HEADS.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 142, 2 June 1883, Page 169

HEADS.

THESE was a paragraph in one of the papers the other day announcing that someone with a taste for the ghastly had taken initiatory steps to convert the Auckland Institute into a Chamber of Horrors by presenting a number of Maori baked heads. Slightly varying a rather hackneyed proverb, it may be said that we must go from hotoe for Maori heads, especially as " heads is scarce." Concerning heads, an old Auckland resident sends us the following unpublished story of some incidents of the more troublous periods of New Zealand history, now happily passed away, and we think they will be read with interest. Although, to our mind, ignorance is no excuse for barbarism, we are aware that many of the atrocities committed by the Maoris, and which evoked a thrill of horror at the time, were defended on the ground of custom and usage, and apparently our correspondent takes this view. The title of his narrative is A TALE OF TWO HEADS. Perhaps the two most revolting instances of savagery that occurred in our war with the Maoris were the parading about of the heads of the Rev. C. S. Volkner, C.M.S., and of Captain Lloyd, of the 57th Regiment, whp were both .slain in or about the year 1865. The killing of Mr Volkner was in this wise ; my informant being Mr Edward Walker, since residing at Awanui, near the East Cape. I shall endeavour to use his own words :— " I have not been in Opotiki fora long time. I left there the night before Mr Volkner was captured, before he was executed." "Indeed! that was a risky time to be there; [ what had you to do there?" "I had been trading there for some time before, and the Maoris were in a very excited .state through, the wretch Kereopa and his PaiMarireism; Nobody" expected Mr Vdlkner to .back iVlien he did,,;in' fact Tolq wast just

putting his.Head in ; thq lion's iributh.. Some time before, the priest had brought a letter overland from Waikato < to the Opotiki natives.' .Mr Volkner had reported the matter to the GcOr vernor, and an investigation was held by.. Bighop Pompallier, the result of which was. that ibhe priest was removed . from the district. . The Roman Catholic natives were very wrath that Mr Volkner should have deprived them of their priest, to whom they w.ere much ..attached. I myself was also accused of being paid a salary by the Government to keep the Opotiki Maoris, out of the fighting districts. This was totally untrue, as I was simply a trader. My Maori lad told mc one evening that the Maoris were going to sit in judicial conclave that night, and they were going to debate what was to be done with mc and with Mr Volkner. I was to be ready to start at a moment's warning. Long before daylight I was aroused by the faithful lad, who told mc to start at once and travel by night and hide by day, taking care to walk so close to the tide that my footmarks would soon be washed away. It had been, resolved to come and take mc in the morning, and also when they could batch, him. I made tracks to the westward towards Whakatane and got clear off. It was not for some time that I heard that Mr Volkner and Mr Grace, another missionary, had arrived at Opotiki the very evening that I left. It was not generally, if at all, known that he had come, or, no doubt, he wouldhave received warning from some faithful Maori adherent as I had done. Next morning they took him, hanged and beheaded him, and thereafter, carried about his head as a trophy of Pai-Marireism. His companion, the Rev. T. S. Grace, though taken prisoner, was neither tried nor condemned. He was not their resident missionary, and the Opotiki R.C. Maoris had no special charge against him. The story of the other head, Captain L. Loyd's, was related to mc as a tradition of Taranaki and of the old " Die-hards," my informant being a son of a sergeant of that distinguished corps, a young man well up in such history, as likewise in the history of his native country, Ireland. Sometime before the atrocity took place, some of the 57th had been out reeonnoitreing, and it is. alleged that one of them, a drummer, came upon a native in the fern and slew him, mutilating the body in a barbarous manner. The Maoris on discovering this indignity to their dead comrade, who: was probably a chief of some rank, vowed vengeance, and determined to have it out the first chance they had upon the same regiment. Not long afterwards they surprised the party of which Captain Lloyd was in command, they killed, I think several, and cut off Captain Lloyd's head to carry about as a trophy of their prowess in balancing accounts, i. c. taking utu. My reason for sending these two stories for pubheatien, so long after the event, is that I have only lately heard them myself, and having mentioned it to several people well up in Maori history, have found that the accounts were new to them. [If we remember rightly the attack on Captain Lloyd's party was a cowardly ambuscade at the Oakura river, and a brutal slaughter in cold blood, and the subsequent Pai Mariri fanaticism was the result of the frenzy which seized the blood • thirsty and bruial Ngatiruanui tribes. These tribes were notorious among the Ngatimaniapoto and Ngatihauafor their treachery and brutality. We remember one incident at the Waireka Redoubt, under the command of Major Hutchins of the 12th, as brave an officer as ever Her Majesty's uniform. The redoubt was situate on a low plateau, commanding the coast, the adjacent country to the north and south, and the European villiage on the east. This was the site of the famous defence by the Taranaki Militia and Volunteers under Major Stapp, Captain Atkinson and others, and the scene of the gallant assault by the blue-jackets of H.M.S. Niger. On the east side of the redoubt was a gully from which the garrison obtained their supply of water in camp kettles and calabashes, by running gauntlet of the enemy's fire under cover of a line of skirmishers. The writer, and some few others who were unused to the guerillo warfare of the Maoris, concealed themselves in the gully, and crept through the enemies' lines under cover of the bush. Behind the linee was a pretty little village, consisting of settlers' homesteads, from which the people had been compelled to flee at an instant's notice, to save themselves from the tomahawk or worse. In some of the houses we found the remains of the breakfast on the table, just as the family had sat down to the morning meal. The stagnant tea was in the cups, and the mouldy bread lay on the table. One man found a silver watch, another a concertina, which, with the recklessness of an ignorant soldier, he persisted in playing. The writer's tastes were literary, and finding a number of well-bound books in one of the rooms, we began to pack the best of them in a Maori basket with the idea of taking back to camp a small library. Having arranged the load to our satisfaction, we were about to leave the place, when several shots rung out from the edge of the bush in front°of|J the clearing, with that peculiar resonance which distinguished the old Maori fowling-piece, charged with coarse powder. We rushed to the small windows and took in the situation in a moment. The Maoris were coming towards the house by leaps and bounds, their tomahawks flashing in the sun. To rush out of the back door, down into a hollow below the line of fire, down a steep bluff, into a creek, and to get under cover of the bush was the work of a few minutes. One man proposed to clhnb a tree, but the suggestion was scouted—we would not be treed like opossums. After scrambling through supplejacks and undergrowth, we reached the edge- of the bush, and ultimately got into camp under cover of the darkness, narrowly escaping being shot by ouv own sentries. That night it was fo v nd that two artillerymen and a settler were rnitssi", ,/ and next day they were broughtinon by -iOv-k by a search party. It is seldom th at such 'j--g!ni,stly 6ight is seen even in warfare ae. presented itself. The settler had been shot through_jhK=T ] l&iV {, f arid was not mutilated ; but this two.. . were literally hacked in every joir I_,-.ou1 _,-. ou the head and back, in fact butchered. ./)^ ses the men with eager faces, crowd round ■ drays',' take one ldok at the barbarously inflated remains of their comrades* and i-heii .\. horrified faces,, clenched hands,-eet mu t te j.ea: curses, turn 'half B y? k . awa y»\T which cart never be forgot-

of th^Wga^iruanui 1 : tribe)" aii'd they repeatedly committed stamped them as Zealand.—Ed-O'bs."] ;V ■.'.'-'., '" '■''"-' '?.{ 'Mf^^^sk