Te Kopara 36
[3] Te Kopara, Number 36, Gisborne, 15 October, 1916.
‘Iti te Kopara, kai takirikiri ana i runga i te Kahikatea.’
Although the Bellbird is small, he plucks at the Kahikatea. [cf Nga Pepeha 908]
MAORI COUNCILS.
Parliament has passed an amendment to the Maori Council Act 1900 that affects Maori Councils. It provides that all present members are to stand down. The Government is henceforth to choose the members for each Maori Council with one representing the Government and seven Maori. This will appear in the Gazette and you will find further explanations there.
One reason for this alteration to our Maori Council Act is that the members have been weak in using the power given to them. They were very active at the beginning with beneficial results, but as time went on they became weaker. Councils are still a good thing, but they have ineffective because of laziness.
WAR NEWS.
The English have invented a remarkable thing now, their fighting vehicle with a machine-gun mounted on top, and called a ‘kura’ (tank). The exterior is all of steel so that it is strong and it is carried on tracks over its wheels when it moves. Therefore that ‘tank’ can go without stopping, even, when it reaches the enemy’s defences, crossing over them, and it is the case that whatever fence it comes to it smashes it down. The German machine-guns are not able to shake it.
Two German submarines are known to be in American waters and they have now sunk four ships. Early this month six English cargo ships were sunk off the coast of America, and some Dutch and Norwegian ships have been sunk by the Germans.
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In the recent battle at Gueudecourt the English army was not able to advance because of the German machine-gun fire. Then the ‘tank’ arrived at the German defences and crossed over. It was fired upon from all sides but the ‘tank’ took no notice of the German machine-guns, and the soldiers following behind captured 400 Germans. That being done, the ‘tank’ went to other places to look for Germans. When it arrived at a parapet the Germans climbed up and surrounded it in an effort to capture the ‘tank.’ They rejected the use of a bomb. They slid about on the back of the ‘tank’ and beat it with the stocks of their rifles to see if they could break the ‘tank’. When the soldiers arrived they found 300 dead Germans heaped up at the sides of the ‘tank.’
The fighting vehicles may be used at other places. But we have written above about the work of those tanks to show the ingenuity of the English in avoiding the loss of too many soldiers in attacks. Because the Allies are attacking and advancing upon Germany, Germany’s ability to attack is reduced and it has realised how many of its soldiers have died. In some places where the soldiers are unable to attack the ‘tanks’ have gone to clear the way with the soldiers following after. Without the tanks men would die during a short time and the same would be the case with the Germans. Now England has sent to Russia 100 ‘tanks.’ They are 25 feet long, 10 feet wide, 12 feet high, and weigh 30 tons.
The German jellyfish continue to dive under the water and many ships have been sunk. Early this month the cargo ship Franconia was torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea. It belonged to the Cunard Company. However there were no troops on board. Three hundred and two sailors survived; twelve were lost. Three Norwegian ships and one belonging to Russia have seen sunk by the Germans.
The New Zealand soldiers took part in the storming of a German emplacement at Flers. The Maori contingent (M[aori] P[ioneeer] B[attalion]) was highly praised. They said that the new enemy emplacements were taken by them because the Maori did not take long to dig and improve the breastworks and other things.
We are receiving many accounts of the bravery of New Zealand at this place in the vicinity of the Somme. At that time they had been 23 whole days in the heat of battle and causing the enemy to retreat.
[5]
Maori for throwing bombs.
In a speech Sergeant-Major J W Singleton of Waerenga Valley said: ‘Maori soldiers are very knowledgeable and brave when it comes to throwing bombs [?hand grenades] at the enemy defences. They have no fear for themselves even though they have to cut through the barbed wire fences in front of the enemy emplacements. Their bravery was seen when they were in the group which was throwing bombs and their honours are shared by New Zealand and the Australian soldiers as well. Sergeant-Major Middleton was in the Maori Contingent in France. In September he came home because he was ill.
Roumania.
Since Roumania joined the Allies, Germany has devoted its power to defeating it and all the borders of Roumania are full of its soldiers and those of Bulgaria. So Roumania is retreating before the strength of its enemies but it will come back because it has arranged that nothing is left in its towns for the enemy. The part of Roumania that has been taken is Constanza. When the news arrived in Germany that the Germans had taken this Roumanian fort there were celebrations throughout Germany, flags were flown, the Kaiser said that schools should take a holiday, and the newspapers said that Roumania’s defeat was a punishment for boasting that it would fight against Germany. The Tsar of Russia has sent a message to the King of Roumania saying not to be troubled by the enemy even if other places are taken. Perhaps Russia will come with its hosts to help Roumania and to stop the enemy and retrieve the places that have been taken by Germany, and to rebuild Roumania.
