THE STORY OF TE WAHAROA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXI, Issue 2432, 25 October 1866, Page 6

THE STORY OF TE WAHAROA.

This new work, which we have lately received, gives an account of some of the events which occurred in New Zealand during the life time of the father of the celebrated William Thompson, and is divided into three parts. In the first part the author gives an outline of Te Waharoa's life and actions before the arrival of the Missionaries, and of the doings of various native tribes. Te Waharoa, Chief of the Ngatihaua tribe, was born in about the year 1775, and when he was about two years of age was taken captive with his mother by the Ngatiwakaucs, but was liberated by them when he attained the age of twenty years. His tribe at that time held the Mauugakau range, and consisted of about 400 fighting men, who were constantly at war with other tribes, but principally with the Ngapuhi. In these engagements Te Waharoa soon distinguished himself, and gradually gave importance to^his tribe, of which he became the chief.

We take the following summary of events from the work before us : —

Te Waharoa's courage, aotivity, and address, his subtlety and enterprise, joined with reckless daring in single combat, rendered him in a few years, the head of his own people, and the drend of his neighbors. Ho allied himself with Ngatimaniapoto, and drove Te Rauparaha and the Ngatiraukawas from Maungatautari to Cook's Straits. He made war upon Waikato, and consigned a female member of the would-be royal house ofPotatauto his umu (oven.) Afc length, having made peace with Te Wherowhero on tho west, and having planted the friendly Ngatikorokis at Maungatautari on the south, he turned his face towards the sea, and wa<;ed a long and bitter strife with, the powerful Ngatimaru tribe, who inhabited Matamata and ;the vnlley of the Thames. Thus farlwould remark theapparentpolicy of this crafty chief. First he got rid of To Rauparaha, who was as pugnacious a cannibal as himself. Then lie terrified Te Wlierowhero, who, having tho example of his unfortunate relative before his eyes, doubtless judged it more prudent to enter into an alliance with tho conqueror, and to assist him in his wars, than to run the risk of being otherwise disposed of. And lastly he. endeavored in two ways to obtain for his tribe a passage to the sea, viz., by seeking forcibly to dispossess the natives of the Thames, and by cultivating the good will of the Tauranga natives, and pressing his friendship on them— a friendship which has resulted more disastrously to ISTgaiterangi than even his hostility proveofto Ngatimarn.

It involved the reluctant Ngaiterangi in a six 3 r ears' sanguinary war with Ngatiwhakaue, by which Tauranga was frequently devastated, and gave the haughty Ngatihauns the entree to their district. Not is it too much to affirm that, during the long courso of his wars, the alliances formed by Te Waharoa with the Ngatimaniapoto, the Waikato, and Tauranga tribes, have been, in the hands of his son, an important element in the opposition which has been offered to the British G-overnment. Its consequences are visible in the expatriated Waikato, now a byword uinong other natives, and in the present miserable remnant of Tauranga natives — despised even by those who have duped them

After numerous wars, in winch the conquerors used to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the conquered, a period arrived when Europeans ventured ( to make transient visits to the savage tribes which acknowledged To "Waharoa's name.

