Grandfather’s Yarns

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 3, 21 April 1894, Page 5

Grandfather’s Yarns

THE FIRST LAND SALE IN OTAGO. BUYING FROM THE MAORIES. HOW THE PROCEEDS WERE divided. . RECOLLECTIONS OF A FAMOUS CHI DP. No. 2 (CONTEIBUTBu) “ Another yarn ? ” said my g’randfather, one evening l a few days later, as we boys gathered .around him clamouring for a story. “ Well, ’well, I suppose I must tell you one,” lie said, a trifle testily, though we knew that he was really only too delighted to do so. : “ Well, I’ve ; just been reading aboutthe land sales they’ve been having here lately, when not even the timely jokes of our veteran| could provoke much bidding, ‘and it reminded me of the first land sale ever held in Otago, When they sold the land from Taiaroa Heads to Nugget Point, 60 miles along the coast and 10 miles inland, I think they called . it. “ The money had been sent out from England to pay for the laud. I can see it all now —Mr Mantell behind a table, on - which were three white duck bags, marked with plain figures, 1200 on two, and a third, a smaller one, with 300 marked on it. The bags contained that number of hard gold sovereigns. “It w T as a beautiful day, and a goodly number of both Maories and whites had gathered from all round the district, to see how the money would be distributed. “ Mr Mantell held up the first bag, marked 1200, and turning to the chief, Bloody Jack, asked him what he was to do with it. “ Jack told him to count out 300 sovereigns for Taiaroa* which he did, and it was laughable to see Taiaroa yelling and dancing and capering about with the money in his hat. “ Next Jack ordered 300 more to be given to Kuriti (Jaeky White), a cousin of Taiaroa’s. From 300 it dropped to 50. A few received 50, then others got 20, 10 and five, according as Jack thought they deserved it, till Mr Mantell had only a handful of coins left. These Jack told him to give to the boys, which he did, two and three, according to their size. Some of the young rogues, after receiving their share, would dodge in and out among the crowd, and then come and hold out their hands for more. Mr Mantell would not have noticed, but Jack saw them, and soon put them to the right about. “I remember one old woman, with a .baby boy on herback,heldouther hand for something for the baby, but Mr Mantell had to put it into the baby’s ■own fat fist, for Jack, not being in the present parliament, did not believe in woman’s rights, and never gave property of any kind, whether land or money, to a woman.

“ Jack then took the other two bags for himself. He told the Maories that he would have taken it all, for it was all his by rights, only that their forefathers had so bravely killed the tribe known as the Katimumu. Hot a single voice did the Maories raise against the decree of their chief —no strikes and socialism then, my boys ! “ What did they want to kill the Katimumu for ?” asked Fred, ever of an enquiring turn of mind. “ Well, you see the Katiamumu had killed Jack’s father or grandfather, Kuwiriri, while the tribe was out looking for food, though I believe there was some feud between them before that. “When Jack’s tribe, the Kitau, heal’d about it a number of them gave chase to the Katimumu, and followed them up the mountain known as the “ Bast Dome.” How the Kitau had very little food with them, and were unprepared for a long efay —not so

the Katimumu, and, so the Maories say, they had a wizard in their tribe who caused the mist' to lie on the mountain so that the Kitau lost their way, and 1 of course died of starvation. Then the remainder of the tribe did their best to slay every Katimumu they could catch, and to this day they are thought very little of by the Maories. “ I know that on Crawfish Island, where they are prospecting now’, in the caves (of w’hich there are a good number, and some running in a considerable distance, and dark as the grave, too) there are the bones of many a murdered Katimumu. “ Bloody Jack must have been a hard case to receive such a euphonious nickname,” observed Fred. “ I don’t know,” said grandfather, “ why they gave him such a name, for he was not a very bloodthirsty man, but he was very fond of painting himself with red ochre, so perhaps that was it.

■ “ I’ll never forget the first time I saw him. We were down at the Heads at Dunedin one morning, on board the Mary Elizabeth, the boat I bame to New Zealand in. Jack Hughes, one of our men, said to me, “ Here comes Jack.” I looked, but could only see some men getting into a boat on shore. Just then I had to go below for something, bat as the Maori boat neared the ship I could hear the men on deck explaining to those that had not been there before which was Jack, and who the other men were.

“ I was anxious to see Jack, for I'd heard a good deal about him, so I hurried up on deck. Just as my head appeared above the companion, my noble John stooped down, and snatching my hat oft" put it on his own head. It was a large Panama hat, with a broad, black ribbon, so it "just suited the chief, for the Maories even to this day particularly value black ribbon.

“But only to see him ! The figure he cut! It would frighten any of you. He was painted from head to foot with red ochre, and had one side of his head as closely cropped as a newly-shorn sheep, whilst on the other side, his hair stuck out a considerable distance in bushy abundance. He wmre only a mat, and looked a tremendous height. “ He was a very good-looking man, though, if his face had not been tattooed so hideously, for he had a splendid figure. Once when he went to Sydney the officers in the barracks there gave him a captain’s uniform, almost new, and 15 or 16 suits for privates. “ Jack was greatly pleased, and when he came home, chose his men and rigged them out in all the glory of their regimentals. But one Xmas they were having great games, and all the soldiers got drunk, so Jack punished them by putting them in the “ black hole ” of Rhuapuka. Now this black hole was a potato pit, and the men looked beautiful when they were released in the morning. “ But to return to my hat. I was going to try to recover it,- but Jack Hughes advised me to let him keep it, so I went below for another.

“ When I came up again Jack saw that I meant to let him keep the hat, and came and patted me on the back to thank me for it Our skipper was frightened of Jack. He wouldn’t have denied him anything that he asked for in the brig. 1 know he used to tremble till Jack went ashore, but he need not have been so. frights ened, for Jack was as harmless a man as one could meet. He was the best native I ever and a good deal better than some white men too. “ He was a great favourite, was poor Jack, for unlike most natives he never begged, and he was very generous too. I didn’t lose by giving him my hat, for a few days afterwards he brought me a splendid mat, and was always trying to load me with presents after that, “ How, boys, I can’t tell you any more to-night, but some other day I’ll tell you more about Bloody Jack, or Tuawaka, as I think his name was, if you care to hear.”