"THE MAORIS FOUGHT EXCELLENTLY."

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1915, Page 6

"THE MAORIS FOUGHT EXCELLENTLY."

?AKE! AKE!" MAORIS IN THE WAR. (By Aarawa, in the Sydney Telegraph.) "The Maoris fought excellently " New Zealand ers, familiar with the warlike traditions of the Maori race, would pleasurably read this official Statement, but with the expectant confidence of peoiple who believed they knew what would happen, and they might have been temped to as James J. Corbett's father did when he heard that his son had whipped John L. Sullivan—"And why the wouldn't fchey?" Why, indeed, should not the Maori Dght well—the descendants of those proud and warlike people who came down from Hawaiki in their seven canoes and took possession of Te Ao-tea-roa, (the long white cloud), and clubbed each other afterwards on eight and for the fun of the thing? Ask the 18th Royal Irish who met the swarthy warriors at Omaranui, or the survivors of the Taranaki Rangers, mostly old Devon men, who were badly beaten back by the Ngatiamanipotos and Waikatos at the little native village of P-uketek&uere, whether the Maoris can fight? Appeal to the British sailors and marines who stormed the Gate Pah, or the men of the 40th and the Naval Brigade who fought at Meremere and Hangiriri—all engagements which showed that the natives had skill in constructing earthworks which no other race has ever surpassed—and which they were prepared to defend with desperate courage.LOVE OOF FIGHTING. Those old-tune Maoris were cast in the same pugnacious mould as the Irishman whose little girl ran out and inquired of a man in the crowd "Was there going to be a fight; 'cos, if so, father wanted to he in it?" The historians have told us that war'was the only pastime that in his heart of hearts the Maori truly loved. The rhinoceros charges man on sight sometimes without a formal declaration of war in the way of a grunt. It was the' same with the Maoris. They saw an enemy, and they went bald-head-ed for him. The most trivial protests were found for knocking each other on the head. The failure of one clan to invite another to a feast of their neighbors caused no end of a casualty list. Then, the way they asked their neighbore to join in a battle had certainly the charm of novelty, although permanently disconcerting to the tribe who were sliced and used as invitation cards. After a 'battle bodies of the slain were cut up, boned, and .packed into baskets carried by awift messengers to tribes of allies to invite them to join forces. The history of this brave native race in the field of battle, whether fighting for us or against us, is full of deeds of uncommon heroism. We praise and cheer the magnificent little Gurkhas, who, with gun, kookrie, and umbrella, marched under the blazing sun to our aid at Lucknow. But what of Te Whero Whero and bis 400 who offered to defend the terrorstricken inhabitants of Auckland against the fierce Hone Heke, who had thrice torn down the British flag at Kororare Ka. Then, too, Waka Nene, and his friendly tribesmen fought shoulder to Bhoulder with the 96th and sSth in the first serious conflicts of the Maori wars.. FAMOUS WAR CHIEFTAINS. Can the Maori fight? There was Te Rauparaha, with the exemption, perhaps, of Hongi, the great Ngapuhi chief, the real Hun of the Maoris. With his Ngapuhi trioe he ravaged the country from Waitara to Manawatu. He swept the hostile tribes in all direction, and made hundreds of slaves, whom he kept for feasts on the march. This devastation of the North Island did not satisfy the warlike Te Rauparaha. He crossed the straits in his canoes—this was not the first .primitive naval expedition to Maoriland. The Ngapuhis carried their canoe 3 from the Pacific across the rugged hills of the Tauranga country, hacking a road through the forests for them, until they launched them one dark night on lake Rotorua, to surprise and terrify the Arawas sheltering on Mokoia Island. In the south the Ngapuhi clansmen attacked Kaiapoi close to the now beautiful cathedral caty. This siege, where muskets were used, was one of the most sanguinary in Maori history, and earned for the conqueror the name of "Bloody Rauparaha." Te Rauparaha and his braves were inflamed in this fight by the boast of the defender Rerewhaka "that he with tooth of shark would rip Te Rauparaha in twain." MOST NOBLE MAORI OF THEM ALL. But of all stories of deeds of valor with which the history of this native race is full in their warfare with the British, none will last longer or Kinclle more enthusiasm than that of Rewi Manga, the fearless, and his 150 Ngatiamaniapotos and Uriweras in the historic pah of Orakau. The famous war-cry of the valiant Rewi as he mounted the palisade and hurled hack defiance to the British troops, has been heard in many lands as the best known of all football cries, "Ake, ake, kia kaha!" ("Be strong for ever and ever"), composed by the greatest of an ill-starred family of footballers, Joe Warbrick, who, as a guide, some years ago, was swept to his death by the boiling waters of the treacherous Waimangu Geyser. It was evidently a few pungent stanzas from these old-time war-chants, fervently wafted across from the Austral trenches to split the benign and fragrant Turkish air, that have —according to Ashmead Bartlett and other startled observers—made the disciples of "Allah" Wonder whether everything was as it ought to be. As to Orakau, General Cameron and lug Imperial troops had laid fierce siege to the pah—the jubilee of this famous fight was inspiringly celebrated last year by a reunion of the veterans of itMaori and .pakeha—when one of the former produced an old sword captured from the British in the fight, and handed it over to the N.Z. Commander-in-Chief as a token that the Maori and the white man were now one, and at peace. The natives fought tenaciously, but they were outnumbered, and annihilation seemed certain. General Cameron, who commanded the Imperial and colonial troops ) 1700 strong, iwa3 so struck with the valor and gallantry of the Maoris that he sent Major Mair with a message, offering to spare their lives if they would surrender. The reply of the Ngatiraukawa captain is historic.

