THE TE KOOTI BUSINESS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1281, 23 February 1883, Page 2

THE TE KOOTI BUSINESS.

On Friday evening (says the Waipawa “ Mail ”) Mr John Bryce was burnt in effigy in Waipawa. At exactly 9 o’clock, a procession, headed by the effigy mounted upon a white horse, and wearing a white mantle bearing an emblematical inscription, started from the Rechabite Hall. Behind the white horse and its burden came the Waipawa brass band, playing a lively air, with about 150 persons bringing up the rear. Tbe procession paraded all round the town for nearly t hree quarters of an hour, and then made its way back to the river bed. An iron gallows had been previously constructed, and upon this the figure was suspended. Stuck in the hat of the effigy were a number of colored port-fires, and when these were lit, a well-known resident mounted a rostrum and read the following “ address—

“ To the Honorable John Bryce, the first white man who has shaken hands with Te Kooti for 14 years. “ We, a few of your humble admirers, conscious of the intrinsic worth of your native diplomacy, and that you have long since become too good for companionship with a humanity that cannot appreciate snivelling round a scoundrel and a murderer, hereby send you by proxy to another and a better world, by means of an element largely spoken of in the Scriptures which are so well appreciated by yourself and your latest friend—Te Kooti. “ We shall not entirely forget you. “ Records of your many virtues are enshrined in several issues of the ‘ Waipawa Mail * and other independent newspapers, and your ashes will repose in the Waipawa river-bed till the next flood comes. “John Bryce, we wish you speed on your journey.” By the time the above had been read, the figure, which had been well soaked in kerosene, was blazing brightly. The band struck up “ Old John Brown,” to which air a number of those assembled sang a parody anything but complimentary to the Native Minister. As the figure began to burn out, the band struck up the “ Dead March,” and amid this, and a chorus of groans, and loud cries of “ Beware

of his right hand," the burn came to an end. All Waipawa seemed to have turned out for the occasion, and there was much excitement. The police were on the alert, and attended the procession from start to finish ; but the proceedings were so orderly that there was not a hint of a breach of the peace, and the police consequently could do nothing but look on.