MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1940, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

TE KOOTI AGAIN ESCAPES. (Recorded by J.H.S. lor “Times-Age.”) In the campaign against Te Kooti in 1869-70 an interesting competition akin to the keenness of a football match arose between the parties of friendly Maoris under Major Ropata and that of Major Kemp. Both these Maori commanders had earned distinction by their strategy and personal acts of bravery. This rivalry was further stimulated by Major Ropata having been awarded that rarest of all military decorations, the New Zealand Cross, and on the other hand Major Kemp (Keepa Rangihiwinui) having been praised by Sir George Grey, an even greater distinction in Maori esteem than the Cross. Te Kooti had attacked Opepe and captured 170 prisoners with guns and powder among the Maoris who had fought against him, and were now entranched strongly at Maraetai (the salt water enclosure). Kemp and Ropata raced their forces by different routes to the scene, travelling with little food to win the weaker side of defence. Kemp's party won by an hour. Ropata perforce opened fire on the river cliff, where the boulders were their only protection. Both sides prompted by the still friendly rivalry, captured or killed numbers of the enemy, yet the wily Te Kooti and the main force escaped by a secret and unsuspected path hidden by the forest. The two parties captured nearly 400 of Te Kooti’s men, including a number of his Chatham Island associates who were summarily executed on the river bed for Hara (treason). A number were sent to Wellington end kept on the hulks in the harbour until hostilities finally ended.