East Coast Historical Records Excerpt
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INTRODUCTION.
In the fourth and fifth decades of the nineteenth century the portion of the coast of New Zealand extending from Hicks Bay to Wairoa in Hawke’s Bay, about 140 miles in length, and now comprised in the counties of Waiapu, Cook and Wairoa, was commonly known by the whalers and traders who frequented it as “The East Coast,” and this is the region with which the following reminiscences are more immediately connected. The district is very hilly, the ranges near the coast varying from 200 or 300 feet to an altitude of over 2000 feet, the highest point in this part of the island being Mount Hikurangi, which reaches nearly 6000ft. The population was to be found generally within a short distance of the coast, though in a few favourable localities it extended as far as 20 or 30 miles inland, the mountainous parts of the interior being altogether without inhabitants, except that there were fortified strongholds, in places difficult to access, to which people might retreat when hard-pressed by an enemy. According to the census of 1911 the native population of this district is 6586, but in the early part of last century there were probably at least four times as many. As an illustration we may note that the number of males above the age of fifteen in the whole of the district is now given as 2567, whereas in 1834 two pas in the Waiapu Valley, Rangitukia and Whakawhitira, taken together, were said to muster no less than 2560 fighting men.
In this, as in other parts of the country, the various tribes were very frequently at war either with one another or with distant tribes; feuds which involved the loss of many lives often deriving their origin from circumstances of the most trivial character. Cannibalism was no infrequent feature of these wars, the victors usually resorting to it as a method of emphasising their revenge. Large numbers, too, of the vanquished were carried off as slaves, many of whom were liable to be killed and eaten by the near relations of any chief of the conquering tribe who might have fallen in battle.
Owing to the general feeling of insecurity, the people of each locality lived in or near a pa, fortified with earthworks and stout palisading. It was a comparatively easy matter, therefore, in the early years of the Mission to get together five hundred or a thousand people, whereas now it is rarely possible to assemble more than 40 or 50, unless some special business has brought people together from a distance.
There is no obvious connection between the inter-tribal quarrels of the Maori people and the British penal settlements in Australasia; but nevertheless it is a fact that some of the Tasmanian convicts had no unimportant share in the circumstances which led immediately to the raids of the Ngapuhi of the Bay of Islands on the tribes of the East Coast. In
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the 1803 or 1804, as we learn from the Rev. S. Marsden, a brig called the Venus was taken possession of by the convicts at Port Dalrymple, in Tasmania, and was brought by them to New Zealand. Touching at the north point of the North Island they carried off two women, one of whom was a sister of a chief at the Bay of Islands, named Te Morenga, and the other a near relative of the celebrated warrior, Hongi. These women were afterwards landed by them, one near Tauranga and the other somewhere south of the East Cape, where they were ultimately killed and eaten by the people of those parts. Their relatives, on hearing of their fate, made enquiries, and when they had ascertained the facts determined to take their revenge. But, owing possibly to the urgency of matters nearer home, it was not until 1818 that any attempt was made to put their design into execution. In January of that year, Te Morenga set sail in a fleet of canoes with 400 men and he was followed in February by Hongi, who called on his way at Hauraki, where a chief named Te Haupa made up his force to 900. Both these parties were well supplied with fire-arms, the lack of which placed the Ngatiporou near the East Coast at a terrible disadvantage. These, conscious of their weakness were in great consternation, and took refuge in their fortified pas. They could not, however, hold out for long, the want of food and water soon compelling them to surrender. Large numbers were mercilessly slaughtered, and many, according to the custom of the time, were eaten by the victors. Of the number of the hilled there is no record, but the extent of the operations of the two expeditions may be inferred from the fact that they are stated to have taken back with them to the Bay of Islands about 2000 prisoners.*
Two years after this another expedition started from the Bay of Islands under under two chiefs named Te Wera, or Hauraki, and Pomare. Landing first at Te Kawakawa, at the south (mouth*) of the river Awatere between Hicks Bay and the East Cape, they took the strongly fortified pa on Te Whetu-matarau. From thence they proceeded to Waiapu and to various places along the coast as far as Nukutaurua, near Table Cape. On their return they carried off forty prisoners, including Te Whareumu, a chief of Nukutaurua, and Te Rangi-i-paea, a woman of rank from Tokomaru, whom Pomare took to wife.†
In 1823 a large force of Ngapuhi had been engaged in an attack on the Arawa tribe in the Bay of Plenty, and had taken the island of Mokoia in the Rotorua Lake, where a large number of the Arawa had taken refuge. Te Wera and Pomare, instead of returning home at once, proceeded to the eastward from Maketu, killing large numbers of people at various places along the coast as far as Whangaparaoa. From thence they paid a friendly visit to Hicks Bay and Waiapu, Pomare bringing his wife, Te Rangi-i-paea to visit her relatives. Pomare returned from Tokomaru, but Te Wera came on to Nukutaurua, bringing with him Te Wharemu, whom he restored to his own people. At this time Nukutaurua (or the Mahia Peninsula, as it is now commonly called), was the refuge of a large number of the people of Hawke’s Bay and of the coast to the south; Te Rauparaha, who, like the Ngapuhi chiefs had been able to procure large quantities of firearms, having driven the people northwards from Wairarapa. It will appear later on how, under the over-ruling providence of God, these sanguinary wars were made subservient to the extension of the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace.
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All the tribes in this district, having suffered so severely at the hands of the Ngapuhi, turned their attention, as soon as they had any respite, to the acquisition of firearms, that they might be in a position to defend themselves in future against any such attacks as they had recently experienced. Whaling ships appeared from time to time off the coast, the captains of which were always ready to purchase pigs and potatoes. The natives were equally ready to supply them if by this means they could procure muskets and ammunition. The visits, however, of the whaling ships were not very frequent, and a readier method of acquiring the coveted articles soon presented itself. The fibre of the phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax, the superior quality of which for the manufacture of ropes and cordage had been made known many years before by Sir Joseph Banks, came about that time to be in great demand. Mercantile firms in Sydney places agents in convenient positions to purchase the flax from the natives, and sent vessels from time to time to collect it from the various stations that it might be placed on the British market. The trade attained its greatest proportions in the year 1831, in which year 1062 tons were exported from Sydney, the Navy Board having contracted for the purchase of 800 tons at the rate of £41 15s per ton. The trade with the natives was a matter of barter, muskets and ammunition being the chief commodity received by them in exchange. The fibre in those days was all prepared by hand, and so eagerly did the people throw themselves into the business that, for several years, the cultivation of crops and other occupations were very seriously neglected. In the year 1830 Messrs. Montefiore and Co., of Sydney, placed agents in various parts of the country, supplying them with the needful stock-in-trade for the purchase of flax. One of these, John Williams Harris, was placed at Poverty Bay and was taken under the protection of a chief named Turangi. His occupation gave him great influence with the people, and he used to speak of himself as having been at that time “Monarch practically of all he surveyed.” The building in which he lived and stored his goods was of the same unsubstantial character as those which the natives occupied, but notwithstanding the eager demand which there was on all sides for the articles which he had to dispose of, the rights of property were thoroughly respected, nor had he ever any reason to complain of the treatment which he received at the hands of the people among whom he sojourned. They fully recognised the privilege which they enjoyed in having a “Pakeha” to trade with them, and were extremely careful not to do anything which might have the effect of driving him away even though he might have done what under different circumstances might have cost him his life. Turangi had a son about eight years old whom Harris saw one day beating his mother with a great stick. Shocked at such undutiful conduct he gave the boy a slight blow to make him desist. Upon this there arose an angry clamour from all sides in which no one joined more loudly than the boy’s mother. He had struck the chief’s son – an unpardonable offence. Harris listened to the volumes of wrath and indignation which were uttered by one and another, not knowing what his fate might be. After much steam had been blown off Turangi himself stood up and commented for some time on the gravity of the offence, concluding with a reference to the ignorance on the part of the Pakeha of the respect which was due to the son of a great chief. “What else”, he said, “could you expect from an ignorant Pakeha?” So the trouble ended.
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After the year 1831 the flax trade seems to have declined rapidly, and, in the course of a few years, to have altogether ceased. The trade, however, while it lasted, served to divert the attention of the natives from the grievances, real or imaginary, for which, according to their notions, it was incumbent on them to seek satisfaction from offending tribes. But these grievances came to the front again when the trade slackened, and probably assumed larger dimensions from the fact that the injured party was now well supplied with the weapons by which satisfaction might be obtained. There was at that time a feud of some standing between the Ngatiporou tribe of Waiapu and the Whanau-a-Apanui tribe which occupied the eastern portion of the Bay of Plenty. These people had been very severely handled a few years before by the Ngapuhi of the Bay of Islands under Pomare, and large numbers of them slaughtered. This circumstance would doubtless be regarded as an additional reason why the Ngatiporou with their recently acquired firearms should inflict upon them further punishment. But before any definite steps were taken an event occurred, the issues of which had an important bearing upon the introduction of Christianity.
An English whale ship, the “Elizabeth” commanded by Captain Black, appeared off the coast near the East Cape on April 1833. The natives, as usual, were eager to trade, and a canoe was soon alongside. While the canoe was making a trip to the shore a chief named Rukuata with seven other remained on board to await her return. In the meantime a strong breeze from the south sprang up, and Captain Black at once made sail for the Bay of Islands and landed his visitors at Rangihoua. The Ngapuhi chiefs in the neighbourhood looked upon the unfortunate men as fair game and were proceeding to appropriate them as slaves, when the missionaries interfered and succeeded in inducing the chiefs to allow them to be returned to their own homes in the schooner “Active” which belonged to the Mission. It was arranged that the Rev. W. Williams and Mr. T. Hamlin should accompany the natives on board the “Active”, and they set sail accordingly from Rangihoua on April 30th. After arriving within a few miles of their destination they were driven back by a violent gale from the south-east, and arrived at the Bay of Islands on May 8th, having several of their sails badly torn. Rukuata and his companions were then landed at Pahia to await a more favourable opportunity, and during the next eight months they received regular instruction from the missionaries. In the following December the schooner “Fortitude” was chartered for the twofold purpose of taking timber and stores to the newly-formed station at Puriri, on the Thames, and of restoring Rukuata and his companions to their homes, together with a number of others who had been carried off by Ngapuhi as slaves in former years. The Rev. W. Williams again took charge of the party and sailed on December 19th. Passengers and cargo having been landed at Puriri, Hicks Bay was reached on January 8th, 1834. To the great delight of the native passengers a party of people on shore were found to be their own relatives and friends. Those who had come in the “Fortitude” had much to tell their friends of their experiences at the Bay of Islands of the kind treatment which they had received from the missionaries. On the following day they travelled to Waiapu, stopping at Rangitukia, which was then a large pa said by the natives to contain as many as 560 fighting men, though on this occasion many of them were absent. Another pa, Whakawhitira, about ten miles further up the valley,
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was visited next day. Here there were about 1000 persons present, including about 400 children, but the pa was unusually large and was said to muster about 2000 fighting men. On Sunday, January 12th, Rukuata and his friends made arrangements for getting as many as possible of the people together at Rangitukia to witness a Christian service; and later in the day a service was held also at Whakawhitira, this being the first Sunday so observed in this district. Mr. Williams was much struck with the demeanour of the people and with the promising opening for missionary work which appeared to present itself, many of the people having expressed an earnest desire that Christian teachers should come to live among them.
Some three years after this a Ngapuhi chief who had returned from a sojourn in the East Cape district called on the Rev. W. Williams at Waimate, and asked how it was that no missionary was placed in that district where the people were all eager for Christian instruction, and had already begun to abstain from work on Sunday, and to worship the Christian’s God in intention at least, if not with much understanding. On enquiry it was ascertained that this state of things was owing to a Waiapu man named Taumatakura, who had been carried off by the Ngapuhi as a slave, and had lived with his master for some years at Waimate. There he had attended the mission school and had learned to read and write, though he had never shown any special interest in Christian instruction, not even having been a recognised catechumen. In December, 1833, when Rukuata and his companions were about to return to Waiapu, his master gave him his freedom and allowed him to join the party. After his arrival among his own people he began to impart to as many as were willing to learn as much of the new teaching as he was master of. His apparatus was one of the simplest description. He possessed some short prayers and hymns and a few texts of Scripture written on scraps of paper. Writing tablets were made of flat pieces of wood well greased and dusted with ashes so that they could be written on with a sharp-pointed piece of stick. His display of extraordinary knowledge made a great impression upon his people, who looked upon him as a “tohunga” and probably credited him with the possession of occult powers. It appears to have been in 1835 that an expedition was organised by the tribes south of the East Cape to attack Tokakuku, a strong pa of Te Whanau-a-Apanui near Te Kaha, in the Bay of Plenty. Taumatakura was urged to accompany the expedition but would not consent to do so until they agreed that there should be no cannibalism nor any wanton destruction of canoes or other property. At Tokakuku he was in the thickest of the fighting, and the fact that he came out of it unscathed was attributed to the protective influence of the new God whom he professed to worship. Hence the adoption by his people of the Christian practice of making Sunday a day of religious rest, and their desire for a missionary to live among them. This readiness to adopt the new religion was not, of course, devoid of superstition. A people whose religious observances had hitherto consisted solely in the use of charms to ward off the influence of malignant spirits could not be expected to apprehend without careful and long-continued teaching the meaning of prayer to a benevolent God whose tender mercies are over all His creatures; nor could they have any notion of the nature of sin or of the need of atonement. It is instructive, however, to notice how, under the providence of God, even the Ngapuhi raids and the wars with neighbouring tribes were made conducive to the spread of the gospel.
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In consequence of the information thus brought from the East Coast, a short visit was again paid to the district by the Rev. W. Williams in company with Messrs. Colenso, Stack, and Matthews, in January, 1838. The party was landed at Hicks Bay, and proceeded overland to Poverty Bay, visiting all the principal settlements on the way. They were warmly welcomed everywhere, as were also two chiefs, who had come with them as an embassy of peace from Te Waharoa of Matamata. Many too and urgent were the applications which were made to them for a resident missionary.
In the following November, six well-instructed Christian natives who belonged to this part of the country and were competent to do the work of catechists, were brought from the Bay of Islands by the Rev. H. Williams, three of whom were placed by him in the Waiapu district and three in Poverty Bay.
It was afterwards arranged that the Rev. W. Williams should leave the school at Waimate, of which he had had the charge since 1835, to the Rev. R. Taylor, who had recently joined the Mission, and should make his headquarters somewhere on the East Coast. He visited his new sphere of work with the Rev. R. Taylor, in April, 1839, and was very much struck with the progress which had already been made by the native catechists. Everywhere, from Hicks Bay to Table Cape, the people were found to be most willing learners. In some places buildings had already been erected for the worship of God in which large congregations were in the habit of assembling every Sunday, and frequent classes for special instruction in Christian doctrine were very numerously attended. In the course of this journey a site for a Mission station was fixed upon in Poverty Bay, within a short distance of Orakaiapu,ǂ the large pa of the Rongowhakaata tribe, the warriors from which, in 1769 marched to Turanganui for the express purpose of trying to take possession of Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, as she lay at anchor in the bay. The situation was a central one, giving easy access to Waiapu and Hicks Bay on the north, and to the Mahia Peninsula and Hawke’s Bay on the south.
