TE AWAMUTU.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 97, 4 September 1908, Page 2

TE AWAMUTU.

•i 0 k (Own Correspondent). Many historic associations cling this district, and occasionally glimpßOß - of the past are afforded, and stirring (:ilcs retold of the days when Maori and lYikcha met in conflict On the herders of the King Country. An i.if.T. ting page of local history was <,,,>.,, I !«st week by Major Mair, who Is silling at Kihi Kihi on Native 1 ..,!,' rauri business. The Major paid i vi ■■[ in orakau and met quite a win]!'- r <>f people on the spot whetie ;),. Hi-tonic stand was made by tne MaoM.; under Rewi Maniapoto. . AV ilioiii-i) thirty years had passed flinee In .Major saw the place he could pick out She place;; where the trenches were, and call to memory incidents which occurred at various points. The famous fight took place the last week in March loti-l, and there were three days of heavy firing on both Bides. General Carey, who had charge of the Te Awamutu district, was in'command and had about l. r >oo troops under him. Major Mair was interpreter for the General, and on the morning of the third day Be proceeded to the. head of the sap, abotft sixteen yards from the Natives &tt(l delivered a message from the General. During the parley, after being advised to surrender, the famous reply thwt they would fight on for ever and eve*, was made by the leader. Upon -It being pointed out thafc the women and children would suffer unless they surrendered, a Native woman stood forth and declared the determination ot the women to die with the men. While .the parley lasted theM ajor was covered by a Native in the sap with a rifle and at the conclusion of the korero the Native fired, and the bullet cut the Major's revolver strap on his shoulder almost in two. The various points were recognsied where thirty Natives were buried in a trench of the Pah; where twenty-five were buried on the hill, besides many more on the hill side arcoss the swamp where terrible havoc was wrought in the Maori ranks. It is to be regretted that a place of such historic interest is becoming forgotten, and the Major expressed a widely held opinion when he said that some token or landmark should be erected on the site of such an important historical event as the last great fight in the Waikato.

. Messrs A. Kay, Elmslie, and Hutchinson supported Major Mair's suggestion, and there is a possibility of a few acres of land being purchased, upon which to erect a suitable memorial.