MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 July 1938, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

PROMPT ACTION AT WANGANUI. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) After Wanganui’s narrow escape, £5 was paid to a young settler to carry an urgent message to the Governor in Wellington. He rode his horse thirty miles along the coast until it was tired and darkness came; then he “borrowed” a tethered horse and left his own in its place. This was repeated all the way and on the return, changes being easily effected in the dark. Calliope and Inflexible, with Governor Grey and detachments of the 58th and 65th, Te Wherowhero, Te Puni and Waka nene, and their loyal helpers, were on the scene 24 hours before the enemy returned, in double strength, determined that they must sacrifice every white man, woman and child. Unaware of the new arrivals, they came in small parties at dawn, daring death. They lost quite a few in these assaults from ample cover. All their dead and wounded were carried away. One of the white dead was taken in mistake, but was found carefully buried with a wooden ripeka (cross) at his head. In the guerilla fighting which followed their hopeless attempts to make an end of us, a settler was captured and taken to the Maori camp, living in fear of torture and death. He was treated well and Waited upon with every available Maori delicacy. One ominous remark was passed by a Maori girl with a twinkle in her eye: “You’re too thin, we must fatten you up.” Within a week they returned him to his camp with a solemn promise that they would receive lOlbs. of tobacco, a box of clay pipes, and 40 red blankets. These conditions were duly complied with and accepted as a sign of peace. Both sides contrasted his treatment with that of Martin Luther by the soldiers at Porirua.