A NEW STATION.
The Rev. W. Williams left Waimate with his family towards the end of December, 1839, and arrived at Poverty Bay early in the following January. On the occasion of his visit a few months before, he had arranged with the natives to have a building erected for his accommodation, and this had been done by them to the best of their ability. The accommodation was of a very rough description, but this was a matter of course in the formation of a new mission station, and the very hearty welcome accorded by the people was no slight compensation for the inconvenience. The building was a mere shell without doors or windows or interior partitions, the walls being constructed, according to native custom, of raupo on a frame of wood, and the roof being thatched with toetoe grass. The floor, which was formed by the soil on which the building had been erected, was found to be swarming with fleas. These resented the intrusion of any invader and caused him to beat a hasty retreat. The natives, however, had very effective methods of their own for dealing with the difficulty, and by the judicious application of fire and boiling water soon got rid of the vermin. Some of the requisites for making the house habitable had been brought from the Bay of Islands, but there was much
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to be done before these could be utilised. The timber for the flooring and other purposes was still growing in the neighbouring forest, and it had to be cut and seasoned before it could be applied to the various purposes for which it was needed; much of the work too, in the absence of professional workmen must be done by the missionary himself, and all of it under his superintendence. This work, which was necessary to insure health and bodily efficiency, could, owing to circumstances, be done only by degrees, and caused little hindrance therefore to close intercourse with the people. The three native teachers who had been placed by the Rev. H. Williams at Poverty Bay in 1838 had now been working there for rather more than a year. As a result of their labours Mr. Williams found that the number of people who were more or less regularly under instruction, notwithstanding the difficulties caused by the inadequate supply of books and other material and the want of competent teachers in the various villages, was over 1500. That they had worked to good purpose was shown by the account which Mr. Williams gave of his first Sunday. “In anticipation of the first Sunday after our arrival, many strangers had come together the previous evening, and at service the next day there was a congregation of at least 1000 persons. We assembled in the open air, but the weather was fine, and the extreme attention of this large body was a grateful commencement of missionary labour. At noon the natives again met for school, when there were five classes of men, two numbering seventy each, one fifty, one a hundred and ten, one a hundred and fifty, besides the boys who were fifty in number. The women were in two classes, one of a hundred and fifty and one of twelve. The last, with one of the men’s classes of seventy, read in the Testament; the rest, not being able to read, were instructed in the catechism, the whole repeating the answer after the teacher.”
In the course of about three months after his arrival, Mr. Williams visited the East Cape district, where the progress made by the three men who had been placed there was even more striking than that at Poverty Bay. This may have been owing to assistance received from Taumatakura and others of the party who returned from the Bay of Islands in 1834. The congregations in that district amounted to upwards of three thousand and, in most of the villages, the people had erected buildings in which they might assemble for religious worship. In the course of that journey thirty-nine persons were selected after due examination and admitted to the Sacrament of Baptism, three of the number being each chief of his own hapu. This was “the first fruits of an abundant harvest which was to follow.”†
In the following spring a visit was paid to the Mahia Peninsula, Wairoa, and other parts of Hawke’s Bay. No regular teachers had as yet been placed in these parts, but, as in the case of the Ngatiporou near the East Cape, the way for the preaching of the Gospel had been paved by liberated slaves from the north, one of whom had come from the Bay of Islands, and two from Rotorua. A considerable number of the people had already learned to read, though all the literature they had access to consisted of a few manuscript prayers and hymns copied from printed books, and at one place there was a regular congregation of about 500 who were eager for definite Christian instruction. Three chiefs from the central part of Hawke’s Bay district had already manifested their own desire and that of their people for further instruction by coming overland to Poverty Bay,
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a distance of over 150 miles, and this was an indication of a disposition which was found to be prevalent throughout the district. The supply of teachers was by no means equal to the demand, but as soon as it could be arranged some of the more advanced of the converts in Poverty Bay were placed in the larger centres of population in Hawke’s Bay to give the people instruction in the rudiments of the Christian religion.
The presence of a missionary seemed to give great impetus to the movement, for in the following year the number of people who had attached themselves to the mission was estimated to be about 8600, viz., 3200 at Waiapu and Tokomaru, 2500 at Tolaga Bay and Poverty Bay, and 2900 in the southern part of the district. The catechumens numbered 2115, and of these 839 were during the year, after careful and patient examination, admitted to Holy Baptism, together with 339 of their children, making a total of 1178.‖
If we compare the very slow progress of missionary work at the Bay of Islands in the early days of the mission with the ready and even enthusiastic reception of the Gospel in this district, the difference is very striking. It is to be noted, however, that the circumstances of the two cases were very different. The northern natives, having recently become possessed of firearms, were bent upon using them in their quarrels with the comparatively unarmed southern tribes, and so engrossed were they with this one object, that one cannot wonder that the Gospel should have made so little impression on them. In the East Coast district, on the other hand, the beneficent work of the missionaries had been favourably reported upon by a number of persons, who had had experience of it, and the teaching and preaching in the north during those early years had thus begun to exert an important though indirect influence on the southern tribes; and in the Waiapu district especially Taumatakura and those who were brought back with him in 1834 had done much, under the over-ruling providence of God to dispose their people to a favourable reception of the Gospel.
The general eagerness of the people for instruction was evidenced by the fact that many, even of those who were past middle age, had learned to read and write, no fewer than eight of the forty-one chiefs of this district who signed the Treaty of Waitangi having written their own names. The Bible-classes, too, and the classes of the catechumens were attended with great regularity. The fear of invasion by other tribes having passed away, the fortifications of the pas were allowed to fall into decay, and the people soon began to spread themselves over the country, the various sections of each tribe occupying small settlements on the land which was peculiarly their own. This dispersion made the work more difficult. The usual routine when Mr. Williams was at home was that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in each week the morning was devoted to three large sections of the Rongowhakaata tribe who lived at no great distance from the station, a Bible class being held on each day for those who had been baptised, after which there was a class for the examination of catechumens. In the more distant places services were held and instruction regularly given by native teachers, who came to the station on one day in the week for their own improvement. There was also on week days an early morning school of an elementary character, which was generally superintended by Mr. Williams or some member of his family.
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In addition to the usual Sunday routine as already described it was a common practice for men and women to commit to memory the collect for the day and the whole or part of the Epistle and Gospel, which they repeated in the evening, one of the native teachers catechising them on the portions which they had learned. The few English residents in the neighbourhood were also accorded some share of attention, Divine Service, which they were invited to attend, being held in English every Sunday afternoon.
When a movement such as this which was now taking place among the Maori people becomes fashionable there will always be many who will join it from inadequate motives, the rank and file, even among more civilised peoples, often being ready to follow their leaders without taking the trouble to exercise their own judgment. Nevertheless there were not a few, who, as far as man can judge, showed by a consistent life that the change which they had undergone was genuine. In the case of a number of others whose conduct was not such as to inspire perfect confidence, allowance may be made for imperfect knowledge, and for the difficulty which anyone in their circumstances must necessarily experience in overcoming bad habits which have grown up with them from their infancy. It was only to be expected that the best of them would advance with tottering steps along the new path on which they had started, and that there should be many grievous falls. It was not long before the occasion arose for the exercise of discipline in the case of some who, after Baptism, had fallen into grievous sin. St. Paul’s rule to “have no company” with such offenders, was found by the native Christians to involve no little difficulty, living as they were in close proximity to one another, and they insisted therefore, that any who had so offended, should find some other place of abode, until, on showing signs of repentance, they should be restored again to Communion. This practice in those early days became universal throughout this district as well as elsewhere, and was adopted by the natives themselves as the only method by which they could show their disapproval of grossly unchristian conduct. There is no doubt that in some cases undue harshness was exercised, but it was a difficult matter to interfere with it without encouraging connivances at gross sin.
Missionaries had been working at the Bay of Islands for many years with little apparent success; but in 1838 when they had begun to see some fruit of their labours, a Roman Catholic Mission under Bishop Pompallier came first to Hokianga, and afterwards made their headquarters at Kororareka (now called Russell) at the Bay of Islands. The Bishop indeed told the natives that he had no wish to interfere with the disciples of the missionaries who had preceded him. “Let them,” he said, “continue quietly to following the teaching which they had already received. The heathen only are my flock and they all belong to mine.” But whatever may have been his intentions on the subject this was not the policy pursued by his subordinates. In 1841 a Roman Catholic priest was sent to Nukutaurua, near Table Cape, where there was a numerous population. He was received by a small section of the people which had kept themselves apart from those who had embraced Christianity, or showed any leaning towards it. Following the example which had already been set by his brethren at Kororareka, he told the natives that he would challenge Mr. Williams to a public discussion in their presence on the various points on which he joined
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issue with the Church of England missionaries. It was not long before the opportunity was afforded him, for Mr. Williams was then preparing to visit the Wairoa district, taking Nukutaurua on the way. The proposed discussion was accordingly held and kept up for more than four hours. Such a controversy, carried on by those who presented themselves as heralds of the same Gospel must have tended rather to the bewilderment of people who had so recently been won over from heathenism; but as the teaching which they had received had been directly challenged, it was due to them that the futility of the grounds on which that teaching had been impugned should be exposed. Shortly after this the Roman Catholic priest was deserted by a good number of those who had previously welcome him, and after some ineffectual attempts to establish himself in some other places in the neighbourhood, he left the district altogether about nine months after his arrival. §
ARRIVAL OF THE BISHOP.
Early in 1842 it was decided to hold a conference of missionaries at the Bay of Islands for the purpose of discussing matters connected with the progress of the mission, and Mr. Williams accordingly left Poverty Bay in the mission schooner Columbine, taking his family with him to Paihia. He had not been long there when, on June 6th, the news was brought that Bishop Selwyn had arrived at Auckland on May 30th. On Monday evening, June 20th, while the Rev. H. Williams was engaged with his usual Bible class, a card was brought to the house which announced that the Bishop of New Zealand was on the beach. Mr. W. Williams went immediately and found the Bishop with his chaplain, the Rev. W. C. Cotton, and another Englishman dragging up a boat in which they had rowed from Cape Brett, a distance of twenty miles, steering for the Paihia Mission Station by pocket compass. The small schooner in which they had started from Auckland with the Rev. G.A. Kissling and Mrs. Kissling as fellow-passengers had been becalmed off Cape Brett and the Bishop had therefore decided to come on in his own boat, he and his chaplain both being good oarsmen.
On the following Sunday, June 26th, the Bishop surprised everyone by preaching to the natives in their own tongue, he having studied the language on the voyage from England with the help of a native whom he had met with in England, and having composed a written sermon for this occasion which, before delivery, he submitted to experts for any correction that might be necessary. The coincidence of the Bishop’s arrival with the visit of the Rev. W. Williams gave the former an opportunity, of which he readily availed himself of learning something at first hand of the character and progress of the work on the East Coast, and one of the Bishop’s first public acts was the appointment of Mr. Williams as Archdeacon.
On Mr Williams’ return to his station, he was accompanied by the Rev. W.C. Dudley, who had arrived with the Bishop’s party from England, and had been designated for work in the East Coast district, with the view of his forming a station at Wairoa, in the northern part of Hawke’s Bay.
The Bishop was not long in taking steps to make himself personally acquainted with some portion of his large diocese. After a stay of three weeks at Auckland he visited Nelson and Wellington, spending a few weeks at each place. From Wellington he went on foot to Whanganui and New
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Plymouth, returning by sea to Waikanae, the station of the Rev. O. Hadfield. Here he was joined by Chief Justice Martin, who travelled with overland to Auckland. Their route lay up the course of the river Manawatu into the Hawke’s Bay district. At Te Roto-a-Tara, near Te Aute, on November 15th, they were joined by Mr. Williams and the Rev. W.C. Dudley, who had come by arrangement from Poverty Bay to meet them. On their arrival at Kaupapa, Mr. Williams’ station, they found that the new church which the natives had in course of erection had been wrecked by a violent gale a few days before. This would have been a large building capable of containing about 1000 people. But notwithstanding this disaster, on the following Sunday, November 27th, a congregation of over 1000 assembled for Divine Service amidst the ruins. The Bishop preached from Act XV, 16-17, on Christ repairing the breaches of David’s fallen tabernacle, that the Gentiles might seek the Lord. During this service Mr. Williams was formally installed as Archdeacon of Waiapu. “After the morning service,” the Bishop says, “the natives formed into their classes for reading and saying the catechism. The native character appears in this in a most favourable light; old tattoed warriors standing side by side with young men and boys, and submitting to lose their place for every mistake with the most perfect good humour” **
From Poverty Bay the Bishop and the Judge, accompanied by the Archdeacon, proceeded to Rangitukia, where Mr. V. Stack had recently formed a mission station, and from this point the Archdeacon returned, leaving the Bishop and his party to continue their journey to Raukokore, in the Bay of Plenty, and thence on to Auckland, visiting the various mission stations on the way.
FRESH WORKERS.
The altered circumstances of the country owing to the spread of Christianity and the foundation of the Colony had brought about a feeling of greater security on the part of the native population generally, and consequently the people belonging to Wairarapa and the coast south of Hawke’s Bay, who for years past had been congregated on the Table Cape Peninsula, soon began to return to their old homes. In order to the more efficient prosecution of the work among the people, the Archdeacon determined in October, 1843 to go by sea to Wellington, and to return on foot overland that he might be able to visit them in their re-occupied settlements. He was accompanied on this trip by Mr. W. Colenso, who, being then a candidate for ordination, was looking forward to occupying a station somewhere in the southern part of Hawke’s Bay. The party comprised the present writer and several natives who had been engaged to carry the small amount of necessary luggage. In consequence of a succession of strong north-westerly gales the schooner in which we had embarked was driven back repeatedly from Cook Straight, and as much time had thus been lost, it was decided to land if the weather would permit somewhere a little to the north of Cape Palliser. The wind having moderated when the schooner was off Flat Point, the boat was lowered, and as it would not hold all the party, the natives went first. When the boat returned the wind had increased again to such an extent that another trip to shore was out of the question. When the next lull occurred, the schooner was off Castle Point, where we were landed. We soon found a small party of natives at Mataikoua, [Mataikona] with whom we stayed till the other
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portion of our party joined us. A start was then made on our northward journey, the various settlements being visited on the way. There was then a large pa at Waitangi, near the mouth of the Ngaruroro, and a site near that pa was fixed upon for the station to be occupied by Mr. Colenso. On reaching Mohaka Mr. Colenso went north through the interior, making his way back to Auckland and the Bay of Islands. Bishop Selwyn was then living at Waimate, and in the following September several of the lay missionaries were admitted to Deacon’s Orders, among them being Messrs. J. Hamlin and W. Colenso.
