MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1938, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

TRIBAL WAR IN TARANAKI. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The strange turn taken by New Zealand politicians in 1855, where Parliament became literally “a House divided against itself,” and pretended to serve the business interests of the country. It was the subject of hilarity in the House of Commons, where it served to relieve the grave tension of the Crimean War. The two parties were known as Centrals and Provincials, each opposing the other’s proposals “on principle.” The most vital question of the day was that concerning the only heritage of the Maori, his land; and its alleged purchase by speculators and Government agents. About 1500 Maori exiles returned from Otaki, Wairarapa, and other parts, and quietly resumed possession of their ancestral homes in Taranaki. They became rich from the sale of produce to the military and the emigrants. Soon they owned herds of cattle, many horses, ploughs and machinery, and refused to sell a single acre to the Government or the settlers.

In Otago 5,000,000 acres were bought at about a half penny an acre. Smaller purchases were made in Auckland and Wellington at the liberal rate of fivepence per acre. In each case the Maoris mournfully declared that “our land, the money we received, and the goods we bought with it, are all gone; but the land and its Mana is with the Pakeha for ever.” The Taranaki Maoris formed an antiland Sellers League, to sanctify and confirm which, they solemnly buried a Holy Bible in a richly carved wooden box (Momoto whakairo), and raised a sacred cairn of stones above it. Under the influence of drink, one chief was induced to sell land over which he had but a tribal share. Hence the subsequent tribal wars and massacres there. The stone cairn marking the burial of the sacred book was removed, so that only the old Maoris, now dead, knew the spot.