THE POVERTY BAY MASSACRE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1003, 28 February 1883, Page 3

THE POVERTY BAY MASSACRE.

The following extract from Governor; Bowen’s despatch to the Home Government,; relating the details of the Poverty Bay mas-; sacre, may be of interest The hews; reached Wellington from the East Coast of; the massacre by Kooti,' of abodt-forty Europeans : and twenty loyal; Maoris at Taurang mui (Poverty Bay). . .- In the night, the,Bth,and 10th inst.,; a band of rebels suddenly attacked the houses; of Major Biggs, the Resident Magistrate, and of the other principal English settlefs, f \vlio were murdered after a brave resistance, and tortured and ’ mutilated, witli circumstances of the most revolting cruelty; while their wivps, daughters, and families, after. being, subjected to atrocities tbo ’horrible Tor de-| scription, were burnt to death or hacked to pieces. The murderers dashed out the brains of Mrs Wilson’s baby against the floor, and after the head had become a pulpy massy placed it in her : v.rms before attacking the mother. This unfortunate lady was then pierced with several' bayonet wounds, and left for dead. Many of the atrocities perpetrated, especially on the women and children,..arc too shocking for . description; Suffice it to say that nothing more horrible t:ok place during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. . . . Mrs Wilson’s principal wounds were two in the arm, one of which pinned her to the ground ; another one, on the wrist, transfixed her and the baby, which lay dead beneath her. Sensible even then, and hearing the dying moans of her . husband, she turned towards him, -and immediately received another bayonet stab in the. abdomen. This wound probably l saved her-life ; the murderers left her, supposing her to be dead ; but even then, before departing, they beat her on the. breast with the butt-end of their rifles, of which she still retains the marks.”