Up to the time of the Bishop’s visit Mr. Williams had been working single-handed in the district extending from Hicks Bay to Wairarapa, but the rearrangement of the old spheres of work in the north and the arrival of fresh workers from England rendered possible more thorough occupation of the field. The Rev. W.C. Dudley, who had joined Mr. Williams on his return from the Bay of Islands, was to have occupied Wairoa, but in the course of the journey to meet the Bishop in November, 1842, he was seized with an affection of the brain, which for the time, completely deranged his mental faculties, and he was obliged to return to Auckland for treatment. Mr. James Stack, as already mentioned, had begun work at Rangitukia shortly before the Bishop’s visit, and soon afterwards the Rev. G.A. Kissling, who had seen service in West Africa, was placed at Kawakawa, between the East Cape and Hicks Bay, and Mr. C. Baker, who had been working at Waikare in the Bay of Islands, was moved to Tolaga Bay. In January, 1845, the Rev. J. Hamlin and the Rev. W. Colenso commenced work at Wairoa and Waitangi. Messrs. Stack and Kissling, however, were invalided in 1847, the former returning to England, and the latter, after a period of rest, taking charge of a school for native girls at S. Stephen’s, Parnell. Mr. Kissling’s post was taken by the Rev. C.L. Reay, but he died at Rangitukia early in 1848, and after an interval of a year and nine months was succeeded by the Rev. R. Barker, so that for a long time, Mr. C. Baker, who was not in Holy Orders, was the only missionary to the north of Poverty Bay, while to the south the Rev. Messrs Hamlin and Colenso were only in Deacons’ Orders. This state of things made it necessary for the Archdeacon to be much absent from the district for which he was specially responsible. What this involved may be gathered from the account which he gives of a sojourn of seven weeks in the Waiapu district in the months of July and August, 1849. During that time at six of the principal centres of population, he examined 951 catechumens, of whom 383 were admitted to the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Infants to the number of 195 also were baptised; the Holy Communion was administered to 737, and thirty-four couples were married.
Besides these visits to distant parts of the East Coast district there was other important work which necessitated the Archdeacon’s absence from home for several months at a time. This was the revision of the translations of the Prayer Book and of such portions of the Bible as had already been translated, which was undertaken by a committee of missionaries. While he was thus engaged at Waimate in 1844 his place was taken for a time by the Rev. H. Williams; and when he was so engaged again at S. John’s College, in 1847, the district was visited by the Rev. R. Burrows.
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OBSTRUCTION.
Among the converts there were, as was only to be expected, some from time to time who fell away like withered plants from the seed which fell on the rocky ground where there was not sufficient deepness of earth; and though there was nothing that could be called “tribulation or persecution because of the Word,” the enemy could make use of comparatively trivial circumstances to serve his purpose. An instance of this which occurred in 1847 may serve as an illustration. A young widow was pressed by the relatives of her late husband, in accordance with old Maori custom, to become the wife of her brother-in-law. She, however, preferred a suitor belonging to another section of the tribe, and persisted until she attained her object. The near relatives of her former husband then, by way of marking their resentment, decided to revert to some of the abandoned practices of their heathen days, and began to get some of their old superstitions were bound up with it, and it was never practised without what were considered the necessary incantations. This revival of the old practice was equivalent therefore to a rejection of the Christianity which they professed to have adopted, and was regarded by them as such. Happily there were not many who were involved in this movement, and after about six months it was given up. The whole movement was strongly reprobated by the bulk of the community.
About a year after this, Te Whata, the chief who had taken the lead in reviving the practice of tattoeing, [tattoing] but who in the past had not shown any disposition to accept the new teaching notwithstanding that his wife and other members of his family had all been baptised, put away his wife and took another woman. As his relatives very strongly expressed their disapproval of his conduct, he went away to Te Wairoa, where he met with some people from Ruatahuna who had been connected with the Roman Catholic Mission, and joined himself to them. In the course of a few months he returned to Poverty Bay, bringing with him one of his new friends who acted as his chaplain. Later on, while the Archdeacon was away at Heretaunga, in Hawke’s Bay, he was followed by a Roman Catholic priest, who freely expressed his intention of waiting till the Archdeacon’s return in order that he might expose the falsehood of his teaching. An opportunity for doing this was soon afforded and large numbers assembled to hear the discussion; but he failed to satisfy his audience, and as he received scant encouragement he, in the course of a few months, took his departure from the district.
GENERAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.
Ever since the days of the old flax trade European traders had established themselves at various places along the coast, who with others had been engaged in the whale fishing were the first foreigners who had come to reside permanently among the natives and were generally known by them as “Pakeha Maori,” not because, as has sometimes been said, they were regarded as “strangers turned into natives,” but to indicate that they were of the class to which they had been accustomed in the past, and to distinguish them from the missionaries and others whose occupations and habits were of a different character. Since the foundation of the Colony Auckland had become the market for all produce, and through the agency of the traders the natives were able to procure readily any articles of
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clothing, together with implements and utensils of various kinds which made life easier for them. At first the principal products were maize and pigs, the latter being either killed and salted by the traders of sent away alive and sold in Auckland. The introduction of wheat after a time gave an extra stimulus to trade, and as good prices for this were realised the people soon began to acquire cattle, horses and agricultural implements, and to bring much more land into cultivation.
Except in the increase of trade the progress of colonisation had very little influence on this part of New Zealand. The Treaty of Waitangi had been made known to the people and Mr. Williams, as other missionaries had done, had used such influence as he could command to induce the principal chiefs on the East Coast to sign it, his name appearing as witness to a number of the signatures. Very little land had been purchased by Europeans and the title to what had been purchased had never been investigated by the constituted authorities; there was therefore no influx of settlers into the district. The thirty-ninth parallel of latitude had been fixed upon as a boundary between the provinces of Auckland and Wellington, and those portions of the district which were to the north of that line were theoretically in the Province of Auckland, and those which were to the south of it in the Province of Wellington, but practically this was one of those outlying regions in which Her Majesty’s Government had no officer of any kind, and with reference to which all Europeans had been warned that, if anyone should choose to settle in such a district for any purpose whatever, he must do so at his own risk and that if he should get into trouble with the natives, or should suffer ill-treatment at their hands, he must not expect the authorities to interfere in any way on his behalf. There was no government, and it is to the credit of all parties that no serious disturbance of any kind had occurred in any part of the district. For many years the only attention paid by the Government to this district was the occasional dispatch of a Customs officer when there was any ground to suspect that smuggling of tobacco or spirits had taken place.
ARCHDEACON WILLIAMS VISITS ENGLAND.
For some time previous to 1850 a controversy had been proceeding in the north with considerable warmth, which, though not bearing directly on the work of the East Coast, resulted in a determination on the part of Archdeacon W. Williams to visit England. To explain this a brief digression is necessary.
On the conclusion of Heke’s War in January, 1846, Governor Grey, only two months after his arrival in New Zealand, began to manifest extraordinary animosity against the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society. He said of one of them that, in his opinion, he was in no small degree responsible for the recent outbreak; and insinuated that others had been holding correspondence of a treasonable character with the insurgent natives. In a dispatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies he charged them with asserting claims to land to which they could not be put in possession without a large expenditure of British blood and money; and in letters to the Church Missionary Society he accused them of having defrauded the natives, assuring the Society at the same time that, “unless the old missionaries were removed, there would be no peace in the northern district.” Much correspondence, in England as well as in
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New Zealand, arose out of these statements, and Archdeacon H. Williams, as the recognised leader of the mission, demanded that His Excellency should either establish fully the allegations which he had made or honourably withdraw them; and repeatedly expressed the readiness of the missionaries, on this being done, to surrender the Crown grants which they had received for land which had been fairly purchased for the benefit of their families long before the colonisation of New Zealand was contemplated, and of which their families were then in peaceable possession. His Excellency, however, would neither produce anything in the way of proof for the charges which he had made, nor would he withdraw them. Under these circumstances an appeal was made to Earl Grey, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, requesting that the missionaries might be put in possession of any charges made against them by the Governor, and that they might be afforded an opportunity of rebutting them. This was denied them on the alleged ground that it would be inconsistent with the respect due to Her Majesty’s Representative in the Colony, in whom Her Majesty’s Government had perfect confidence. The Bishop in the meantime was urging the missionaries to accede to the demand for the unconditional surrender of their title deeds, and to accept whatever the Governor might be pleased to award them. The committee of the Church Missionary Society was much perplexed by all this controversy, and, being perhaps overawed by the Colonial Office, came to the conclusion that it was impossible to institute any enquiry into the subject. The end of it was that without any investigation, Archdeacon H. Williams and Mr. G. Clarke were formally dismissed from the service of the society. The committee by this act seemed to admit as true the charges which had been made against the missionaries by the Governor, and, on the decision becoming known in New Zealand in May, 1850, Archdeacon W. Williams decided that he would visit England in order that he might explain to the society the actual position and vindicate the character of the missionaries from the groundless and gross aspersions by which the Society had been misled. The Rev. T.S. Grace arrived from England in July, and it was arranged that he should take charge of the Turanga station during the Archdeacon’s absence.
Opportunities of sailing direct to England in those days were by no means frequent, ships having generally to go elsewhere for a return cargo. The Archdeacon did not get away till December, when he took passage in the John Wesley, which belonged to the Wesleyan Mission, arriving in England on 30th April, 1851. The annual meeting of the C.M. Society was then close at hand, and he was pressed by the secretaries to take part in it; but this he declined to do until he and his brother missionaries were exonerated from the charges which seemed to have been admitted and acted upon by the Society. An opportunity was afterwards afforded him of meeting the committee, and he had no difficulty in showing by abundant documentary evidence, that the charges made against the missionaries were absolutely without foundation. A resolution was accordingly passed by the committee in which it was stated that there was no intention on the part of the committee to give the slightest colour or countenance to the charges complained of; and that the conduct of the missionaries throughout those trying and eventful times was calculated to engender in the minds of the natives loyalty towards the British authority and respect towards themselves.
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Having succeeded in this business the Archdeacon had other matters to attend to in connection with the mission, one of which was seeing through the press the revised editions of the Maori versions of the New Testament, and the Book of Common Prayer. He embarked at Gravesend on his return voyage in October 1852, but owing to an extraordinary succession of violent south-west gales the ship did not leave the coast of England till the following January, arriving at Auckland in May, 1853.
The two and a-half years of the Archdeacon’s absence had been a season of great material prosperity for the Maori population. The cultivation of wheat for the Auckland market had for some time past proved very profitable to them, and now the rush of people to the Australian gold diggings had greatly increased the demand, and, by raising the price, had stimulated the production. The plough was largely superseding the spade, and the use of bullocks in agricultural operations was becoming general. Europeans had in the past provided vessels for the conveyance of the produce to Auckland, but now the people were for purchasing schooners for themselves that they might get the full benefit of the prices ruling in Auckland. The cultivation of wheat was general throughout the district, and the East Coast was furnishing a very considerable proportion of the wheat export from Auckland to Australia. To people who, though not in a state of destitution, had been accustomed generally to live from hand to mouth without the enjoyment of anything that could be described as wealth and of the more frequent intercourse with English settlements for the purpose of trade was that a number of the young men began to acquire a taste for spirituous liquors, and that drunkenness, which two or three years previously had been almost entirely unknown among the Maori people, had now become by no means uncommon. It had been often witnessed in the case of white men, but it used to be looked upon as a Pakeha failing and was generally spoken of in terms of strong disapprobation. Men of the older generation were greatly concerned at the prevalence of the vice and would have been glad if they could have put a stop to it, but this was beyond their power.
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CHAPTER I.
It was not until after my admission to Deacon’s Orders by the Bishop of London in May, 1853, and my return from England at the close of that year, that I was directly connected with the work of the mission in the East Coast district, and, as a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, stationed at Turanga in Poverty Bay.
During the six years of my absence from New Zealand, a great change had taken place in the circumstances of the people. The effects of the recent discovery of gold in Australia were felt throughout New Zealand. Even natives from the East Coast betook themselves to the diggings, one of whom in a letter to a Pakeha friend, told him that gold was indeed plentiful where he was, but that unfortunately it would not stay in his pocket. They were much better fed and clothes than they used to be, and the more extended agricultural operations, demanding as they did considerably more time and attention than had been the case in years gone by, tended to promote habits of more regular and continuous industry. But it was noticeable that the desire for instruction on the part of the people generally was becoming far less keen than it had formerly been, owing to the attraction of occupations which, from a worldly point of view, were found to be abundantly profitable.
An illustration of the general material prosperity was afforded in 1854 by an entertainment which was given by the Rongowhakaata tribe to a large party of the Tuhoe who occupy a mountainous country lying to the north of Lake Waikare-moana, and somewhat difficult of access from the coast. Some two or three years before a young Tuhoe chief had been married to the daughter of a chief of the Rongowhakaata in Poverty Bay, and had taken his bride to his home at Ruatahuna. In 1854 the young couple came to reside for a period with the lady’s relatives and were escorted by a large party of the Tuhoe. Great preparations were made in order that the visitors should be received with due hospitality, and it was arranged that they should have a formal reception at two different places by two sections of the Rongowhakaata. At each of the places the framework of a long temporary shed was constructed with poles, and on the arrival of the visitors these were covered with blankets and pieces of print and calico, while inside were placed hundredweight boxes of biscuit with quantities of flour, sugar, tea, tobacco, and various other articles, all of which were a gift to the visitors in addition to the ordinary food of the people with which they were abundantly supplied. It is hardly necessary to say that the scantily clad and poorly fed Tuhoe were overcome by such a profusion of luxury, which was more than they could consume, and most of which they were unable to carry away with them on their return to their mountain fastnesses. A few years previously such a display would have been far beyond conception by the most fertile imagination of any among the Rongowhakaata themselves; for the general condition of the people, though not by any means one of destitution, had nevertheless been one of comparative poverty. Food indeed, in the shape of potatoes
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and kumara had not been lacking, but the whole of their surplus produce which the traders took off their hands was not more than sufficient to provide the amount of clothing and other articles which they had then come to regard as necessaries. So great a change as is indicated by the profusion of good things with which the Tuhoe visitors were entertained, coming about as it did in the course of a very few years, was likely to be accompanied with some decline in the religious fervour of Christians who had so recently emerged from a state of barbarous heathenism.
Before Archdeacon Williams left for England great preparations had been made for the erection of a church in the Maori style of architecture, which was to be 90 feet long and 45 feet in width. A large quantity of totara timber had been got together and dressed for the framework of the walls and for the support of the weighty ridge-pole. The uprights for the walls were so prepared that they should stand over 15 feet above the ground. They averaged two feet in width and the inner surface which would be seen inside the building was elaborately carved, the grotesque caricatures of the human form so common in the carving of Maori whares being avoided. The two posts which were to support the ends of the ridge-pole, and to stand about twenty-eight feet above the ground were also elaborately carved from top to bottom. During the Archdeacon’s absence, all being ready for the erection, the work was proceeded with and the carved timbers were placed in position, the lower end of each being firmly fixed in the ground. At this stage a serious misunderstanding occurred and the work was abandoned. It was a great disappointment to the Archdeacon to find on his return that the work had proceeded no further, and that there seemed to be little prospect of its being resumed in the near future with any degree of heartiness. It would seem to have been unfortunate that this difficulty should have arisen while the Archdeacon was out of the way, as the older people especially had been in the habit of looking to him for advice and guidance in any time of difficulty. His place was supplied to a certain extent by the Rev. T.S. Grace, but with his very moderate acquaintance with the language and habits of the people he could not be the same to them as one who had acquired their confidence during many years of residence among them.
