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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 14, Issue 1 (April 1, 1939)

Fragments of … New Zealand History

page 54

Fragments of … New Zealand History

There are some curious and fascinating oddities in our history that make browsing through old books on New Zealand a delight instead of the dry occupation so many people imagine it to be. There is, for instance, the case of a Mr. Benson who not only sat on the jury at his own trial, but gave evidence against himself and was acquitted. Lieut. T. W. Gudgeon, in his “Reminiscences of the Maori War,” gives the story.

In the days of turmoil in early Poverty Bay, a number of pakehas formed themselves into a Vigilance Committee when certain Maoris who had been implicated with Te Kooti in various massacres returned home. Some of these vigilance men who had lost relatives swore to shoot the next guilty Maoris they saw.

When three natives who had been with Te Kooti turned up at a particular pa in the Bay, three white men—Messrs. Wylie, Benson and Brown—went after them. An accompanying Maori pointed out a man whom he claimed had been involved in the death of Mr. Wylie's son. Wylie fired, but unsuccessfully.
(Thelma R. Kent, photo.) Wind in the cabbage trees, Lake Hawen, South Island.

(Thelma R. Kent, photo.) Wind in the cabbage trees, Lake Hawen, South Island.

Benson then rushed at a Maori and shot him fatally.

On the following morning Benson was in the township, and to his astonishment, was warned to attend as juryman at the inquest on the victim. In vain he assured the constable that he was the man who had done the deed, and that he ought not, therefore, to sit. The constable declined to entertain the excuse, and threatened him with divers pains and penalties for non-compliance. So Benson not only sat on his own trial, but gave evidence against himself; and the jury, having heard his statement, brought in the following verdict: “Shot by some person unknown, and serve him right.”

It is as extraordinary to read, to-day, details of the prices of “human live-stock” between 1820 and 1840, as shown in these two entries taken from “A Trader in Cannibal Land”:—

“An Englishman (Jackson) and a whaleship cooper purchased from the Chief Apanui at Whakatanene, £20 each.”

“Six—a man named Taylor (English), his wife and three half-caste children and his wife's sister, £20 each.”

Payment, incidentally, was not made in money, but by means of “muskets, powder, lead, and other necessaries.” Perhaps it should be explained that the value of a pakeha to a tribe was enormous.

“A loose, straggling pakeha—a runaway from a ship, for instance, who had nothing, and was never likely to have anything … was not of much account, even in those times. Two men of this description were hospitably entertained one night by a chief who, to pay himself for his trouble and outlay, ate one of them next morning.”

Fortunately modern etiquette does not enforce this drastic return for hospitality. Progress has its compensations as well as its drawbacks, especially when one reflects that in those old days “good, well-to-do pakehas—traders, ship captains, labourers or employers of labour, were regarded as fair game to be cherished, caressed, protected and plucked. Plucked judiciously, so that the feathers would grow again.”

Coming nearer home, it is difficult to believe, as one looks round to-day at the lovely homes and quiet gardens of Auckland's suburbs, that in 1844 Remuera was the scene of a feast which attracted some four thousand visitors—and which surely must have given the commissariat something of a pain in the head, for eleven thousand baskets of potatoes, one hundred large pigs, nine thousand sharks, and liberal supplies of flour, rice, sugar and tobacco only just sufficed to meet requirements for one week, according to Buller's “Forty Years in New Zealand.”

Governor Captain Fitzroy, who was in attendance, must have seen a thrilling sight when sixteen hundred Maoris swept into a war dance and made the earth tremble beneath the impact of their wildly-stamping feet.

A different story is that of the Maori Amazon at Kaiteriri. Lieut. Gudgeon says that this would have been most laughable “had it not been so serious.” During a fight a Maori, Renata, “entered the bush by himself, and came across two Hauhaus, a man and a woman (the latter's husband had just been shot in the pa). They both attacked Renata, and a severe struggle commenced. Luckily … a constable … and an Arawa came up during the affair, and made things even by shooting the man; they then stood by to see fair play, as the girl was evidently a match for her adversary. After a sharp tussle, the Amazon got Renata down, gouged out page 55 one of his eyes, tore his ear to pieces, taking the greenstone ornament, and otherwise so mauled him that he fainted with pain and had to be carried off on a litter. When brought before Col. McDonnell, her eyes literally blazed as she recounted the fight and added a heartfelt p.s. that she only wished she had killed him (Renata). When told he would lose an eye, she was greatly gratified and merely commented that it would serve him right.” Playful ways they had in those days.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating oddities in our history, though, is that of the Private Act of Parliament which legally “killed” a living man. In his “Cheerful Yesterdays” the late Justice Alpers states that this Act was unique in the history of legislation and that as far as he knew, no other country in the world had ever “killed a man by Act of Parliament.”

Briefly, the circumstances which led to the passing of this extraordinary Act were as follow. A Canterbury sheep farmer with close on 30,000 acres of land had been declared insane by the Supreme Court in 1896. For 22 years he had been a patient in a mental hos
(Thelma R. Kent, photo.) Looking up the Wangapeka Valley, near Motueka, South Island.

(Thelma R. Kent, photo.) Looking up the Wangapeka Valley, near Motueka, South Island.

pital, his station being managed by a committee. During the war years increasingly difficult conditions made it advisable to sub-divide the property amongst the farmer's sons (he had four) or to effect a sale of smaller blocks. Under the will of the farmer, which had been made three years before he became insane, his property was divided equally among his children after providing a large annuity for his widow. It was therefore suggested that a private Act of Parliament be passed authorising the Supreme Court to grant administration of the estate on the assumption that the farmer had “died” on the date on which the Act became operative. £9,000 was to be set aside as an income for the comfort of the patient, who would be provided with a motor-car and an attendant who was a skilled chauffeur. One alienist had examined the farmer and reported that he could not possibly recover. “Two other doctors, eminent experts in mental disease, visited the patient and were afforded the fullest opportunities of enquiring into his mental condition.” In their affidavits they deposed that he had been suffering for more than 20 years from chronic illusional insanity, “that in recent years marked symptoms of senile decay had shown themselves, that though his physical health was robust, his mental condition was rapidly deteriorating. They committed themselves apparently without any hesitation to the positive opinion that in no event could he ever recover or even improve.”

Justice Alpers, therefore, approved the Bill, and Parliament subsequently passed it. It decided the place as well as the time of the man's “death,” and he was thus legally “killed” by the Government of his own country. And then, as though to prove the superficiality of mortal knowledge, the farmer recovered his reason. After more than 20 years absence, he returned home to his wife and family. The provisions of the Act were explained to him, he realised that adequate provision had been made for his comfort, and made no effort to disturb the Act—under which, being legally dead, he could have done what he liked without being legally responsible, as no such person as himself existed.

That is only one of the pages in the vivid history of this “Little Country.”