One night on this trip with her father, there was a shout from some enemy marauders, and all Ngakuku’s men quickly got away. But Tarore didn’t hear them and when the enemy came upon her, they killed her with their clubs and then took her book and made off. None of them could read and they didn’t really know what to do with it.

When they arrived at their home village at Rotorua, one of the captive slaves there could read. So he picked it up and would read it out loud to anyone who would listen. After some weeks, the message of the book started to work on the chief who had killed Tarore. “Those are the words of Truth”, he said, “It is teaching us that we must only do good to others. I have not done good. I must go and tell Ngakuku what I have learned”.

He made his way through the bush trails and over the hills to Ngakuku’s village. When the men of the village saw him coming, they said to Ngakuku, “Here is our enemy. We must kill him and take utu (revenge) for our little Tarore”.

“No, no” said Ngakuku, “That is not right either. That is not the way of Tarore’s book. Let us hear what he has to say”.

So the two chiefs met together, and made peace with each other. They had both come to know the One True God that Tarore’s little book had told them about, and it took all the hatred away from them.                                                                                                                                       But Tarore’s little book had not finished its work yet. The slave at Rotorua was set free to go back to his own place which was many miles to the south, and when he went he took Tarore’s book with him. After all, no-one else could read it. Once again that little book did its work. As the slave read out loud to the people around the fire, two more young warriors heard what it said and believed it. They talked together and said that it wasn’t good to keep these words to themselves.

“Let’s go and tell the southern tribes these words of the One True God”, they said. So they asked for the little book and paddled off down through Cook Strait, and along the eastern coast of New Zealand’s South Island eastern coastline.    Everywhere they pulled over to stay, they would read the words of this book of Luke. Many of the Maori people believed their words, and when the white missionaries went to those areas many years later, they found the people were already believing about the One True God.

It all started with one little girl who wanted to learn to read. What seemed to be a terrible tragedy when little Tarore was killed, God turned into a wonderful blessing….Tarore went to be with Him and many hundreds of people came to hear about Him as a result. It just shows that we are never too little to tell others about the Lord Jesus. Tarore’s grave is still able to be seen in a paddock near Highway 27 just out of Matamata, Waikato….it has a plaque with her name on it.