At the end of 1853 two vacancies in the staff of workers had been filled up by the appointment to Te Kawakawa of the Rev. Rota Waitoa, who had been ordained Deacon in the previous May, and to Rangitukia, of the Rev. Charles Baker, who had been ordained Deacon in December of the same year.
The most urgent need of the mission at this time was that greater efforts should be made in the matter of education. A boarding school for girls had been opened on this station in 1848 in a building which had been erected for the purpose, a steady Maori married couple being placed in charge, and much of the teaching being done by members of the Archdeacon’s family. This arrangement was not altogether satisfactory but it was the best that the circumstances admitted. For several years past Sir G. Grey had manifested great interest in Maori schools, and had strengthened the hands of the different religious bodies which were working among the Maoris by making free grants of land in some cases, and by money grants towards the expenses of the schools. The conditions on which this was done were generally specified in the Crown grants for land
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which was held in trust for the education of the Maoris, whether the land was a free gift from the Crown, or had been obtained by purchase or private gift from the natives. The formula most frequently adopted was that the land was to be held in trust for the support of a school “so long as religious education, industrial training, and instruction in the English language should be given to the youth educated therein or maintained thereat.” The industrial training consisted largely in agriculture, because it would have been impossible otherwise to procure an adequate supply of food for the pupils, the means at the command of the managers of the schools being very limited. It was now proposed to establish central schools at Turanga for the whole of the East Coast district, in one department of which young men should be trained in the hope that some of them at least might in time prove to be fit for admission to Holy Orders; and the circumstances did not admit of this being done except on the industrial system mentioned above. This department was to be my special charge. It was decided to make a beginning as early in 1854 as possible with a few young men who could be accommodated in a building which was then available, leaving a school for boys till further provision should be made.
Many months elapsed, however, before the work could be said to be fairly started, in consequence chiefly of the very severe epidemic of measles for which the year 1854 was sadly memorable. This was the first time that this malady had visited the North Island. It had visited the South Island as far back as 1838, when, according to Maori accounts, a large proportion of the population was cut off by it, but at that time it did not cross Cook’s Strait. In 1854 it is said to have been brought by an American vessel from Tasmania to the Bay of Islands in March. In a few weeks it had spread all over the island with deadly effect. Among the Maoris there were very few, if any, who escaped it and, as it was a prevalent notion among them that the best thing to do when the rash made its appearance was to plunge into cold water, it is no wonder that the disease itself or the after-effects were in many cases fatal. It is said that in some cases it was followed by scarlet fever, but in the East Coast district large numbers of those who had been attacked by measles were carried off afterwards by dysentery. Dr. Thomson, in “The Story of New Zealand” (Vol. 11. P.214), says that “directly or indirectly the disease carried off 4000 natives, and most of its victims were selected from the ranks of the young and the aged.” His estimate of the death roll is probably much under the mark.
The old Turanga station comprised not more than about eight acres which were held on a somewhat insecure title; it was necessary therefore, that, if the proposed schools were to be to any extent self-supporting, an adequate amount of land should be obtained. In the neighbourhood of the station there was no lack of unoccupied land belonging to various sections of the Rongowhakaata tribe, but there seemed to be great difficulty in procuring the consent of all concerned to the permanent appropriation to educational purposes of the amount of land required. While the matter was under their consideration an offer was made by the Whanau-a-Taupara section of the Aitanga-a-Mahaki tribe of a block of land at Waerenga-a-hika in close proximity to their own settlement. This block, which was afterwards found on survey to contain 593 acres, seemed to be in every way suitable, and the offer was accepted.
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To move the station to Waerenga-a-hika was by no means a light undertaking. The land was in its natural condition and, before any of it could be utilised for the support of the schools, it was necessary to fence it, to clear off the natural growth, and, if ploughing was contemplated, to dig out the roots of tutu and other shrubs. The distance it is true, was only eight miles, but there were two rivers to cross, over neither of which was there a bridge; there was nothing that could be called a road; and the only vehicles that could be used were sledges drawn by bullocks. The buildings on the station had to be pulled down and the materials transported in this way; and before any extra buildings could be erected the timber must be sawn in the neighbouring forest. The most formidable difficulty was perhaps the raising of the funds that would be needed. There were advisers of influence who considered the difficulties insurmountable, but the event proved that boldly to face them was the wiser course. The Church Missionary Society had already granted a sum of £500 from its Jubilee Fund towards the erection of new buildings which would need very largely supplementing, but there was nothing at all in hand for pulling down and re-erecting the old buildings. It was decided, however, to make a vigorous effort to raise the additional amount which would be required, and to defer the actual move as long as it might be necessary. In the meantime it was possible to do something in the way of preparation. Steps were taken at once for enclosing and clearing a portion of the ground in readiness for cropping. The boundaries of the land to be ceded were promptly indicated, but before a satisfactory title could be obtained the services of a competent surveyor were required, and he must be sent for from Auckland. A deed of cession also had to be prepared and duly executed. In connection with this a serious difficulty had to be surmounted which had not been anticipated. The owners were quite ready to execute, and did execute a deed of gift to Archdeacon Williams as trustee, specifying the purposes for which the land was to be held in trust. But the law would not recognise any title as valid except one conferred by the Crown. It was necessary, therefore, that the land should first be ceded by the owners to the Crown that it might be granted by the Crown to the person or persons who should be fixed upon as trustees. Nothing was further from the thoughts of the natives than that the crown should be allowed to get any footing in the district. Much discussion consequently ensued, and it was not till April, 1857, that the deed of cession to the Crown was actually signed.
For the removal of the buildings and their contents it was found expedient to have a punt built in which the freight might be conveyed up the river as far as Matawhero. By this means a great saving was effected, as the amount of sledge work was diminished by half. The working of the punt was not without variety in the shape of misadventure. Among the material to be conveyed was a quantity of wheat which was part of our food supply. At the time when this was being dealt with the state of the tide necessitated an early start in the morning; the punt therefore was loaded during the previous afternoon, and upon the wheat was placed a square piano in the tin-lined case in which it had originally arrived from England. The punt was then moored to the bank of the river ready for the morning. The men who were to navigate the craft were about betimes, but, to their dismay, the punt had disappeared, and the piano was floating in its case some little distance away. The wheat formed a
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heavier load than usual and the water, which found its way in at first by some unsuspected crack gradually filled the punt, which sank down with the wheat to the bottom of the river. The piano was soon rescued but not before much water had got into it, seriously damaging the internal mechanism. The wheat was recovered by diving, and after having been spread out to dry, was found to have sustained no real damage. The piano was taken in hand by a very clever joiner, and rendered good service afterwards, though it never recovered its original quality.
Some progress was made in the erection of new buildings in the course of 1856 and, by the end of the year, 160 acres of the land had been enclosed and a portion of this was under cultivation. Considerable progress also had been made with buildings, some of these being constructed with raupo in the Maori style of architecture to serve until others of a more permanent characters should be provided.
The move into the new quarters was made in the following February and March; the old mission house, which up to that time had been occupied by the Archdeacon and his family, having still to be taken down and rebuilt on the new site. The buildings were not luxurious, but they were weather-proof. One of the new wooden buildings contained two large rooms, one of which was used as a dining-room for the natives and the other as a school-room. The school-room had to accommodate both the students and the boys, their industrial occupations being so arranged as to admit of the alternate use. The building into which the Archdeacon and his family now moved was intended to be used for Maori girls as soon as the old mission house should be re-built and fit for occupation.
A specious attempt was made about this time to beguile unwary Christians by the revival of an old superstitious practice of spiritism. An elderly woman named Maora, who lived near the old mission station, claimed to be in receipt of important communications from the spirit of a man who had died a few years before having been a consistent Christian and a much-respected teacher. It was doubtless thought that the name of such a man would give credit to the business. Some of the people were very much struck by the alleged communications, and reported them to Archdeacon Williams, who, to satisfy them, acceded to their urgent request that he should go to hear them himself; but as long as he was in the medium’s presence the reputed spirit could not be induced to make any communication. The medium was much discredited by this circumstance and the imposture was soon discontinued. Before this, however, the infection had spread to Tolaga Bay and the neighbourhood, where various female mediums professed to be able to put people in communication with some of their departed relatives. One man who had lost a young daughter not long before assured me that he had had a communication with her through one of these mediums, and that he was quite satisfied as to the identity of the spirit because it had given a correct answer when asked what was the wood of which the coffin was made in which the corpse had been buried. It did not occur to him that the medium was probably conversant with all the circumstances. The spirits were said to indicate their presence by whistling and were commonly spoken of as “atua kowhio whio” or whistling spirits.*
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CHAPTER II.
The Church Missionary Society had already, under the pressure of urgent calls from various parts of the non-Christian world, begun to speak of the euthanasia of the New Zealand Mission, and to look forward to a not very remote withdrawal from it, that advantage might speedily be taken of the openings for missionary work that were presenting themselves elsewhere. There was some reluctance, therefore on the part of the society to send out additional missionaries who might take the place of those who had been removed by death, or had been incapacitated by failing health. The power of God had certainly been signally manifested in the progress of the mission during the few years preceding the arrival of Bishop Selwyn, who, in his first sermon, gave utterance to the impression which it had made upon him in the words – “Christ has blessed the work of his ministers in a wonderful manner. We see here a whole nation of Pagans converted to the Faith. God has given a new heart and a new spirit to thousands after thousands of our fellow-creatures in this distant quarter of the earth. A few faithful men, by the power of the spirit of God, have been the instruments of adding another Christian people to the family of God.” Some people seemed to think that the institution of an efficient native pastorate must follow closely upon so remarkable a change in the people, forgetting that this same people had, but a very few years before, been living in a state of extreme barbarism. The notion however, had obtained currency in England, and had been entertained by some at least of the committee of the Church Missionary society, that there had been needless delay in bringing forward natives as candidates for ordination. This delay was attributed to Bishop Selwyn, who, it was thought, required qualifications in Maori candidates for Holy Orders which they could not reasonably be expected to possess, such as a good knowledge of English and of Latin and Greek. The fact, on the contrary, was that the Bishop was most anxious to see native pastors at work among their own people; that the standard of qualification required by him was no higher than was deemed expedient by those of the missionaries who were best able to judge, and that he hailed with satisfaction the prospect that was afforded by the establishment of schools, the main object of which was the training of candidates for the ministry. Towards the end of the year 1857 the Rev. C. Baker, who had been for nearly four years at Rangitukia, had been compelled by failure of health to vacate that station and to go to Auckland for medical treatment. As there was no English missionary to take his place the opportunity was favourable for impressing upon the people that importance of their making some provision for the maintenance of ministers of their own race. The district was divided into sections, each of which might, in the course of time, become the charge of a single clergyman. The people of each of these sections were urged to raise a sum of at least £200 towards a Native Pastorate Fund, from the proceeds of which they might receive some help towards the support of their pastor. The Ngatiporou of Waiapu promptly fell in with the suggestion and took steps, by the cultivation of wheat and by other means, to raise the amounts
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required. The proposed fund was strengthened by a grant of £1000 from the Jubilee Fund of the Church Missionary Society, and by various other donations. In the course of the next eight years six districts had raised the amount which qualified them to participate in the benefits of the fund.
The last two official visits of Bishop Selwyn to this part of his large diocese were paid in February, 1856, and January, 1859, and on both of these occasions it fell to my lot to accompany him through the greater part of this district. In carrying out a general visitation, he did not spare himself. His first land journeys were, of necessity, almost entirely on foot; and in the later years, though he was glad to avail himself of a horse, if possible, when a horse was not available the journey was continued on foot. His principal work on these journeys, was, of course, the administration of the rite of Confirmation. In carrying this out he always made a point of himself examining the candidates presented to him. This was occasionally a little hard on some of the candidates, who, though well instructed and passed by the missionaries presenting them, might perhaps through nervousness or through a misunderstanding of the questions as put by the Bishop, fail to give correct answers and consequently be rejected by him. There were very few, however, as far as my experience went, who were rejected by him in this district. As to vestments, the Bishop did not always carry the usual Episcopal robes on these long journeys, but only a black silk gown. Before starting on a long visitation he circulated a printed list of all the places which he intended to visit with the date at which he expected to arrive at each. As the places to be visited were so numerous and the time available for each so short, it was impossible to ensure that every engagement should be punctually kept without regard to weather or other casual hindrances, and the failure to reach any particular place at the appointed time might involve the omission of that engagement in order that the engagements following on the list might be kept on the due dates. In those days there were no telephones by which a speedy intimation could be given of an unavoidable change of plans, and the postal service did not extend to any great distance from the English settlements.
On the latter of the two occasions referred to above, he left Auckland in November, 1858, and visited the Thames, Waikato, Tauranga, Rotorua, Te Whaiti, and the coast settlements in the Bay of Plenty, proceeding thence to Hicks Bay, Waiapu, Poverty Bay and Hawke’s Bay, then taking the west coast settlements on the way to Wellington, where the first meeting of the newly constituted General Synod was to be held in the beginning of March. He was due at Hicks Bay in January, 1859, and I started to meet him there with a horse for himself and another to carry his luggage. The latter animal proved to be a great hindrance. She was docile and used to harness, but she was so terrified by obstacles on the rough road which all other horses made light of that, after having caused more than a day’s delay, she had to be left behind. The consequence of this was that I did not meet the Bishop quite so soon as I had intended. Confirmations were held at all the principal settlements as we came along. At Rangitukia a middle-aged man, Te Wiremu Mangai, was rejected by the Bishop. We next came on to Te Horo, and then to Reporua. To this place, we were followed by Te Wiremu, who begged that he might be confirmed notwithstanding his rejection at Rangitukia. The Bishop was
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so much struck by his earnestness that he confirmed him along with the Reporua candidates.
The weather during those few days was not the most favourable for travelling, showers being frequent and heavy. On our way from Tokomaru to Tolaga Bay we stopped for a little time at Anaura, from when we took an inland track in order to avoid some rocks that could only be passed at low water, several natives travelling with us. As we began to ascend the hill we dismounted to ease our horses, the Bishop being a little in advance of me. We had not gone far before I heard one of the natives call out that the Bishop was hurt. I hurried to him and found him sitting under a tree looking very faint and having his face covered with blood. After a while he was able to tell me what had happened. One of the natives was leading his horse in the front, and the Bishop had allowed his to follow, he himself being behind. Seeing that the other horse was kicking at his, he stepped forward to hold his own back, and as he caught hold of the bridle the other animal kicked out and struck him on the bridge of the nose and under one eyebrow. It was a great mercy that the blow was not much more disastrous in its effect. After the application of a little more water and a moderate rest the Bishop declared himself ready to continue the journey, though still feeling rather weak. On our reaching the river, which had to be crossed twice, we found it considerably swollen, but we managed the first ford without difficulty. At the second the water was too deep to ford and the current swift. One of our party rode into the stream and was near being drowned. Fortunately a canoe was found, by means of which we got across without further mishap.
