1072 



A USTRALASIA ILL US TRA TED. 



life. He has often wished to revisit Poverty Bay, but the stern hostility of the settlers 

 has wisely caused the Government to restrain him. In 1871, the Ngatiporou seized 

 Kereopa, Volkner's murderer, and he was duly tried and executed. 



TE WHITI'S LAND AGITATION'. 



The name of Te Whiti, prophet, orator and leader in a remarkable land agitation, 

 figures prominently in the history of New Zealand during the past twelve years. Had 

 he been of bellicose instincts, he wielded the power to have provoked a war of races 

 which would have drenched the country in blood. But, happily, he was a man of peace, 

 and of rare force of character. In 1865, he restrained his people from embroiling them-' 

 selves in war, and in 1868, he prevented them giving countenance to Titokowaru. From 

 his village of Parihaka, between Mount Egmont and the sea, he exercised a beneficent 

 influence, exhorting his people to peaceful pursuits, prohibiting any traffic in drink within 

 his settlements, inculcating temperance, and preaching love between the races. He 

 assumed the functions and pretensions of an inspired prophet, and at monthly meetings 

 harangued the tribes with great eloquence upon passing events. 



In 1877, the first signs of agrarian trouble were manifested. For twelve years the 

 Authorities had allowed the confiscation scheme of 1865, so far as it related to Taranaki, 

 to remain in abeyance, and the Maoris had long ago concluded that it had been 

 abandoned. This opinion was strengthened by 

 the fact that, between 1872 and 1875, no less 

 than one hundred and eighty-five thousand acres 

 of land within the bounds of the Waitotara 

 and Waingongoro Rivers had been purchased 

 from them, no question being raised as to the 

 validity of their title. Neither had any step 

 been taken to proclaim the reserves which were 

 to accompany confiscation. In 1877, the dream 

 of security was rudely disturbed. The Govern- 

 ment made preparations to survey the confis- 

 cated Waimate Plains, now dotted over with 

 native settlements and cultivations. Despite the 

 protests of the aboriginal settlers, the survey 

 was commenced in August, 1878. The pegs 

 mysteriously disappeared after they were put 

 down, and finally, in March, 1879, the surveyors 

 having taken a road line through a large en- 

 closure belonging to Titokowaru, were courteously conducted off the Plains, with an inti- 

 mation that the survey could not go on. The Government advertised sixteen thousand 

 acres for sale, and in May unarmed bodies of Maoris began ploughing lands which the 

 Government had given to military settlers. Armed settlers removed one party of the 

 dusky plough-men, but they quietly returned and resumed operations. On the 3Oth of June, 

 seventeen plough-men were arrested by the Armed Constabulary, while the settlers made 

 violent threats of shooting all Maoris who again attempted to plough. During July the 



MAJOR ROPATA. 



