The meeting of Josiah Firth with Te Kooti

Josiah Clifton Firth stands in the centre by his horse, surrounded by large numbers of Māori. A monument to Tāmihana Tarapīpipi Te Waharoa is at right, in the direction of the Wairiri waterfall. Te Kooti met Firth while visiting the Waikato village of Te Tāpapa, the home of the Ngāti Raukawa prophet Hākaraia, in early 1870.

Te Kooti repeated an earlier pledge that if ‘left alone’ he would ‘remain at peace with all’. When Firth travelled to Auckland to plead Te Kooti’s case he was dismissed as ‘that meddlesome sweep’ by Premier William Fox.

See an enlarged version of this image here (Alexander Turnbull Library).