AFTER FIFTY YEARS: OLD OPPONENTS MEET
This photograph, typifying the peaceful union of the races, was taken at the monument on the Orakau battlefield, on the occasion of the jubilee gathering, April 1st, 1914.
The Maori account, as given by Te Huia Raureti and Pou-Patate Huihi and the late Te Wairoa Piripi is to the effect that the answer of Rewi and his fellow-chiefs was that they would not make peace. Te Wairoa Piripi said: “The General’s messenger came to us and called out: ‘Do not fire at me. I have a message for you from the General to request that you make peace, so that your women and children may be saved.’ This message was made known by Raureti Paiaka to the whole pa, to Rewi, who was at the northern section of the pa when the pakeha was speaking to Raureti. The [[73]]people in the western part of the pa were listening. Rewi Manga made reply: ‘Kaore au e hohou te rongo’ (‘I shall not make peace.’) Then all the people cried in chorus: ‘Kaore e mau te rongo, ake, ake, ake!’ (‘Peace shall never be made—never, never, never!’) Then stood up Karamoa Tumanako, of Ngati-Apakura, and said: ‘I shall make peace.’ To this Rewi, Hone Teri, and Raureti replied: ‘We are not willing that the people should be made prisoners, but if we leave the pa you make your own peace.’ Some of the people having fired, the pakeha dropped down, and the fighting began again. It was now that the rakete (rockets, i.e., hand-grenades) were flung into our pa. They were not so bad at first, but when the fuses were shortened many were the deaths. The sap was now close up. The outer fence, or pekerangi, was thrown down on the top of the soldiers, and some of them were killed or injured there. Two shells from the big gun on Karaponia [the hill on which the blockhouse was afterwards built] burst in the Manga-o-Hoi swamp, and the tribes in that direction were scattered. The explosion of a third shell slightly damaged the end of the pa where Te Huia and certain others were. The sun was declining, and now the pa was broken at the south-east angle, and the people jumped out from all parts of the work. The line of soldiers below the pa in the south-eastern direction was broken through by Paiaka, Te Whakatapu, and Te Makaka te Taaepa, and the people fled to the swamp, thence to the Puniu, leaving a great many dead.”
Te Huia Raureti said (1920): “When the interpreter spoke to us, saying, ‘Friends, come out to us so that your lives may be saved,’ Rewi Maniapoto made reply, through a messenger, my father Raureti Paiaka, ‘Peace shall never be made—never, never!’ Again spoke the pakeha, and said: ‘That is right for you men, but as for the women and children, send them out of the pa.’ This was declined, and all the people cried, repeating Rewi’s words, ‘Peace shall never be made—never, never, never!’ (‘Kaore e mau te rongo—ake, ake, ake!’)”
From a photo by J. Cowan]
THE BATTLEFIELD OF ORAKAU (PRESENT DAY)
From a drawing by Major von Tempsky]