KING COUNTRY GOLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1922, Page 7

KING COUNTRY GOLD.

A MYSTERY OF THE PAST. MOFFATT THE RENEGADE. Over 40 years ago, one Moffatt, b, scoundrel who manufactured and sold to the Maoris gunpowder for use against, the pioneers who “blazed the trail” in the King •Country and Waikato, was known always to be in possession of quantities of gold, and the interesting theory has been raised by Sir Robert Stout, the Chief Justice, who was personally conversant with this wild region, that Moffatt may have known the secret for which prospectors in the Taumarunui district are now seeking. Moffatt was murdered -without leaving trace of any evidence as to the source of his mysterious wealth. It appears quite certain that the Maoris of the district had no knowledge of the presence of mineral wealth. Moffatt may have had plans for eventually revealing the find, but he was not the type of man from whom straight-forwardness could be expected. According to the official report Moffatt was tried at the Wanganui ‘Supreme Court before Mr. Justice Richmond for secretly manufacturing gunpowder and selling it to the hostile tribes in the Waikato and other districts, the transactions taking place at Mokau, near Hamilton, and at Tuhua. He also had repaired Maori firearms. In sentencing him to “the quite inadequate” punishment of two years’ imprisonment, the Judge said that this was the maximum penalty under the law, but he considered that Moffatt deserved death, “by the halter or the gibbet” for his murderous crime.

The arrest of Moffatt would hardly have been possible in this vast bush region had he not incurred the displeasure of Mamaku’s people by interfering with a flour-mill contract. Tuhaia and Poiaka, two powerful chiefs, informed against him and they undertook the execution of a warrant. They secured him and obtained a quantity of powder as evidence. The report stated that there was no doubt as to the formidable quantity of the powder, and that the hostile tribes had been enabled to store quantities of it in places where it could conveniently be obtained for attacks against surveyors and others engaged in laying out the routes of roads and of the railway.

In 1885 Sir Robert Stout journeyed on foot from Tokaanu to Taumarunui, following Hochstetler’s track, and the chief Nghatai introduced him to the native •who murdered Moffatt and had since been pardoned, and showed him the scene of the murder. This journey and the subsequent trip down the flooded Wanganui in a canoe were arduous and at times dangerous. It is interesting to learn that its purpose was to enable the party, which included Mr. Blair, engineer, and Mr. (now Sir James) Mills, to examine the proposed route of the railway.