New Zealand Reminiscences.

Freethought Review, Volume II, Issue 22, 1 July 1885, Page 14

New Zealand Reminiscences.

BY HIMSELF.

RECOLLECTIONS OF KOWHAI NGUTU KARA.

[all rights reserved.] (Concluded.) I think that the Roman Catholic wizards would all have been makutued (bewitched to death,) in spite of priests and tohungus, by the two other hapus (families) of this tribe of wizards had it not been for the intense hate born by the first two hapus against each other ; he jealousy of these necromancers burnt so fiercely. Later on, these laws were added to. We were to repulse all pakeha settlers and settlement in our country. But we had not, as a race, become so infatuated as to listen to all they told us to do, as they appeared to wish to interfere with our tribal laws, which suited us, if they did not suit them. Besides, as I said before, some amongst these missionaries had thrown aside reserve, and had commenced buying land, and so the elements of discord were sown amongst us, and some of the older men quivered like a spear that is shaken by an angry man. I remember hearing that one season a native of our village who had been created a teacher of the new witchcraft, broke our law with a betrothed maiden, and then took shelter with his chief wizard missionary. The tribe settled to ask for him, fully expecting that as he had broken their own commandments about taking other people’s goods, to say nothing about his having broke our laws too, that no difficulty would present itself. But this wizard missionary (and a very ignorant man he afterwards proved to be) would not give the transgressor up to be punished, and spoke to us of a woman who had sinned, and was going to be stoned to death. That settled the question, and they dragged the Maori who had committed the wrong to the clear place in the middle of the village, where he was speared through and through by the young chief to whom the young woman

had been betrothed ; but had this Maori teacher of new incantations been a chief, or a brave man, he would have known how to meet his antagonists and have warded off the blows aimed at him ; then the tribe very likely would have interfered to save him. As it was, all the kaiaka tanga (science) was on one side, and he fell ignominiously, as a woman falls, without defence worth calling such. As the man who now lay dead from the spear wounds was of our tribe, we prepared to place him in the fork of the puriri tree in our Waihi tapu (sacred place,) but the missionary begged us so prettily to let him have the body and bury him in a hole he would dig for him that at last our chief consented. “ It will be something new to gaze upon,” said he; so a hole was dug in the ground, then the dead man was put in a long box, which was nailed down to prevent him getting out, as we thought; then the missionary put the box in the hole, wrote a direction, as we supposed, on it, and covered him up after performing an incantation, and told us all he had gone to heaven ; but none of our people believed in this, because the worms had him. Years afterwards our tribe laughed grimly when they found out that this missionary wizard had written home to his tribe and had related in a letter of lamentation that a dear Christian native had been slain by the heathen savages and cannibals because he chose Christianity instead of the Taueaha gods; but this man might have followed Christianity as long as he liked if he had not followed the betrothed maidens too, and broken the law of the tribal trust. I have more to say on this writing and sending of untruthful letters home before I close “ Our History;” and besides this they had no right to depict us in the false colours they painted us in. They were our guests, and we treated them very well indeed, far better than they deserved, but they abused us to get themselves a big name, and get our lands into their hands. It was very unfair, very much so indeed, and all helped to fill the spring that afterwards ran over its confines and spread with a deluge of war and bloodshed. Well, we welcomed the first devil tribe, and each chief and head of a hapu (family), exerted himself to obtain a pakeha; wives were given them to induce them to settle down and live with us, and be “ our pakehas.” It is true that some of them, as we look back now, were rough, and we found that many of them had from motives of policy, left their own tribe without saying “hekona” (good bye), but it was no use writing other people’s names on bits of paper in our country, as nothing could be got by it, and there was nothing worth stealing they could carry away. We think they were good men the most of them ; they worked hard, and their wives bore them lots of children for our tribe, and they treated their wives well as a rule. Only one man, a whaler, beat his wife on one occasion for nothing; but when her relatives heard of this they belabored him so soundly with sticks that he was ill for some time; his wife afterwards told us that he had been drinking some Avaipiro (stinking water). We afterwards found out what this Avaipiro was, but did not drink it for many years. These pakehas of ours laughed at the missionary wizards and would not attend their incantations, but the missionaries repaid this with hate. Nevertheless, we preferred our devil pakehas to the missionaries as a rule. Thus Ave lived on until other pakehas came, who were an improvement on the first ones, as we thought, and who brought their pakeha wives and children with them. We were glad to see this; but those of the missionary necromancers, who had behaved improperly with our women, told us not to have any intercourse with these new arrivals, but Ave suspedled the reason of this advice, so at once tried to be more friendly. At last it all came out, and two rangatira pakehas made enquiries, and discovered that one of these wizards had been shaping his course like David and Solomon, and had over thirty concubines. There was no mistake about it, and these pakehas told us that this was wrong of this bad wizard, and they wrote Home, and so did we, to the tribe of Wesleyans, and they very properly expelled this wizard, and passed a law that he was to perform no more incantations. I will give no more instances of condmT such as I have related, and only have written this as a warning to

show that it is not wise for good men, such as many of the first missionaries were, to mix with evil doers and hypocrites. And I don't wish to fill this, " Our History," by writing unpleasant things that had better be forgotten, but all this helped to change our feeling for the pakeha into one of bitterness, that eventually made us go to war with them.