MAORI WAR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1402, 30 March 1912, Page 13

MAORI WAR.

IN TARANAKI. WHAT LED TO IT. The first shot in the Maori War in Taranaki was lired <:i March 3, ISCO, when Colonel Gold captured a defended pa on some disputed property near Waitara. It is not intended to touch other than briefly on the subject of tho war, but it. is ju- : t as well that, the present generation should possess a fair conception of what led lo tho trouble. Mention has been made previously of tho dictatorial policy pursued by some of the European settlers in Taranaki towards the Maoris in connect ion with the lands purchased, but that was really no reason why tho flag of rebellion should havo been raised by tho Natives from ono end of the country to tho other. Mr. ¥. A. Carrington, who was one of tiio first pioneers of tho province, first as sur-

■people-to-settle on the land, as they (th» Maoris') wero existing in an abject stata mi tho coast near to tho Sugar Loaves. Tho remaining portions of tho Natives had left tho district altogether, frightened out by tho inroads of Te Whcro Whero and his Waikato tribes. In tho circumstances, it is easy to understand why tho Ngatiuwa remnant were glad to sec a pakeha settlement, which would he a protection for them against To Whero Whcro. They existed upon fern-root and fish, without garden or plantation of any kind, and their clothing was in keeping with their servile wretchedness. With thoughts of tho barbarisms which had been indicted upon them seven or eight years beforo by To Whero Whero, they invited Mr. Carrington to tako their lands so that fncy might bo protected from th« j Waikatos. A TRANSFORMATION. With tho arrival of the pakeha; the di». I trict became settled, the arts cf industry nourished, the earth was mado to be reproductive, and learning of this changed order of things, the Natives l>egaa to return to their old homes. . Still in not nearly the numbers mentioned by Bishop Selwyn, who put tho figures down at about 7000 or £000. In ISM Government statistics showed that the Maori population of T:\rnnaki province. 2,176,000 acres, was 1752. -Under tk> pakeha settlement conditions tie Natives llourishcd and be-camo-prosperous.. By 1859 them were 20G1 acres under cultivation ia the Native districts, whiip. the .Maoris in the province possessed in addition to considerable sums of! money, GB2 he-ad of cattle, 21S horses, 110 carts, 102 ploughs, 4.5 harrow 3, 10 ivooden houses, and 7 threshing machines. Mr. Carrington's pamphlet on tho Taranaki land .question, published in 1859, makes interusting reading: "Many, very many thousands cf acres of land," ho says, "on.each side of tho river Waitara. arc- held by Borne GOO Natives, who though they reside only twelve miles from the town of New Plymouth, and had not the advantr.go of intercourse with a civilised community for nineteen years, yet aro livinu in a debased social condition", their habitations are squalid and miserable, their clothing loathsome, their food often disgusting, _ ami their' cultivations limited and insignificant.' Tho immenso tract ofj land they hold, though the "garden of tho country," and possessing an ndmirablc silo for a town, is rapidly becom- ; ing a prey to noxious weeds. They »r« ! jc-ilons ot selling the land to the Government, notwithstanding that ample- reserves would bo made and a just and liberal price would be paid for their areas. Tho Treaty of Waitangi prohibits their otherwise selling, and the laws of the Government restrain them, from leasing to 'private individuals. Now that tho country has become peopfcdwith'.w diversity 'of characters, perhaps it would not bo wiso to relax these stringent laws further than desirable auction sales, as it would indirectly legalise controversy, trickery, mid worse evils.: Tim fix which this and nil other-Waste land is placed by tho Treaty of Waitangi is tho constant thenia of conversation, and the unjust and unrighteous act of keepjng the country locked up has induced jobbery, evasion, chicanery, and-truckling to-, the Natives, thereby setting ot defiance the laws, ana bringing into contempt tho power of . tho Government. •THE FIRST SHOT. The Government in ISM-ISGO purchased a piece of land at Waitara, owned by one Teira, and paid him'JMOO as a.deposit. Although admitting that Teira bad - His right to .sell, ns .it was his own land, ho declared (hat it should not be sold to the pakeha. In February, 18G0, tho survey of the land by Major Parris,' with Messrs. I'. C. Carrington and Hursthouse, was obstructed by the notorious Wi Kingi, and was the immediate cause ' of tho Ten Years' War. ..:•.- - Fighting went-on first for a year, followed by a twenty-six months'- truce.. Tho year was one of sorrow for.-Taraunki. lis record of "Battle, Murder, and, Sudden Death" was seen ill the. list of v dead, dying, and wounded soldiers and militia, of settlers ruthlessly massacred,, of'burn-ed-down homesteads and desecrated crops and pasture-', liotwoen March 17, ISGO, and March .'II, lSlil. tho European settlers had 175 out of 212 country homesteads Imrned down by (he Natives. Those dwellings which had escaped (ho Grcslick were so chopped and broken to pieces ai to be almost ns much injured ns if they had been burned. Of the record of massacre there is a melancholy memento to ho read on tho inscriptions of various tombstones in St. Mary's Churchyard, and on many other monuments scattered

anoe the_ Natives threw aside all regard for civilised warfare, or what they had learned from civilisation, and, adopting the practices of "I'ai Jlarjro," I hey called themselves Ilau Italic. They Vmiglil with fanalieal ferocity, and ' wreaked their vengeance on their dead enemies in forms of callous mutilation* and cannibalistic excesses of tho grossest kind.

GEXJIIUL CIIUTK'S MARCH. In 18CJ General Cameron completely routed tho Nativos at Kakaranien. In lSlili his .successor, Major-General Trevor Chute, mado his famous march from tho south of Now Plymouth, thence, to I'atea and Wangamii;'destroying all ll\e pas and plantations in his way. The land of the rebels was confiscated, and resistance gradually languishing to Kuiopeau occupation, the last of the llritish regiments was withdrawn in June, JSII7. In tlio next year the Natives, under Titokowaru, lose again, and with tho escape of Te Kooti from' the' Chatham Islands,'alarm was again spread all over the country. Von 'iempsky waa killed at Te Ngutnot'e-mnnu, but Titokowaru was eventually badly hunted by Colonel Whitmore, ami he and his followers dispersed in all directions. Further murders of settlers were commit-' ted in' North Tarnnaki early in ]80!) by tho Ngatimaniapoto; who came through from the Mokuu. The victims comprised Captain Gascoigne, his wife and children, Milne and Richards (settlers), and the licv. John Whiteley, a well-known missionary. Whitmore, however, harried tho Maoris that much that they were glad to accept a truce, and peace' was declared. There were, however, various little happenings on the part of the Natives which obstructed settlement till 1881, when the "Blanket and Sugar" policy was rudely abandoned by the Hon. John Bryce. who arrested Te Whili and his follower, Tohii, at Parihaka. Thus ended the Maori troubles in Taranaki. "No lon-er," writes Mr. Wells in his historv of the Taranaki War,

"tho reveille was winded at daybreak from Maryland Hill to arouse Hie garrison and the inhabitants' of the besieged (own, and to jive the weary night pickets Keen?" to leave their nosh for (heir homes and their firesides'; no longer the 'alarm.' railed for all men off duly to arms, to face (lie foe; and no lonye'r (he mournful Dead March wailed out its sorrowful strains over the remains of the fallen brave."