IN EARLY DAYS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 70, 19 September 1930, Page 10

IN EARLY DAYS

OLD NEW ZEALAND

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS

ROMANCE AND HISTORY

"A Pilgrimage to some Historic Spots in the North" was the subject of the address given by Mr. H. 1\ yon Haast last evening at Victoria University College to a joint meeting of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Historical Association and the Wellington groun of the Institute of' Pacific Eelations. The speaker iuvitcd his audience to accompany him in imagination on the pilgrimage he took last Easter to the chief historic spots in the North Auckland district, and envisage at the places he had visited the scenes that had occurred and to repeople those spots with tho celebrities —Maori and pakeha-— who had come into contact there. This he accomplished by .means of graphic descriptions and lantern views, not only of the niise-cn-seene but of the chief dramatis porsonao in the historical drama that was enacted there.

Tho dark rainstorm in which tho speaker traversed the grand harbour of Whangaroa was in keeping with the tragedy of tho massacre of the. crew of tho Boyd. Marsdcu's courage in deliberately landing there in 1814 and sleeping serenely in the midst of the cannibals responsible for the massacre was the first scene sketched in the New Zealand, career of the St. Augustine of New Zealand. The pilgrims then visited in their mind's eye the Bay of Islands, and after an identification of the chief historic places there were taken to Rangihoua, where Marsden's landing, riding on what the Maoris described as a "big dog," the first horse they had seen, led to a miniature and farcial rodeo of the Maoris on their own pigs. This scene was contrasted with that where Marsden delivered his first sermon in New Zealand on Christmas Bay, at the conclusion of which the congregation/ instead of dispersing in the usual tame fashion, broke out into a haka, which might be interpreted as a mark of attention to the missionary or a gesture of relief at the cloße of the service. TAPU BROKEN. Keri Keri was the next port of call in. chronological order. The cruise up the river recalled how the missionaries broke the tapu the tohunga had imposed on it. The Maoris seized the mission boat and pillaged its contents (bottles of various fluids), the drinking of which caused violent sickness. This was a consignment of medicine for the mission! Believing that the God of the missionaries was more powerful than their own deities, the Maoris promptly removed the tapu.

How Butler found the land covered with fern 7ft high, in 1820, put the plough into New Zealand soil and brought the land into cultivation the year that Hongi went to England and by his presents from George IV. acquired the means to enter upon his career of conquest and massacre, the insults and indignities the missionaries had to suffer, Butler's trials and troubles and final departure for England were told briefly. The rich soil which in a wonderful climate, for a century had been neglected was now being utilised by the Alderton Garden Settlement, with its long rows of passion fruit, oranges, lemons, grape fruit, and early vegetables, an experiment that deserved well of the country.

Paihia was the next stage of the pilgrimage, the home of Henry Williams, "a father indeed to all the tribes, a man brave to make peace in the Maori AVars." An Easter service in the church erected in his memory recalled typical scenes from the life of this great missionary, "the man with the iron tliumb" and "four eyes," the launch of the Herald, and the astonishment of the Maoris when the ship glided into the water of her own accord, the scene when the Maori boys and girls were really civilised, for they passed examinations in the catechisms and combined with it a picnic at Keri Keri, Williams's mediations in Maori tribal wars, his departure from Paihia, and the dramatic scene when the news of his death, received in the midst of hostilities, caused first a truce and then the conclusion of peace..

The ruins close to the church, of the building in which Colenso established his printing press were visited, and the speaker described the scene on the arrival of the press and the eager payment in potatoes by the Maoris of "the best seller in No Man's Land"—the Gospels. THE TREATY. A half-hour's, run by launch from Eussoll brought the pilgrims to Waitangi, where, although the Maoris have commemorated the singing of their Magna Charta by an obelisk and hall, the pakeha has no memory. The translation of the Maori picturesque version of the Treaty was lead, and the scenes that occurred so full of farce that a movie of them would draw large crowds and evoke' roars of laughter, were lightly sketched. Maning's first appearance as pakeha Maori, and prompter at Hokianga, and his subsequent encounter with authority in the shape of Colonel Despaicl at Ohaeawai, led to a thumb nail sketch of this attractive adventurer. The views of Wilkes, the commander of a Pnited States exploring expedition, on the Treaty, and our policy, .were read, and it was pointed out that as far back as 1840 we adopted a policy of preference to British goods in taxation, and that Hobspn endeavoured to protect our'native forests from destruction.

Then the pilgrims ascended the hill abovo Bussell ana witnessed in imagination the cutting down of the flag staff by Hone Hekc on 10th March, 1845, the hand-to-hand fighting, the evacuation, bombardment, burning and sacking of the town. The parts played by Captain Bobertson, Toby Philpotts, Hector, the civilian and real hero of the day, Hone Heke, Henry Williams, and Bishop Selwyn were briefly told, and the very natural failure of the naval men to understand.the association of the clergy with the savages who had slain their comrades was explained. To be a proMaori then was to be what "pro-Boer" was subsequently. KEY TO MAORI AND PAKEHA. Before they left the spot the pilgrims laid their hands as a mark of respect on the stone unveiled that April to commemorate the re-erection of tho remains of the flag staff erected in 1857 by the son of Kawiti, the chief who was associated with Hone Heke's attack in 1845. After the ceremony, when the wire halyards were padlocked together, one key of the lock was given to a representative of tho pakeha and another to the Maori, and at the informal gathering at which this took place Kawiti, the grandson of the chief of 1845, and the son of tho chief who in 1857 voluntarily ro-erected the staff as a mark' of reconciliation, produced a gift from Queen Victoria to his father as a token of gratitude, a reproduction in marble of her hand in the act of sealing some document of Stato.

A Tun through Waimate, with its English atmosphere, the qp\y oasis that Charles Darwin in his cruise in the Beagle found in what appeared to him

a desolate land, brought the pilgrims to Ohaoawai, where, after somo instances of Hone Heke's chivalry had been contrasted with tho British nonsporting and non-Christian disregard of Sunday in fighting, there was narrated the attack on the pa, Toby Philpotts's death, the Maori challenge that night—"One wing of England is broken and hangs dangling on the ground. Como on, soldiers, and have your revenge." Although apparently confident in their defiance, the Maoris were sick at heart when they saw how these soldiers, who, in spite of their impedimenta, "marched straight as a curlew in the sky," had gono to certain death cheerfully without hesit"tion. And so the brown man in his mat and the white soldier in his red coat and tight white stock learned to respect each other in a way that only war made possible.

The speaker concluded by declaring that his purpose had been not to throw new light on history by research of documents and dispatches, but to convince his audience that history was full of the romance and adventure of real and fascinating people, and that if they .were to understand tho relationship of the white and brown races in the past and to realise and avoid the errors made in the endeavour to Christianise and civilise the Maori they must try and picture tho personalities, both pakeha and Maori, who came into contact in those early days.