PAKEHA AND MAORI.

Shannon News, 17 October 1924, Page 4

PAKEHA AND MAORI.

EARLY DAYS AT HAWKES BAY. BROWN MAN FIGHTS FOR WHITE. In glancing over the pages of; the Official Handbook of. New Zealand for 1875, one is* struck by the anomaly of some references to the savagery: of the Maori by Captain i Cook,, whose!party shot dead a native .at, the* very first meeting, . [ and , the' relation of the friendly intercourse of the natives of the Hawke's Bay,..,district ,(&ays. the Auckland "Star"). "The natives resident in the .province ~ have always maintained the most friendly relations with the European settlers," wrote an historian of the time. "Even in the early times, when they largely outnumbered the latter, .their, disposition towards them was uniformly friendly, la 1857 an intestine quarrel broke out between two sections of the Hawke's Bay natives. A skirmish took place, in which some half-dozen natives were killed. Some alarm being felt by the European settlers as to the possible ultimate, results of the struggle. Moananui, the leading chief of the successful faction, , wrote as follows to the local newspaper: 'Hear us. You have 'nothing to fear from us. Do you suppose.we are so fond of fighting that we are anxious to, have two enemies the Pakeha . as well as To Hapuku? No, our own quarrel is sufficient. Let the settlers remain in peace among us. We would not act treacherously towards the people of our country. Were we to turn on them, we would be shotting up the road by which we receive many advantages.' .There is much more' than idle profession —there is close reasoning.' Moananui deserves much credit for his sagacity in perceiving that he could best allay the suspicions of hia t neighbours by showing them that.his tribo was perfectly alive' to the .personal advantages that were derived from. ,the maintenance of friendly relations with them. Te Hapuku's faction was equally decisive in their professions with the Pakeha. The struggle, we may remark, ended by the retirement of the latter to their! hereditary land at Poukawa, some thirty miles inland, leaving I Moananui and his party in possession of the extensive and valuable Ahuriri Plains.

"The only other instance of hostility within the settled districts of the province occurred in 186.6, when a band of about a belonging for the most.part to the tribes inhabiting the south-eastern districts of Auckland, led on; by one .fit their prophets, who told them that the town of Napier would be given over to them, came uown and located .themselves at Omaraaui, about o'fcht miles inlaid, with the ,-view of making that theif base ,of operations. No effort was spared to represent to them the madness of their proceedings. It was, however, found to be impossible-to do so effectively.. The matter ended by the Hawke's Bay natives joining with the European settlers in making an attack on them,', which resulted* in the annihilation of the band,' all who were not killed being taken prisoners.''