[Casualties]
According to the Swiss the number of Germans who have fallen from July to September is 1½ million. Half a million fell in the West (France, etc.); 600,000 in the East (Russia, etc.) ; 150,000 in Roumania; 300,000 in Italian areas; and 80,000 on the Macedonian front.
The number of Austrians who fell on 10th – 11th of this month was 40,000. It is the Italians who are engaged in battering the Austrians now.
[6]
The Greeks
The Kingdom of Greece appears to be staggering with the head going to one side and the body and the legs going to the other side while the world looks on. Russia has said that it would not have anything to do with the Greeks and would not waste time upon them.
King Constantine has put much effort into choosing his Government but the Ministers do not agree with his idea that Greece should remain neutral and not participate in the fighting. Many of his Ministers have resigned. Nor do the people agree with their king; rather they wish to enter the war on the side of the Allies.
Now the Greek fleet has come out on the side of the people and the Greek steamship companies have offered their ships to the organiser.
When the main organisers of the people’s side arrived at Mitilini they were welcomed by the people. After the speeches the people sang their chant:
‘Oh, what is this man about,
who would deliver his people to death?’
Then they adopted the attitude of their king, staggering about on their legs.
[Submarines]
Those people without submarines are making rapid efforts to get them since Germany floated them. Indeed submarine U53 is completely new. It is all white and there is no way of detecting it when it has dived off foreign lands. However it is widely thought that they are being built there and that the Germans on the coast of America are secretly building radio stations so that they can be continually in contact with those submarines.
The New York Times newspaper says: German submarines have entered some seas to disrupt the voyages of cargo ships travelling to their own ports on the coast and have sunk one of their ships. It is time America gave thought to breaking the bond between the two of them.
America is acknowledging that a German submarine has arrived there now. The captain says that it can stay under for more than three days and is sometimes 200 feet below the surface. They have plenty of food and there are 30 men on board.
[Zeppelins]
From April to October 5 German ‘flying birds’ [Zeppelins] were destroyed over England.
[7]
The Terrible Wickedness of Germany.
As a result of the exchange of prisoners between the allies and Germany and the observations of some of the neutral nations we have become aware of how the Germans have treated the prisoners they have taken. The people who have been treated worst by the Germans are the French prisoners. They have secretly given them fluids such as those given for smallpox, that is, they have injected part of the body and so given them that disease so that it develops and spreads to other prisoners. More than 50,000 French prisoners and 1000 from other nations have had that and other diseases inflicted on them by the Germans. As many as 1300 French and 1000 English have been sent by Germany into Swiss territory when they have not been able to treat that disease. Many have died and many are close to death. The French are working on them in their isolation hospitals in Lyons. The Germans have gone about that dreadful work and now the Swiss doctors have uncovered it. It was being done in the coal mines, salt workings, steel works, and the trenches.
One way in which the Germans punish prisoners is to bring them over burning ovens and leave them there for two hours. Some of the English have been shot.
One of the prisoners who has returned said that in the Munster prison camp 24,000 prisoners live in shelters dug into the soil, and those who have tents are not protected from the rain and the mud. Those who are at the point of death long to have their faces covered with the ragged cloths lying in the squalor, and the English are the worst in coping with this camp and they have been afflicted by many illnesses. The doctors have not had the stamina to stay long in the prison camps. Such are most of the wicked actions of Germany we know about at present.
[Ammunition]
News from Italy is that it is still fighting strongly. It is producing more ammunition now than when the fighting started. There are 700 ammunition factories working day and night, and they are staffed by 420,000 men and 45,000 women.
[Determination]
The Allied armies are determined to fight on and to be prepared for the coming Winter so that though there be mud and mire and the land be covered with snow the war will go on. They are working hard now to keep themselves warm.
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MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.
In his speech to Parliament the Secretary for War, Lloyd-George, said: The number of German prisoners held by the English is 36,894 soldiers and 2,106 sailors. The English troops taken by the Germans number 29,693 soldiers and 408 sailors.
When the Dutch ship sailing from America was being sunk, the Captain said that his ship was a special one carrying homeless people to Holland. The Captain of the submarine said, ‘I don’t know about that. My orders are to sink all ships sailing in the shipping routes to English coastal towns.’ But the German said that he would purchase the ship and its cargo.
