The Fox Boy

There had been a history of mutual kidnapping between the Maori and the English people in New Zealand dating back to the 1760s. In 1869, after an English defeat in battle in the Taranaki forest, one more Maori boy, aged five, was captured. This little boy was to be adopted by the Prime Minister and educated to become a lawyer and an 'English gentleman'. The small captive was photographed, just a few days after his kidnap, in a studio in the town of Wanganui. He is wearing a fine...
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There had been a history of mutual kidnapping between the Maori and the English people in New Zealand dating back to the 1760s. In 1869, after an English defeat in battle in the Taranaki forest, one more Maori boy, aged five, was captured. This little boy was to be adopted by the Prime Minister and educated to become a lawyer and an 'English gentleman'. The small captive was photographed, just a few days after his kidnap, in a studio in the town of Wanganui. He is wearing a fine English suit and boots, with a vase of flowers and a weighty book on the ebony stand beside him. It was Walker's question, 'Well, I wonder what happened to you?' which set him off on this remarkable quest. Not only did he follow Ngataua Omahuru (or little 'William Fox') out of the forest and into the drawing rooms of Wellington and London, but he found himself on a personal journey which converged unexpectedly with the material he uncovered.