CANTERBURY TALES.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 202, 1 February 1875, Page 3

CANTERBURY TALES.

(From the Prett ,)

Te Rauperaha.

There is no name among the savage chieftains ' of Maori-land which will be remembered with more interest than that of old Ta Ranperaha, nor did anyone play « more conspicuous part in the deeds of Maori cruelty in Canterbury—or rather Bank's Peninsula and Akaroa. This famous old warrior was born between Maungatautari aud Kawhia. on the east coast of the North Island, about the year 1769; and in the year 1822 he fled to the South with his tribe, in terror of Hongi Hika, a very powerful, warlike chieftain, who was then overrunning the greater part of the North Island at the head of a large and well-armed tribe. Rauperaha soon conquered, and drove the scattered population away from both sides of Cook's Straits. But he never forgot Kawhia, and composed a lament, in which he regretted that the fleecy clouds were the only tie which connected him with his birthplace. He was only known to Europeans when contaminated with the vices, and endowed with few of the virtues, of civilisation; he was distinguished for skill more than bravery in war, and success gave to most of his actions the character of genius. No man knew better how to instigate others to desperate deeds without risking his own life; and such was his cunning that for fifty years he eluded every danger, and ultimately died m his blanket at home.

In taking a brief review of a few of the principal events in his career, it is necessary to introduce the name of one of his firm allies —a near relative, I mean Rangihaeata, Forty or more years have now elapsed since one of the most cruel deeds recorded against him occurred, the scene of which was uo other than Akaroa Harbor. The affair seems to have originated as follows:—In the early commerce between Maoris and European traders there became a great demand for preserved native heads for European museums, and flax traders readily purchased these articles for this market. According to the laws of commerce, the supply increased with the demand. Formerly the bead of a chief was preserved as a matter of honor, but when it was found a gun could be got for one, a custom arose of preserving those of enemies for sale, and of killing slaves for the sake of their heads. It is impossible to conjecture to what extent this trade might have been carried, bad not the following circumstance rendered it illegal and disgraceful. The people of the Bay of Islands were defeated with considerable loss at Tauranga in the year 1830, and the conquerors dried the heads of the slain, and sold them to the master of a schooner called the Prince of Denmark, bound for Sydney, but intending to touch at the Bay of Islands. On the arrival of the vessel at the latter place, a number of natives came on board to trade. The master of the ship, in a state of tipsy jollity, brought up a sack containing twelve heads, and rolled them out on the deck. Some of the New Zealanders on board recognised their fathers’ heads, others those of their brothers and friends. Appalling weeping and lamentations rent the air, and the natives fled precipitately from the snip. The master seeing his dangerous position, put to sea before the news of his cargo spread on shore. Governor Darling, of New South Wales, issued a proclamation against this degrading trade, imposed a flue of £4O with the publication of the names of persons detected engaged in it, and called upon all who had bought heads from the Prince of Denmark to deliver them up for the purpose of having them restored to the relatives of the deceased parties “ to whom those heads belonged." It seems to have been from this kind of traffic, and that of bartering, that the first of Rauperaha’s inevasions of Akaroa was indirectly caused. In 1829, Te Pahi, a chief 'who had previously been to England in 1826, and astonished crowds of persons in the streets of Liverpool) was murdered by the natives living about Banks’ Peninsula, during a friendly visit that travelled warrior made to barter muskets for greenstone. No satisfaction was deemed sufficient for such a man, but the head of Tamaibaranui, the chief of the tribe, and it devolved on Rauperaha, and Rangihaeata, his nearest relatives, to avenge his death. For this purpose Captain Stewart, on the promise of a cargo of flax, conveyed Rauperaha, Rangihaeata, and eighty warriors, in the brig Elizabeth from Kapiti Island, in Cook’s Straits, to Bank’s Peninsula. When the ship cast anchor in Akaroa harbor, Ranperaha’s party hid below,”while Stewart falsely represented himself to those who came on board as a flax trader. Unsuspicious of treachery from white men, the natives told Stewart that their chief was living in Wainui Valley, a short day’s journey from Akaroa. Stewart invited this chief to visit the ship, and three days after Tamaibaranui, his wife, son, daughter, and several of his tribe came on board. Descending into the cabin, Tamaiharauni met Rauperaha face to face, Te Pahi’s son drew up the upper lip of Tamaibaranui, and cried, “■These are the teeth which ate my father." A massacre ensued, and all were slain, save Tamaibaranui, his wife, and his daughter, who were kept to grace the victor’s return. Then Bauperaha’s warriors landed and slew every native they met. Captain Stewart immediately afterwards returned to the island of Kapiti. During the voyage human flesh, which had been brought on board in baskets, was frequently cooked on board in the ship’s coppers and devoured amidst singing and war dancing, the violence of which shook the ship. Tamaiharauni, his wife, and daughter, a girl of sixteen, named Nga Roimata, or the tears, witnessed these cannibal orgies over the flesh of. their relatives and friends. The chief, bound hand and foot, allowed no sign of sorrow to steal over his tatooed face, but the mother, who was not manacled, strangled her daughter by her husband’s orders. Rauperaha, enraged that this beautiful and highborn maiden should thus be lost, sucked Tamaiharanui’s blood, being a murderer, ran a red hot ramrod through his body, and aggravated the anguish of the poor man’s awful situation by his bitter jests; but Tamaibaranui died in extreme mental and bodily agony, without affording his tormentor the satisfaction of seeing any indication of either on his countenance. His wife was afterwards killed at Otaki. Captain Stewart never got the promised flax freight from Rauperaha. He waa tried before the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the part he had acted in the massacre, and only escaped punishment from want of evidence. Stewart’s death was sudden and violent, and occurred not long after his murderous cruise to Akaroa; he dropped dead on the deck of the Elisabeth when rounding Cape Horn, and hia body, reeking of turn, waa