On arriving at Tolaga Bay we were hospitably entertained by the people, and Mr. Waddy, a trader, placed at our disposal an empty room in a small wooden house which he had just got built. In this we made ourselves as comfortable as we could for the night. We each had a blanket and a waterproof sheet which we spread on the floor, the Bishop asking me as we lay down if I had found out the virtues of angle 45. It was a matter of regret that after the afternoon’s occurrences he could not be provided with more restful accommodation.
The difficulties of travel and the increase of the European population of the colony were strong arguments for the division of the diocese, which was one of the objects of Bishop Selwyn’s visit to England in 1854. The size of the diocese was gradually reduced by the foundation of the Diocese of Christchurch in 1856 and of those of Wellington and Nelson in 1858. The Royal Letter Patent and other formal documents which were then considered to be necessary for the constitution of a new diocese, were brought from England in the case of the Diocese of Waiapu by Bishop Abraham, who had recently been consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury as Bishop of Wellington. He arrived in New Zealand at the end of March, 1869, while the General Synod was still in session, and took his seat in the Synod on March 31st, 1869. As the session was nearly over no time was lost, and on the following Sunday, April 3rd, Archdeacon W. Williams was consecrated Bishop of Waiapu. The part of the North Island of which the diocese was to consist is described in the Letters Patent as “all that part or portion of the Northern Island, otherwise called New Ulster, which is bounded on the south by the Province of Wellington
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and on the west by the one hundred and seventy-sixth degree of east longitude together with the islands adjacent thereto.” The diocese thus constituted was inhabited almost entirely by Maoris, and with the exception of the missionaries, the few Europeans were had been either traders of whalers.
The new diocese took its name from the Valley of the Waiapu, some position in which might be thought to be a suitable centre from which access might be had to the more distant settlements, but as a matter of fact all other parts of the diocese could be much more easily reached from Waerenga-a-hika. The Bishop was therefore under no necessity to change his place of residence, but the enlarged sphere of work involved a much greater amount of travelling. He made the first visitation of the greater part of the diocese in the course of the following summer, going by way of Auckland to Tauranga and travelling thence through all the principal settlements of the Bay of Plenty and so on through Waiapu back to Waerenga-a-hika, the journey occupying over three months. The means of communication between distant parts of the country were at that time so uncertain that, if one had an important engagement in Auckland or Wellington it might be necessary to leave home a month or six weeks beforehand according as an opportunity might offer. A voyage in a coasting schooner to or from Auckland might occupy any time from four days to twenty-four, and then when the business was done it might be necessary to wait an indefinite time for an opportunity of getting home again.†
In the course of this visitation Raniera Kawhia was admitted to Deacon’s Orders on February 17th, at Whareponga in the presence of the people among whom he was to work. He was not young, but he was a man of sound judgment and had done good service as a native teacher for a number of years. He was one of our first candidates for Holy Orders and, after a course at Waerenga-a-hika, had spent about a year at S. Stephen’s, Parnell. Later on in the same year the Rev. Rota Waitoa and the Rev. Charles Baker were admitted to the priesthood, and Mr. C.S. Volkner to the Diaconate. Mr. Baker, who some time before had been obliged to leave Rangitukia on account of his health, was now fit for work again, and had been appointed to Tauranga to take charge of a central school there. In this he was to be assisted by the Rev. E.B. Clarke, who had recently joined the mission.
The Church Constitution which had been adopted in 1857 provided that a governing body or Diocesan Synod should be formed in each diocese, similar in it constitution to the General Synod, and the first General Synod which sat at Wellington in 1859 had laid down rules for the organisation of such Diocesan Synods. It was evident that if such a Synod was to be constituted in this diocese on the lines laid down, not only some of the clergy, but all the Synodsmen would necessarily be Maoris and, as the Maoris knew little or no English, the proceedings would have to be conducted in the Maori language. It was felt that, if the Synod could be brought into being it would help to impress upon Maori churchpeople the fact that they were members of a larger body than the local congregation, and that the welfare and progress not only of the diocese but of the church at large, were matters in which every individual should take a lively interest, and which he was bound to help forward as far as
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God might enable him to do so. The Bishop, therefore in the spring of 1861 spent eight weeks on a visitation of the diocese with the special object of explaining to the people the function of the Synod and of getting Synodsmen elected, that a meeting of the Synod might be held at as early a date as it could conveniently be got together. The Synod met at Waerenga-a-hika on December 3rd of the same year. The number of clergy in the diocese at that time was ten, six being priests and four deacons. Only half of these were in attendance at the Synod, the others being prevented by sickness or some other urgent reason. Of the Maori Synodsmen there were eighteen by whom most parts of the diocese were represented. Two of these, Rapata Wahawaha and Pitihera Kopu, took a prominent part afterwards on the side of the Government in the war which followed the Hauhau invasion. Two others, Mohi Turei and Hoani Te Wainohu did good service in after years as clergymen among their own people.
The Bishop, in his opening address, emphasised the importance of the raising up of a native ministry, and of provision being made by the people for the support of their pastors. A resolution was passed by the Synod affirming the duty of supporting missions to the heathen, and on the following day a sum of £5 15s 1d having been contributed by the Maori members of the Synod and the rest by the local people. A committee which had been set up to consider the question of providing for the support of clergy appended to its report a list of contributions which had been made in various parts of the diocese towards an endowment fund, the total amount being £698 11s 4d, to which was added the offertory collection made at the consecration of the Bishop, viz., £48 10s 5d. Mention was made also of a sum of £257 10s 6d, which had been collected on the occasion of the opening of a new church at Kawakawa towards the endowment of the Bishopric.
The Maori members of the Synod, though somewhat hampered at first by the rules which were adopted for the orderly conduct of the business, soon accommodated themselves to them, and afterwards expressed great approval of the Pakeha method of conducting a meeting.
The meeting of this Synod attracted a good deal of interest, even beyond the limits of the diocese. Bishop Selwyn in his opening address at the meeting of the General Synod at Nelson in February, 1862, thus referred to it: “With feelings of peculiar thankfulness the report that a Synod has been held in the diocese of Waiapu, which was attended by three English clergy, three native, and three lay Synodsmen, natives, in which all the proceedings were conducted in the New Zealand language.”
The next Synod was held at Waerenga-a-hika on the 5th of January, 1863, and was attended by seven clergy and nineteen lay Synodsmen, nine of the latter being from the Bay of Plenty. In the next two Synods the northern portion of the diocese was not represented, that part being already seriously affected by the war in the Waikato.
The Ngatiporou at Waiapu had shown considerable activity in the matter of church building. Within a year after the arrival of the first accredited native teachers in 1838, a large raupo building had been erected in each of their principal settlements to serve as a chapel, in which many
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of the people assembled regularly for Divine service. In 1858 they set about replacing these with buildings of a more substantial character, the requisite timber being brought, in some cases, from a great distance with very different carriage. One at Kawakawa, which has already been alluded to was opened in 1861, and others followed soon after at Rangitukia, Tuparoa, Whareponga and Waipiro. About the same time a movement having for its object the completion of the church at Manutuke seemed to indicate something of a reaction from the indifference which had prevailed among the Rongowhakaata during several years of great temporal prosperity. The carved timbers which had been erected as far back as 1851 had not improved by long exposure to all weathers, but they were still sound. The requisite timber was cut and the work was carried out under the superintendence of Aperahama Matawhaiti, one of the old native teachers, who was a very careful and competent workman, having learnt carpentering at the Bay of islands. Before the building was finished the people were urgent that it should be brought into use, as the large whare which had served the purpose of a temporary church was getting into very bad repair. The opening on April 19th, 1863, was made the occasion of a great gathering. It was estimated that as many as twelve hundred people crowded into the building, and still there was a very large number outside. A collection was made which amounted to £327, and this, by the desire of the people, was added to the fund for the endowment of the Bishopric.
The work at Waerenga-a-hika had been carried on for several years under conditions of no little difficulty. Before he became Bishop, Archdeacon Williams was the head of the establishment, and everything was subject to his general direction, but this was only an additional burden to what in previous years had been his ordinary responsibility. The whole district, from Hicks Bay to the northern portion of Hawke’s Bay inclusive, was under his supervision, and all the congregations were dependant upon him for the celebration of the Holy Communion inasmuch as at no other place than at Waerenga-a-hika was there a clergyman in Priest’s Orders; it was necessary, therefore, that every place within these limits should be visited as frequently as possible. In this arduous work I was able to help him from time to time, but as there was no one else to fall back upon it was necessary that, during my absence, he should undertake my special duties in addition to the superintendence of work of every kind that might be in progress at the time. When we were both at home there was ample occupation for both from early morning till evening, but when either was absent some things had of necessity to be left undone. For a year and a half after September, 1857, the boys were under the charge of Mr. C.P. Baker, who had previously occupied a similar position at Otaki. After he left in April, 1859, our efforts to fill the vacancy were not successful till Mr. C.S. Volkner, who had been keeping a school at Tauranga, came in January, 1860. During the interval some help was given in this department by some of the more advanced of our Maori students. The girls, who owing to the scanty accommodation, were very few in number, were very fortunate in that they were well looked after by members of the archdeacon’s family, with the assistance of Miss Jones, whom, as an addition to the staff, the Archdeacon had brought with him on his return from England in 1853.
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The need of a fuller staff was very keenly felt, and the more so from the fact that there were other duties, quite unconnected with the ordinary work of the station, and the surrounding district, which could not be neglected. In 1857, Archdeacon Williams was summoned to Auckland to attend the conference which drew up the Church Constitution, and also to act for some weeks on a committee which had been constituted for the purpose of revising a portion of the Maori version of the Old Testament, the translation of which having some time previously been completed by the Rev. R. Maunsell and circulated among the missionaries for criticism. This committee met again in 1858 and in 1860, each session occupying two months, but on both these occasions it was arranged that I should attend instead of him.
The health of our settlement was unusually good, though epidemics of one kind and another were unavoidable. In the winter of 1860 the district was invaded by influenza of a severe type, from which both English and Maori alike suffered. This was more keenly felt owing to the inclemency of the season. The cold was exceptional and at one time the snow lay thickly upon the ground, which was an unheard of occurrence. Three months later this malady was prevalent again and bore rather hardly upon some of those who had suffered from the previous visitation. This had barely passed off before some of our people were attacked by typhoid fever. A party of natives from the Bay of Islands had come in the spring to visit some of their friends in Poverty Bay, and some of them on their arrival began to develop symptoms of the fever. The natives were not alive to the necessity of sanitary precautions and consequently the disease soon spread to various localities, causing many deaths. In November it appeared at Waerenga-a-hika and, as it was getting near the time when all our pupils would be dismissed for their annual holiday, all were sent away, excepting the sick, and some of their relatives who were required to help in nursing them. There were several fatal cases. One of these was that of a young man who, having nursed his wife through an illness of many weeks duration, first influenza, then the fever, as soon as she was convalescent took the fever himself and sank under it. Several of the other cases were severe and required close attention during a long period of convalescence. During the progress of this epidemic there was a qualified medical man within reach whom we were able to call in occasionally. A succession of fever cases continued well into the New Year, so that the month of March was well advanced before our ordinary work could be resumed; and even then nothing could be done with the girls because there was no one to look after them, two members of the Bishop’s family having been prostrated with the fever, and being still unfit for active work. One result of the fever epidemic was that the Rev. C.S. Volkner was obliged to leave us. He had to go to Auckland for some matter of business in November, and during his absence Mrs. Volkner was thrown into a state of such nervous excitement on account of the fever that she was for a considerable time quite beside herself and needed very close attention. On Mr Volkner’s return he found her much better than she had been, though still not thoroughly recovered, and as soon as opportunity offered he took her to stay with friends in Auckland where she could have the medical attendance which she needed. He returned to Waerenga-a-hika himself for a time, but left finally in the following August, as was stationed at Opotiki. As the Bishop had to leave early
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for a visitation of the northern part of the diocese it was arranged that, during his absence I should have the assistance of the Rev. E.S. Clarke, who was still at liberty as the buildings for the school at Tauranga were not yet completed.
CHAPTER III.
The first formal notice taken of this district by the Government was the appointment of a Resident Magistrate in the person of the late Mr. H.S. Wardell, who was a very efficient officer. The same gentleman was appointed postmaster, and thus the district was for the first time brought into connection with the postal service of the Colony. Up to that time letters had been carried free of charge by the small trading coasting vessels, which proved to be very trustworthy letter carriers, no complaints ever being made of non-delivery of letters which had been entrusted to them.
Several purchases of land had been made by early settlers before 1840, and after the formation of the Colony full particulars of the claims had been promptly furnished to the proper authorities, but for many years no notice had been taken of them. Some small portions also had been purchased at a later date, and the purchases were all in undisturbed possession. All the purchases when added together did not amount to many hundred acres. At length in December, 1859, Mr. Dillon Bell came as Commissioner to investigate the earlier claims, but did not make satisfactory progress, as there was an attempt, though an unsuccessful one, on the part of several influential men to secure the repudiation of every sale, their wish being to get all the land back ultimately into the hands of the original owners.
It was unfortunate that the first Vice-regal visit to this part of the Colony should have been timed to take place soon after this, when the minds of the people were still somewhat perturbed by the recent discussions on the land question. His Excellency Governor Browne arrived in H.M.S. “Nigger” on January 11th, 1860, a few days after Mr. Bell had left. The pakeha population had erected a small marquee at Makaraka, near the house which was occupied by the Resident Magistrate, to which His Excellency was duly escorted on his landing. At the head of the European residents was Mr. J.W. Harris, who had resided longer in the district than anyone else, and he read a respectful address of welcome, to which His Excellency duly responded. After this there were speeches made by the Maoris. There was no formal address in this case, but one of the speakers, Raharuhi Rukupo, was decidedly deficient in respect in the language which he addressed to Her Majesty’s representative. His Excellency was not favourable impressed with the meeting, nor on the other hand were the Maoris. After the meeting was over it was our privilege to entertain the Viceregal party at Waerenga-a-hika. We gave them the best accommodation that it was in our power to give, but His Excellency’s valet was much distressed to find that he had omitted to bring a supply of flea power. The want of this, however, as far as we could gather, was not
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felt, notwithstanding the close proximity of the aborigines. The official visit to the district was not, perhaps, a pleasant one for His Excellency, but in justice to him it may be said that his mind was probably much engrossed by the position of affairs at Waitara, of which the people in Poverty Bay were ignorant. Martial law was proclaimed at Waitara in the following month.
