MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 April 1939, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

WAR. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) Though there was intense excitement throughout Waikato, so long as a shot was not fired both sides hoped for peace. The Government’s military movement in Taranaki was the burning question all over the colony. The same old petty political differences in our little Parliament as to whether its members or the Governor was to rule, caused months or years’ delay, which sorely tried the patience of the Maoris, who believed in and acted upon the principle of making quick decisions and being “sometimes right.” The Governor, who had sole control of the soldiers, knew that we had no moral or legal right to occupy Waitara block, yet he had to prepare his army to resist the attacks of those who were in the right. Our escorts taking supplies to the soldiers at Tataraimaka had to pass through a mile of native land. A secret ambush of rebels at each end was instructed to shoot intruders, but not to touch their food or ammunition. Hearing of this, a friendly Maori secreted himself on the town approach and warned our party, thereby saving more than one life. A swampy stream on the road to the camp was being filled with stones to make a crossing for army wagons. Every night a hundred Maoris secretly threw them up and down stream. Still the ministers, blind to the need for prompt action, continued their weary debates on the land question. After they had agreed to surrender the disputed land, a month went by before ■it was announced. Meantime, weary of I delay, seven men and two officers were . shot by the Maoris on their land, and so the war began.