Pages From The Past
pp. 28-31 · Read in the full issue
The Affair of Henry Worth Pearse
By Julian Hillas
Ttbnry Worth Pearse Went To
** Mangaia at the beginning of 1889 as factor for Messrs. Donald & Edenborough, then the leading business house in Raro tonga.
Forty-six years ago, almost on the heels of the declaration of a Protectorate, the Cook Islands were still ruled by their own Arikis. For the few British subjects who resided there, other than in Rarotonga itself, law and order were represented by the casual calls of a warship from Fiji, headquarters of the Pacific Naval Station.
The Native Courts were a travesty of justice—as, indeed, could only be expected from a system by which not only the police force, but the Judges themselves, depended for their pay upon a percentage of the fines which the latter levied! The laws, based with little alteration on the original code framed by John Williams in 1826, were calculated moreover to squeeze the last drops of spontaneous hilarity from a naturally joyous and light-hearted people.
From one of the few extant copies I have selected the following at random: No. 13. If a man play cards he is to pay $2 in cash and $8 in trade.
No. 14. For the Village. If a man puts his arm round a woman in the road at night, and he has a torch in his hand, he shall go free. If no torch, he is to be fined $1 cash and $9 trade.
No. 20. Tattooing Love-marks. The man who does this on a woman, or the woman who does it on a man, is to be fined $2 cash and $l3 trade.
No. 21. Sabbath Observance. No one to go to another village on Sunday with out good reason. Fine $1 cash and $4 trade.
No. 23. Taking Women Inland. If a man take a woman to the mountains for bad purposes, he is to be fined $l5 cash and in addition his other fines for forni cation or adultery.
No. 24. Crying after a Dead Woman.
If a man do this, and he and the woman were not relations, or if he wear mourn ing for her, he is to be fined $l5. (This is taken to be proof of guilt during life.) And in Mangaia the omnipotent London Missionary Society stood firmly rooted to see that the backslider slid forward, the loose fish taughtened up and the black sheep dyed its wool as rapidly as possible.
For twenty years the Rev. George Augus tus Harris had been the absolute and un checked ruler of the island, and under his uncrowned sovereignty (to quote the words of Mr. F. J. Moss, first British Resident appointed by the N.Z. Government to Rarotonga) “a most narrow and tyrannical system of church discipline had been established. No one, unless a member of the church, could hold office, and expulsion involved civil disabilities of the most severe kind. There was no regard for personal liberty, nor any pretence to such a re gard.”
The Mangaians, cowed by, and obedient to this hierocracy, had been taught that the presence of any additional Europeans, and particularly those of the trader class, would result in the demoralisation of their little community and the overthrow of their church. And, believing these things, they had passed a law forbidding business outside of a market-house, which was only opened on the rare occasions of a visiting vessel.
It was, therefore, surprising that no overt opposition was offered to Pearse’s arrival, and that he was able immediately to start trading.
Early in July, 1890, he commenced build ing a house and store on a piece of ground which he had rented for this purpose with
the full knowledge and consent of the authorities, including the Rev. Mr. Harris, whose signature was appended to the On the 16th. he was ordered to stop work, at the same time being informed that any person found buying or selling produce in his store would be fined $lOO. Continuing work, he was again ordered, by nine Judges, to cease construction. Pearse then applied to the ruling Ariki, King John, and was told by him not to take any notice of the interdict, since he had not authorised it. Work then continued smoothly until
the 28th, when the native carpenters em ployed on the building were heavily fined and suspended from church membership.
King John himself was also fined and de posed, likewise Ata, Pearse’s landlord, and several others.
On August 25th, the steamer Little Agnes called, and Pearse began landing goods consigned to him by Donald & Eden borough. In the middle of these operations the native boatmen refused to handle the remainder of his cases, and such as had already been brought ashore were taken back to the ship. Pearse, worried by this unexpected and unexplained move, re turned to the store where towards evening he was burst in upon by Ringiringi, one of the Judges and, being seized by the arms, was forcibly marched down to the landing place and thrust into a waiting canoe, which took him out to the Little Agnes.
No time was given him to collect his papers or take even a rough inventory of his stock, which he valued at $lO,OOO.
One of the first official duties of the
newly appointed British Resident at Raro tonga was to investigate the charges made by Pearse against the Mangaians.
Travelling in the trading-schooner Torea, Mr. Moss, accompanied by Mr. Exham, manager for Donald & Edenborough, and by the Rev. James Chalmers (afterwards murdered in Papua), reached Mangaia on December 5, 1890.
A meeting of the chiefs was immediately convened.
