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Trouble with the Natives.

It was in 1843 that the trouble in the Hutt "Valley began, and Governor Grey in 1846 lost no time in visiting the neglected settlement. He took prompt measures to remove the Native intruders from the district, even refusing to listen to the request that they might, on abandoning their land, receive compensation for their crops. He required a specific day to be named on which they would evacuate the valley. His action in thus taking high ground, instead of approaching them as a suitor, had immediate effect, and an address signed by most of the influential chief including Te Rauparaha, was transmitted to the Governor, asking for his protection and assistance. Much of this, however, was for the purpose of gaining time, while some of the chiefs were determined to precipitate matters and to commit the rest by an act of open hostility. With this view, at the beginning of March, 1846, a party passed the supports of the troops in the valley of the Hutt, murdered a number of settlers, and plundered sixteen house retiring before they could be attacked. The country at the head of the valley was so inaccessible that the Governor hesitated to pursue the murderers, and adopted the more judicious course of establishing a post at Porirua, whereby he commanded their only line of communication with the coast, and thus cut off their retreat. The plan was successful. The Natives had very scanty means of subsistence in the forests; and their rear being threatened they abandoned the Hutt district and fell back on Pahautanui, thus removing the field of operations from the neighbourhood of the settlements. In the beginning of the following month a barbarous murder was committed by certain Natives under the protection of Rangihaeta, who not only refused to give them up, but declared the road between Wellington and the coast "tapu," and otherwise acted in a hostile manner. It became necessary to put a stop to outrages of this kind, and as a check troops were sent to occupy the point at Porirua. Shut in as Wellington was by forest-covered mountains, it became evident that means must be immediately taken to open communication with the interior for purposes of defence as well as for the extension of settlement. Within a few weeks Governor Grey had the work in hand—a work which should have been carried out long before, in which case the difficulty might never have arisen.

From this period there were signs of promise that the

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difficulties with which we had been contending would pass away. The roads were pushed forward, and the troops fortified their position at Porirua. Rangihaeata, when he heard that Te Raparaha had been taken prisoner at Porirua, abandoned his position at Pahautanui, and the fighting and occasional outrages ceased. He retreated through the densely-wooded Horokiwi Valley, and came out from among the mountains at Paekakariki. Thence, following the sea-beach, he visited every pa and settlement, where great tangis were held and speeches made. Rangihaeata would walk to and fro in front of the tribe or among them, sometimes running or jumping, seldom standing still. After the speeches would follow the division of the feast. One long shed was covered with blankets and clothes which would be presented to Rangi and his people, for they were in rags after their long wanderings in the bush. When Rangihaeata arrived in the Waikawa district he came with about three hundred Natives to the Ngatiwehiwehi pa, and our home and rope-walk being only half a mile away, we went to see his arrival. He made speeches, saying that the quarrel was all over now, and that he was going back to settle down peacefully at Poroutawhao. After this a large quantity of blankets and clothing was presented to him by the atiwehiwehi. After a stay of about two days, which were devoted to feasting and hospitality, he went on to Poroutawhao, where he settled quietly down, as he had said. Though the Ngatiwehiwehi had supplied his people like rally with clothing, they had no tobacco, which their visitors greatly desired, and this circumstance led to an experience which I was not likely to forget, about three weeks after Rangihaeata departed for Poroutawhao, the little schooner Fidele, which my father had again chartered, arrived in the Waikanae river and discharged a cargo of goods, including a cask of tobacco. In about two days she returned to Wellington, and a few days later, my father having gone to a neighbour on business, leaving us four children alone in the house, one Tohutohu, a chief of the Ngatiweluwehi, took advantage of the opportunity. He came to the house with forty Natives, and entered. Seeing us seated on the coveted cask, he ordered us off, but we refused to move, whereupon he knocked us off and threatened to kill us, after which he took the cask of tobacco outside, where his company awaited him, and they carried their plunder to their pa. We ran to our father, and told him what had happened, but when he came upon the scene his tobacco was safe in the pa. He then appealed to Paora, the chief who had leased him the land for his rope-walk. Paora was very angry, and ran in hot haste to the aggressor. "Give up at once," he said, "the cask of tobacco that you have taken by muru (robbery) from my pakeha." Tohutohu refused; Paora rushed to the house to page 14 seize the tobacco, and a struggle began in the presence of the whole tribe. Each endeavoured to get hold of the tobacco; then they closed, each striving to dash the other to the ground. They fought like two bull-dogs until things looked so serious that the people intervened and separated them by force. In the end Paora had to retire discomfited, vowing that he would recover the tobacco that belonged to his pakeha. Finding that other chiefs ware about to join with Paora and compel restitution, Tohutohu and his followers despatched it by night as a gift to Rangihaeata at Poroutawhao. Information soon reached Paora, and arming himself with his mere, he rushed furiously to the pa in the night Flourishing his weapon, he bounded backwards and forwards giving vent to his indignation. "It will be heard of all through the country!" he exclaimed. "We shall be called the robbers of the pakeha, and the shame will rest upon ma. My pakeha will go away, taking with him all his taonga (goods)." Other chiefs followed with speeches, calling on Tohutohu to get the tobacco back, for it was stolen property, and if it were known to be in the possession of their friend Rangihaeata it would get him in to trouble again with the pakeha. Tohutohu then replied, with must excitement and gesticulation in the Native fashion. Flourishing his mere, he would run about ten steps and deliver a sentence; then, turning and running the same distance in the opposite direction, he would give further vent to his wrath; running thus backwards and forwards till he had finished what he had to say. Briefly, it was to the effect that he would never hear of such a thing as giving up the property.

