AN EVENTFUL CAREER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 331, 19 September 1879, Page 3

AN EVENTFUL CAREER.

Concerning the Secretary of the Victo-: rian Legislative Council's- embassy, " Nemesis " writes as follows to the Melbcurne Age: —•' Now that the minds of the_ people of this colony have been so exercised by the third embassy; fiasco, perhaps it will not be;; uninteresting to them to know a little of the antecedents of one of the leading actors in the comedy. The 1 late secretary to Henderson—George A. Rees —ie a Pakeha-Maori (analogous to a white Indian). He speaks the Maori language fluently, and is said to be a native of Williamstown, in the colony of Victoria, where he spent the days of his early childhood. The fishing village appears to have given oar adventurer a taste for seafaring life, for about the year 1865 we find him leaving the Australian Wharf as a boy ordinary on board of one of Messrs Pigott Brothers , vessels, bound for New Zealand. On his arrival he found employment as a "nipper" on the Invercargill and Bluff: Harbor Kailway. Being of a restless disposition, and evidently not liking railway work, this promising Australian hied to the goldfields of Otago and the West Coast, where no doubt he experienced the usual ups and downs of digger life, but he seems to have been by no means wedded to it, for after spending some time in the Waimate district, in the county of Westland, Mr Rees.thought that he would like to try his hand at a little blackbird catching. Accordingly we find him one of the crew of the slaver Marian Rennie, a brigantine belonging to Sydney .._ He did not stay long on board of this vesselj but joined the steamer Wainui, another slaver, thereby escaping the vengeance of the natives, for the captain and crew of the former vessel were shortly afterwards massacred by the. savages of one of the islands in the Pacific. If. our hero ever publishes his life he'could doubtless tell of terrible scenes not unlike those witnessed on board the Carl brig. After cruising around many of the islands of the Pacific, he returned to the Middle, Island of New Zealand, and having acquired a knowledge of the Maori tongue he soon found his way to the north, and for some time settled on the Waikato, where he took to himself a Maori wife, said to be a woman o£ high caste—either a daughter or a niece of the celebrated chief Bewi. One half-caste boy was the result of this alliance, who is reputed to be as fair as his father, having large blue eyes and chestnut ringlets. The child, it is said, has been adopted and caved from barbarism by some lady of distinction. He is the heir to many thousand acres of land, through the mother. Rees ; did not long . enjoy married life, for the daughter of Maniapoto pined and -died, and is buried at a'Tapu settlement close to j Pirongahia mountain, near the scene of the murder of poor Dodd. After the death of his -wife, the secretary led a wild nomadic life in theTaupo mountain country, and was i not far from Opipi when Te Kooti and his band of savages fell upon and massacred the mounted escort bearing dispatches from' Fort* Galatea to Tapu Haerearu. Ho is well acquainted with .the Maori.King (Tawhiao), the leading Hauhau chiefs, and many of those who escaped from the Chatham Islands to Poverty Bay, and could no doubt put his hand upon a few of our outlaws who fought in the rifle pits against Her Majesty's troops during the New Zealand war.. After a considerable sojourn in the King country,. the secretary again tempted fortune on the goldfields, and was eeemingly successful, for, lo! lie suddenly turns up bejewelled and arrayed in the height of fashion, enjoying the most fashionable society at the Occidental Hotel, Ban Francisco. Being a man of good address, when circumstances required, he had no difficulty in forming an acquaintance with such men as the late William C. Balston, the President of the Bank of California, and other citizens of the Golden City. It was at Ralston's palatial residence that Rees became first, acquainted with Col. Steinberger, the hero of Samoa. It was also there that he was seen by the tragedian, Horatio Booth, who, struck with amazement, exclaimed—" That man, who, and what is he ? He is the very image of my poor brother Wilkes." It is needless to add that Wilkes Booth was the man who assassinated President Lincoln at Forde's Theatre, Washington. While in California the. secretary used to occasionally visit Oaklnnds, and there was introduced to one of the most celebrated characters on the Pacific Slope, -indeed one of the most historical men in the American Union, viz., old Jemmy Marshall, the first man who

;ever discovered gold on the left fork of \ the American River, a branch of the Sacramento. • Marshall is in receipt of one Ihundred. dollars a month for life from the jState Government; "and* from Sherman city to the veteran prospector dissipated, his fiine and hisdpllarsin the vile game of ,r old sle,dge." It.was while' in' .this tin-: healthy mood that Rees pumped' the life out of Marshall and committed it to manuscript* for the purpose of some day publishine;. Steinberger, a personal friend of General Grant's, pretended, or as the case might be* that he- possessed " letters of marque " frorii the President commissioning: him to negotiate a treaty between Samoa and. the United States. There can be no doubt, however, that Steinberger was conveyed to Samoa by a United States ship of war, and, if my memory serves niei it was the Tiiscarora. Some time after ; the ColonePe departure from San Francisco he was followed by his graceful and wellmodelled, yacht, the Peerless (and which was afterwards seized by H.M. .ship Barracouta). Uncharitable people say that Bees, accompanied by a: beautiful Mexican Senorita, who,;elegantly dressed,, used to sit by his side in a select box at McGuire's Opera House, was a passenger t6 Apia by the Peerless. May be so. '. One thing is certain, and thatiis, Bees was not far from Apia when Steinberger's big design to seize the Samoan Gioup was nearing maturity. The secretary was but a short time at Samoa, for rumor has it that Steinberger entrusted him with a secret mission to New Zealand to try and secure the service of superannuated British officers to assist the American to carry out his scheme. The timely arrival at Samoa of the Barracouta and the expenditure of some blood, prevented the Colonel from carrying out his design. Bees, notwithstanding the fact that - there is no regular mail communication between the islands and Auckland, was apprised of the matter as soon as anybody in New Zealand. Whether circumstances or cunning were the prompters of his movements the writer of this will not undertake to say, but the secretary suddenly developed, first into a fisherman, them into an ordinary boatman, prospector, and gum-digger. One day the Southern Cross announced that H.M.S. Barracouta had arrived from Samoa; that she had the famous Steinberger, half-prisoner and half-guest, on board. The event caused much sensation in Auckland amongst the people ; and seems to have stirred Bees out of his hut near Waitekauri, for, well dressed, he reappeared in Auckland and used to visit Steinberger at .the .Waitemata Hotel., What understanding existed between these two men will never be known, but, Steinberger's opinion of our secretary did not coincide with that of Booth. The Colonel was entertaining a few of his friends at the Waitemata', amongst whom were some of the officers of the Barracouta. To one of these he remarked .that Rees possessed the Tear head and face of Colonel J. Fisk. Shortly after this the Fillibuster proceeded to England, and for the time Rees was lost sight of, onjy to return to his native land, not without a little money. Since his sojourn in Melbourne he tried to organise an expedition to New Guinea, bnt the' coorganisers knew not their man, hence the expedition collapsed.. In conclusion, how many remarkable incidents and situations are here crowded into a comparatively young life—sailor, digger, blackbird catcher; Pakeha Maori, and man of fashion.