The Norwegians have declared: ‘After 20th of this month no submarine of the warring parties is to enter its territorial waters.’
We have received news of a brave young man who fights in the air; his name is Guynemer, he is French, he has just turned 21, and he is an expert pilot. During their encounter with the Germans he destroyed three aeroplanes in three minutes. He has destroyed many German planes. That young man has been awarded the highest medals of honour.
A man called Israel Webber has recently died. His birth certificate reveals that he was 114 years of age. He was born in Vilna, Russia, and had been in Canada for fifteen years before he died. He still remembered the time when Napoleon entered the old Russian town of Moscow. He married four times and his last wife is now 70. He has two nineteen year-old grandchildren.
There are 8,000,000 Russian soldiers in training camps besides those soldiers who are fighting.
A woman in Serbian army uniform with two stars on her arm, the badge of a sergeant, went on board a ship sailing to Thessalonika. She explained to the Captain that she was returning to her fighting unit in Serbia. Her name was Flora Sandes and she was Irish. She was caught up in the fighting in Serbia and went into one of the hospitals. Afterwards she enrolled as a soldier. She was involved in all the ongoing battles until there was a battle lasting two months when they were driven back to Durazzo and this woman was one of the brave remnant of Serbians who survived. She was given a holiday and went to London, and now she has returned to her Serbian regiment.
[9]
The Honourable Dr Pomare attended a hui of the Maori of Taihape which was concerned with the idea of giving land on which Maori soldiers could settle when they returned from the war. A man called Toiti Pohe stood and gave 2000 acres of his land for the young Maori when they returned. We salute you, friend, for this noble gesture. Some other land is being given by Maori but not all the people concerned were present. It is Ohaupo Block of 20,000 acres.
In formation arrived during the second week of this month about Italian efforts. The number of Austrians captured since 6th August in the vicinity of Julian, 13 miles from Trieste, was 30,881.
The Bishop of Auckland said in his speech that the breakdown of New Zealand soldiers from each Church who have gone to the war are:
Church of England 59% (approximately)
Scottish Church 26%
Roman Church 13%
Wesleyan Church 5%
Baptist Church 1%
Congregational Church ½%
Salvation Army 1%
Jewish Congregations 1/9%
Other Churches 1½%
Te Heuheu Tukino, King Tobias, and all Ngati Tuwharetoa have set apart for the Maori soldiers when they return from the war the Ohauke Block of 25,301 acres. We salute you, Ngati Tuwharetoa, for this noble gesture towards our young men engaged in this war. Perhaps some other tribes will have the same thought.
When Romania entered this war instructions were given that no intoxicating liquor was allowed within his kingdom. Romania is following the good example of the Kingdom of Russia which is now ‘dry’ of liquor, and we see the advances it is making in this war. It is making strong attacks on the enemy and advancing in all its activities.
The American newspapers say that the authorities in Germany have requested the King of Belgium to arrange a peace with the Allies on these conditions: Belgium and Serbia are to be restored; Lorraine is to be returned to France; and it will make reparations for all the damage done to parts of Belgium.
More than 1000 of the tram drivers in London are now women.
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There is strong pressure to enact the Conscription Act in the land of the Irish.
Although Ngati Tuwharetoa have allocated land for their young men returning from the war, they have also set out a proposal to erect a Memorial Stone to those who died on the marae of war. The Public Trustee is holding £800 of their money which would go towards this.
Apirana Ngata, Taare Parata, and Tau Henare are considering supporting this proposal and urging their tribes to help with this project and to collect £2000 towards it. It should be erected in front of Parliament House.
You will soon to hear the voice of the newspaper named Te Manukura singing on our marae. It is being floated to us by a friend who is attempting to follow in the footsteps of the many voices that are no longer heard. Your trembling voice is sweet to the ear, it satisfies the heart, and however you spread your wings, with me you will go everywhere feeding as you go on the marae of our people. Welcome.
In a judgement in Rotorua a man called Mita Paupopoki was fined twenty pounds plus costs for transgressing the law not to shout drinks in hotels.
These are the numbers of casualties amongst the New Zealand soldiers from 27th September to 20th October: Killed in action, 1159; died of wounds, 333; wounded, 5006. Total: 6498.
From 25th of this month a law comes into force closing hotels from 6 o’clock in the evening in the southern part of Australia, that is, in Victoria. The only place that will be open is Parliament.
