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Heads

WE had just given the pakeha a good thrashing at Wairau and they were unkind enough to call it a massacre. If the position had been reversed and we had got the trouncing they would have said, “Ah! Peterkin, it was a glorious victory.”

This story has nothing to do with the merits or demerits of the famous Wairau purchase, which was made by certain English gentlemen— by degrees of latitude and longitude—from a people to whom these things were meaningless. All they wanted were guns with which to shoot their enemies, gaudy red blankets and other articles that the pakeha thought wise to give them, such as jew’s-harps, red nightcaps, tobacco, and sometimes rum.

After the Wairau episode we deemed it prudent to withdraw from the disputed territory and concentrate on the Wellington side of Cook Strait. And thus it was that the pakeha people of Wellington were greatly perturbed, for when they looked up at the Karori hills they saw hundreds, nay, thousands of Maori coming over. As a matter of fact, Rangihaeata, that astute old warrior, had sent only one man with instructions to light a fire where it could plainly be seen by Wellington’s pakeha population, and to walk round it. By this ruse he caused the pakeha to become thoroughly alarmed, and they sent out to The Hutt, to Major Russell, to hasten in to protect them. This Major Russell did, leaving but a small detachment at Boulcott’s Farm. This was exactly what Rangihaeata wanted—he could, and did, deal with the smaller number.

Of course after this a price was put on Rangihaeata’s head. When he came to hear of this he called a meeting of the tribes at Taupo (Plimmerton). In the midst of his people he arose and said: “My friends, I have to-day been appraised of the fact that the Governor has offered four hundred pounds for my head. The Governor is a good judge of heads— his people have been engaged in the smoked-head trade for some time— but never have I known of a single head that fetched a price like this. Usually they have been the price of a musket or two, but the Governor, as the head chief of the pakeha, must know the true value of heads, and he has placed a price on my head far exceeding the price paid for any other head in the whole of Aotearoa.

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“I feel that he is right, for my head is very precious and valuable—at least to me. Now, if there is anyone here who wants to earn four hundred pounds, this is his chance; let him come and get my head.”

Not a man stirred.

“Ah!” said the old man, “Perhaps some of you are afraid that the Governor will not part with his four hundred pounds. Now, I want you to know that I also am somewhat of an expert in the valuing of heads. I am going to put a price on the Governor’s head. So that you may be sure I will pay I want you all to see me put the money aside.”

And with that he tied a half-crown piece in the corner of his blanket.