Ada: Bryce assembles nearly sixteen hundred men. And he tries to black out the news, bans reporters, tells telegraph operators not to send press dispatches.69
Theo: Did it work?
Ada: No. A Lyttelton Times correspondent, Croumbie-Brown, an American Civil War veteran, slips past the cordon in the dark and gets inside the pā. So we have eyewitnesses.69
Theo: Good. Take me to the morning.
Ada: The day before, Te Whiti spoke for hours, forbidding any weapon. He told them, though the lions rage, still I am for peace. At five a.m. the troops strike camp. Bryce rides at the front; accounts differ, but tradition has him on a white horse.89
Theo: And then the children.
Ada: The children, the bread, and behind them, between two thousand and twenty-five hundred people sitting in silent rows on the marae. No shouting, no weapons. Croumbie-Brown wrote it was profound silence.69
Theo: What do the soldiers even do with that?
Ada: Major Parris rides up and reads the Riot Act in English, an interpreter puts it in Māori: disperse within the hour. Nobody moves. And Bryce doesn't even wait the hour. At ten he sends the arrest party in with revolvers and handcuffs.9
Theo: They go straight for the two leaders.
Ada: The crowd parts silently, opens a path to them. When they lay hands on Te Whiti, he stands and says, we look for peace and we find war. Tohu tells the people, let not the hand of anyone be raised to kill. We will sit on the land, and if taken away we will return.79
Theo: Sit on the land, and return. That's the whole philosophy in one line.