A WARRIOR IN RETIREMENT

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4498, 30 August 1930, Page 1

A WARRIOR IN RETIREMENT

SOME hi RST-IMND HECOLLEC THIN'S OF TE RAUF Aif ATI A.

EVENTFUL LIFE ENDS WIDTH CHRISTIAN BURIAL.

To have recollections of the great raiding chieftain Te Rauparaha, in the days when he had come under missionary influence, was one of the privileges of the late Airs. Elizabeth Hollard, and in the reminiscences which she wrote in the last few years of her long life she has left some vivid impressions of him, in which both grave and humorous features are-, presented.

Writing of the time when she lived with her parents, Air. and Ati’s. Robert Robinson, senr., at Otaki, Airs. Hollard says, “Our next and nearest neighbour was the old chief Te Ran para ha, who, in his younger days, terrorised both hostile tribes and the white settlers. She goes on to sav that the settlers had

some good and true friends among the ATaoris, but Te Rauparaha was too well known to be trusted; and when Governor (Sir George) Grey had reason to believe that, while professing friendliness, Te Rauparalia was colluding with his son-in-law, the bloodthirsty Rangihae ala, to raid Wellington, Ire was arrested and imprisoned on hoard DIALS. Calliope, as hostage. But Maori honour demanded that he

would die rather than he captured; and it: was said that lie lost maim and never regained his despotic sway over the tribe—although it was plain that lie had no choice. He was surprised at night, when in bed, naked and unarmed; hut in his resistance lie hit off the thumb of a sailor, and fastened his teeth in the shoulder of one of his captors. “The exact fairness of Governor Grey’s action has been questioned,” the narrator adds, “hut it may be that critics would have more ground for censure.had he been vacillating at that time. Numberless sanguinary cruellies in his past did not com-mend-the prisoner for compassion; yet Governor Grey sought to restore the humiliated chief’s self-respect; and after a few months' retention he was released and taken home in a warship, accompanied by the Governoi —but this is history. To Rauparaha was noted for treachery, cunning, cruelty. He is described by one historian as, ‘The gluttonous devouror of his own countrymen.’ ”

“MILD-MANNERED OLD MAX.” Tn his later years the raider came under the influence of! missionaries, and professed Christianity. “When we knew him,” says Mrs. Ilollard, “he was a mild-mannered old man who gave no suggestion of the onetime ferocious cannibal warrior. He often same to our house, and, squatting' on the floor, would silently observe all that went on. But his visits invariably coincided with our dinner-hour; and, being mindful of Maori hospitality, lie was always invited to eat. But so frequent and so well-timed did those visits become, and, moreover, so redolent of unwashed humanity was lie, that they,, were not at all regarded as angelic. THE LUBE OF THE PISH.

“My father had obtained a. verylarge lish, one day, and as it hung near the door Te Rauparaha came by. He looked longingly at the fish, and inquired when it would be cooked. ‘Aianei? Apopo pea!?’ (To-day? To-morrow, perhaps?) Losing patience and discretion, my father said, ‘He aha cena Id ha koe?’ (‘What is that to you?’) But the broad hint was lost on the old man, he turned up duly and had a share of the fish.

“The old chief’s son Tamihana, adopted the role of a .PaJkelia. gentleman. He dressed well, lived in a good, well-furnished house, and insisted on a European regimen. But Ernta (Ruth), his wife, did not take so whole-heartedly" to the shackles of civilisation; and in her husband’s absence she would don a “roundabout, ’ shut up the house, go right back to Maoridom, and have a good time with her people in the pa. But she would again lie the Pakcha lady in time to welcome her husband on his return.” A NOTABLE TANGI.

When Te Rauparaha. died, a, great langi was held adjacent t*o the house where Mrs. Ilollard lived as a child, and she- wandered in and out among the Maoris and once ate with them. The food was served in small round baskets made of, green flax, and lingers and teeth were the implements. She was given a small eel that, when cooked, 'ha< l been wrapped in the leaf of some, tree or plant, which gave it a pleasant, .spicy flavour. But after (faking a bite or two, she diseovere* 1 that it had been cooked intact. Njol wishing to offend the Native ho jspitality, she concealed her nausea, and the remainder of the fish as wjell as she could, and made her exit. “Rangiluieata came to Otaki for fhe tangi, ’ she continues; “but he pr eferred his

Maori mat to the suit of line broadcloth which Tamihana had provided for him to wear to the funeral: and when the procession was about to leave, he took a shorter route, alone and still clad in his mat. Selecting a position overlooking the graveyard, he squatted there during the service. But when the earth was being cast into the grave, lit' rose, and shouted the word, "Pouril’ (‘Stand aside’), and immediately the crowd parted to right and left, leaving a lane, through which he passed t<f the graveside; and there lie stood, fooling down in) o the grave, until all was covered. One wonders what memories or thoughts passed‘in the brain of Rangihaen I a as he looked into the grave of Te 'Rauparaha. Afv father was master of the mission school at that lime, and to him fell the task of superintending the funeral arrangements; and he was the last one who looked on the face of the old warrior. Te Rauparaha had two long front teeth, and in death they were not quite hidden; and as my father took that last look when slipping-on the lid of the casket, In* could not forbear the thought, ‘Those old teeth have picked many a human hone.' "