THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN

Te Ao Hou, December 1957, Page 22

THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN Te Kooti retired to the King Country having his headquarters at Te Kuiti where he lived for eleven years, an outlaw, with a price of £5000 on his head. During this period he held a sort of court, receiving visits from chiefs all over the country and remaining a symbol of uncompromising hostility to the pakeha. The Government drove Te Kooti from the field but they failed to achieve their main and original purpose of capturing him and his fellow escapees. They put into the field many times the number of men Te Kooti could collect, but though they brought him to action time and again, they never succeeded in effectively defeating or capturing him. He must, therefore, be credited with the honours of war. He was to have yet another triumph. In the general amnesty which was granted in 1883 as part of the price of the opening of the King Country for the main trunk line, it was the wish of the Government, prompted by Poverty Bay opinion, to exclude Te Kooti. On this point the Maori King, Tawhiao, was adamant. This was a matter in which the pride