TE KOOTI'S BODY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 314, 14 February 1910, Page 7

TE KOOTI'S BODY

A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE. ' In giving an account of his recent journey through the Urewera Country (says the Poverty Bay Herald), the Mayor of Gisborne (Mr. W. D. Lys'aar) made a singular announcement respecting the circumstances surrounding the end of the notorious rebel ; Te Kooti. '"When in the Urewera Country recently/' remarked Mr. Lysnar, I made enquiries as to what had been done with the remains of Te Kooti, which,. I understood, had been buried near Whakatane. On making further enquiries I found that the body had been exhumed. The grave was found ' open, with the corpse and the coffin gone on the fourth day after Te Kooti's burial. What became of tae body is a mystery. The natives explain that he has risen again on the third day, like Christ, and has gone to heaven. I ascertained an interesting story, however, from a person whom I consider very reliable—a man who had been endeavoring to discover what had become of the body. Meeting one of Te Kooti's leadiiv.; supporter:* one day, a native who. was generally regarded a/ one of the few who knew the secret, my informant, observing the old Te Kootiite was under the influence of drink, asked him, 'What did you do I with Te Kooti's body?' The Maori rei plied, "We take him to Gisborne. It (took us' a week to get. him there, as we .'carried him at night. It was a disagree- ; able undertaking. We took him out of ; the coffin and wrapped him in six tents. Te Kooti had been dead some time.' The. locality where the body was con- ■ veyed to in Gisborne the native resolutely declined to disclose. | "Such a thing," continued Mr. Lysjnar, "is only in keeping with native i custom. Old chiefs of standing, and j there were few who had not at some i period of their career caused the death j of others, were frequently buried in an unknown spot, the reason being that I otherwise the relatives of the rangatira's enemies surely would desecrate his grave in revenge, ft is quite likelf this custom was carried out in the case of To. Kooti."