John Webster's Memories.

From John Webster, that fine old man of Opononi, Hokianga, hero of many a close-call adventure in Australia and the South Sea Islands as well as New Zealand, I heard many stories of Maning, too long to be recounted in this brief survey of the pakeha-Maori's career. Webster's life is a book in itself—more about him later. He and Maning were associated in trade and timber ventures at various times, as well as in the glorious life of free-lance campaigning on the fields of Omapere and Ohaeawai. Webster told me that he gave Maning much of the information which “Pakeha-Maori” used in his story of “The War in the North” (which is bound in with “Old New Zealand”), and that he wrote some notes for him on the subject.

That story of Heke's war, by the way, as given by Maning, purports to be the translation of a narrative from the lips of an old Ngapuhi chief, and it has been accepted literally as such by some writers who quoted passages from it. But it is really a composite story, partly from Maning's own experience, partly from what his Maori kinsmen and friends told him, and partly from John Webster.