The Waikato movement in 1857 for setting up a Maori king had not attracted much sympathy from the natives of the East Coast, most of whom were content to go on as they had done for several years past, enjoying the benefits of trade with Auckland without coming into closer contract with the Government than was involved in an occasional resort to the Court of the Resident Magistrate; but the reports which were brought from time to time of the operations at Waitara evoked general expressions of sympathy with Wiremu Kingi, and of condemnation of the Governor, though no disposition was manifested to take any active part in the quarrel.
When Sir G. Grey arrived towards the end of 1861 to take up again the reins of Government he promptly began to introduce the scheme for the self-government of the Maoris, which he seems to have elaborated before his arrival. The North Island was to be divided into twenty districts, each of which was to be presided over by a Commissioner with a “Runanga” or council, of twelve members and a staff of native assessors, together with a certain number of “karere” or native police, each of these officials being entitled to receive a salary corresponding to his position. Mr. W.B. Baker, who was appointed Commissioner for Waiapu early in 1862, proceeded somewhat hastily to make various appointments without taking any of the principal chiefs into his confidence. This proceeding was the occasion of a great disturbance among the people, many of whom regarded the Governor’s scheme with great suspicion, speaking of the salaries as money paid with a view to getting possession ultimately of the land. The excitement was so great that many of them advocated sending the Commissioner back to Auckland immediately, but mainly through the influence of the two Maori clergymen, more moderate councils prevailed. About the same time a meeting, at which two of the Poverty Bay chiefs, Raharuhi Rukupo and Hirini Te Kani were present, was held at Pouawa, a few miles to the north of Poverty Bay, when those who were present pledged themselves never to have anything to do with the Government. Objection also began about this time to be taken to the use of the prayer for the Queen in Divine service. In these various ways was manifested the steady growth of antipathy to the Government as the natural result of the treatment accorded to Wiremu Kingi at Waitara, the injustice of that treatment having been plainly shown in Maori literature which was circulated by authority with the view of justifying it.ǂ
In the ordinary course of things there had been very little intercourse between the East Coast and Waikato, but reports of the increasing tension in the Waikato and the possibility of direct rupture with the Government induced one and another to visit that district so as to get information at first hand. One result of these visits was that a section of the Ngatiporou tribe at Waiapu declared themselves openly as adherents of the Maori King, and signified the same to the world by flying the King’s flag in conspicuous positions. Others of the same tribe, under the leadersip
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of Mokena Kohere, who desired to avoid any conflict with the Government, hoisted the British ensign as a token of their loyalty. The tribe was thus divided into two sharply distinguished parties. In the southern part of the district the intensity of feeling was not so obvious. Mr. Wardell, the Resident Magistrate, had been removed from Poverty Bay and no one had been appointed in his place, but if a Commissioner had been sent to Poverty Bay to inaugurate Sir G. Grey’s Runanga scheme with salaried assessors and other officials, there is no doubt that it would have proved as distasteful to the people there as it had shown to be to a large section of the Ngatiporou. That the Government was regarded by the people with disfavour was increasingly evident, but at the same time there seemed to be a decided feeling that anything in the way of collision was by all means to be avoided so long as they and their lands were not directly interfered with. The announcement was frequently made that, whatever course other tribes might decide upon, they had no intention of breaking the peace.
At the time of the opening of the church at Manutuke in April, 1863, as there was an unusually large gathering of people, it was impossible that the assembly should disperse without some discussion of matters of which people’s minds were full. One subject which attracted much attention was a bond of union for the whole Maori people. Among the visitors were some from Waikato who had brought the Maori King’s flag with them, evidently in the hope of gaining adherents to the King’s cause. These promptly took the opportunity of urging the combination of all the tribes under a King of their own race. This suggestion was no favourably received, but Anaru Matete, the principal speaker of the local people, gave expression to the mind of the great majority that, as regarded the strained relations between the Waikato tribes and the Government, it was better to maintain an attitude of neutrality and that the best bond of union for the Maori tribes was the Christian religion, which had already proved so great a blessing to the Maori people. At this time there had been no fighting in the Taranaki district since April 1861, but so long as the Waitara question was not settled, it could not be said that peace had been attained. Sir G. Grey had gone carefully into the matter and had satisfied himself that Wiremu Kingi had been treated with gross injustice, and that the Waitara block must be given up; but owing to differences with his responsible advisers the necessary proclamation had not been issued. He had visited Waikato and had talked freely to the people, employing troops at the same time in making a road, which, in case of need, would give ready access to the principal Maori settlements in Waikato. There was no little truth in the statement that “He sometimes deceived himself, so far as to hope that the Maoris would accept his assurance that his intentions were only peaceful, whilst they saw clearly enough that, without desiring war, he was systematically preparing for the possibility of it.” Reports of what was being said and done on the Waikato River found their way through Maori agency to distant parts of the country, and kept up a feeling of unrest, especially in the Bay of Plenty and on the East Coast. This unrest was much increased by the tidings of the shooting of Dr. Hope, Lieutenant Tragett, and others at Tataraimaka on the 4th of May, 1863, and of the invasion of the Waikato by crossing the Mangataiwhiri on July 12th. The proclamation of the abandonment of the Waitara block following, as it did, close upon the disaster at Tataraimaka, gave many of the Maoris the
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impression that the authorities were panic-stricken, and the fact that the first blow in the Waikato War was struck by the British troops without a previous declaration of war had the effect of calling forth much sympathy for the Waikato people. The Ngatiawa of Tauranga had always been the firm allies of the Ngatihaua, which was Wiremu Tamihana’s tribe, and when, at the commencement of hostilities, he appealed to them, they immediately decided to throw in their lot with Waikato. The consequence of this was that the school which had recently been established at Tauranga was broken up, and the Rev. C. Baker, the Rev. E.B. Clarke, and other European residents left for Auckland, Mr. Clarke soon afterwards joining the staff at Waerenga-a-hika. Tauranga became the seat of war in 1864. The Arawa tribe of Maketu and Rotorua, remembering their old feuds with Waikato, showed them no sympathy; but the Whakatohea of Opotiki, who had held themselves aloof for some months, took up the cause of Waikato early in 1864, upon which the Rev. C.S. Volkner took his wife to Auckland, returning himself to his station to watch the course of events. The Tuhoe people in the interior sided with Waikato from the first, and some of the people in the upper Hawke’s Bay district were drawn in with them. Of the Ngatiporou at Waiapu about 45 men left in August, 1863, for the seat of war in Waikato, and were followed by another contingent of about seventy in the following January.
The Diocesan Synod which met in January, 1865, at Te Kawakawa, now generally known as Te Araroa, was not specially remarkable except for some of the attending circumstances. When travelling among the Maoris in any part of the country, we had been accustomed to be received with perfect courtesy and unfailing hospitality. It occasioned somewhat of a shock, therefore, that we should find ourselves treated with very marked incivility by a section of the Kawakawa people, who had ranged themselves on the side of the Maori King. On our visiting some of our disaffected settlements in the Waiapu Valley the same unfriendly disposition was manifested, and our presence evidently was not desired. At one place, however, viz., Pukemaire, we succeeded in getting the people to give some explanation of their attitude. The matter was summed up by one of the speakers in a proverbial saying, “E ngaki atu ana a mua; e toto mai ana a muri!” i.e. “The party in front is clearing the way; the party behind is dragging along (the newly-shaped canoe.”) His meaning, of course was, that the missionaries had come to New Zealand to clear the way for the armed force to follow, and take possession of their lands. After a good deal of discussion we parted on much better terms, and a strong wish was expressed that, when visiting the district again, I should not fail to visit Pukemaire.
This notion about the missionaries was found to be very prevalent among the Maoris who were opposed to the Government, and this fact need excite little surprise when all the circumstances are taken into consideration. When the Treaty of Waitangi was first put before them the missionaries took an active part in explaining it to the chiefs in various parts of the country and in persuading them to sign it. They did this not without a deep sense of the possibility of this action of their coming in the distant future to be misunderstood by the Maoris, but in full confidence, at the same time, that implicit reliance might be placed on the honour and good faith of Her Majesty’s Government. ‖ It might be thought that the
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opposition shown by the Bishop and the missionaries to the action of Governor Browne and his responsible advisors on the question of the Waitara purchase would have made it quite clear to the Maoris that their work was absolutely independent of any action of the Government; but on the other hand there were circumstances which tended to produce a different impression. When the troops marched into the Waikato, as there were no regular chaplains, Bishop Selwyn considered it to be his duty to attend them. Dr. Maunsell, too, who had been obliged to leave his station at Kohanga, assisted Bishop Selwyn in this work, and narrowly escaped being shot by the Maoris while so engaged. At Tauranga again, under similar circumstances, Archdeacon Brown [Browne] undertook military chaplain’s duty. To the Maori mind the inference seems to have been irresistible that the clergymen so acting were ranging themselves definitely on the side of their enemies. Religious ministrations to the troops would be looked upon as analogous to the karakia or charms which were recited in former time by their tohungas, and had for their object the strengthening of their own forces or the weakening of those of the enemy.
Up to the end of 1864 nothing had occurred in this part of the island which afforded ground to anticipate that the war was likely to come nearer to the East Coast than Tauranga or possibly Opotiki. Some of the Ngatiporou certainly had sided with the Waikato, but on the other hand another section of the same tribe was decidedly on the side of the Government. In Poverty Bay also the great majority, while expressing hearty sympathy with Wiremu Kingi and Waikato, had frequently announced their determination not to embroil themselves with the Government about matters in which they had no immediate interest, and had positively declined to accept the Maori King’s flag. It was only natural that news from the seat of war should be eagerly listened to by them and that, when accounts were conflicting, preference should be given to those which had come through Maori channels; but they recognised that they themselves had no real ground for a rupture with the authorities. Vague rumours had been current for some time that a new form of religion, called “Paimarire,” had been the subject of a Divine revelation made through the Angel Gabriel to a Maori prophet named Horopapera Te Ua at Taranaki, and that emissaries of his, who were spoken of as “Tiu” (or Jews), were going about the country to make the various Maori tribes acquainted with it. Te Ua was an inoffensive old man whose mental faculties were more or less deranged. Whatever value he himself may have attached to his rambling utterances, if he attached any value to them at all, they were certainly turned to account by others who persuaded many that they were intended by the Deity to do for the Maori all that Christianity had done for the Pakeha. With this so-called religion we were very soon to make an unwelcome acquaintance.
On the 1st of March, 1865, a messenger named Manihera arrived from Opotiki, bringing word that a party of Paimarire had arrived there from Taranaki, having come by way of Taupo, where they had cleared everything out of the house of the Rev. T.S. Grace at Pukawa, that on their arrival at Opotiki they had ransacked the house of the Rev. C.S. Volkner and put up to auction everything that they could lay their hands on; that if Messrs. Grace and Volkner had been found at their stations their lives would have been taken, and that the Whakatohea tribe at
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Opotiki had all accepted the new religion.¶ There had been an epidemic of typhoid fever at Opotiki, and Mr. Volkner was then on his way back from Auckland with medicines and other necessaries for the sick people. Manihera also brought a letter from Mohi Tamatea at Opotiki, warning us that this party was coming on to Poverty Bay, their object being to put to death all Englishmen that they might fall in with, especially clergymen, but that no Jews would be molested. Five days later Aperahama Kotuku brought further intelligence to the effect that on the 1st of March a schooner had arrived at Opotiki, bringing Messrs. Grace and Volkner as passengers; that on the following day Mr. Volkner had been hanged, but that Mr. Grace was detained as a prisoner; that the Paimarire were already on their way from Opotiki, bringing with them Mr. Grace and the head of Mr. Volkner; and that it was their intention to deal with the Bishop as they had dealt with Mr. Volkner. The news was soon very widely spread abroad and on the following morning a large number of our Maori friends came to express their sympathy and to assure us that we need not fear as they would stand by us and protect us against any evil designs of the Paimarire fanatics. Some, however, of our near neighbours urged our getting out of the way as soon as possible. In the evening of this day we attended a large meeting in the large whare nearby, at which both Manihera and Aperahama were present and rehearsed their reports of what had taken place at Opotiki, including all the revolting particulars of Mr. Volkner’s last hours and death. After a great deal of discussion the people decided to let the party come on and, if possible, to rescue Mr. Grace.
On the 11th the Paimarire, or Hau Haus, as they came to be more frequently called, were reported to have come under the leadership of Patara and Kereopa, but without Mr. Grace, as far as Waikohu, about 12 miles off, and on the following morning (Sunday), a large number of people came from the country round, many of them with arms in their hands, to stand by us in case of need. On Monday morning as our would-be defenders were drilling and practising old-fashioned war-dances, a ship of war was reported to have arrived in the bay and soon afterwards Bishop Selwyn and Captain Freemantle of H.M.S. “Eclipse” rode up. News of what had taken place Opotiki had already reached Auckland and our friends had come to render such assistance as they might find to be necessary. As we did not appear to be immediate danger, and as Mr. Grace was still in the hands of the fanatics at Opotiki, the “Eclipse” left the next morning for the Bay of Plenty in the hope of being able to rescue Mr. Grace, taking also two of the local Maoris, Rawiri Tamairiao and Rutene Piwaka, who, it was thought, might be able to render assistance by securing the good offices of Hori Tupaea of Tauranga. In the meantime the Hauhaus had come as far as Taureka, about three miles from us, and were met there by a large number of the local people who treated them with much more courtesy than we had been led to anticipate. It soon became evident that many of our local people were by no means proof against Patara’s blandishments. We had been given to understand that Hirini Te Kani, for whom Patara expressed great deference, offering to recognise him as King, would meet them at Taureka and order them to go back at once to Opotiki. This was not done but they were allowed to proceed to Patutahi and thence to Manutuke, where they would come into contact with the majority of the people of the district. Here, as the leaders laid claim to supernatural
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powers, professing among other things to be able to draw ships ashore from the open sea, they were challenged to give proof of this power by drawing ashore the S.S. “Ladybird,” which was then lying in the bay. The exposure which the attempt to do this would have brought upon them was prevented by their return to Patutahi, where they were to be joined by another party which had also come from Taranaki by way of Waikaremoana. The leaders of this second party disavowed any such murderous intentions as were professed by Patara and Kereopa. As we were still assured that Hirini would order the Hauhaus to leave the district, I went across to Patutahi in company with the Rev. S.B. Clarke, Mr. H. Williams, and two of the Maori clergy, hoping that we might be able to support those who, like ourselves, were anxious that the Hauhaus should be summarily dismissed. The second party had just arrived and was met by Patara’s party in the open plain at some little distance from the pa, not without much ceremony which seemed to be under the direction of Kereopa. After a number of formal speeches from both parties they all started up and rushed together in a state of wild confusion with uplifted hands, giving loud utterance at the same time to unintelligible gibberish, and then still jabbering, made for the “niu” or sacred pole which had been erected in one corner of the pa. Arrived there they marched several times round the pole, and then standing in a compact body commenced their karakia. This done, they, all under Patara’s direction, broke out into a most doleful tangi. This was explained to the local people by Patara, who was shedding tears most copiously, as being “mo te iwi tu kiri kau, motu tu hawhe,” i.e. “for the people who are stripped naked, and for the islands reduced by half.” The tangi was continued for some time and some of the local people were so worked upon that they could not restrain themselves from joining in it. The karakia was the same as what we had already heard, and consisted of a number of transliterated English words as might have been chalked on a blackboard by someone who was teaching Maori children English. The usual practice was that the leader would call out “Porini hoia” (Fall in soldiers). Then, when the people had come together, he would say “Teihana” (Attention.) All would then begin to chant such words as these, viz., “Mauteni; piki mauteni rongo mauteni, teihana (Mountain, big mountain; long mountain; attention); with much more of the same character. Then the names of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity transliterated from the English; each followed by “Mai merire” (Mei miserere.) The whole would be concluded with “Rire, rire, hau”; the last syllable being brought out with great emphasis. Their frequent repetition of the last syllable is said to have been the origin of the name “Hauhau.”
