IN MEMORIAM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 19, 16 February 1909, Page 4

IN MEMORIAM.

Tilt MURDER OF JOHN WHITELEY. ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATED. i At the Whiteley Memorial Methodist Church on Sunday morning a special service was held iu commemoration of tin* j death oi the Rev. .lohu Whiteley at I'ukearuhe on 13th February, 1800— forty years ago, iu what has become knoivn as "lhe Whiteclifla Massacre." A parade of the headquarters companies of volunteers had been ordered, and the Taranaki liilles and Taranaki \luanls mustered well. Battalion officers on parade were Lieut.-I'uluuel E. X. !,. Okey, Captain and. Adjutant Wesum, and Sergeant-Major Armitage. Captain Bellringer commanded the Rifles and Lieutenant Boon the Guards. The Garrison Band beaded the parade, and was immediately followed by a goodly gathering of the members of the Veterans' Association who served in the Taranaki military operations against the Maoris about thar time. The Hcv. T. G. Brooke conducted the service, the hymns used being specially selected for the occasion. The lessons were read from Psalm 30, and Kevela- , tions ch. 7. The preacher delivered an eloquent address, basing his remarks on I. Chronicles, ch. 10, verse 13. " Be thou of good courage, and let us play tlie men for our people, aud for the cities of our God, and let the Lord do that which is good in His sight." When Cromwell and his army, of 11,000 men gathered at> Dunbar he vis .threatened and surrounded by an en?my -87,000 strong, and ' the surrounding force gave battle, Cromwell quoted/ " Let Gor arise, and let his enemies be scattered." The preacher said that probably no commander on the ere of battle had ever more aptly quoted Scripture. When fortyyears ago, the sadnews of the massacre at Whitecliffs was brought to town, no passage in the Scriptures, lie could imagine,, would be more suitable to the feelings of the people than the passage which formed the text of his address that morning. Let them think for a , moment /of the situation. For eight years war had been rife in this province. What must that have meant to the settlers, to the fathers, their wives, and families. How' they must have grown accustomed to danger, hardly able ever to call a day one's own. Wlint pjfimgs between husband and wife each morning, when the latter was going to his work, or to go out to an outpost as a volunteer to aid in the protection of the women aad children who had been gathered for safety within the lines. When hostilities ceased, though there was no declaration of peace, the Government disbanded its forces. A few men had gone out to Pukearuhe as military settlers. No doubt they knew they carried their lives in their hands frequently, but they were on their own land from which they hoped to make their living. In this as in other countries someone had to be the pioneer, someone had to take the fir3t line df danger, someone bad to jeopardise his life in the front of the field ; someone hold the fort, and, when there was none to look on, quietly do his duty. And so, whilst the most of the settlers remained around New Plymouth, the centre of their civilisation, these few remained at the outpost. It was Saturday, February 13th, IS6O, and from the Mission Hall which still stood on what was known as the Old Mission Farm, went the man of God. The rev. speaker said that until recently he had believed that when the Rev. Whiteley went out to his Saturday's and Sunday's work, it was only to minister to the natives, but it was to minister to these isolated military settlers. It was his habit to leave New Plymouth on Saturday morning and ride out to some remote outpost, sleep there that night, and proceed homeward on the Sunday, pleaching at the villages on the way, and reaching home in time to take the evening service. The minister did not keep his evening appointment on that Sunday. And the sad news was brought in on the Monday. The congregation stood as the preacher read the names of those who fell on that Saturday. They were: Rev. John Whiteley, aged 62 years; Lieutenant Itamber Gascoigne, aged 40; his wife, Annie Gascoigne, aged 27; their little girlie, Laura Gascoigne, aged 5 years ; Cecil John Gascoigne, aged 3 years ; and the three months old baby, Louisa Annie Gascoigne; John Milne, aged 40 years ; Edward Richards, aged 35 years. He had often tried to imagine in his own mind just something of the excitement which then passed through this *■ place. He thought ot the men them- j selves, of their spirit, and the patriotism that lay at the back of their character. Three of them were soldier? oi their . Oueen. He honored the soldiers of the King, for he remembered how often the soldier of the King had been soldiers as well of the King of Kings—such men as General Haveloek, General Gordon; and : \ others of like spirit—the first heralds of the Cross in the heathen places of the earth. The other man was a soldier of the King of Kings ; perhaps the three just mentioned were equally so. The ■; preacher quoted the text, and the story that led up to the use of the words. He couldn't help thinking that these men at / Pukearuhe, and the men of the district '■•■■■ of those days, were "standing for the ! . people and for the cities of God," and that they were called to "play the man." Here were these few men, on the fringe V of civilisation, with no longer any pro- , tection save that of their own sense of right and a consciousness of their intent ■ to be true. And they abode on the land. Gascoigne went out to work in his field, and returning saw the Maoris at his door. He had his infant cnild on his arm. If there was one thing that lie liked to think about in connection with >. that man it was this part that lie carried his little three-months-old baby o'i his arm. And he left his wife and elrldren in the field. No sense of danger entered his heart. God was not far fro i the heart of a man with home instincts such as this. Although he might net sec eye to eye with the churches in regard to theology, his character partook! of the nature ol Him who paid. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto at least of these My children, ye have done it- unto Me." Oi: the sad things that followed on that day he would not speak. Touching on the spirit of virtue and sacrifice • which characterised the men of tlie time, Rev. Brooke said that every man was to some extent a patriot, for every ma n had a love of his country. But it seemed ' to him that most of us were more ready to shout "God save the Kins?"' • than to make any sacrifice for the Empire. There was need to-day, despise tlie fact that we were not oppressed with war or the fear of war—to stand slwrlder to shoulder in the preservation of' our goodly heritage. In Taranaki'* , 1 early days men doubtless hated war as much as we did. but tlicv were prepared for the event. Were we coiv so pre- " ■ pared ? There were a Ten bands of I" .• volunteers, who would be found to 1>" . ' true men and noble defenders should .. - need arise. But did the defence of home "/ not claim from us more than merely the sacrifice by these ? He questioned . • whether our volunteers always got the: St- sympathy they were entitled to. Surely , the heritage God had given us was , - worth defending. Two or three years f. itijo he had received GO or 70 pages of 5 closely written - foolscap from a man ;V who, according to his writing, believed that the Europeans had robbed the e Natives of their lands, violated the treaty of Waitangi, and were almost the i mo«t despicable people on the fare of God's earth. He was satisfied with a few pages of it. It might he true that *>• things were done that were not just to ji the Maori. He bad heard it said, though , the people who said it were the people. likely to know least about the matter, V, that the old missionaries, while pointing the Maoris to God had for a few ldan" |v kets, an old rifle and a tomahawk, put i their,hands upon great areas of eountrv. ' * He had seen some of the lands in the j j ' Bay of Islands district, where missionj&v Bvy families were accused of this, and fr--.' ——— ... t |

