The Sacking of Kaiapohia Pa

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 13, 9 October 1931, Page 5

The Sacking of Kaiapohia Pa

Stirring Commemorative Celebrations

[tz is just one hundred years since Te Rauparaha, the great North Island fighting chief, made a raid on the South Island Maoris, sacking the Kaiapohia Pa. The oceasion is an outstanding event in the history of the Maori people, and the centenary is to be fittingly celebrated on October 24, 25, and 26. These celebrations will mean the gathering together of the greatest number of Maoris seen in the South Island for many years. There will also be a distinguished assemblage of Buropeans, including Lord Bledisloe, who will officiate at the opening ceremony in connection with a fence erected on the site of the old stockade. This memorial fence has been erected to mark the centenary of the raid, which, to the Maoris of the South Island, was a most disastrous affair, but in which the defenders of the pa fought with the greatest gallantry against the better armed warriors from the North. It was the fickleness of the wind which decided the fate of the pa. The celebrations will show due reverence and veneration to those long dead. In the time-honoured manner, the Maoris of to-day will remember their forbears in the form of a tangi and the festive part of the proceedings will follow. The custom of the Maoris with regard to their dead has always been that after a tangi there shall be a festive celebration to help the mourners to forget their worries and troubles. The entertainment portion of the eelebrations will, however, not take place on the site of the old pa where the massacre took place, but on the domain opposite. The proceedings on the third day, Monday, October 26, will be broadcast by 8YA, the announcer being Mr. Te Ari Pitama. Singular interest attaches to this, as the paternal grandfather of Mr. Pitama was captured at the fall of Kaiapohia pa and was made the personal slave of Te Rauparaha, who had taken a fancy to the appearance of the youth. During the night he was tied to his captor’s wrist, but succeeded in escaping in a dramatic manner. Mr. Te Ari Pitama is well known to 8YA listeners as a lecturer. At 7.45, from 3YA next Monday’ evening, Mr..Te Ari Pitama will give a talk entitled "One Hundred Years Ago."