MAORI MEMORIES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1938, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES.

PEACE AFTER WAR. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age”) Hongi’s career, the novelty of firearms, and the ambition of Rauparaha (the quivering broadsword) brought dire results. As far away as 1824, Rauparaha bought supplies of guns and ammunition from the whalers in Cook Strait and Kapiti. With the avowed ambition of the Kaiser in 1914 and that of Napoleon a century earlier, Rauparaha sought to depopulate his little world of all rival tribes who would not link up with him. He wisely avoided injury to Europeans except those who had Maori wives or half caste families. These left the colony to avoid him. In 1838 the Ngatiawas fled to Chatham. Islands in the brig Rodney and by canoes. Tribal wars in 1830 became universal and in that year the Thames and Waikatos fought at Matamata (point of land) and at Kororareka (tasty shell fish) 100 Ngapuhi (betrothed women) warriors were killed. In twenty years, 20,000 Maoris were killed under their priestly law of Utu (reprisal). H.M.S. “Rattlesnake” came from Sydney under-Captain Hobson to protect the white settlers at Kororareka; but the fighting tribes both agreed to avoid accidental injury to any white settler, by removing the scene of each battle to a safe distance. Though a paradox or at least an enigma, the deadly firearms which caused these universal wars, were the ultimate cause of peace. Men’s passions and rivalry are excited by hand t<t»hand conflicts. It became a proverb among the Maori tribes “that the blow from a bullet, like a curse, strikes unseen, and cannot be warded oil.” ’

The wounded cripples and the universal sorrow became an object lesson of peace. So too will the deadly gases and the flying bombs of modern science appeal to the common sense and humanity of Christianity.