PATARA, THE HAU HAU GENERAL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 290, 20 July 1865, Page 2

PATARA, THE HAU HAU GENERAL.

[Communicated,] Pataka will yet prove bimself to be one of the most able generals the war has produced. He has already succeeded in possessing his people of the arms and ammunition somewhat recklessly supplied to natives of dubious loyalty by our Superintendent, and which they could not take care of after they had obtained, but allowed to slip into the hands of the enemy. Patara is a native of Taranaki, who, having enraged his own people by his exhibitions of an ungovernable and violent character, was in a sense banished from that part of the island by them. The merchants and storekeepers of Taranaki know him well, and to their sorrow, for being very plausible with his tongue, and a paid servant of the Government, lie managed to walk into their affections to the tune of some AoOO, which for one native was not a trifle, and, indeed, is among the most clever tricks he has done. Up >n leaving Taranaki he came through Waikato to Tauranga at the time when the Ng.itirangis were fighting the Ngatihes; he then joined the Ngatirangi. and obtained as wife the famed Raniera te Heahea. Upon some plausible pretext he then left the Ngatirangis and joined their enemies the Ngatihes, at Mangatopu under the celebrated chiefs Karumra and Tipare. His Ngatirangi wife was taken from him, and he obtained in her place the only daughter of Paora Taratoa, and with her a dowry of land and an influential position among the chiefs of her tribe. He is as well educated as any living Maori; he can read, write, and speak English fluently, and by means of these accomplishments, his superior knowledge, and overbearing manner, he soon became regarded as one of the most influential men in the Ngatihe tribe, completely reducing old Paora, Tipare, and others to the rank of adherents —destroying their mana and reducing their tikangas to nothing in comparison with his own. He is likewise an excellent mechanic —as well able to build a weather-board house as the majority of rough carpenters, to make bricks, and very skilful in many other ways. He was one of the first who obtained from the Browne Government the translation of an abstract of the Laws of England, which he soon mastered so far as to be able to give so clear and lucid au account of them as would have done the heart of the writer of “ Ho Nga Tare,” good to hear. His eloquence aud perspicuity is something remarkable, so much so that, in debating before his people on any subject they choose to bring forward, his clever shifting and fencing, combined with the energetic movements of the body, so popular with the Maoris, he almost invariably succeeds in defeating his opponents, and had gained so much influence during his stay with the Ngatihes over the people of the hapu, that it became as common for them to say “ Kia Patara te Tikingaas tenakoe. His influence over Mr Clarke was so complete that he could do nothing with Patara, for he fairly bullied the magistrate out of countenance. And poor Archdeacon Browne was forced to acquiesce in everthing he said. As an instance of this may be mentioned bis quiet arguing with the rev. gentleman concerning the ownership of unbranded cattle. Those that were running ou the Papa, were claimed by the Archdeacon ; but some ten years before the father-in-law of Patara had placed one cow there on the mission land that was sub-let to Mr Clarke, and Patara claimed so great a compound increase as the produce of this cow during that time that he did not

leave the poor old missionary a single head. They were unbranded. Patara says, “Prove your brands—uubranded cattle belong to the Kawana; lam the representative of the Kawanatanga here; therefore they are mine; and he got them too; for the Maoris ceased their ploughing to chase aud slaughter the Archdeacon’s cattle, killed them right and left, and they lived on this beef during the whole of one winter. Here he remained among the Ngatihes for three or four years, being all the while a native assessor under Mr H. T. Clarke, Civil Commissioner, and receiving a salary from Government. He continued to get heavily in debt, both with traders on the coast and the storekeepers in Auckland, until the time of the commencement of the Taranaki war, to which part he returned, his wife following him. He was received by his people with great cordiality as an assession to their party, joined in several fights, and was ultimately beaten. With a spirit of undying animosity to the white settlers, he left Taranaki —joined the Hau-haus —effected a union with Kereopa—instigated the murder of Mr Yolkner, and endeavoured to instigate the natives to rise and destroy the Europeans, and though he has for a time failed in this, so great is his influence, energy, and skill that, if not speedily captured, he will prove a match for some of the leaders of H.M.’s forces.