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Tamihana was touched by this appeal, and made another attempt to induce Rangitaake to submit his claim to arbitration. The chief refused, and the king-maker was driven to the conviction that his power was beginning to decline. It was passing into the hands of the more violent Rewi, who longed for war with the pakeha as keenly as some of the Taranaki settlers longed for war with the Maori.
It was Rewi who flung, from a besieged pa, the defiant message that the Maoris would never surrender, that they would fight "For ever, For ever, For ever!" I am inclined to believe that he put himself at the head of the raid upon Sir John Gorst, in order to be able to protect him from any hurt,
We fight right on, for ever!" So unexpected and amazing was their charge, that they would have got away with but slight loss had they not, when outside the lines, been headed and confronted by a force of colonial rangers and cavalry. Half of them fell; the remainder, including the celebrated war-chief Rewi, got clear away.
Be that as it might, Rewi and the raiders were determined that Sir John Gorst should depart the 'king country. They pronounced this verdict upon him with every ceremony, and his answer was equally determined.
It was: 'Nothing but a direct order from Sir George Grey shall induce me to leave my post. At that, Rewi granted time for a reference to the Governor, who instructed Sir John Gorst to withdraw. Had it been otherwise; or had the order lagged, Sir John would most likely have shared the fate of 'The Lonely Sparrow on the House Top! The sword proved mightier than the pen in that duel.
Sir John Gorst paid no heed to the threats against him, and next, there arrived a band of Maoris who uprooted his printing machinery. He happened to be from home at the time, and when he returned it was to find this disorder, and the Maoris in possession. 'The scheme thus to dispossess him and the "Lonely Sparrow on the House Top," had been headed by the chief Rewi.
'We should lie together, Rewi also held, 'as being the two people who brought peace to New Zealand. Sir George's voice shook when telling this proof of Maori affection, as his eyes turned dim at reading an address sent him, to fabled London, by the men of that race in the Cook Islands. 'Our word to you, O Grey, they saluted him, 'is this.
"'Oer yw'r Eira ar Eryri, o'ryw Ar awyr i rewi; Oer yw'r ia ar riw 'r ri, A'r Eira oer yw 'Ryri. "'O Ri y'Ryri yw'r oera, o'r ar, Ar oror wir arwa; O'r awyr a yr Eira, O'i ryw i roi rew a'r ia. "'Cold is the snow on Snowdon's brow It makes the air so chill; For cold, I trow, there is no snow Like that of Snowdon's hill.
'We are about the same age, Rewi imparted to Sir George Grey in New Zealand, 'and when I go, your time will be approaching. Sir George recalled this, on hearing that Rewi had been gathered to his Maori fathers. He was buried in a grave which 'The Governor' had selected, near the spot where the last fight took place between the Maoris and the English.
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