Again Te Kooti insists that he had wished to go in peace
to Tūranga (Gisborne district) after escaping from exile in
the Chathams, but the bullets of others (Māori and Pākehā at
Paparatu and elsewhere) had made this impossible.
Reginald Biggs, the magistrate at Gisborne, demanded that
the escaped prisoners surrender their arms, but they
refused. They said they sought only to go peaceably inland
to Waikato. Te Kooti wanted no fight with the government,
for he considered God had restored the people to the land of
their ancestors. War began when Biggs blocked their passage
at Paparatu.....
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