After waiting a considerable time, as there seemed to be no prospect of the Hauhaus being dismissed, we returned home, but before we left, a letter written in English was put into my hands inviting all the Europeans in Poverty Bay to an interview with Patara “at eight o’clock tomorrow morning precisely.” The invitation was not responded to, but I went again to Patutahi in the morning with a letter from the Bishop to Hirini Te Kani urging him to order the Hauhaus off without delay, and after speaking as strongly as I could to the same effect to Hirini and to Anaru Matete, I left them. Kereopa was not (now?) reported to have been using threatening language with reference to “Hirini’s Pakeha’s” and as it was becoming painfully evident that our efforts to counteract the influence of
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Patara and Kereopa were of little effect, we concluded that we should be wise to keep ourselves as far as possible out of their way.
On the following morning, March 24th, two of the Maori clergy went alone to Patutahi to watch proceedings. The Hauhaus performed some extraordinary ceremonies about the head which Patara’s party had brought from Taranaki, after which the head was given to Kirini. The Hauhau flags, called Riki and Rura, were offered to him but were declined. An Englishman also, who had been brought over as a prisoner, by the second party, was offered on the condition that he should be kept safely until the Hauhaus should pay the district, but Hirini declined to receive him on those terms. After this Hirini told both parties that they must leave the district with all speed. Both left Patutahi on the following day, but they were in no hurry to go further afield, Patara spending much time in visiting at the Maori settlements in company with Anaru Matete and Raharuhi Rukupo, ingratiating himself with the people and behaving in an offensive manner to some of the English residents. The Aitanga-a-Mahaki tribe who were our immediate neighbours and the Patutahi people were the first to embrace Hauhauism, and we soon heard of about thirty having been, as Patara expressed it, made “porewharewha,” which in this case meant being hypnotised. The method of treatment as described to me by one who witnessed it some time after Patara had left, was as follows: The persons to be operated upon were placed in a circle round the niu and bidden to gaze steadily at the top of the pole until in due course the atua should come into them. After a while one of the operators would go round to find out, by flapping a handkerchief in their faces, whether their nerves had been duly affected. This having been ascertained, each one would be seized by the arms and whirled round until he was quite helpless. After this he would obey any order which might be given by his leader. The people had been told by Patara that it was not the chiefs, but only the common people who should be operated upon, and that all who had thus become porewharewha would be brave soldiers, promptly obedient to every word of command from their chiefs, and fearing nothing, because that, when engaged with an enemy, the mere fact of holding up their hands would cause the bullets aimed at them to fall harmless to the ground. This ceremony of initiation was spoken of as “pooti.”
The possibility of our having to leave Waerenga-a-hika and to take refuge elsewhere could not but be recognised as soon as the local people began to show a disposition to favour the Hauhaus, and preparations were made for our moving when it might appear to be necessary. From March 16th, some of our Maori friends of their own accord set watch about our premises at night to guard against surprise. Unmistakeable evidence of the progress of the fanaticism was afforded on the 25th by the performance of the Hauhau karakia within earshot from the pa, which was about 150 yards from us.
The “Tarawera” schooner arrived from Auckland on the 27th, bringing the welcome news of the rescue of the Rev. T.S. Grace from Opotiki; and the Government steamship “St. Kilda” also arrived from Napier on the 31st bringing as passengers the Rev. S. Williams, Wi Tako, Matene Te Whiwhi, Wirihana Toatoa, and some other southern chiefs, who had been invited by the Tauranga chiefs some time previously to discuss the possibility of taking some steps for the promotion of peace between the
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contending parties at the seat of war. The arrival of these chiefs was most opportune as they were men of great influence and strongly opposed to the Hauhau movement. The “Tarawera” left again for Auckland on April 2nd, taking away several English families, twenty-seven passengers in all. On the same day rumours were current that the Hauhaus under Patara and Kereopa were contemplating mischief. The rapid progress which had been made by them during the previous three weeks rendered it not improbable that they might still think themselves strong enough to carry out the threats which they made when coming over from Opotiki. The rumours, therefore, of their sinister intentions could not be lightly disregarded; so after consultation with our Maori friends it was decided that we should leave Waerenga-a-hika for the present with the hope that through the Providence of God our misguided neighbours might after a time recover their reason, and so the way might be open for us to return and resume our work.
1865 – Our decision to leave soon became widely known, and at an early hour in the morning a number of the people who had been dallying with the Hauhaus began to come in from the various kaingas to reassure us, urging us to stay and trying to defend their own conduct, but they found it impossible to explain away the fact that the success which Patara and Kereopa had achieved was owing to the encouragement which they themselves had given them. As there was nothing in what was said which tended to restore confidence, a move was made as soon as possible for Turanganui, and in the afternoon the Bishop and the Rev. E.B. Clarke with the women and children of our families, embarked on board the “St. Kilda” which sailed in the evening for Napier.
The southern chiefs stayed in the district for about three weeks, during which time they visited all the principal settlements and used their best endeavours to persuade all the people to have nothing to do with Hauhauism as it would only bring them into serious trouble. The Taranaki Hauhaus generally avoided meeting them, though Patara, who belonged to the tribe of which Wi Tako was chief came one day with a number of armed followers to the Waerenga-a-hika pa, expecting to meet him there, and was with some difficulty persuaded by those people of the place who were not in sympathy with him, to return to Taureka. Wi Tako, however, happened to fall in with him a few days afterwards and gave him a severe reprimand, bidding him leave the district as soon as possible. The vigorous action of the southern chiefs afforded much encouragement to those who were holding their ground against the Hauhaus, and hastened the departure of the Taranaki fanatics. Kereopa was reported to have left the district before the 13th of April, and Patara followed him a few days later. Wi Tako and his companions left with the Rev. S. Williams for Napier on the 22nd.
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CHAPTER IV
When Patara left for Opotiki he announced his intention of returning at no distant date, and suggested to those who had joined him that large crops should be planted on the Mangatu, about 35 miles inland from Turanganui, and at other places inland that there might be plenty of food for the support of his army when he should come to make a satisfactory settlement of the relations between Maori and Pakeha. He also recommended that, if the Pakeha should cause any trouble in the meantime, they should keep quiet until they had fetched him and his force from Opotiki. As time went on matters did not improve. “Nius” were erected in various places and we heard from time to time of numbers of people being initiated at those places with the pooti ceremony. Some, too, of the inland tribes expressed their intention to revert to all the discarded practices of former generations, and as in old times the now extinct native rate had been regarded as a very choice article of food, they proceeded to emphasize their rejection of pakeha innovations by adopting the common brown rat as a special delicacy, but the flavour was found not to be such as to encourage a repetition of the experiment.
On May 3rd, Captain Luce of H.M.S. “Esk”, paid the district a visit, bringing with him a letter from the Bishop addressed to the Rongowhakaata tribe, pointing out to them the extreme folly of the course which they were pursuing and suggesting that, as they were abandoning the neutral position they had maintained in the past, they would be wise now to declare themselves adherents of the Government. I accompanied Captain Luce to Manutuke, where he duly delivered the letter, giving them at the same time a few words of sound advice from himself, but neither the letter nor the captain’s words met with a favourable reception from the majority of those who were present.
Soon after this some little excitement was caused by the action of Mokena Kohere, the Ngatiporou chief, who had come on a visit to Paratene Turangi and his people. He had always been a strong opponent of the Kingites at Waiapu, and on his arrival he began to use rather violent language with reference to the Hauhaus urging that, if they should refuse to abandon Hauhauism when urged to do so, they should at once be treated as enemies and war should be declared against them. The Ngaitekete hapu at Taruheru had brought out of the forest a great spar which they talked of erecting at Turanganui as a flagstaff on which the British Ensign should be hoisted. Kokena proposed that a meeting of those who were well disposed towards the Government should be held at Taruheru to consider the expediency of erecting the flagstaff at once, and that the European residents should be invited to attend the meeting. The meeting was held on May 18th, and the opinion of the majority of the speakers, including Paratene, was that it would be well not to hurry the matter, as it would certainly give offence to many, but that the question should be further discussed at Turanganui on the following day. In the morning, when most of the people had left for Turanganui, Mokena, with the help of some of the young men manned a whale boat by means of which he towed a moderate sized spar down the river and erected it at once on the river bank, near the mouth of the Waikanae creek. Upon this the British ensign was immediately hoisted, and in the course of a day or two a
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rough stockade was erected round it, Ngaitekete taking charge of it. The hesitation which was shown at Taruheru was owing to the apprehension that trouble might be caused by the Hauhaus but this apprehension was not realised. Much indignation was expressed during the succeeding three or four weeks, especially by people who, if not openly favourable, were at least not strongly opposed to the Hauhaus, but as those who had erected the flagstaff were on their own ground the excitement gradually subsided. One of the most strenuous opponents was Hirini Te Kani, who had a share in the title to the land on which the flagstaff was erected, and considered himself aggrieved because the Ngaitekete had ignored him and had done what he did not thoroughly approve. When Mr. Donald McLean came in the “St. Kilda” on June 4th, and a number of people took the oath of allegiance, Hirini refused to take it unless the obnoxious flagstaff should first be taken down.
The general course of events seemed to indicate that a considerable time must elapse before it would be possible to resume at Waerenga-a-hika the work which had been carried on there during the previous eight years; but there were matters of some importance to be attended to if possible, before general dispersion should take place. Our wheat crop, which was reaped in January, was still in the straw and, as this would not now be required for our own consumption, it would have to be threshed out and sent away for sale. It was considered desirable also that wheat should be sown for a fresh crop, so that, if the way should be open for the resumption of our work in the course of the coming summer, there might be something to begin upon in the way of food supply. Another work which had been contemplated was the erection of a small building for our own use at Turanganui, the timber for this having already been cut. All these works were put in hand but, owing to the general state of excitement, interruptions were many and progress was slow.
When Mr. McLean came in June the Bishop had come with him and brought word that Sir George Grey had offered to place at the disposal of our schools the buildings at Kawau which had been erected for the Waikato prisoners in 1863, if it should suit us to occupy them. A few weeks afterwards the Bishop wrote urging me to go as soon as possible and to take with me as many of our pupils as would be willing to accompany me. Preparations were accordingly made for removal, and a moderate number of our pupils were shipped off in the middle of August. Their destination, however, was changed from Kawau to the Bay of Islands, where buildings belonging to the church Missionary Society were available at Horotutu, adjoining the old station at Paihia, where the Bishop had already taken up his quarters in a small cottage, the Rev. E.B. Clarke being there also. The faithful remnant who had steadily resisted Patara’s plausible sophistry and had used their best efforts to prevent others from being influenced by it were entitled to all the help and encouragement that I could give them, and it did not seem fitting that I should leave them at this time. As the little cottage near the mouth of the Turanganui River was now habitable I took possession of it, leaving Waerenga-a-hika in the charge of four staunch Maori friends, viz., Wi Haronga, Pita Te Huhu, Paora Matuakore and Matenga Toti all of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki tribe.
Of the two factions of the Ngatiporou which had already been alluded to, the Kingites, as they were called, occupied separate pas, and
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were often offensive in their manner towards those who favoured the Government. As a result of Patara’s success at Opotiki and Poverty Bay, and of the claims so confidently put forward as to what Hauhauism was about to accomplish for the Maori race, the Kingites began to adopt a more insolent attitude towards their opponents. The Rev. Rota Waitoa, whose neighbours at Te Kawakawa were mostly Kingites, had found it necessary early in May to move to Matakaoa in Hicks Bay, where Iharaira Te Houkamau, who was a staunch adherent of the Government, had built a pa which he called Makeronia. The relations between the two factions from Hicks Bay to Tokomaru were daily becoming more severely strained. The Kingites were expecting a visit from Patara, but Te Houkamau had said that he would not allow him to come through by the track from Whangaparaoa, and the adherents of the Government in the Waiapu Valley had warned their opponents that, if they should bring Patara into their neighbourhood, they would take up arms if necessary to expel him, as they considered him responsible for the murder of Mr. Volkner at Opotiki.
Early in June Patara contrived to evade the vigilance of Te Houkamau and found his way to Pukemaire on the Waiapu. Just at this time Mr. D. McLean landed at Tuparoa from the Government steamer “St. Kilda” and, finding that the men of standing of the friendly section were attending a meeting at Popoti, a few miles up the Waiapu River, he sent for them. They came at once, and after a conference with him expressed their readiness to attempt the capture of Patara. This a small party of them started rather precipitately to do on the 11th. Patara apparently was apprehensive of trouble and had actually started from Pukemaire on his way back to the Bay of Plenty, being attended by a number of armed men. He was overtaken on a stream called Mangaone at no great distance from Pukemaire, and in the engagement which followed the pursuers were driven back with the loss of five of their number, and Patara went on his way. It was reported that there was a similar number of casualties on the other side. Other collisions followed soon afterwards in which the Kingites for the most part had the advantage. The rupture between the two parties was now complete, with no prospect of a settlement until the resort to arms should decide which should have to give way. The Kingites had, for some time previously, turned their backs on the native clergy. These remained at their posts and when hostilities commenced betook themselves to their pas with their people, ministering regularly to them. At Tokomaru however the Rev. Matiaha Pahewa continued to visit the Kingites as long as they were willing to accept his ministrations, and by so doing incurred the wrath of the chief, Henare Potae, who looked upon his actin as identifying himself in every way with them. From this time the Kingites were spoken of generally as Hauhaus.
To the north of the East Cape the Hauhau party was the more numerous, the other side being represented by Te Houkamau and his following at Matakaoa.
