A MEMORABLE ANNIVERSARY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8481, 9 July 1907, Page 5

A MEMORABLE ANNIVERSARY.

HONE HERE'S REBELLION. Sixty-three years ago yesterday, says the Post, the settlers at Kororareka (now known as Russell) in the Bay of Islands, were alarmed by the fire of hostile musketry. At about 2 o'clock on the morning of the Bth July, 1844, a party of Maoris began to disturb slumbers by warlike noises. They advanced to the flagstaff, under the leadership of Hone Heke, danced a haka, cut down the imperial pole and burnt it. Women's gossip, according to Brett's "Early New Zealand." was the immediate cause of this act of rebellion against British authority. The Maori wife of a European named Lord quarrelled with a woman of Heke's tribe, and applied the ineligant title of "pig" to the noble Heke. The insult soon reached the ears of the chief, and he set about getting satisfaction in Maori fashion. He removed some of Mr Lord's property, and carried away his wife as a prisoner. The husband, in deference, to the Maori custom, arranged to redeem his wife with a cask of tobacco, but he was unable to fulfil his promise. Heke, still acting in accordance with Maori usage, considered that the other Europeans should pay Lord's debt, but they declined the obligation, and, consequently, the natives began to help themselves to goods without respect for persons. The burning of the flagstaff followed this practical demonstration of Heke's determination to get what he believed was his own. Governor Fitzroy at once decided to get some troops from Sydney, and they arrived, kept out of action by the intervention of Waka Nene and other chiefs friendly to the British. On their advice these soldiers were sent back to Sydney, and Heke agreed to get the flagstaff re-erected. The Governor called his Council together, and it Was decided to redress certain Maori grievances. Peace, however, did not long endure. Again there was a disturbance in the Bay of Islands, and again a woman was one of the prime causes of the trouble. A Maori woman, who was living with a European at Kawakawa molested a constable while he was in "the execution ot his duty," which was to arrest her husband. The officer was armed with a cutlass, which accidentally injured the woman's finger. As she was a woman of rank, utu was indispensable according to Maori etiquette, and the natives helped themselves to some horses owned by Europeans. Other unlawful acts, in which Heke was concerned, were also committed, and finally on January 10th, 1845, the chief again cut down i the flagstaff at Kororareka. Soldiers again set up a flagstaff, shod it with iron sheets, and built a block-house as an additional protection. A reward was offered for Heke's arrest, and he was very indignant at the notion of a reward for his capture, because he considered it was "offering to buy him like a pig." From this time on he was a determined outlaw. Once more he led an assault against the flag-station, drove out the troops, cut dow,n the pole in spite of its armour, } and set up a flag of his own, a red shirt on a long stick. He afterwards retired to his stronghold of Ohaewai, and with the assistance of another chief, Kawiti, managed to give a great deal of trouble to the pakeha. It was not till January, 1846, that the power of the rebels was broken, after much" European blood had been spilled. Wellington was naturally interested in this native trouble. A public meeting was held at Barrett's Hotel on March 29th, 1845, and the Government was censured for allowing matters to drift into the disagreeable position which they had reached in the North. "We, as colonists," ran one resolution, "hold the Mother Country responsible for her colonial policy inasmuch as we have no power in interfering with it." Heke died of consumption in 1850, a; the age of forty-two, and the veteran Kawiti was carried off in 1854 by an attack of measles.

CABLE WEWS. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.