MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1938, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

NON-INTERVENTION. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) Almost a triangular duel was fought in Taranaki in 1855. A Maori tribe under Rawiri Waiaua had seceded from their primitive Maori League of Nations, of Which the main plank was “anti-land selling.” An indiscreet but zealous government land purchase officer induced Rawiri to offer a large block of land for sale near the embryo town of New Plymouth. Their party vigorously began cutting the boundary line's in preparation for the Kai whaka Tatai (surveyors), when the rival chief Katatore, president of the League, with 60 armed men fired a volley, killing 7, including Rawiri, and wounding 10. This massacre occurred within sound of our church bell on Sunday morning. As Rawiri was an ally of Queen Victoria, and a government assessor, the new settlers and the Maori friends of the slain called upon the Governor to avenge their death, and to hang Katatore. At once a fight occurred between the two tribes in which 12 were killed and 16 wounded. The real cause was Rawiri’s murder, but an excuse was the deadly sin of infidelity between a man of one tribe and a woman of the other. Distant tribes of the Maori AntiLand Selling League, made Bell Block a fortified boundary against Pakeha settlers and Maori sellers. The New Plymouth shipkeepers suffered by the non-intervention or sanctions policy which banned supplies to either side, and urged the protection of the military, though both tribes declared neutrality for the whites. However, a force of 450 soldiers with artillery landed from surf boats. Rawiri’s successor, Karaka, watched in silent amazement, and Katatora fled to the forest recesses. The soldiers had a rest for a month or more. They called it a beef and mutton campaign, and their tailors were kept busy on their waist-bands ;nd waistcoats.