HISTORIC DIARY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1940, Page 6

HISTORIC DIARY

NEW MEURANT BOOK WAR WITH HONE HEKE. CAMPAIGNING IN 1846. In the course of its compilation of a roll of the earliest settlers of the Auckland Province much valuable material has come into the hands of a committee of the Auckland Centennial Council. One of its most important finds has been another diary of Edward Meurant. who was interpreter with the British troops in the Northern Maori war that followed Hone Heke’s rebellion.

Meurant. who was born in 1802. arrived in Kororareka, Bay of Islands, by the whaling ship Orcas in 1836. He married a Maori woman of high rank, and became Government interpreter and bailiff at Russell in 1840. He acquired a very thorough knowledge of the Maori language and ways. It was his habit to keep a most exact and detailed diary, and two of these records are now in the possession of the Turnbull Library in Wellington. Another three are in the Old Colonists’ Museum in Auckland, and this latest one has been deposited with the City Library. , PIQUANT PAGES. This diary, was long in.the possession of the late Miss Mary E. Baber, of Remuera. by whom it was entrusted last year, along with many other old papers, to Mr Forbes Eadie, representing the committee. Miss Baber’s father, the late Mr James Baber, came to the Bay of Islands in 1840, and was a personal friend of Meurant.

The period covered by the diary, from April 17 to December 24, 1845. happens to be a particularly 'well documented one, and the record cannot be expected to add much to the known history of that year, but nevertheless the writer's own individuality and his close attention to detail give his writings- an interest and a value of their own. Typed copies of the journal have been supplied to the Turnbull Library in Wellington, to the Parliamentary Library and to the library of the Auckland University College. Meurant was eccentric in his spelling and scorned consistency, but this only adds piquancy to a perusal of his pages today. Some of the prices he records provoke striking comparisons. “April 18, Bought 1500 Shingles and 110 fett floaring boards cost one Pounds one shilling.” "June 3. Bought from Mr Mitchell one Blanket 16s, two shirts 6s. two pounds Tobacco, 4s,' Matches Gd.”

CONDITIONS AT KORORAREKA. Another entry is: “October 25. Pork 2s 6d, butter 9d. eggs Is, wine Is Gd. One pair shoes for Henry Meurant Gs, one Pairs half boot , for Albert Meurant 7s Gd." "Paid Mr Rich £1 for 1 Bushel Barley and Riegrass seed."

Late in April, 1845, Meurant accompanied soldiers of the 58th Regiment in the Velocity to the Bay of Islands to take up the attack against Hone Heke. He records that on Monday, April 28, martial law was proclaimed at Kororareka. Some inkling of the conditions under which warfare was then carried on is conyeyed in the entry of May 3. "It began to rain, and continued all nighl. The troops haveing no shelter, most of there powder was lost."

After a visit to Auckland the diarist returned to Kororareka on June G. and next day all went ashore. “Some soldiers was set a cleaning the houses out ready to receive the detachment

that came in the Schooner and G. Brig," he writes. "I am sorry to say that all the doors of the pews in lhe Church are cut down, and the inges and bolts taken away. This appears to be our friendly Natives, as not any others been hear Since we left.” A couple of days later he notes: "I went on shor. and provided myself with a house.” •

THE ARMY RATIONS. The army rations of the time are thus recorded a day or two later: “This Morning Myself and William Duncan drew our Arrations at the rate of Jib of bread, one gill of- rum, lib meat.” On Wednesday, June 18, “Tamati Waka and others arrived from his pa. and spoke to Colonel Despar when he intended to attack the enemy. The Colonel told him that he would write him.” Different as warfare was in those days it yet had its inseparable atmosphere of rumour. Thus, under date June 20. “A report on float that Auckland has been attacked by the Waikatos. (I do not believe this assertion.)" And again. "This morning report goes that Hone Heke died last Thursday from his wounds.” Writing on July 1 of Colonel Despard's disastrous assault on the Ohaeawai Pa, Meurant says: “The charge was made on the north-west corner of the pa by the Hazard’s crew, headed by their first lieutenant, Mr Filpotts. and Mr Davie Spain. Mr Tigg headed the Volunteers. I am sorry to remark that the charge was badly directed, as two bastions of the pa had full play on the advance, shooting them as fast as they appeared. Mr Filpotts was shot cutting his way into the pa. and Mr Spain shot through the coat, tiie Forces obliged to retire with a very heavy loss, leaving the killed and wounded on the field."