The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1910. A SOLDIER'S COURTESY.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 March 1910, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1910. A SOLDIER'S COURTESY.

The incidents recorded from Auckland last week in connection with the refusal by Lord Kitchener of an historic sword offered to him by a Maori chieftain redounds to the credit of the Maori race and the European also. The pity is that so many of the eminent Europeans who have visited New Zealand have not shown the same degrees of courtesy and judgment as the field marshal displayed 011 the occasion in reference. Not once, nor only fifty, but probably five hundred times, have (eminent Maoris been literally despoiled by prominent visitors who have accepted and taken away valuable heirlooms offered to them by the

generous Maori, whose heart almost invariably is greater than his wealth, and whose courtesy and kindliness prevent him from allowing any suspicion of this fact to be conveyed to his visitors. The kindliness and courtesy that caused the chief of the Arawa tribe to present Lord Kitchener with a sword given to the chief's ancestors by the great navigator, Captain Cook, iti 177G is almost) too great to be fully realised by the materialistic mind of the white man, but it is cause for congratulation that the eminent field marshal, while appreciating the unselfishness «nid excessive generosity to the offer courteously declined to retain the sword. A warrior hiniseh, he could realise more than most men the feeling of attachment which the tribe would have for a heirloom such as this one, guarded as it had been •through the turbulence and peacefidness of 110 years or more. Handed : rom father to son, treasured through times of famine and plenty, regarded by chief and commoner alike as a joint possession, it is not hard to realise that a keen sense of deprivation would have been felt by the whole tribe had its heirloom been taken away. Lord Kitchmener's graceful words in declining the proferred present are a good index of his general thoughtfuliiess. His detractors speak of his ruthlessness in stamping out the guerilla warfare that terminated the South African campaign against the Boers, but there I should be set against this the fact that the war was terminated much more speedily in consequence. He saw that 'the war had degenerated into am affair with desperadoes, and he adopted tlie desperate expedients best fitted for meeting the needs of the case. Now in an entirely different set of circumstances, he has shown equally good judgment, .and lias exercised kindly forethought with as much promptness as formerly he showed Ju field 'tactics, and he ihas isavt-d to a valiant tribe one of its few remaining treasures. "I am very sensible of the loyalty of the Arawa tribe to the Crown of England," he said in declining the gift, "but with regard to the sword I think it would be best for you to keep it as a memento handed down to you from your ancestors." He then shook hands with Tarakawa, the chief, and handed back to him the sword. MWmi——