WHY TE KOOTI IS DETESTED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1858, 26 February 1889, Page 2

WHY TE KOOTI IS DETESTED.

The Otago Diily Times, referring to the excitement caused in Poverty Bay by Te Eooti’s threatened visit, says:—“ It may be of interest briefly to recall the silent facts of that incident in the Maori war which has made To Eooti a name of horror to the settlers in and around Gisborne. There can, we feat, be no donbt that To Eooti in the first instance was treated with grass injustice by the colonial authorities. He first appears in New Zealand history in the year 1868, when the Hsuhau prophets wore proselyising on the Bast Coast, and instigating the peaceful Natives to revolt. After the soige of the Waerenga.ft'Hikapsh, Te Eooti, then a young man of 30, notorious for his thieving propensities and dare-devil character, was accused of holding treasonous communication with the enemy, and, although there was no proof of his treachery, was deported along with certain other Maori prisoners, to the Chatham Islands. How Te Eooti, with his Maori fellow prisoners, made himself master of the island which served him for a prison ; how he sailed back to Poverty Bay in the schooner Biflamaa, of which he had taken forcible possession, compelling the English crew to navigate the craft; and how moderately and mercifully he used his power on that cocatisß—all this, though it makes a very interesting chapter in the war, is too long to tell in detail. After the arrival of Te Eooti and his Maoris in the Poverty Bay district, they were pursued up hill and down dale by the indefatigable Col. Whitmore and his forces, through terribly difficult country, till at last, on overtaking the Hauhaus at the Suaklturi Gorge, the gallant colonel wss forced, from the difficult nature of the ground and the troublesome tactics of the Maoris, to beak a retreat, leaving Te Eooti to entrench himself at Puketapu and establish friendly roktions with the Natives all over the district. In revenge for this harassing pursuit by Colonel Whitmore, Te Eooti determined to make a raid on the settles of Poverty Bay. One man there, a certain Mr Wylie, was his dearest enemy, for Wylie had been the immediate cause of his transportation to the Obathams, end Te Eooti looked forward to the time when he should be able “ to cut Wylie's flesh off in pieoss till he died.” Meanwhile the rettlera in Poverty Bay were very uneasy. Major Biggs, the officer in command of the district, had made his arrangomoni* for obtaining the earliest intelligence of the enemy’s movements and approach. Meetings of the settlers were called, a Yigilanco Committee was formed, and certain plans of defence were agreed upon. There wore two ways by which tho enemy might come upon them—a short direct, ond easy route by way of Te Beinga and a roundabout and difficult track down the Makarefcu Talley and across the Patutahi Ford. Unfortunately counsels were divided, The Vigilance Committee determined to watch the ford. Major Biggs pooh-poohed this as absurd, and characterised their alarm as unnecessary; and the Committee in disgust ceased to act. But it was by this very way Patutahi Ford that Te Eooti and his followers descended all unannounced at midnight upon the settlement, and massacred men, women, and children to the number of 33. Te Eooti had had more certain means of information than the Blagikh settlers. Ho knew exactly whore each of his victims lived and had been supplied with an accurate description of every homestead. His followers, joined by the wavering Natives of the district, divided thsmaolves into parties and set themselves methodically to their butchery. The detested Wylie was the first

to present himself. He was seen sitting in his house writing at a table ; but To Kooli, feeling sure of him, and probably wishing to reserve his choicest victim until he h«d time to taka an easy and leisurely vengeance, deferred dealing with him until the others wore depatched. Messrs Djdd and Peppard were murdered at their station. Mejor Biggs, when the Hauhaus came upon him, was slso busy writing. Ho called to his wife, who was in bed, to escape by the back door, hut she would not leave her husband, Biggs was shot dead as he stood in his doorway. Mrs Biggs, her baby, and a servant ware tomahawked; only a boy escaped by the back of the house, where, huTdenJn a flax bush, he observed the murder of the mother and child. The massacre of the Wilson family was as tragic as anything iu this awful tragedy. Captain Wilson, like Major Biggs, was busy writing when the Maoris knocked at his door. They bore a letter for him, they said, from a friendly chief, fflrini te Kani, Suspecting their purpose, Wilson desired them to put the letter under the door, and meanwhile summoned his servant Moran, who was sleeping in an out-house to come to his assistance. The Hauhaus tried to batter down the door, but Wilson’s revolver made them desist from this. They then sot fire to each end of the house. Captain Wilson was assured of safety for himself and his family if he would turrender, and, seeing no other wey to escape from death by fire, be did so. The captain was shot; his servant Moran was tomahawked ; Mrs Wilson and the children were mercilessly bayoneted—only one little boy (James) escaped and hid himielf in the bush. A week later a search party sent out to bury the dead saw a small poodle dog, which ran into the scrub and refused to be coaxed out again. After half an hour’s search they came upon the poodle tightly clasped in the boy’s arms. The little fellow had at first taken them for enemies, and was afraid to stir. Afier his escape from his father’s murderers he hod wandered about hieing himself in the scrub and sleeping in outhouses. At length he wandered back to Lis home, and to his joy found bis mother in an outhouse alive, though greviously wounded, He kept tumself and his mother from starvation by foraging for eggs in the fowlhouses. Mrs Wilson was removed to a place of safety, but ultimately succumbed to the injuries she had received ; so that James Wilson was the only one of this family who escaped. These are only a few of the horrible atrocitiee perpetrated in Povery Bay by Te Eoon and his devilish craw, but they are sufficient to show the merciless cruelty of the massacre.