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Hauhauism: An Episode in the Maori Wars 1863-1866

APPENDIX I — Account of Te Ua

page 73

APPENDIX I
Account of Te Ua.

Report to Dr. Nesbitt by Rawiri Te Kakawaero. “Chief Rawiri of Ngatiraukawa:

“The sun was about so high—this man, Te Ua, was sitting, and saw a nice woman; the consequence was, he had adulterous connections with that woman of Taranaki. He was banished by his own tribe to the mountains.

Te Ua went with his own wife and their child to the mountains. While there he repented of his sin. In the second year of his residence there, the war with the Waikato was doubtful and in a state of suspense. He continued in a state of repentance until the third and fourth year, when the Angel of the Lord descended to him, and said: ‘Friend, do you not consent to slay your child?’ He answered: ‘I do consent,’ and forthwith took an American axe, and cut off a hand and a foot. When the woman, his wife, saw that their child had his hand and foot cut off, she ran out and informed the people. When she arrived there the people asked her: ‘What do you want?’ She answered: ‘Our child is killed.’ They said: ‘How was it?’ She answered: ‘He was chopped by my husband with an axe.’ The tribe was grieved; they picked out and assembled forty men, and they went.

page 74

“Soon after the woman ran out, the Angel appeared again to him and said: ‘Friend, unite again the hand and foot of your child.’ He joined them again, and the hand and the foot adhered. He was told to wash it with water: it was washed, and that child was well.

“All this time the army of forty was advancing until they were near. The child became restless, and went out of the house, and the army saw him. The army had surrounded that man. They said to the woman: ‘Why, there is your child, walking there.’ The woman answered: ‘How wonderful!’ The woman then said: ‘Let us look for the blood.’ The man was seized and conducted to the Native Assessor of the Queen. He was tried. After he was tried, his hands were tied, and he was left by the man who tied him. The lashings of the hands were snapped at the desire of the angel; when the person came to see after him the lashings had fallen off. He was then made fast with a chain; when they returned to look at him it was snapped. He was then secured with handcuffs; they were locked securely. Then that man Te Ua said to the person who had fastened him: ‘Friend, unfasten my hands’; but his hands were not unfastened. Immediately after the person who had fastened him had left, the angel said to him: ‘Oh! Ua, shake the chains off your hands.’ He then shook them off, and went out at the same time as the person who had fastened him.”1

1 Memorandum by T. H. Smith, Esq., Civil Commissioner, Bay of Plenty. App. H. of R. 1864. E. No. 8. Enclosure. Written to Doctor Nesbitt, Resident Magistrate of Rotorua.