These visitors were of two different sorts, viz.', missionaries who appeared as pioneers of religion aud civilisation, and "PakehaMaoris," (literally, pakehas maoviuod,) who, lured by the prospects of effecting lucrative trading enterprise, not unfrequenlly fell victims to the perils they incurred ; while the immunity of the former class from death afc the hands of the natives is a matter worthy of remark, and suggests to the refloctive mind the instructive fact that, for a special purpose, they were often protected, amidst the dangers thafc surrounded them, by the unseen hand of tho Great Master they so enthusiastically served. In after years, when the missionaries' influence became great, and Pakeha-Maoris numerous, individuals of these respective classes were frequently placed in positions antagonistic to each other ; but considering tho incongruous nature of the elements involved such unfriendly relations could bo no subject of surprise. It is, however, but just to state that when Pakeha Maoris became entangled in serious difficulties with natives, and were unable to extricate themselves — difficulties caused sometimes by their own delinquencies— that when they invoked a missionary's aid, that influence, though at other times contemned by them, was ever cheerfully but judiciously exerted on their behalf; and we may add, such efforts were generally gratefully received. The first European that landed atltawhk, and penetrated to Ngaruawahia, was a PakehaMaori, a gentleman of the name of Kent, who arrived at the latter place in 1831 ; and probably the first vessel after Cook, adventurous enough to perform a coasting voyage in the Bay of Plenty, was the missionary schooner Herald, in the year 1828. The latter enterprise was undertaken by three brethren stationed attjao Bay of Islands — Messrs. H. Williams, ftamlin, and Davis — who, urged by a desire te discover, if possible, an opening for the establishment of a mission among the barbarous tribes of the Bay of Plenty, availed themselves of an opportunity which presented itself; and set forth in their schooner for the ostensible purpose of conveying tho Ngatiwhakaue chief Pango, back to his tribo.

Tauranga was first visited, and the travellers then lauded Pango at Makefcu, and afterwards stopped at Whakatane. The missionaries had a narrow escape of their lives there ; Ngarara, the evil genius of the place, wished to kill them, but he was prevented by his father Toehauj they next landed at the Onekawa sands, at Ohiwa, where finding signs that a battle had recently taken j)lace, they returned

to their vessel and came back to Tauranga, after an absence of ten days. Meanwhile, Te Papa had been de3troj r od, Horarau killed, and Ngatitopu, comprising nearly one-third of the Tauranga people annihilated by Te Rohu, who had* been there with a strong force of Ngatimarus. From Tauranga tho Herald returned to the Bay of Islands, and thus ended the perils of a voyage remarkable from its having been successfully performed on a portion of tho coast, where the Endeavor had twice been compelled to fire on the natives. The next visit paid by an English vessel to the Bay of Plenty was not so successful.

In 1829, the brig Haws, of Sydney, anchored off Whakatauo. Having large quantities of arms and ammunition on board, slio soon obtained a cargo of piga and flux, and then moved over to Whale Island, where by the aide of a spring of boiling water, conveniently situated near the beach, the captain and some of the crew proceeded to kill the piga, and salt them down into casks ; while thus engaged, a number of canoes were seen to board the vessel from Whakatane, and the sailors who had taken to the rigging were shot. Upon this, the captain and those with him flod in their boat to Te Awao te Atua, and thence to Taiiranga. The natives, who were led by Is garara, then took everything out of the brig, and burnt her. Among other things, they found a quantity of flour, the use of which very much puzzled them ; at length they contented themselves with emptying it into the sea, and simply retained the bags.

In the second part of his story the writer gives his views as a disinterested and not unobservant spectator on missionary enterprises, and on the manner in which the natives have been governed. In the early part of 1834 three brethren Messrs. Preeco, "Wilson, and Fair/burn

lauded with their families at Puriri near tho mouth of tho Thames, and within eighteen months they were followed byMessrs. Chapman, Morgan, Brown, Hamlin, Maunsell, Stack and Wade. According to our author, they found a nation of bloodthirsty cannibals, turbulent, treacherous, and revengeful, repulsive in habits, licentious and filthy, and in a fewyears had so improved their condition, that they might be called civilized and Christian.

Ifc was under the auspices of this mild missionary regime — which, if a government, was a very singular one, seeing there were no laws, and an almost total absence of crime— that the British Governor set foot on the shores of New Zealaud. He, Governor Hobaon, and his successor Fitzroy, were well avrare they had no physical means of enforcing law, and maintaining order among the natives. Therefore, as much as possible, they pursued the policy of availing themselves of the moral influence the missionaries possessed — an influence which had laid the natives' passions, had prepared the way for the founding of the colony, and formed the only tie (that of religion, tinged with superstition in the minds receiving it), by which the turbulence of the Maoris was held in check.