pitched overboard by his own crew with little ceremony and no regret. This, and the subsequent invasion of that part of this island now called Canterbury In 1832, is still within the memory of many of the oldest of the natives still living in Akaroa, Port Levy, Kaiapoi, and other places. Early in the year 1832 Rauperaha, accompanied by Rangihaeata, and many warriors in war canoes, without any previous provocation, once more invaded these parts. Landing at Saltwater Creek they first attacked the natives of Kaiapoi. then strongly entrenched within a well-fortified pah. Failing to capture the pah by other means, they set fire to it, and then overtook the poor affrighted fugitives, taking all who were not killed as prisoners. They then proceeded to attack all the native settlements between that place and Akaroa, and there are those still living, Pukanui for instance, and several others in Port Levy, who formed part of his prisoner train. Cunning and deceit were characteristic traits of Rauperaha, and it was by this means that he effected his captures so successfully, It is said that the Maori is still living in this province who was sent by Rauperaha from Kaiapoi to Akaroa to assure the natives there that his coming was peaceful. But it was far otherwise, and fearful slaughter followed in his train. Having first persuaded the Akaroa natives of peaceful intentions, he induced them to prepare a plentiful feast for the occasion, in the midst of which he slew them without mercy, and when he returned to Cloudy Bay every native who had formerly lived upon Banks’ Peninsula was either killed or carried with him prisoners, excepting Heremaia Mautai, now the Maori chief at Little River, but who was a boy at this time, who fled and got away into the bush But the principle of revenge was too deeply planted in the Maori breast to allow of his escape with impunity. The news of the slaughter reached the ears of a very powerful and warlike chief, living on the island of Ruapake, to the south of Otago, known by the epithet of “ Bloody Jack,” who determined to revenge the deed. Having collected a large number of warriors, he attacked Rauperaha and Rangihaeata in the Wairau district, near Cloudy Bay, where a desperate fight ensued. Rauperaha and Rangihaeata escaped in their canoes. Many of the natives of Bank’s Peninsula got back to their own homes, and Bloody Jack, perfectly satisfied, returned to his own tribe.

