, when thia story was explained to us by thoso of our race who could read, with its melancholy ending, we appreciated the wisdom of our leaders in abstaining from any more war. We heard that this pakeha was much abused for thia parable, as it was said that he was trying to teach us how to fight, as if, for one moment, we required any pakeha to teach us how to go to work. But we knew the tale had been written as a warning to us, and we knew who wrote it.

We did, in 1868, consider that the ex-Pre-mier, who attempted to throw ridicule on the officer then commanding the pakeha forces, by calling or likening him to a "hopping flea," and then signing this letter (not with his own name but with that of the then victorious Titokowaru), we did, I say, consider that the author of that " shameful letter " ought to have been truly ashamed of himself, as the officer he strove to ridicule in his vincHctiveness, had many difficulties to contrive against, and this letter encouraged us to carry on, as we knew from it that this ran- | gatira Premier was bitter against this army of protection, Another work I believe, the last published relating the doings in this country, has been read and explained to me. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the disreputable portion of pakeha politics to judge the truth of the political part of it, but it seems to me to contain, in the spirit of its writings, a great deal of petty slander, and that ignorant kind of Christianity, peculiar to the pakeha kinaa (old women) of Exeter Hall. Therefore I can only form my estimate of the whole work by comparing those portions of it that relate to things and incidents I am personally acquainted with, and then judging how far the writer has confined himself to fact aritPtruth. In the same way, when the writer of this book makes mention of officers and other gentlemen, whom I have first known as brave enemies, and afterwards as sincere friends, I will not wrap up my speech in raurekau leaves, but say that this man Rusden is telling lies ! Lies that possibly were told to him (unless he 'dreamt them), but he, not possessing the courage of justice, and, being possibly without manliless of heart, has not paused to investigate the truth before he wrote about the conduct of men in every way his superiors. I judge,* therefore, of the value of his book, as to its being a truthful.reliable history, of the part, from that portion of it which I am able to understand, and which I know to be false, having no real foundation but in - a malignant and spiteful nature. But then I am only a New Zealand savage, and therefore am not well veised in the doctrine of that kind of Christianity practised among the Christian race away from Christ and his glorious charity. In the first place this man, Rusden,- saya respecting Bryce, the present Native Minister, that he cut down our women and children with glee ; and that from this act we, the Maoris, named Bryce a "Tanffata Kohuru," i.e., a murderer. Secondly, that Major Keepa te Rangihiwinui was so shocked and angry at this slaughter of women and children by Bryce, that he threatened to withdraw his men from the force, (which by the way this foolish Rusden did not know that Keepa had I not the power of himself to do). What a curious idea he must have of our customs, he abuses officers who'fought against us, and then weakly tries to make little of their services, saying that some one else did the work. There are many other things he has ! written equally contemptable and untrue. Now if that scribbler, thought to please us, by slandering the pakeha chiefs, who were leaders against us, he has made a great mistake in our character, but perhaps he wrote for money or to please greater men than himself. I say that 'our people are brave, and fought according to there lights, but despisedj those hypocrites and pakeha tutuas (common pakehas) who, with smooth face, oily tongue, and sanctimonious cant, deceived us first andjihen traduced us. Rusden is, perhaps, one of this tribe, and no doubt would, if we had happened to tomaj hawk one of his kith or kin (if he has any), have rubbed noses with us, told us we had I acted quite right, and have pointed out where the others lived so that we might ser^e them the same. Now I, Kouhai JNgutukaka Whakatika, arise, and say— (l) That we never heard that Bryce killed any of our race, big or little, male, or female, until we heard mention made of it in Rusden's book, and that none of us believed that he would have killed little children or women willingly under any circumstances. (2) We never called Bryce a tangata kohuru (murderer). This must have eminated from Rusden himself, or from the brain of the person who told him, if anyone did tell him. (3) Major Keepa has written, and ,aays, in' his letter, that he never heard of any action of Bryce of the nature imputed to him, and never threatened, as Mr Rusden said he did, to withdraw his men. What could it have mattered to him if a dozen children had been killed. (4) That the abuse and depreciating .tone used by Rusden towards leading .officers, in our opinion is either the outpourings of the small jealous heart of the writer, or of an equally despicable person. As a race, we respect those who fought against us, hand to hand, but who always saved life where circumstances (in a European r>oint of view) warranted their doing so. Lustoms differ, and we kill prisoners as a rule, as I have before explained in this, our history. We as a race think that the European who has in our minds in this instmce earned the name of Tangata Kohuru (which stands for a murderer, or a slanderer) is the writer, if not the author of those miserable and wretched, accusations— Rusden himself.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)