THE NAPOLEON OF THE SOUTH.'
WHEN Captain Cook reached New Zealand he found it occu- pied by a very superior race of savages living apart under an elaborate tribal system. Though communists in their domestic economy they were perfected physically, and to some extent morally, by the selective influence of incessant wars. The Maori had no conception of a federal or a national govern- ment. They were always influenced by a personality, and the standing of a tribe depended almost entirely on the influence of a single man of commanding character. Such a man was the Maori Napoleon, Te Rauparaha.
Born just about the time (1770) when Cook first exhibited firearms to these people of the Stone Age, Te Rauparaha shared with his Ngatitoa tribesmen the terror inspired by the guns of their northern neighbours. Ngapuhi were fortunate enough to reside on the subtropical shores of the north, where the whalers first repaired for spars and flax, giving guns in barter. And soon Ngapuhi set at naught the traditional valour of Ngatimaru and Waikato, and sent their toss flying like chaff to the forests of the south.
As a boy Te Rauparaha was not remarkable except- for the circumstance that he had six toes on each foot. His mother being of Ngatiraukawa, he was not even a full chief of Ngatitoa. His people were few and obscure. They had no name in history. They had no mans. But now Te Rauparaha was born to them. One day Waikato entertained Ngatitoa at a cannibal feast, but they neglected to provide a delectable morsel of "man-meat " for Te Rauparaha's girl wife. Furious to avenge the insult, the young chief himself led a feud through the forest, sacked the Waikato fortress, and carried back to the ovens at Kawhia the body of the offending chief. By raids and deeds of valour Te Rauparaha earned the right to speak. Faced by the uneasy geographical fact that Waikato must obtain guns before Ngatitoa, he was anxious lest his people should then bo driven into the western sea or baked in the hangis. He urged them to migrate southward, to establish themselves on the sea where the white men must come to trade, and thus build up a new power. Finally he won his point, and in 1819-20 he led a small taua of Ngatitoa, reinforced by some guns from Ngapuhi, on a memorable raid of 300 miles. Tribe after tribe went down before the ferocity and the guns of the invaders. One check they did receive, but it was fully avenged on the unsuspecting enemy invited to a feast.
The taw returned to the north. But it was only to gather their wives and possessions for a permanent migration. Ngatitoa had seen the land of promise. To Te Rauparaha's keen eye the small mountainous island of Kapiti, near the passage known as Cook Straits, separating the two main islands of New Zealand, seemed to be the key of power. Whalers must go there to trade. From its sheltered beach the fleets of Ngatitoa could harry the whole of the coasts and still protect their ample cultivations on the mainland. Just before they had set out the old chief of Ngatiraukawa lay on bis death-bed, appealing in vain to his sons : "Can you tread in my steps and lead my people to victory P " There was no answer. Just for a moment the tribesmen stood silent. Then Rauparaha sprang into the circle and cried triumphantly : " I am able to tread in your steps and even to do that which you could not do."
The supreme chiefship of the two tribes was sealed. The migration was an irresistible triumph. Each tribe in turn was subjected or persuaded to launch its canoes and join the pilgrimage. Te Rauparaha consolidated his power ruthlessly. By treachery he reduced Muaupoko and Rangitane to slavery and the ovens. By warlike cunning and valour he decimated Ngaitahu and overran the South Island. By a vile compact with a Scottish captain he entrapped his old enemy, Tamaiharanui, and his wife, and brought them to Kapiti to
• An Old New Zealander ; or, Ts Rauparaha, the Napoleon of the South. By T. Lindsay Buick. With 10 Illustrations. London: Whitcombe and Tombs. ties. 6d. net.]
be tortured and eaten dy widows of the war. Finally—but posterity is judging him more leniently for this—he struck terror into the infant English settlements by wiping out a strong military force sent to arrest him.
Up to now be was the monarch absolute of half New Zealand. Yet so inscrutably did the mans pass from Maori to pakeha that when three years later Sir George Grey pounced down upon him at dead of night, his despairing cry, " Ngatitoa! Ngatitoa!" proved the swan song of Maori ascendancy in New Zealand. His kingdom fell absolutely in 1846, when he was carried a prisoner on board H.M.S. 'Driver,' and no Maori has since wielded such an influence.
Mr. Buick's volume is of intense interest, though one might wish to see a more generous recognition of the use of such authorities as the Polynesian Journal and W. T. Locke Travers. It is curious to note that the author does not deal with or even mention the picturesque legend that Ngatitoa carried off the body of their dead chief the night before the burial at Otaki and interred it in the cliff caves of Kapiti. It is an authentic story, and well worth investigation.
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