MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 November 1938, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

“TE KOOTI A REAL MARTYR.” (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The Weraroa incident had an unexpected result in the withdrawal of all the Imperial troops, the cost of which nearly caused a colonial bankruptcy. The Colonial force with the valuable help of the friendly Maori troops had many severe battles in most Of which our men won by superior arms. A calamity in 1868 was the escape of Te Kooti and other Maori prisoners from Chatham Islands and their arrival at Poverty Bay on board the “Rifleman” which they had seized by strategy. They massacred nearly every white resident of a village near Gisborne and raided the countryside for years.

The story of Te Kooti’s original capture and committal to the Chathams as a prisoner on the ground of treason, while serving under a British officer as an ally, is a disgrace which has no equal in British military history. The court martial under which he was convicted gave its verdict of “guilty” in complete ignorance of the truth. Te Kooti commanded a troop of friendly Maoris who gave loyal service to the British officer under whose directions he acted. After having captured and delivered 112- of the enemies to his British officer, Te Kooti was charged With treason on the ground of “having communicated with the enemy on the eve of a severe engagement.” He was thus regarded as liable to be shot, but the sentence was “mercifully” commuted to imprisonment. The fact was that prior to the strenuous fight and capture of prisoners he had in accord with the ancient Maori custom sent a Taki (challenge) to his foes. By the hasty departure of the British regiment for England the facts were never revealed. Can we wonder at Te Kooti’s subsequent Takitaki (revenge)?