THE FIRST N.Z. NONUNIONIST.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 607, 9 December 1909, Page 4

THE FIRST N.Z. NONUNIONIST.

"Ha,” said old Hori, “he all the same as Tameatea, who ate both ways.” I was sitting on a log in a Maori pah and had been explaining tcfold Hori whaf a non-unionist was. His grandson had been reading the paper to the old warrior, and he had turned to me to explain this phrase of industrial strife. “Who was our friend of the long name,” I said. Old Hori pointed to a hill: “He lived there long before the Pakeha come. Arawa, Ngati-awa and Uriwerawere always fighting. Well, Tameatea and his followers took no part in the fighting, they took fresh meat whenever they could. Arawa, Ngati-awa and Uriwera were all alike to Tameatea, he did not believe in preference, he was a firm believer in freedom of choice, he joined no one.” .Old Hori further explained that all was well till the fighting was ended, and when the three tribes united to send a deputation to wait on old Tameatea and remonstrate with him on his behaviour. They did so with such good effect that the old nonunionist lost his head, which went to adorn a post in an Arawa pah while his ovens were heated for the last time to cook their former owner as a meal for the deputation. So perished the first non-unionist in New Zealand.—Press Hank.