The missionaries, however, to avcid an ambiguous relation to tho civil power — a position alike alien and prejudicial to their vocation — permitted one of their number to retire from the mission and join the Government for the purpose of managing native affairs. But the G-overnor'a selection of the gentleman to fill this new and important office was scarcely a happy one for the couatry; for, although a very sincere wellmeaning person, ho took extravagant views of hi 3 duties as a Native 'Protector, and the natives became overbearing. They found themselves continually sheltered and favbredy. and discovered to their surprise that Europeans — who, before the advent of a government, had managed to take caro of themselves — were now neglected and virtually unprotected. In truth, the first Governor erred in judgment when he created a Native Protectorate. The natives then required no special protection, any more than they do now. ■ Then they learned to despise the weakness of our administration, and expect that particular kind of justice which they have since been accustomed to obtain; then, too, began the troubles of the young colony. When Captain Grey succeeded, or rather superseded, Captain JTitzroy in the government of this country, he swept away the Native Protectorate. This step, though it appeared to initiate a policy the reverse of his predecessor's, did not really do so ; for, notwithstanding the office was closed and the officer paid off, yet the principle that had animated the old protectorate was retained, and its disadvantages were shortly afterwards very much intensified by the introduction of that which has since been popularly known as the "flour and sugar policy." This policy was a strenuous effort, on the part of the Government, to civilise the Maoris by liberally and gratuitously supplying them with the many material advantages, which are necessary to the comfort and well-being of civilised man ; and it also somewhat a«sumed the character of a system of bribery to keep the peace,

In the third part of his story Mr. Wilson gives an account of the great war undertaken by Te Waliaroa in 1836, against the Ngatiwhakaue or Arawa tribe, on account of the murder of his cousin Hunga by Huka, a second rate chief of that tribe. The war, after being carried on successfully by Te Waharoa for some time, abated at last partly through the efforts of the missionaries, who run great risks, and partly through the death of the chief who was carrying it on. The following account is given of his death.

He was attacked with erysipelas at Motu Hoa, at Tauranga, and visited by Messrs. Wilson and Brown, who found him on his death-bed an old Maori still. As his illness appeared serious, his tribe carried him to Matamata; where perceiving his end approach, and anxious even in death, and at the expense of his friends to gratify the ruling passion of his life — the aggrandisement of his tribe, he exclaimed, "Oh I that I might drink Waitioko's sweet waters !" Quickly a lithe strip, ling took a calabash and ran to Waitioko, a •tream in Ngaiterangi's country, which flows in mid-forest between Te Wairere and Waipapa, and is some ten or twelve miles from Tepuna. In an incredibly Bhort time the

youth returned. Te Waharoa drank of tho { water, pronounced the beverage good, i declared the stream his own, and expired,, after a ten days' illness, at Easter, 1839. !

The writer then gives the following sketch of Te Waharoa's character.

Our readers will acknowledge that the chief whose story we have told was not an ordinary New Zealander. Possessed in war of courage, enterprise, and tact, he made his. enemies fear him; whilst sometimes to hiß allies his crafty policy was scarcely a whib less dangerous. He subsidized the Ngatimaniapotos and Waikato-nui tribes, and influenced his Ngaterangi friends, and by singular address established and preserved a bond of union — no easy task at any time — between four powerful sections of the Maori race ; inducing them to march obedient to his word, they fought and bled together, the bond became cemented, and it is precisely this union with its ramifications that has opposed our Government in the district we write of.

"Waharoa was succeeded by his eldest son, Te Arahi, who before the Arawa war had married Penenga, Hikairo's daughter Though in appearance a fine man, the tribe soon found Te Arahi lacked the meutal qualifications necessary for their chief; therefore they deposed him, and placed Tarapipipi his younger brother in his stead. This chief had already professed Christianity, and was baptised by his present well-known name, William

Thompson. N On the whole the -work is readable ; although the writer is not all times veryclear in the manner in which he narrates his story. '