Gilbert Mair Junior
Being raised amongst Maori his son Gilbert was a fluent Maori speaker. During the attack on Auckland by Maniapoto and Ngati Haua in 1863, Gilbert junior joined the Forest Rangers under Jackson, as an ensign or trainee officer. He took part in the Waikato campaign against the rebel kingitanga forces and became famous in late 1863 for entering into discussions with the rebels during the Battle of Orakau under a flag of truce. The government forces were aware that a number of women and children were in the stronghold and Mair pleaded with the rebels to let them out but they refused and shot Mair in the shoulder. Mair later became and officer and lead the hunt for Te Kooti between 1868 and 1872 which led to the defeat of Te Kooti's guerillas. Mair was able to convince Tuhoe ringatu, who had been part of Te Kooti's band, to lead the government forces to Te Kooti's secret camp in the Ureweras. Mair later became a government officer trusted with establishing friendly relationships with Rewi Maniapoto in the 1880s.
Read more about this topic: Gilbert Mair (trader)
Famous quotes containing the words gilbert, mair and/or junior:
“It’s very hot,
And weighs a lot,
As many a guardsman knows,
So off that helmet goes.”
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“And she straiked me three times o’er her knee;
She changed me again to my ain proper shape,
And I nae mair maun toddle about the tree.”
—Unknown. Alison Gross. . .
Oxford Book of Ballads, The. James Kinsley, ed. (1969)
“The junior senator from Wisconsin, by his reckless charges, has so preyed upon the fears and hatreds and prejudices of the American people that he has started a prairie fire which neither he nor anyone else may be able to control.”
—J. William Fulbright (b. 1905)