MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 April 1939, Page 4

MAORI MEMORIES

* MAORI NEGOTIATORS. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) Wi Ku mete’s party packed the Governor’s timber in rafts and asked if they landed it safely thirty miles down stream on Crown land, would they be fired on —if so they would cut the bindings and let it drift to sea in the first parawhenua (flood). Permission being granted, the timber was duly landed. So elated was Kumfite that he proposed and carried a resolution at a mass meeting that they should all go to Te Awamutu, take the Governor’s Resident Magistrate, his houses, his servants, and all his belongings, and deal with them in just the same way and the same place as the timber. The Runanga (council) decided to assert their claim to the river and its waters which came from the heart of their land, and to make it clear that the Crown purchase did not extend beyond the dry land. Truly neither “lakes nor rivers” were named, in the transfer, only “land.” Posts were erected on both banks with notices “This is the boundary (rohe) of the pakeha, the water belongs to the Maoris.” The Magistrate acting under the Governor’s directions, removed the notices and pulled up the posts. This was considered to be good grounds for expelling the Magistrate; but true to their habit of Taihoa (by and by) the Maori never acted hurriedly. After further discussions lasting seven days up to midnight, they proceeded en masse to Ngaruawahia (the meeting of the waters) to float their message down stream on many pieces of wood, the true mode of conveying a taki (challenge to fight). _