We again hear of Rauperaha, in what is known as the Wairau Massacre. A large tract of country, then owned by Rauperaha and Raogihaeati conjointly, called the Wairau valley, then in Nelson, but now included within the province of Marlborough, was claimed by the New Zealand Company, or rather by Colonel Wakefield on their behalf. The natives denied having sold the land. Captain Wakefield, the Company’s agent, Bent men to survey the valley. Rauperaha and Rangihaeata burnt down the surveyors’ huts, having first carefully removed am' preserved for their own use all the property within them. A warrant to arrest Rauperaha for robbery and arson was obtained from a Nelson bench of justices of the peace, and Mr Thompson, the police magistrate, eight gentlemen, and forty armed laborers .volun teered to execute it. The expedition sailed in the Colonial brig to the mouth of the Wairau river in Cloudy Bay. When they landed, Puaha, a cbiistian native, entreated the police not to go up against Rauperaha armed, but his warning passed unheeded. After marching six miles up the valley, the party suddenly came on Rauperaha surrounded by 100 followers, in a camp chosen with much skill for defence and retreat. An unfordable brook flowed past its front, and a dense scrub sheltered its rear. For half an hour an irritating conversation was kept up between the two parties. The police magistrate explained that he had come to seize Rauperaha; Rauperahadistinctly refused to go a prisoner to Nelson unless forced, and said the burnt huts were his own property. Puaha exhorted both parties to keep the peace, and read aloud extracts from the New Testament. A demonstration to seize Rauperaha led to a rush. A musket was fired from the colonists’ side, and is said to have killed Rangihaeata’s wife; the natives returned the fire, and a running fight ensued. When the settlers saw several of their party fall, they retreated, scattered, and escaped panic-striken to the brig, or overland to Nelson. Five gentlemen and four laborers, who refused to run,' surrendered themselves to Rauperaha ; but Rangihaeata, enraged at the loss of bis wife in the conflict, cried aloud “ This is the second time the settlers have wounded me, by slaying my re’atives,” and red-handed tomahawked all the prisoners. Twenty-two settlers were killed and five wounded, thirteen of these fell in the conflict, and nine were massacred. Five natives were killed, and eight wounded. Among the European dead were Wakefield, Mr Thompson, the police magistrate ; Mr G. Richardson, Crown prosecutor, Nelson; and Captain England, late of the Twelfth Regiment. When the affair was over, Rauperaha crossed Cook’s Straits in bis canoes, and took up a position at Otaki, exciting the natives everywhere by exhibiting a pair of iron felons’ handcuffs, taken from the police magistrate, and which, he stated, were intended for his own wrists. After the Wairau massacre Rauperaha became gloomy and reserved, and the last days .of his life were embittered by a constant dread of his enemies. In 1846 another rebellion broke out in the Hutt Valley, in Wellington, headed by Rangihaeata. Several of the settlers were murdered. Rauperaha, although professedly our ally, was suspected of secretly assisting the insurgents, and was seized by Governor Grey, who landed at Porirua with 130 police, soldiers, and sailors, from her Majesty’s steamship Driver, an hour before daylight. The force secretly surrounded the old warrior’s abode, seized him in his bed, and conveyed him on board the ship without much difficulty. When released from bis confinement in 1848, he felt, what his keen sagacity whispered, that times were changed, that much of his influence had gone, and that bis worldly career had nearly ended. With more wisdom than most great men, he .expressed a wish to inter pose some interval of rest between the battle of life and the grave, and he affected pleasure at hearing that the Canterbury plains, the scene of some of bis blackest deeds, were soon to be peopled by a Christian colony. He renewed his preten sions to sanctity, took up his abode at the mission station of Otaki, was occasionally seen at prayers, and actually assisted in building a church. A few days before his death a settler called to see him. While he was there a neigbouring clergyman came in and offered Rauperaha religious consolation. The old chief demeaned himself in a manner highly becoming such an occasion ; but when the missionary had gone bo turned to

the other visitors and said, (t What is the use of all that nonsense, it will do my belly no good 7” and changed the subject to a conversation about the Whanganui races. His son laid his body in a spot selected by his old companion in arms, hangihaeata, in front of the church of Otaki. The coffin was covered with green cloth, and on a brass plate were these words:—“Te Rauperaha, died on 27th November, 3819.” 1500 mourners walked in procession to the grave ; a lay European read the burial service over the body. No clergyman would do this Christian act, as Rauperaha died uubaptized. A bullock was slain, and other re freshments provided for the visitors, and two long tables were spread, at each of which fifty guests sat down four different times. In his son’s house at Otaki, in 1854, there hung a portrait of Rauperaha, and another of the great Duke of Wellington, The last three warriors of the race are symbols of their respective times. The grandfather killed and ate men, and was killed himself and eaten ; the father killed and ate men, but died in his bed ; the son, Thompson Rauperaha, had killed but not eaten men, and has been presented at the Court of Queen Victoria.