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Tales of Banks Peninsula

No 5.—"Headed Up."

page 77

No 5.—"Headed Up."

Some of the Akaroa residents probably remember a wall-eyed old Maori who lived at Wainui twenty years ago. Among my notes I find the account of his imprisonment at Piraki, as told me by his cousin, the late Henare Pereita, of Kaiapoi. Though somewhat similar to a story already given in the published extracts from the Piraki log, it relates to quite another event. It is interesting as illustrating the merciless manner in which the managers of whaling stations sometimes behaved in those far off times, when they were obliged to take the law into their own hands. The story is as follows:—

"While I was living with my friends at Onuku, in Akaroa Harbour, I heard that a relative of ours, named Puaka, had been seized by the pakeha chief (Hempleman) of the whaling station at Piraki, and put in an empty oil cask and headed up. In vain I begged Tukiauau and Mantai to go and demand his release; for some reason or another they would not, so I went with Mohi Patu and our white man Jim to attempt to obtain it myself. We were all rather afraid about our errand, as the pakeha was known to be a hot tempered man, and we were not quite sure of escaping without punishment, if our interference aroused his anger, as he had forty white men around him ready to do what he told them. On reaching the station we sent a message to say that we wished to speak to the chief. While waiting for the interview, we got into conversation with the 'hands' about the place, and learnt some particulars from them about our friend's capture. Presently we heard calls for us to go up to the house. We went up feeling very nervous and uncomfortable. Hempleman asked our business, and when we told him that we wanted to see his Maori prisoner, greatly to our surprise, he at once consented. Taking up a hammer that was lying near his feet, he walked up to a great cask that stood a few feet from his house; and knocked off the hoops round the page 78top of it, and removed the head, then over-turning the barrel without any seeming regard for its contents, he told Puaka to come out. Then slowly and with difficulty there crawled out out a borrid looking object, with matted hair and filth besmeared body. The stench from the cask was quite overpowering, and we all shrunk back from it. Then Hempleman told us to carry the man to the front of the house, but only Mohi could venture near him, and he did so by holding his breath. We could not restrain our tears at the sight of our friend, and I went for some water to wash off the filth, but it was long before we got him anything like clean, and then his captors came and fastened him by the leg to an iron bar at the side of the house. When Puaka was able to speak to us, I asked him what he had done to incur such a terrible punishment. He said, I happened to be at Wairau when the pakehas attacked Rauparaha, and the Wairau massacred followed. I was so alarmed at what I witnessed on that occasion that I hurried down the coast with all speed to escape the consequences that I feared would follow from the pakeha's vengeance, but without revealing to any one on the way the cause of my hasty flight. It was not till I reached Otago that I dared to open my lips about what happened at Wairau. A stay of three months in that far off place calmed my fears, and I prepared quietly to return home; but on my way to Akaroa I passed along the coast from Wairewa, instead of going up the valley. On reaching Piraki I was recognised by the hands, and taken before Hempleman, who said that he had lately heard of my hurrying past him without giving the alarm, and as he, in common with the Maori inhabitants of the Peninsula, lived in constant dread of being surprised by Rauparaha and his northern warriors, he vowed to punish me in such a way as would deter any Maori from copying my example. Whereupon he took the head out of an empty oil cask, placed food and water in it, and then put me into it and fastened the lid. The only air and light I could get was through the bung hole. Here 1 have been kept for many weeks, never allowed to get out, or to have mypage 79cell cleaned, the head of the cask being occasionally removed when it was necessary to supply me with food and water." Having heard my cousin's piteous tale, I told him a plan I had devised for securing his escape, since Hempleman positively refused to let him go. I said that when he felt a little stronger he should ask to be allowed to join a boat's crew; and as it was the practice for the crews to pull out to sea very often, on returning to land somewhere along the shores of the bay be would soon have an opportunity of getting into the woods unobserved. When once clear of the station he was to make for a particular point opposite Onuku, and there light a fire. Having given him these instructions, and seeing that he was fast recovering from the effects of his confinement in such cramped quarters, I returned home Not long afterwards I observed the smoke of the signal fire agreed upon between us, and at once paddled my canoe over to meet the fugitive. I learnt from him that he owed his liberty to having acted on my advice. At first we feared pursuit, but Hempleman took no further notice of the matter, and we afterwards met as very good friends."