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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 131, 17 July 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

Hori Patene’s Last Song,— Hori Patene, a Wanganui native, was killed in the redoubt attacked by the 57th, on the 4th of Juno. As his last song thus possesses some historic interest, wo take it and the introductory remarks from the Chronicle ;—[The following has been sent to us for publication. It was snug by Hori Patene te Kai o roto the evening before his death, in answer to Topia, who regarded the redoubt as untenable, and therefore wont to persuade him to retire from it at nights till it should be completed It is evidently the same as he sung during the fight, and Mr. White informs us that it is very ancient, and but slightly altered to adapt it to the occasion. In it Hori implies that his joining in the war arose from his vexation at our natives allowing Queen’s courts to be established on the river ; and that their doing so cut him (as nearly the sole opponent of that act) off from the rest, and deprived him of the wish to live. The translation is literal, the few words italics being all that was needed to complete tho sense.]

Is not this quivering of my llcsh produced By him who ought to soothe? Perhaps lam Belied hy evil tongues. 0 Kuru, give The forest roots to weave a burial mat To lay beneath mo ? Nay, it cannot bo That I turn backward lest my shame ho groat In the eyes of those beloved of other men. Kahn it was not I that kicked at thee, Thy concubine malign'd me, and the tale Stuck to tlio people’s Ups. Kamaka heard And blazed my evil actions all abroad, I cried to him, “ 0, cast mo not adrift, In darkness with my love on Orna’s stream,” Ho came in ansicer, and enlarged the rent, Life's budding freshness now is all beneath For one so dwarf’d as I; for mo who am A faggot-stick untied, and blown along By wind upon a river’s flowing tide. Wellington Independent, July 7.