"Ka whawhai, tonu matou, ake! ake! ake!" {"We will fight on for ever and ever and ever!") cried Rewi. And his three hundred warriors—there was another three hundred once, but Leonidas did no more than Rewi—chanting the deeds of their ancestors,

cried aloud: "Me mate te ta.nga.ta, me mate mo te whenua" which means:"The warrior's death is to die for the laad!"

The British general sent the messenger back with a request that the natives would at least send forth their women and children. The rest of this Maori epic is told by Bracken:— Up rose brave Ahumai then, a, chieftainess, and said: Of what hare we to live for if our dearest ones he dead? If fathers, husbands, brothers, too, aamangled corpses lie, Why should we stay behind them hera V-r-

beside them let us die. "Ka, whawhai tonul Ake! Ake! Ake I"

The heroism did not end here. The Royal Engineers, Royal Irish, and Forest Rangers could not get the natives out of their stronghold, and it was not until the Maoris' ammunition was spent and they were famished and thirsty—a few gourds and raw potatoes were all the natives had—that Rewi decided to quit. And how did he go ? They broke into a karakia (imprecation) of old days, and, making for the rear of the pah, marched out through an opening towards a narrow neck of swamp "as coolly as if they were going to ct>urcli, and in a solemn column —the women and children, with the great chiefs, in the centre." This devoted band reached a ridge, and the majority escaped. This heroic march-out recalls a suggestion in the siege of Paris. IPhe Mayors of the various arrondissements proposed to General Trochu that the entire population of the city, armed or not, should sally forth en masse with the Government in their midst and force the enemy's lines or perish in the attempt. This they called a sortie torrentieHe. The French genera] would riot listen to such an heroic folly. Rewi did it, Rewi was a sagacious old fellow. When more than fourscore he picturesquely closed a discussion in which a young chief appeared to be rather talkatively forward. When the young man sat down Rewi rose, and, leaning on. his staff, s(Ud: "When an important matter is debated the low places speak to the Jittle hills, the hills speak to the mountains, and (significantly raising his right hand to his head) —the mountains settle it." The debate ended.

Who could doubt with such warlike traditions that the Maoris would fight well? When the braves of the land of Rewi Hongi, and Hone Heke invoked their war god Tu, were blessed by their Tohunga, and sought Hie guidance of Tawhiri-Matea, controller of all the storms, in their journey in the mighty canoes propelled by fire and steam across the Great Waters to a land perhaps much closer to their real ancient home than the ethnological world once believed, they would not fail to live up to their inspiring past, The huia feather has never been more proudly worn by the rangatira (chief) than when the wires flashed half across a world—"The Maoris fought excellently."