MAORI MEMORIES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1938, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES.

A DREAD REPRISAL. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) It is not generally known that Utu (satisfaction) and the trade in dried heads were the direct causes of Rauparaha’s commandeer of the brig Elizabeth and Captain Stewart’s complicity in the massacre at Kaiapohia in 1829. The Chief Te Pahi (the gloomy) was murdered by Maoris at Bank’s peninsula while on a friendly visit to exchange muskets for greenstone. No adequate recompense by the head of the Chief Tama i haranui (the son of a great sinner) was acceptable to Te Pahi’s people, so it fell to his nearest relatives, Rauparaha (the quivering blade) and Rangihaeata (the dawn of heaven) to avenge the death. Captain Stewart, with the promise of Upoko Maroke (dried heads) and a cargo of whitau (dressed flax) took Rauparaha and 80 warriors from Kapiti to Banks peninsula. On arrival, the Maoris hid below, and Stewart posed as a flax trader. Tama i haranui with his wife, son and daughter came aboard. In the cabin they met the enemy. A son of Te Pahi, lifting the lip of Tama, said, “These are the teeth which ate my father.” Then Rauparaha’s men slew every man in sight, saving only Tama i haranui. His wife and daughter were kept to grace the return of the victors.

Stewart brought them to Kapiti. During the voyage baskets of human flesh were eaten with due ceremonies, with war dances and singing. The prisoners, including the daughter, Nga Roimata (the tears), aged 16, were compelled to witness the desecration of their friends’ bodies.

The Chief, bound hand and foot, permitted no sign of sorrow or horror to appear on his tattooed face. By his stern order, the mother who was not tied, strangled their beloved daughter to save her from a worse fate. The father was slain under torture at Kapiti, and the mother was killed at Otaki.