Seeing that they were unable to influence Tohutohu and people, Paora and his supporters determined to lay the matter before Rangihaeata himself. So they set out for Poroutawhao where, on arrival, they were made welcome. The usual of Maori etiquette being duly disposed of, Paora entered on his disagreeable task, telling Rangihaeata that the welcome gift he had accepted was stolen goods. "That tobacco he said," Tohutohu took by muru (robbery) from my pakeha Rangihaeata replied, "I was not aware when I accepted the gift for myself and my tribe that Tohutohu had stolen the goods from your pakeha, or I would not have received it from him. And now, O friends, I will collect what remains of the tobacco, which has already been divided amongst my people, and return it to you". He then called the tribe together and told them that the tobacco must be returned to Paora, as it has been stolen from the pakeha. The people replied that a good deal had already been consumed but they would return all that was left. A collection was at once made, and about thirty pounds in all was gathered and laid at Paora's feet, and was faithfully returned by him to my father. My page 15 father, though he fully appreciated the service rendered by Paora, was by no means content with the result, more especially as the actual offender had no hand in such incomplete restitution as had been made. There was at the time (1845) a police station at Waikanae; Major Durie was the local Magistrate, and Mr. John knocks interpreter. Accordingly, my father sent my brother to the Magistrate to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Tohutohu. This Major Durie refused, alleging that the attempt to enforce r such a warrant might occasion a breach of the peace. He advised my father to write to the Governor, Sir George Grey, and apply for compensation for his loss. This advice was taken. My father wrote, giving all particulars, and some months afterwards the governor came in person to Waikawa, accompanied by Mr. Donald McLean, well-known in later years as Native Minister. The Governor notified that they had come about the stolen tobacco, and a large meeting of Natives was held. The result of the conference was that Tohutohu and his people agreed to pay for the stolen cask of tobacco. Payment was not made, however, till about four years later, when my father accepted twenty bags of wheat in satisfaction of his claim.

It was in the year 1847 that the Rangitikei block was bought from the resident Natives by the Government, and the settlers from Wellington began to drive their stock to the land they had purchased on the north side of the Rangitikei River. It was then that another serious drawback to the progress, of settlement arose. Rangihaeata, who had settled at Poroutawhao, on the sea-beach, set up a toll-gate, and when settlers came along with their stock he would stop them and demand toll—sometimes as much as £10. If they refused to pay, they had to stop all night on the beach. The blackmail was carried on for several months unchecked, until it threatened to put a stop to settlement in the Rangitikei district, Governor Grey was in a difficult position. He desired, naturally, to keep up friendly relations with the powerful chiefs, and was too-prudent a man to make demands that he could not attempt to enforce without imperilling the peace of the country; and intolerable as the conduct of Rangihaeata was in the eye of Europeans, he was quite within his rights according to Maori ideas. With characteristic astuteness, Sir George Grey suggested that Rangihaeata shouldmakea road from the sea-beach to Poroutawhao, promising that if he did so, the Government would assist him with money. The chief assented, abolished his toll-gate, and constructed the road and the Rangitikei settlers had no further trouble from that quarter. Considerable irritation was sometimes caused by ill-judged interference with the settlers by, or at, the instance of missionaries, some of whom were very jealous of the spread of settlement, which weakened their influence with the Maori people.