MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1939, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

BENEVOLENT CRUELTY. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) After their cleverly planned escape from Chatham Islands, 300 Maoris under Te Kooti perpetrated the atrocious Poverty Bay Massacre as Utu (reprisal). Under Pakeha rule and influence they adopted the doctrine of the Old Testament all too literally, and made practical use of the New Testament by converting each page into a cartridge case with which to murder an "Israelite.” In New Caledonia (French colony) al that same period, with savages having the same communal instinct as the Maori, but many grades lower in intelligence and morality, the European authorities were compelled to execute five members of the tribe, including perhaps four innocent persons, lor every white person murdered. This apparently drastic injustice, however, save thousands of lives from wholesale sacrifice. The natives quickly realised the inevitable result of mui'dei', mid the country became as safe as Eui’lmid oi- France. The Maori with his greater intelligence quickly selected passages of oui own Bible history with which In make reprisals for “robbery of their lands, well knowing that nothing worse Ilian well fed imprisomnenl would follow months or years of enjoyable skirmishing in the mountains and I'orests. However repugnant it may be Io os. it cannot be denied tlial our all 100 benevolent attitude prolonged (he wars and sacrificed many more, guilty or innocent. Misunderstandings mid misconcep tions mainly because each side knew nothing of the other's language, were the main cause of bloodshed between the Maori and the Pakeha,