A USEFUL TOMBSTONE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2632, 6 February 1868, Page 6

A USEFUL TOMBSTONE.

[From the Canterbury PBBSS.]

Native matters have ceased to excite the startling interest which they excited some three or four years ago. Those who still bestow attention on the subject will, however, find themselves amply repaid by little morsels of news both interesting and diverting. The following story is a specimen .—

There was a gentleman at Auckland who was distinguished above all others for his boisterous advocacy of the war, and his denunciation of native delinquency. The war being over, and the Native Lands Act being opened the dealing in land with the natives, this gentleman was one of the first to negociate for a largo run in the Ngatihaua country. He appears to have been successful in leasing a run from the late chief W: Thompson. The king natives seem, however, to have given some trouble, and it was not certain whether they would allow the run to be occupied. Thompson in the meantime died, and the mana descended to his son Tana, who appears to have been willing to carry out his father's intention. Still the case was critical. The title to the run was in peril. About July last, we were informed by the Auckland press, that a monument to the memory of William Thompson was set up on the spot where he died at Mr Firth's expense. Itwasdesigned, we were told, by Mr Wrigley, an architect in Auckland, and was composed of " an obelisk in hard wood, sanded over ; and in this is let in a brass case containing a portrait of Thompson, which is protected by a slide." The description does not give an idea of very high art, but rather of one those sham, stone-mimicking, wooden structures which are the pride of New Zealand, and the laughing stock of all men of educated taste. Still, however, one could not help being struck witb. the generosity of the spirit, which could thus do honour to the memory of a chief, who for several years past had been reviled by the war party and the press of Auckland as capable of every cruelty and duplicity. And it was the more striking, that this delicate compliment to the memory of the much maligned chieftain was paid by one of the most vigorous Boanerges of the community. Such was the monument, and such its builder — an unselfish, generous creature, who saw no shame in doing honor to the man dead, whom he and his friends had abused when living. This monument however had, it appears, an inscription neatly cut in black letters by Messrs xeaton and Eobinson of Auckland. To this inscription we must look for tho full exposition of the builder's appreciation of the genius and virtues of the honored dead. It is as follows ; in Maori of course : — " Go honco, 0 friend. • When the son of Eiripuai lived, men were venerated.' [An old proverb.] ; Willliam Thompson Te Waharoa died here on 1 the 27th day of December, 1866. This was his last sentence : — ' Tell Mr Firth ii ho is willing to reside here continually, I am agreeable.' " Charming, disinterested homage to the memory of tho great ! To what uses may not a tombstone be put ! In Warren's tale of " Ten thousand a Year" this discovery of an old tombstone is made the most important link in the evidence wbich changed the proprietors of a princely fortune. If wo remember rightly, the villain of that clever story proposed that, if a satisfactory tombstone could not be found to establish the necessary link in jthe evidence, some artist in antiquities should be employed to make one. We only hope that Mr Firth's tombstone to liis benefactor mny be as lucrative as Mr Tittlebat Titmouse found the one procured for him by Oily Gammon. What a speaking tribute ! It is not only a cenotaph but a Jast will and testament. " I leave Firth this run." Poor Thompson — lying distaut from his own home and people ; dying of a broken heart — broken by the loss of all his influence, the ruin of his tribe, the confiscation of his lands ; mourning and weeping over the calamities of the people who would not be advised, but, spurning his covneils of peace, rushed on their destruction; strange indeed that amidst all the painful thoughts which crowded upon his dying brain, the last, the most engrossing, was — not the welfare of the remnant of his decaying race — not one of all those schemes which had filled and, failing had broken his heart — but only — let Firth have his run. Strangely Christian for one who had tampered, to say no more, with Hau Hauism. Was he thinking of some lesson learned in far-off days of childhood in good Archdeacon Brown's school's — v Bless your enemies ;do good to them who persecute you." Wo remember nothing to equal this inscription on the Firth- Thompson monument, unless it be the late Lord Panmure's first telegram to the Commander-in-chief in the Crimea — " Take care of Dowb." Mr Dowbiggin was his Lordship's nephew, we believe ; and was no doubt taken care of. May the tombstone bo as auspicious as the telegram. The sanded wooden obelisk contains a brass box with a likeness ©f Thompson iuside. Might not the artistic effect be heightened by another likeness — that of the disinterested builder — in the image of a ghoul sitting on the top ofthe tombstone and feeding on the dead beneath P A recent Auckland paper tells us that another dreadful Native outrage has taken place. An attempt has been made to burn " Thompson's monument ! ! " What wretches theso natives must be.