Ue could say that most of the lands were quite useless till the missionaries came, and much was useless yet, mile after mill! of it. The whole secret of the Tirana ki Maori war lay iu a dispute about the sale of some land. In this land the Maoris were treated with a humanity, generosity, and spirit of Christian fairucss that had iuvn extended ' to the natives of ao other laud. In this land I 'd had placed the pakeha as well as the Maori, and it was well to he prepared to piv vvvc that which God had given us, to !n:id it on lo our children unimpaired, ;':ri that was worth some sacrifice. Tin? li.ml coiiii! home forcibly lately i during his reading of the matter leading up to the sad rwnt ».nose anniversary j was just passed. And the thought came to him that behind all our talk of ,di<- I fence there must be some spirit of sacrifice in the character of our men and) women. It had been a sacrifice for Mrs; Gascoigne to go away out there to live, with)her husband and her children. She] went continually in dread of her life, andl dreaded every day the calamity that" 1 eventually befel their home. Sacrifices' were often made by women. There were great sacrifices now being made on the boundaries of civilisation. In the backblocks there were brave women living, deprived of every privilege of town life ; iu sickness, no doctor to attend them ; in sorrow, no one to help to bear tihi) burden ; aud when death came, none but! the father, perhaps with a neighbour, to go out and clear in the as yet unoccupied cemetery sullicient ground for the grave of a loved one. Was that not a sacrifice of men't It was a greater sacrifice with the women. They though: of the sacrifice of John Whiteley in leaving the Old land to come and chris tianisc the Maoris, but he, too, brought a woman with him, and none knew what she iiad to bear in her first home at Mangungu, llokianga ; later at Kawhia, and afterwards at Ngamotu. No man knew the lot of the •missionary's wither sacrifice at the call of Jove, arisd duty, and of God, to share the privations of the pioneer. And what grand secret had held them up, these pioneer missionaries, early settlers, -mid others in the fight. It was the knowledge of the Saviour, of a fellowship with God, and a sense of the Eternal life, and in* tai! of the lung of Kings. They went out to battle, to their duty, with the full assurance of God's presence, not aepen ding on their own strength, in the vaiam fight "for our people and for the cities of our God." And remembering to-day such men of the past, they could thank God that they had lived and for the death they died.

A "Xcws" representative, talking with Colonel W. Messenger, wlio formed one of the party that out to Pukearuhe to bring in the bodies of the victims to Xew Plymouth, learned that Mr Messenger himself was the first to reach tlie side of the fallen missionary. The body was lying just where he liad been killed. The attitude suggested that Mr Whiteley had beea kneeling, as though in prayer, when the murderous shots were fired. His coat had been taken away by the Maoris. Turning the body over, Mr Messenger saw that several bullets had pierced the breast. Gently they gathered up tho remains, and conveyed them to the beach. The two A.C's, Milne and Richards, were found just as they had fallen, tomahawked from behind. The bodies of Mrs Gascoigne and the children could not at first be found. Eventually some freshly disturbed earth within an angle of the redoubt wus explored, and the bodies of the victims were found there, each one of them hav-. ing been killed by a blow from the murderous tomahawk. It was related by one that the young mother, frantic with grief, had .rushed within the blockhouse, and Te Wetere, who was the actual slayer of the veteran missionary, ordered their destruction, '' These details were confirmed by another of the party, who said he had never taken part iu a more heart-rend-ing duty. The hideousness. of the crime, the vieiousness of the Maoris who perpetrated the massacre and afterwards burned the blockhouse and huts, were beyond words. The murderers even tomahawked the li6use-dog and the cat. Our informant said that he had known that the Maoris were ashamed of their killing of the missionary, but not one word of regret had he heard from them concerning the slaying of Mrs Gascoign-j and her young family.