Most of the wounded soldiers from the Dominion are now being cared-for in England. Some have married and some have married the nurses who have cared for them. It is thought that those Australian soldiers who have married will not have to pay fares for their wives when they return home. One of those wounded soldiers had 35 girls ask to marry him and it was only when he said that he was married and had children that the requests stopped. Some of these are Maori soldiers too.
There have been no sightings of Germans on sea or land since many of the ships of Norway and of some of the other neutral countries have sunk those submarines. It has flown its Zeppelin close by on the north coast of Holland where it dropped its bombs on the town of Gorinchem; it is the case that since the tanks have been shooting this bird has stayed away.
[11]
When Mr Massey and Mr Ward arrived at the meeting of the supreme Parliament
Mr Massey said that New Zealand was still holding Samoa against the Germans and had claimed it for the Empire but that our intention is to keep it under our own jurisdiction.
Those areas of New Zealand in which liquor has not been sold during the last twelve months – Clutha, Mataura, Oamaru, Ashburton, Bruce, Invercargill and Masterton - have a combined population of 160,000; the number of arrests for drunkenness as 442. The total population of Gisborne, an area that permits the sale of liquor, is 14,000; 449 drunkards have been arrested.
The American Secretary of State, Mr Lansing, has said that America will not permit German submarines that have come into its waters to cause trouble to break the law. Until now there have been no German violations of the law.
Although many Germans were seized in Canada at the beginning of the war there are still some spies secretly at work who have not been discovered. Recently three German spies were arrested; they had disguised themselves as religious sisters. One day these ‘sisters’ went to dinner at a restaurant. They sat there for a long time and some of the patrons observed them, noting the large hands, their heaviness, their hairiness. They were arrested. When the ‘sisters’ were searched many informative documents were found intended for Germany. Then the three ‘sisters’ were shot.
THE ROLL OF HONOUR
Killed in Action: Lance-Corporal T Erihana; Sergeant R Tapihana; T A Kumeroa; H Karapaina.
Died of Wounds: Kawira Matana; Timoko (in Auckland Hospital); Lance-Corporal W P Houia.
Wounded: Captain R Dansey; 2nd Lieutenant J J O’Neill; W Paora; Kini Rapona; Paora Te Riri; Captain J D C Duncan; Sergeant T Korimete; Privates Wiremu, Te Reinga Tooke, W H Rangiao, H Smith, P O Meihana, D White, H Sullivan, R Wairau, R Graham; Sergeant W R Peneti; Corporal M Hale.
Minor Injuries, still in camp: Privates T Peneha; H Tauhou; R Te Paa.
Died in England: Kingi Hamana.
[12]
RULES OF THE PAPER.
1. Te Kopara is published monthly.
2. The subscription for the paper is five shillings (5/-) a year paid by postal note or stamps.
3. Anyone wishing to take Te Kopara should send the money with the covering letter.
4. Articles are welcome from all parts of the country, but the Editor reserves the right to decide on what to print. Write clearly.
5. Address all letters to:
Te Kopara,
Te Rau,
Gisborne.
A NOTICE
To those wanting a Prayer Book or Hymn Book. I now have plenty of books. The prices are:
Large, soft cover 2/6
Large, red cover 3/-
Large, hard cover 4/-
Large, superior cover 5/6
Small, soft cover 1/-
Small, red cover 1/6
Small, hard cover 2/6
Small, superior cover 3/6
Prayer Book with Hymns, soft cover 1/6
Prayer Book with Hymns, red cover 1/-
Prayer Book with Hymns, hard cover 3/-
Prayer Book with Hymns, superior cover 4/-
Prayer Book, New Testament and Hymns, red cover, 3/6
Prayer Book, New Testament and Hymns, superior cover, 5/6
Hymns 6d
Words for the Prayerful Heart 3d
I will pay the postage to send the books to you
H W Williams,
Naurea, Gisborne
People wanting a Bible or a New Testament should apply to the Bible Depository Sunday School Union, Auckland.
Bible, 2/6, 3/6, 4/6. Enclose a postage stamp for 1/-.
New Testament with explanatory headings. 2/6, 3/-, 4/6. Enclose a postage stamp for 3d.
Small New Testament with the Psalms. 2/-, 2/6, 3/-, 3/6, 4/-. Enclose a postage stamp for 3d.
Printed and published by H W Williams at Te Rau Printing Works, Berry Street, Gisborne, New Zealand.
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