GREY’S TACT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 998, 14 June 1930, Page 6

GREY’S TACT

When Maoris Were Led to Oppose Maoris MEMORIES OF PATUONE The fierce and influential Maori warrior, Erua Patuone, listened gravely to the wise counsels of Sir George Grey and immediately placed his tribesmen on the side of the British to prevent an attack on the settlement of Auckland by the Ngapuhi marauder, Heke. ALD-TIME diplomacy and alliances. an appreciation of a panic among the Dundreary-whiskered and crinolined inhabitants of Auckland, and knowledge of the cool judgment of Grey, the Governor who smoothed over so much of the friction with the Maoris in New Zealand's young days, are impressions which arise with the appearance in modern times of a shabby flintlock musket.

The ancient weapon, which is in the possession of a Devonport resident, Mr. H. Pitts, senior, was owned by a proud Patuone when he barred the isthmus of Takapuna, at Grey’s instigation, against an attack from the North. Patuone carried the gun in the war with Heke in North Auckland in 1844,

and brought it with him to Takapuna. Grey was planning outer defences for Auckland, and Takapuna, on the ancient Maori highway from the North, was properly regarded as a strategical point. Grey gave Patuone land from Rangitoto Channel to Shoal Bay and built the chieftain a fourroomed dwelling hard by Takapuna Beach.

Mr. Pitts found the musket in a creek when, as a youth, he assisted in the removal of Patuone’s house three or four years after the native died in 1872. Northern natives who arrived to clear the house classed the musket, a box of clothing, and a three-legged pot as tapu and threw them in the creek. In later years, the musket was dismantled and was thrown under a house,

where it stayed for 30 years. Recently, it was recovered and assembled. The hammer mounting is branded “Tower,” with a crown surmounting the initials, “G.R.” The butt place is marked “I.L. 72“ Many white troops were armed with flintlocks in tho campaign against Heke, tho percussion cap not then being in universal use, and Patuone was probably presented with the weapon. During its Maori ownership, tho musket had the metal stiffener plate on the left side of the barrel replaced with one of bone. Patuono is buried in the old cemetery on Mount Victoria Mr. Pitts remembers the bearded old man when he walked from Takapuna to Devonport

' to draw his rations. Schoolboys were always deeply interested in his tattooed face. Patuone could remember seeing Captain Cook’s ship off Bream Head. FIRST SIGNATURE

Patuono and Tamati Waaka None were, brothers and chiefs of the Ngapuhi. Nene’s is the first signature on the Treaty of Waitangi, and Patuone's is next. They lived at Uokianga. When Heke, after cutting down the flagstaff at Koforareka three times, raised a war, they undertook to protect the Europeans on the west 1 coast. The rival forces met on the shore of Omapere. There were daily engagements for two months and Heke was wounded, never to recover. That struggle was a Europeanised version of Maori warfare. There were four pas of natives friendly to the whites opposing Heke’s tribes. Half way, between the opposing forces was a slight elevation in the ground. In the early morning a soldier from one side would fire a musket from this rise and the challenge would always be accepted The battle was then fairly begun for that day. The combatants would leisurely stroll out to a selected place in a rifle pit, taking a dozen cartridges and spend the day sniping at any opponents offering. Muskets quickly became foul and had then to be washed out with water. At sunset, at the cry of “Kua po te Ra,” the sun has set, fighting immediately ceased and both sides made friendly inquiries as to the casualties during the day. Nene. small and stout, was essentially a warrior. Patuone was the diplomat and statesman. It is recorded that once, when speaking at a public gathering, a slave interrupted Patuone. The speaker ignored the insult, but Nene stepped forward and, with one blow of his mere, cleft the slave’s head in twain. Grey had great confidence in Patuone when he used him for his living wall, and no doubt, if the imagined recoil from the north had eventuated, the Ngapuhi chief would have merited the confidence reposed in him. He lived to see the Waikato War roll from Papakura to Orakau and the once wide demesne of the Maori occupied by Europeans.