Post by Kiwi Frontline on Sept 17, 2017 5:47:03 GMT 12
Dear Editor (Sent to the NZHerald 13/9/17)
Shane Te Pou’s claim that at Rangiaowhia ‘Māori were pursued as prey’ falsifies history. In one participant’s description: ‘With many Maori civilians, men and women, running away, Captain Wilson called to the women in Maori to sit down to avoid the risk of being shot. They obeyed, and we passed them; then they got up and ran on.’ In the words of Maori boy Potatau who later told his full story: ‘The European went inside of the house. My grandfather shot him and killed him. Some of the others dragged the body in the house. At this time my mother and self arose and went through the soldiers and between the troopers. They did not interfere with us, but allowed us to pass. We went to the house of Thomas Power, who had a Maori woman to wife. After we left we heard the soldiers firing. ... [After] the firing had ceased[, w]e at once left the place and ran off to the bush’.
Again, Te Pou’s claim of a ‘settler invasion of the Waikato’ is nonsense. Waikato tribes planned seriously to destroy Auckland. The Waikato was British sovereign territory so government troops under the direction of Governor Grey took appropriate action to quell the tribes’ rebellion.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters
Shane Te Pou’s claim that at Rangiaowhia ‘Māori were pursued as prey’ falsifies history. In one participant’s description: ‘With many Maori civilians, men and women, running away, Captain Wilson called to the women in Maori to sit down to avoid the risk of being shot. They obeyed, and we passed them; then they got up and ran on.’ In the words of Maori boy Potatau who later told his full story: ‘The European went inside of the house. My grandfather shot him and killed him. Some of the others dragged the body in the house. At this time my mother and self arose and went through the soldiers and between the troopers. They did not interfere with us, but allowed us to pass. We went to the house of Thomas Power, who had a Maori woman to wife. After we left we heard the soldiers firing. ... [After] the firing had ceased[, w]e at once left the place and ran off to the bush’.
Again, Te Pou’s claim of a ‘settler invasion of the Waikato’ is nonsense. Waikato tribes planned seriously to destroy Auckland. The Waikato was British sovereign territory so government troops under the direction of Governor Grey took appropriate action to quell the tribes’ rebellion.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters