A PAGE OF ANCIENT HISTORY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 609, 14 December 1909, Page 4

A PAGE OF ANCIENT HISTORY.

A CANNNBAL BANQUET. Mr W. H. Field, M.P.. for Otaki, has received the following letter from Mr Robert McNab, which will be read with much interest by residents of the district, as touching on the cannibalistic tendencies of the Natives in this district in the past:— Portland Hotel, c/o Portland St, London W. Bth October, 1909. W. H. Field, Esq., M.P. Wellington, N.Z. Dear Field —Just a note to tell you that I have found the papers in connection with the voyage of Captain Steward in the brig Elizabeth when he took Te Rauparaha and Te Hiko from Kapiti to Akaroa, and captured Tamaiharanui subsequently returning them to Kapiti when the last named was eaten. Some of Steward’s sailors were examined on oath, and a copy of their dispositions sent to London with a report on them by the Governor. These papers I found. Several places on the mainland figured in the final scene with the southern chief. At Hobart also I secured a report of the cannibal banquet when the bodies, brought up in baskets from Akaroa, were eaten. It was written within a few weeks of the incident by a ship’s captain who witnessed it. The information obtained leaves scarcely anything further to recount. The story is complete. Feeling that you would not only be interested yourself, but have many constituents deeply interested in the news, I scribbled the above.—Yours faithfully, Robert McNab.