MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1940, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

A MAORI DIPLOMAT. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) In the winter of 1868 the ‘•Rifleman,’’ a schooner of 32 tons, arrived at the Chatham Islands with Government stores few the Maori prisoners of war numbering 200, among whom Te Kooti (pornounccd Coatee) was a lay reader and an exponent of the Old Testament prophecies. His favourite theme was the captivity of the Children of Israel and their release. The real import of this was plain to every Maori but never even whispered to one another, nor was it suspected by their military guardians. On the following morning, alter landing a quantity of stores, the Captain and several of the crew went ashore leaving a number of Maoris working in the hold, on deck and in the boats. Four gun shots were heard ashore, when every member of the crow on deck was instantly seized and his wrists tied behind his back-. AH the Maori women and children were brought on board the “Rifleman," then the ketch “Florence" was seized and run aground. Captain Christian and the guards were left on shore. The schooner with a small crew and a capacity load of Maoris set sail for Now Zealand, navigated under compulsion by her chief officer Mr Payne, to whom To Kooti gave the faithful promise, duly fulfilled, that he would spare the life of the crew and hand over to them the ship as soon as the Maoris were safely landed at Poverty Bay. It is remarkable that after only 74 years this generation knows so little of that master stroke of diplomatic conquest. without a single white casualty.