Pearse, who had come over specially from Rarotonga, was also present and complained that the Rev. Harris had countenanced the hostile acts of the na tives by suspending from church member ship those who had assisted him, whereas none concerned in the outrage upon him self had been punished.
Pearse’s general allegations were ad mitted by the natives, although they em phatically declared that they had not used force, but had expelled him in the gentlest manner possible, two of them leading him away with their arms about his shoulders, one of whom, after putting him aboard the Little Agnes, had cried over and sym pathised with him. Pearse conceded this, but added that he had had to go,’ all the same! ' r In justification of their action, the Man gaians pleaded that Pearse had frequently broken the law and irritated them to the use of extreme measures. At the same time, however, they readily stated that they never had, and had not now, any personal ill-feeling towards him.
But Mr. Moss was not impressed by these counter charges, and attributed the real reason for Pearse’s expulsion to a de termination on the part of the Mangaians not to have any traders on the island, a determination in which it was evident that they had the support of Mr. Harris.
At this stage it was proposed to adjourn for the day, whereupon Meringi Tangi, a local orator of some note, sprang to his feet and said that what had been spoken was sufficient, they would not add to it or come again on the morrow. They did not want, nor would they have, any store on the island.
Mr. Moss then closed the meeting with a final warning on no account to expel an other foreign resident, since he had heard rumours that some of those present con templated sending away the two traders still on the island, a Mr. G. Brown, who had formerly been in Pearse’s employ but now acted as caretaker of the abandoned store, and Mr. Charles Ward, an agent for the “Societe Commerciale” in Tahiti. The latter had only been in Mangaia a couple of months, during which he had been un able to obtain either land or a building in which to conduct his business.
Leaving Mangaia the following after noon, Mr. Moss was unable to take any further steps in the matter until the middle cf 1891, when he despatched a let ter by the returning Mangaian members of the Federal Parliament, informing those who had been prominent in Pearse’s expul sion that he was now about to adjudicate and inviting them to send a representative to speak on their behalf. On June 10, word having been received that those concerned would not listen to the letter or come to Rarotonga, Mr. Moss proceeded to judg ment, taking care to award only arrwnnts of which the justice could not be ques tioned.
To Donald & Edenborough for Pearse’s salary •••.* For salary of G. Brown & J. Craig $870 For expenses of reshipping goods $0o0 For Special Messenger to Mangaia $030 Fine for expelling a British subject $1,000 Total *2. 390
The fine, currency then being the Chile dollar, amounted to a little over £350, a substantial enough sum to an isolated com munity with restricted trading facilities, although Mr. Moss intimated that if they showed repentance and paid for the loss which they had caused others, he would take upon himself the responsibility of freeing them from the fine of $l,OOO.
But on the return of the Court Messen ger Raea, it was learned that the Man gaians had received the judgment in an ugly spirit, the chief Ngariu of Tamarua shouting “Moss is not the ruler of my land. ... Take back your papers to him!”
Raea also reported that the chiefs had retired to the missionary’s house to hold a meeting.
It was therefore in anticipation of trouble that Mr. Moss convened a further meeting on the occasion of his next visit in August, 1891, almost exactly a year after the date of Pearse’s expulsion. The chiefs were still in a sullen and resentful mood, those belonging to the dominant or mission party at first refusing to attend. This fac tion, having with them the all-powerful Judges and Police, had created, by a sys tem of ruthless fines, a state of terror which was manifest in every action of the people.
However, at the last moment, they put in an appearance, and, with the rapid change of front so characteristic of the Polynesian, discovered that they had been misled. A general reconciliation followed, the entire company eventually filing out after shaking hands and vowing that there would be no more trouble in Mangaia.
Only Ngariu, the most influential chief in the island, absolutely declined to pay his share of the fine. The schooner was due to leave on the 25th for Rarotonga and, on the morning of that day, Ngariu being still obdurate, Mr. Harris took matters in hand and by noon the Chief’s submission was ob tained unconditionally. A final meeting was held, at which $2BB were at once sub scribed as a first instalment.
A year later the balance of the fine was paid, Mr. Moss having remitted the major item of $l,OOO.
In reporting the whole affair to the Gov ernor of New Zealand, Mr. Moss stated that on one point the Mangaians were unanimous—namely, that had the Rev. Mr.
Harris seen fit to use his power, he could have at any time prevented the trouble.
In the same report the following pas sage occurs: “The suspension from church membership has been freely exercised and has tended to embitter the quarrel. I venture to suggest that the sooner this custom is allowed to drop into disuse, where temporal matters are concerned, the better it will be for the peace of the church and the people. The expelled are known as tutai auri —dirt from the prisons. Ob viously, all this must be changed, and per manently changed, if civil government is to be successfully established.”