A fanatic? Yes; but of very different temper from his predecessors. As
it happened, Te Whiti was in the right; but the soldiers, seventeen
hundred of them, did come on the 5th of November, 1881, and invested
Te Whiti's _pa_ at Parihaka. Two hundred little children came out to
them and danced a dance of welcome, and behind the children followed
the mothers with five hundred loaves of bread for the soldiers. When
matters had gone thus far, the Commissioner read the Riot Act and
Te Whiti and his councillor Tohu were led away, unresisting, with
handcuffs upon their wrists. And, as they went, they cried to their
people, "Do not resist, even if the bayonet is at your breast."
Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata stood up and defied Governor and Council
after Wairau, threatening massacre. Te Whiti and Tohu, preaching peace,
were chained and cast into prison for sixteen months. Then right and
justice prevailed, and they were liberated in February, 1883, and given
reserves of land. Te Whiti lived until November, 1907, in prosperity
with his people at Parihaka, enjoying that peace which he had always
done his best to promote.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SUN OF PEACE
The colonists had won, and men asked one another how they would use
their power. But we who have followed their story know that they
had not waited for victory to force them to a generous attitude. We
remember how in the very teeth of strife they held out their hands and
lifted four of their Maori brethren to places by their side in the
Colonial Parliament; so it is not surprising to learn that, almost
before the blasts of war had done blowing in their ears, they made room
in the Upper House for two chiefs of high rank, who were thenceforth
to bear the title of "Honourable," and be for life members of the
Legislative Council.
If that were not enough to show the cordial mind of the white men to
their brown brothers, the Maori prisoners taken in war were treated
for the most part as political offenders and, after a very short
period of restraint, allowed to return to their tribes without the
exaction of further penalty. Exceptions were naturally made in cases
where individuals were proved guilty of actual crime; but, otherwise,
everything was done to show the desire of the colony to soften as far
as possible all painful memories, to erase all bitterness from the
record of events, and to begin the new chapter of their history upon a
page inscribed with the great words of a great man, "Liberty and Union,
now and for ever, one and inseparable."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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