Maoris Reorganising.

The capture and destruction of Onawe almost annihilated the Maori inhabitants of the Peninsula. Of tbe few survivors, some had tbe courage to return to their homes after the departure of the northern invaders, but others unable to overcome their fears, fled for refuge to Otakou, where they remained till induced, to join the expedition organised by Taiaroa and Tukawaiki to attack Rauparaha on the shores of Cook's Straits. Before the capture of Kaiapoi, Taiaroa had escaped with about two hundred followers, purposing to return with a larger force for the relief of the besieged pa, but before he could execute his design the place was taken, and the subsequent capture of Onawe put a stop for a time to his movements; but having learnt that Rauparaha paid periodical visits to the settlement he had formed on the shores of Cook's Straits, he determined to go there and seek to avenge the injuries done to Ngai Tabu. He was coidially assisted in carrying out his designs by Tuhawaiki, Karetai, and other chiefs, who headed the populous communities which still existed in the south. But though active in organising the first expedition, Taiaroa did not accompany it. It consisted of two hundred and seventy men, under the command of Tuhawaiki and Karetai.

They proceeded in war canoes from Otakou to Queen Charlotte's Sound, where they were successful in surprising Rauparaha, who had a very narrow escape from destruc-page 44tion,for in the frantic efforts made by his men to launch their boat on discovering that they had fallen into a Ngai Tabu ambuscade, the keel was torn off, and the boat rendered useless. Rauparaha, finding his followers falling all around him, and being unable to reach big canoes, which had got afloat, without running the risk of being detected and pursued, sought concealment in the kelp near the shore, where, by occasionally lifting his head under cover of the broad leaves as they swayed backwards and forwards with the waves, he was able to breathe. He remained in his hiding place till the first [unclear: fury] of the attack was over, and then he swam to a canoe, which remained in the offing waiting to pick up any who might escape. Paora Taki, the old Native Assessor at Rapaki, always maintains that he might have killed Rauparaha on this occasion if he had been properly armed, but unfortunately on the way up the coast he had been induced by a powerful friend to exchange his gun for a very simple weapon, which was nothing more than a sharp pointed stake. In the confusion which followed the rush on Rauparaha's men, both sides got mixed up in one close crowd. Someone brushed roughly past Paora, who, on turning round, saw it was Te Rauparaha himself. He had on a parawai mat, and was walking rapidly towards the water's edge, with his arms folded across his breast, and holding a greenstone mere in his right hand. Paora, not daring to attack him with the simple weapon he possessed, tried to secure some inferior foe, and the first he encountered was a woman, whom he pushed over and pinned to the sand by a thrust through her thigh; he then called loudly for the loan of a tomahawk to despatch his prey. A passing warrior, attracted by his cries, seized the woman by the hair, and was about to plunge the weapon into her skull, when he recognised her as one of the captured Kaiapoi people. "Why, Paora," he said, "it is your own aunt." Poor Paul tried to make amends for his rough treatment of his injured relative by a more than ordinary amount of nose rubbing, the Maori equivalent for kissing. After another successful encounter with their enemies, Ngai Tabu returned home.

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Encouraged by the success of the first expedition, known as Oraumoa iti, a second, on a much larger scale, was resolved upon, to be known as Oraumoa nui. Some little time was spent in making preparations, and, when they were completed, it was found that upwards of four hundred warriors had assembled to take part in it. Taiaroa assumed the command, and, having despatched a portion of his forces by water, he marched up the coast, gaining slight accessions to his numbers at each stage.

On the way an incident occurred which throws some light on the motives which prompted those deeds of apparently senseless barbarity which so often darken the pages of the internal history of Maori tribes. Accompanying Taiaroa's expedition was a chief noted for his harsh and cruel disposition, Te Wakataupoka by name. On reaching Taumutu, this man was with difficulty dissuaded from killing the surviving remnants of the hapus destroyed by Rauparaha, whom he found gathered there, The reason he gave for wishing to perpetrate such a cruel deed was that all his own friends and relations had been killed in the encounter from which these people had escaped, and he regarded their escape as having been purchased at the cost of those who perished, and therefore demanding the vengeance of surviving relatives. His inhuman proposal was resisted by Tu te hou nuku, the long-lost son of Te Mai hara nui, who had arrived in a whaling ship at Otakou just as the second Oraumoa expedition was leaving, and who, approving of its object, had at once joined it. Tu, unlike his father, was of a merciful and kindly disposition, and bestirred himself to protect the lives threatened with destruction. He sent off at once to Wairewa for his cousin Mairehe (Mrs Tikao) and the few remaining members of his family still to be found there. On their arrival, Te Whakataupoka found that he could not carry out his sanguinary purpose, as he would have been forcibly restrained from doing any harm to the sacred persons of the Ariki's family, who formed part of the remnant that escaped from Te Rauparaha, and whose presence protected their less influential fellow-sufferers from destruction.