MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 September 1939, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

TUNA MANIA (THE SLIPPERY EEL.) (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The jealous or zealous British officer who perhaps mistakenly committed the notorious Te Kooti to a prison life on Chatham Island, could not have foreseen the disastrous effect of its aftermath in Utu (retribution). Te Kooti, whose name should be spelt and pronounced as “Koati” quite naturally, according to Maori ideas, became the ruthless murderer of innocent women and children. Karauria, the faithful young Maori ally of the Pakeha, was one of Te Kooti’s first victims. Renata, another of our Maori friends and his tribe, faithful also to their national belief in the sacred law of Utu, were determined to kill or capture the archfiend of humanity. Assisted by Colonel Herrick and led by the Maori instinct of Renata, they chased Te Kooti from one Pa to another. At Kai te riria (angry feeders) the combined leaders carried the place by assault, Renata “rushing in like a Kuri poaka” (boar hound) saw his man surrounded by a band of women escaping in the rear. He made a rush to pass the bodyguard, but too gallant to assault women, he was actually captured by them and held until released by his Pakeha allies, by which time his man had disappeared in a smoke screen. Renata’s face was torn by the Maikuku (finger nails) of the women, but not once did he raise his Patu (stone axe) to assault them. His one regret in old age was that he had permitted his Mahara (consideration) for a lot of Hakiu (old women) to prevent him from killing the arch-flend "Te Kooti.”