THE MAORI WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 86, 28 August 1912, Page 7

THE MAORI WAR.

AX INTERESTING REMINISCENCE. A Canterbury Times correspondent lately received an interesting note of reminiscences from Mr. Maling. Writing of incidents of the Tdranaki war of 1808-69, he mentions the old renegade, Kimble Bent, whose life in the bush has been often narrated. "I notice," he says, "that Kimble Bent denied 'having carried or.used a gun against white men; but I most distinctly saw him at Taurangaika (1809), where we exchanged shots with each other, and I again saw him at Te Ngaere with a gun in his hand, bolting for his life." Mr. Maling has also something to say about his Corps of Guides and the "head-hunting" when the Government column of whites and Major Kemp's Maoris were pursuing Titokowaru and his flying Hauhaus through the . Taranaki 'bush in 1809. He says that all the head-hunting was done by Kemp's Maoris, who decapitated a number of the fugitives for ' the sake of the reward which Colonel Whitmore had offered, but none of his- white scouts 'so degraded themselves as to kill for blood-money. There were only eight in my party in that bush chase," he says, "and I know f;hat not one of them ever carried a cr.in any way received any sort of payment for heads. I certainly would not have allowed such a thing, and it could not have been done without my knowledge. The only thing approaching cutting off a head was when a fellow shamming dead made a blow with a tomahawk at Tom Adamson, who was quick enough to snatch it from him and almost cut 'his head off with it. Kemp's natives may have taken the head and claimed a reward for it, but on my own behalf and that of the brave men who fbllowfld. me through in the Corps of Guides on the west coast and into the Ufewefa Country, thence to Tanpo, and finishing at Tapapa, I must say that not one of us ever disgraced our good names' by 'head-hunting.' The whole matter of the 'head-'hunting' was due to a' misunderstanding on Kemp's part. 1 was 1 present when the heads were brought in to Whitmore. We bad just arrived, having'come by a different track to that taken by Kemp, and I was telling the Colonel about the barbarity of the thing, lie told me that he had never authorised anything of the sort. He said he had told Kemp that the Government had 1 authorised a reward of £IOOO for the' capture, of Titokowaru, and that he' would recommend a reward of a small sum for "prisoners captured. This was for tlio. purpose of getting information,' as the Hauhaus were breaking away in hapus, and it was desirable to find out -tlwsir. various, destinations.. lie was per- : ffictlv;'amaze.il when he saw the heads 'brought in." , ..That sam,e year—lßo9—saw Maling V.nd li'i's fellow scouts skirmishing up jjhrougli the great forest gulches of the TJrowifj'.a Country, the roughest country tpr campaigning that any troops encountered, ,in New Zealand. He marched ~with ,volonel WhitmoiVs column from the K,amgaroa Plains into the TJrewera mountains, and through the heart of that wild country to Euatahuna. There was one particularly sharp little affair, a'n ambuscade in a gully between Te Whaiti. and Ruatahuna, where two of tie scouts, Adamson and Ryan, were wquhied/and a Maori scout, "Big Jim," or'jlcmij was killed, M'alinii had a.narrow' escape in that same ambuscade, for tlie Hauhaus' volley was fired at such close' quarters from the bush alongside the trail that he had his face burnt by the- powder, and got five bullet holes m liis clothes. Two days later, when Colone! Whitmore joined forces with Colonel Sj;, John,.at Ruatahuna; the six scouts of St.,' John's force were placed under his command, and until April, 1870, he was in the field with his smart little corps — "the eyes of the army." "In my opinion," says Mr. Maling. "the East Coast and the Urewera Country presented far greater difficulties and dangers than anything on the West Coast. It was an ideal country for the native style of warfare, as its mountainous character and dense forests, with practically only the beds of streams anu 1 rivers.,for tracks, made it very difficult ; fpr our men. But the training they received during the last three m<"ths of : the TJrewera campaign fitted th in for anything. ... I have still ag v it oesire'.to see Ncny Zealand agam. I left it in '1880, but before then I had ridden '■ from Nelson to Riverton and the Bluff, ' as well as though to and up the AVest Coast, and I have also ridden from AVel- ■ lington to Cape Maria van Diemon and the jNorth Cape, as well as lots of cross- - country journeys, so that there is vev I little of the colony I have not seen. But I know it is much altered since the early days, and so many dear old friends h:iv<gone that the revisiting old scene when' many happy hours were spent wout! bring feelings of sadness." I