Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 8 (November 1, 1937)

Utu!

Utu!

Te Waka came dashing towards him again, his face distorted, his frame quivering. He yelled at the top of his voice: “Payment! Yes, indeed, I'll give you payment! I'll give you satisfaction. That tupara of yours that I took is the weapon of your ancestors. This tewhatewha”—and he shook it above his head—“is the weapon of my ancestors. Take it as utu for my offence!”—and he flung it at the pakeha's feet.

Anti-climax? At any rate a tremendous relief. Bates had quite anticipated a desperate tussle. He was enormously pleased to see that tewhatewha lying at his feet. It meant that not merely was he saved the threatened rough-and-tumble on the green but his calm unruffled attitude had won the day, the mana of the pakeha was unimpaired. Thus the news would go from end to end of the Waikato that Te Peeti, without a weapon, had triumphed over the Maori warrior.

Bates said, with an air of cool dignity: “That is well! You have done the right thing,” and, stooping slowly, he took up the tewhatewha, which now was his. It was a treasured weapon of polished hardwood. He knew what an effort it must have been for Te Waka to surrender it. It was the act of a chief. Te Waka, said the soldier to himself, was rough stuff but a gentleman.

* * *

In his red-pine canoe again, his recovered gun in his hands, Bates was presently enjoying himself among the grey duck in a lagoon reached by a slow creek from the main stream. With him were Haré Mokena and the old dame Te Raro, paddling while the pakeha potted the parera. The intelligence officer, having given out that his expedition was for sport, must keep up appearances.

At a camp they made for a meal and rest he noted down certain things Mokena told him, heard at the Kingite villages, and he made a sketch map. Two days later when he was back in camp, he had more than a bag of wild duck and his hardwood trophy to show for his river excursion. He had all the data he needed for his report, which presently lay before the general of the Queen's troops. And the “rongo o Te Peeti,” in the words of the song—the fame of The Bates—was higher than ever along the Waikato.

page 20