A NEW ZEALAND FRONTIERSMAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 289, 15 May 1915, Page 7

A NEW ZEALAND FRONTIERSMAN.

TIIK HURL) OF TE NGUTU-0-TE-MANU. It would have been dillicult to find a better all-round type of the frontiersman who has knocked the rough edges oil' Xew Zealand and made the way easy for the peaceful country settlement life of to-day than a Taranaki farmer and old colonial soldier whose death was announced recently, James Livingston, of 'J'okaora, llawera (says the Lyttelton Times). Mr. Livingston seldom stirred from his farm and township in his last quarter-century of life; he resisted all attempts made to launch him on the unrostful sea of politics, but his reputation had spread far beyond his own district, and the share he took in the tam- | ing of the Waimate Plains and in redeeming the finest part of Taranaki I from tne tomahawking llaahau has given j him a worthy and permanent place in j Xew Zealand pioneer history. "The hero of Te Ngutu-o-toManu." lie! was often, and correctly, called, but the I old colonial hand disliked the term, and very seldom could be induced to narrate ] the story of the really heroic retreat ' through the bush at night, which was the, only bright spoi in the. record of that mismanaged and disastrous episode in the Titokowa.ru campaign of 18(iS. Physically, Mr. Livingston fitted the times and big emergencies of border work. lie, was very tall, some inches over six feet, and his great breadth and depth of chest and his muscular development anil his soldierly ereetness made him a remarkable, figure even in a community of athletic hushmen-farniers. To his bodily qualifications for frontier life were added an immense amount of Vitality and enterprise and a (logged determination and courage that lifted him through many an awkward place in the wild old years of the north.

Mr Livingston was one of the furthestout settlers in South Taranaki, when the Titokowaru war set all these foreloopers of civilisation drilling and re- ' doubt building and joining in with the defence forces in expeditions into the heart of the Maori bush country. He was serving as a volunteer sergeant under Colonel McDonnell when the unfortunate attack was made upon the forest stockade at To Ngutu-o-tc-Maim. r.nc? be was with Captain Uobcrts' force which fomrht a rearguard action in the afternoon and night retreat through the bush to Waihi Just after the retreat commenced one of the rear-guard, Corporal Russell, had his thigh-bone smashed by a Hauhau bullet. He begged his comrades to shoot him, for lie. knew that his smashed leg meant death. The rearguard was already encumbered with wounded and could carry no more. Sergeant Livingston picked up the wounded man's carbine and smashed it against the butt of a tree, saying that Titokowaru should never use that gun. Then ho gave Russell a loaded revolver, and the retreating party sorrowfully left the corporal to his fate; they could do nothing else, for they were closely ueset by the Hauhaus and every sixth man was wounded. Had it not been for Captain Roberts and Sergeant Livingston and three or four other men, the best shots, who kept firing steadily as they retreated, the little force woul,! never have emerged from the forest, for many of Roberts' men were recruits who were of no use in Maori bush-fighting. It was afterwards learned from native prisoners that the wounded corporal was found by the pursuers, sitting with his back against a tree, and that he shot one. of them with his revolver before he was killed.

There was a curious episode; in Mr. Livingston's after life that is worth recalling, because it. concerns the only instance in New Zealand's history where a republic was proclaimed in this country. About thirty-five yearn ago, long after the end of tlie war', Te Whiti, the prophet of Parihaka, began to make trouble and his followers got to work ploughing up the settlers' land. The Oovcrnment was appealed to for protection, but it was slow to move, and when the emboldened brown ploughmen started won; on the lawn in front of Livingston's bouse at Waipapa, there was trouble toward. The settlers determined to rely on themselves; they took up their rifle's again after ten years' peace; they assembled at ITawora, held a meeting, hotly denounced the Oovcrnment, and solemnly resolved that the "Republic of Hawera'" should be formed.

'■f this tiny republic Mr. Livingston was unanimously elected president, and he took charge of affairs in his downright fashion. His house was roughly forti-. I'cd and garrisoned by two score or more of determined settlers. When the Maoris came once more, apparently bent on provoking another war, they were surrounded by about a hundred armed settlers, who extended in skirmishing order over a- rise which commanded the ploughmen and their bullocks crossing the Waingongoro river. This prompt action of the settlers, in whom there was little of the "tallica" policy, "put the fear of the Lord into the Maoris," as one who shaved in the republic's demonstration used to say. They were turned hack io their own country, and came no more treading on the tails of the white farmers' coats. Put had it not been for the great restraint observed by Livingston and his fclhw-scttlcrs a war might' have been started again that day—a single shot would have been enough—that would have set progress in Taranaki, mid indeed' in the whole North Island, back many a year.