MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 April 1939, Page 4

MAORI MEMORIES

» THERE IS NO DEVIL BUT FEAR. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The news of the Prince of Wales’s marriage reached New Zealand two months after the occasion, and was celebrated on July 1 by bonfires on every hill-top. Those around Auckland were seen at every Maori village in Hunua forest, and away beyond Papakura and Mauku.. In every direction this was recognised by the Maoris as their own universal signal of war. The news flew far and wide through Waikato and they imagined, awake and asleep, that 10,000 soldiers with rifles and cannon were on the march. Even the rebels recognised Wi Tamihana as one whose sympathy was with the Pakeha, and excluded him from their secret councils of war. Yet our own prejudiced, or shall we say, ignorant rulers (excepting Sir George Grey) gave him no such credit, Not one European doubted the wild rumours that the Maoris, who numbered three to our one, were bent upon a war to annihilate us. Extreme terror induced unmerited hatred of the Maori race. Even a half-caste, who had become troublesome through drinking the Prince’s health, would have been lynched but for the intervention of the Army officers, . who locked him up and sent him safely to his Maori friends. The Maori boys in the Government school were abandoned by their white teachers and were hanging about idling in uncertainty. An attempt was made to apprentice these capable well-dis-ciplined lads to various tradesmen; but all in vain. These good lads felt bitterly our breach of faith. Many went back to the pa, and others were generously cared for by Bishop Williams.