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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Later Episodes

Later Episodes.

After the last encounter between the colonial forces and Te Kooti in the Uriwera Country in March, 1870, and the escape of the arch-rebel himself and twenty of his followers—nineteen of his men were killed and seventy-three taken prisoners—there were intermittent troubles for a number of years in connection with the Maoris. The authority of the law, however, spread steadily; Kereopa, the notorious murderer of Mr Volkner, was captured in November, 1871, tried, and executed on the 5th of January, 1872; page 155
Old Style of Maori House Prior To 1840.

Old Style of Maori House Prior To 1840.

amicable relations were established with a number of important chiefs who had been undisguisedly antipathetic or openly antagonistic to the Government; and it became increasingly clear that what has since been effected—the harmonious coordination of the races—was only a matter of time. Still colonisation was seriously retarded by the conflict between the races, property was destroyed, and lives were lost. In this last connection it is estimated that, from the 17th of March, 1860, to August, 1871, 460 Europeans were killed, and 766 wounded; 233 friendly natives killed, and 155 wounded; 1785 rebel natives killed, 418 wounded, and 1,447 taken prisoners. The figures referring to the number of rebel natives wounded rest largely on the actual admissions of the enemy and are probably under the mark.

In the later seventies a good deal of trouble was caused for a year or two by Te Whiti, the noted tohunga of Parihaka. Te Whiti's influence with his people was partly religious, partly political, and at his instigation, surveyors were removed and the lands of settlers ploughed up by the natives. At last in November, 1881, Mr John Bryce, then Minister of Defence, invested Parihaka with about 2,000 volunteers and constabulary; and Te Whiti and Tohu, his lieutenant, were arrested without bloodshed, and kept in custody till February, 1883. Since then there has been nothing worthy of the name of trouble as between the Maoris and the colonists. Even the men of the wild Uriwera Country, in the fastnesses of which Te Kooti found sanctuary, have for years been on the friendliest of terms with the people and the Government of the colony, and everything in the nature of Maori war is now, happily, a memory of the past. The years of strife are land-marked here and there by some appalling atrocities, but, in the main, the study of the Maori wars brings to light not only the indomitable courage and heroic endurance of the Maori race, but, as traits in Maori character, a military genius and intellectual resourcefulness which often baffled our ablest men and will ever be admired by British hearts. Henceforward, instead of even remotely thinking of fighting against us, the Maoris will be anxious to fight with and for us, and during the recent troubles in South Africa many of them pleadingly asked to be allowed to assist in upholding the integrity of the British Empire. This shows that the Maori wars have left no sedimentary bitterness in the natures of that brave and generous race.