On the left bank of the Waiapu again, where the Hauhaus were in the majority, the adherents of the Government under Mokena Kohere fortified themselves at Te Ruaopango, at no great distance from the right bank of the river, and on the coast line as far as Waipiro there was a majority on the side of law and order, with a large pa at Tuparoa, where a
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large number of the women and children were congregated. At Tokomaru, Henare Potae and his following, who were outnumbered by the Hauhaus, built a pa at Te Mawhai, at the neck of the peninsula which forms the south head of the bay. The Hauhaus, on the other hand, had two pas on the left bank of the Waiapu; one at Pakairomiromi, near Rangitukia, about wo miles from Te Ruaopango, and the other at Pukemaire, about five miles further up the river. At Tokomaru they constructed a pa at Pukepapa, on the hill immediately at the back of the present township. South of Tokomaru, as far as Turanganui, the people all declared themselves as favourable to the Government. Reports were brought from Waiapa from time to time of various encounters, in which the Hauhaus were the aggressors and generally gained some little advantage over their opponents who seemed to be unequal to them in the matter of arms and ammunition as well as in numbers. In the course of a few weeks, however, Mokena’s people were put in good heart by the arrival of a detachment of Forest Rangers and others under Fraser, Westrupp and Biggs, with a plentiful supply of war material, and the tide soon turned in their favour. Owing to their having been somewhat successful in the past and probably also to their confidence in the magical virtue of “Paimarire,” the Hauhaus had grown very insolent, and they attacked Te Houkamau in his pa at Matakaoa, but were driven off with some loss. In the middle of July they had a similar experience at Te Ruaopango, but about a fortnight afterwards they were driven out of their own pa at Pakairomiromi with the loss of nineteen killed and were obliged to take refuge in Pukemaire, which was in a very strong position and very effectively fortified. They were now compelled to act entirely on the defensive, and did not venture to show themselves outside of their pa. They held their ground, however, till about the 9th of October, when, being hotly pressed, they evacuated the pa without observation and a large number of them made their way by an inland track in the direction of Hicks Bay to Hungahungatoroa, on a spur of Pukeamaru mountain. As soon as their flight became known, their tracks were followed by Hotene Porourangi and Rapata Wahawaha with about one hundred men and by Biggs with about thirty. Mokena with Fraser and Westrupp and their men went from Te Ruaopango by the coast and reached the Hauhau rendezvous soon after the other party. In response to a summons the Hauhaus then surrendered to the number of about 200, and delivered up their arms. It was ow out of the power of the Waiapu Hauhaus to cause any further serious trouble.
The Tokomaru Hauhaus also, emboldened perhaps by the early successes of their Waiapu friends, some of whom had come to help them, made a vigorous attempt on August 17th to take Henare Potae’s pa at Te Mawhai. The defenders, though greatly inferior in numbers, were fairly well equipped for defence, and after two days fighting, the Hauhaus were obliged to retire. A few days afterwards, the Waiapu contingent having apparently returned home. Henare Potae attacked them in their pa at Pukepapa, drove them out and pursued them in the direction of Tolaga Bay as far as Tahutahupo and Mangatuna on the Hikuwai, where he took a number of them prisoners with thirty-seven stands of arms and a quantity of gunpowder. On his way back to Te Mawhai, at Pakura, a little way inland from Anaura, he met and routed a small party of Hauhaus from Kaiana and Waipare who were on their way to assist their friends at Tahutahupo. In Poverty Bay it was becoming daily more
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evident that the Hauhaus would not be content until they had made an attempt to expel the Pakeha, which, Patara had persuaded them, would be a matter of no great difficulty. They had begun to throw up defensive works in various places, two of which were fortified with special care. One of these was at Waerenga-a-hika, on the bank of an old river bed, from a swamp in which they could get water. The other was Pukeamionga an isolated hill near Patutahi, where water was not very readily procurable. The adherents of the Government among the Rongowhakaata, surrounded as they were by defiant Hauhaus, were feeling themselves to be somewhat insecure, and proceeded therefore to erect a pa in which they might take refuge in case of emergency. This was at Oweta, on the right bank of the Waipaoa River, about two miles from the mouth. The threatening attitude of the Hauhaus had the effect also of stiffening our friend Hirini Te Kani at Turanganui, who, though never actually a partisan of the Hauhaus had sometimes appeared very lukewarm in his opposition to them. He now declared himself very decidedly on the side of the Government, and wrote to Mr. McLean, the representative of the Government at Napier, requesting that his people might be supplied with arms wherewith to defend themselves in case of need, and concluding with a further request that for the security of the comparatively few supporters of the Government, some armed men might be stationed by the Government at Turanganui. This request was promptly responded to and on September 15th a cutter arrived from Napier bringing thirty of the military settlers under Lieutenant Wilson and fifty additional stand of arms with a plentiful supply of ammunition. These were followed about a fortnight afterwards by thirty of the Colonial Defence Force under Captain La Serre. The extra arms were carefully guarded under lock and key to the great disappointment of the Maoris, but they were intended to be used only in the case of actual necessity.
As soon as possible after his arrival, Lieutenant Wilson set about the construction of a redoubt at Turanganui. A number of the Maoris gave ready help in this work which, as soon as it was brought to completion, was occupied by the military settlers.
Most of the Hauhaus who were driven out of Pukepapa by Henare Potae made their way by the middle of September to Waerenga-a-hika, numbering, it was said, about 200, and met with a cordial reception. They attributed their defeat to what they called “Pikirapu,” i.e., to an unwitting transgression on their part of some requirement of “Paimarire.” In their absence no trouble was apprehended at Tokomaru, and Henare Potae therefore did not hesitate to pay a visit to Turanganui, his object being to confer with Lieutenant Wilson and also to ascertain how the Tokomaru Hauhaus were situated. After spending several days at Tolaga Bay and Whangara, he arrived at Turanganui with forty of his men on September 28th. On the following day word was brought to him that, on the 27th, a half-caste boy named Henry Henderson had been killed by Hauhaus when out with two other boys from Te Mawhai looking for horses; also that early on the next morning, Te Mawhai had been attacked, but had been successfully defended by the small garrison, three of whom were wounded; one, whose wound was serious, being John Henderson, the father of the boy who was killed. The assailants, who left nine of their number dead, were some of the refugees from Waerenga-a-hika who had returned to Tokomaru, and finding that the garrison of Te Mawhai was
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much reduced in number, expected to be able to capture the place without difficulty. On the receipt of this news Henare Potae returned at once to Te Mawhai.
The completion of Tamihana Ruatapu’s pa at Oweta was celebrated by a great demonstration on October 11th, when a good flagstaff was erected and the British flag duly honoured. Lieutenant Wilson went over for the occasion. Soon afterwards Hirini and his people threw up a defensive earthwork round their two wharepuni at Turanganui.
In the meantime the European residents could not but recognise that their position was becoming daily more critical. A number of the women and children had already been sent away. Of the adult males there were at this time forty, all of whom had been living on good terms with their Maori neighbours, but the Hauhau fanaticism had already begun to interfere somewhat with their amicable relations, and further unpleasant developments were to be expected. Some of the traders had been selling intoxicating liquor to the Hauhaus, which tended to make them more aggressive than they would otherwise have been; Mr. Harris therefore, who was the oldest European resident in the district, called a meeting in the hope of putting a stop to the practice. Several of the traders attended with others, and all who were present pledged themselves not to supply any intoxicating liquor to any Maori or half-caste during the ensuing six months, and to forfeit a sum of £50 if they should violate this pledge. This had some little effect in checking the illegal practice, but did not end it.
On October 30th Henare Potae arrived again at Turanganui from Te Mawhai with thirty of his men, and his presence had the effect of exasperating the Rongowhakaata Hauhaus who dared him to meddle with the refugees from Tokomaru, and declared that they should come as far as Makaraka by way of a challenge, and to show that they were not afraid of him. Raharuhi and others used very violent language, referring not only to Henare Potae, but to Europeans generally, advocating war to the knife. In consequence of this there was a general move of most of the European residents to Turanganui. Several small buildings on sledges had been brought to the right bank of the river some days previously, but these afforded very scant accommodation. Of these refugees eleven were women and eighteen children, ten of whom took shelter for the night under my small roof. Many of the Hauhaus, on hearing that the homes were deserted, proceeded to plunder them, wantonly destroying much of what they could not carry away. Anaru Matete was with some of them, not taking part in the plunder, but making no effort to prevent it. After this Captain La Serre ordered that all the Europeans should sleep on the left bank of the river, where they could be more easily protected in case of need, and as there were no buildings available, they took up their quarters temporarily in the church until buildings could be brought across for them.
On the following day there came a letter from Raharuhi to Lieutenant Wilson to say that he strongly disapproved of what the Hauhaus had done, and that if an assessment could be made of the amount of the damage sustained by the Europeans, he would make the culprits pay the equivalent. The messenger was sent back without any definite reply, but was bidden
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to inform Raharuhi that a report had already been despatched to Napier, that Mr. McLean was expected almost immediately, and that he would be able to speak with authority on the subject.
The chiefs of Hawke’s Bay had shown decided disapproval of the state of affairs in Poverty Bay, and especially of the conduct of Raharuhi. In September Karaitiana Takamoana had come for the express purpose of trying to induce Raharuhi to go with him to Napier in the hope of being able to persuade him to renounce Hauhauism. Now in the beginning of November Tareha came on a similar errand. He brought Rararuhi to Turanganui, and wished the officers to meet him and discuss the position. They, however, declared that they were without authority, and that any further communication must be made to Mr. McLean. On the 9th of November H.M.S. “Esk” arrived from Waiapu, bringing Mr. McLean with 260 of Nagatiporou, who were accompanied by the Rev. Mohi Turei. The “Sturt” followed soon after, bringing 100 Forest Rangers under Major Fraser. On the following day Mr. McLean took counsel with a number of friendly chiefs and decided to offer the Hauhaus the following terms, viz. – 1. That malefactors should be delivered up; 2, that Hauhauism should be renounced by all; and that they should take the oath of allegiance; 3, that they should pay a penalty in land; and 4, that they should give up their arms. On the 13th an answer came signed by most of the leading men among the Hauhaus, stating that they were willing to come to terms, but that were very anxious that he (Mr. McLean), should go to visit them. This he declined to do, and sent word that if they were willing to agree to the terms he offered them, they had better come in at once, and he would then know that they were sincere. A few Hauhaus came over in boats from the further side of the bay, but the majority were evidently in no hurry to surrender themselves.
The “Esk” was leaving that evening for Auckland, and as Captain Luce kindly offered me a passage, I left with him, intending to join our party at the Bay of Islands.
CHAPTER V.
After my arrival at the Bay of Islands Mr. J.W. Harris sent me reports from Turanganui of which the following is the substance: –
The result of Mr. McLean’s ultimatum of the 13th November was that Raharuhi and another of the leading Hauhaus came to tell him that Hauhaus to the number of 270 would come in on the following day to express the acceptance of the terms offered to them. As none came in in pursuance of this promise Mr. McLean sent them word that he would give them till noon of the 16th. The only response to this was that on the morning of the 16th most of the buildings on the station at Waerenga-a-hika were burnt, the smoke of the burning buildings being plainly visible from Turanganui. Of our faithful Maori friends who had been in charge of the place, several had taken refuge at Oweta, but Wi Haronga, having special permission from Captain La Serre, stayed on in the hopes of being
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able to save some at least of the property. He had taken up his quarters in the Bishop’s house with his wife and two children, and, as he obstinately refused to leave it when summoned by the Hauhaus, he was the means of saving it from the general destruction.
When the time indicated by Mr. McLean had expired without any further communication from the Hauhaus, orders were given to Major Fraser, and all the available force moved off in the course of the afternoon as far as Huiatoa, in the direction of Pukeamionga. On the 17th the force was soon on the move again, but took the track leading to Waerenga-a-hika. The Hauhaus made another attempt to get Wi Haronga out of the house, but with no better success than before; some of them, however, having found that there was a little lead on the roof proceeded to strip it off. While they were so engaged they saw the force coming up through the paddocks and hurried off into their pa. Wi Haronga had hooked up bullocks to a dray in the early morning, and had put a number of things in it to go towards Turanganui. As soon as the alarm was given, he placed his two children in the dray and started, he and his wife walking by the side. When he reached a position from which he could see the advancing army he expressed his satisfaction by waving a welcome, but was fired upon three several times. Fortunately none of them was hit, and as the bullocks had been frightened and had hurried off by a back way, he and his wife crept into a ditch where they were screened from view by a crop of wheat, and made their way after the dray, taking it to Taruheru.
The Bishop’s house with the adjoining buildings which had been occupied by the girls’ school was immediately taken possession of by the force and from the roof and from the upper rooms a plunging fire was directed into the pa. The Forest Rangers took up a position on the south side of the pa, and on the following day Lieutenant Wilson with his Military Settlers, three Maoris, and three English volunteers went round to the rear of the pa before daylight and found a shelter about 30 or 40 yards from the pa, from which the water supply of the pa was commanded. About 5 p.m. they were fired into from behind by a party of Hauhaus, who had crept out under shelter of thick scrub. Two of the party fell dead and several were wounded. As there was no shelter there was nothing for it but for the survivors to make the best of their way towards the Bishop’s house, running the gauntlet of a severe fire from the pa, in the course of which three more were killed. Wilson himself received three wounds, but none of them was serious. On the 19th the Hauhaus were reinforced by a body of men under Anaru Matete, and a number of them came out of the pa towards the house in three bodies preceded by their fighting flag, each of them holding up a hand, presumably to ward off hostile bullets. Fire was opened on them from the house and from trenches in the garden, when thirty of them fell. On the next day a flag of truce was hoisted and an hour allowed for the burial of the dead. On the 22nd most of the defenders of the pa surrendered themselves and delivered up their arms. Two days afterwards the force returned to Turanganui with the defeated Hauhaus.
The Waerenga-a-hika stronghold and other places fortified by the Hauhaus were at once dismantled, and a number of the Rongowhakaata Hauhaus were placed in the charge of the friendly natives at Oweta.
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Anaru Matete did not surrender himself but made his escape to Wairoa. Some of the prominent Hauhaus went off in the direction of Opotiki.
This was the end of Hauhauism in these parts; for, though the name “Hauhau” has been in use ever since to denote those who have been disaffected either towards the Government or towards Christianity, the peculiar quasi-religious practices prescribed by Patara were heard no more of from this time. “Paimarire” had been put to a practical test with the result that it had brought defeat and disaster instead of victory to those who had been deluded into adopting it.
Among those who had been wounded was Dr. Ormond, who, soon after the Bishop’s house was taken possession, of, was standing beside Biggs and looking on at a black-letter book which the latter had picked up from the Bishop’s library. He had his left hand in his trousers pockets, and a bullet from a rifle in the pa pierced his hand and made a flesh wound through both thighs, thus disabling him from rendering any professional assistance to other wounded. Another was Mr. Ross, an officer of the Forest Rangers. He was struck on the nose, the bullet taking a coarse below the brain and a little to one side, passing out towards the back of the neck. He was brought down to my cottage, which was occupied during my absence of Messrs. Harris and Espie. He suffered a good deal from hemorrhage, and his case was for some time considered to be hopeless, but he recovered and ultimately settled on a farm near Opotiki, which he occupied for many years.
There was nothing now to prevent the European residents from returning to their homes and they set to work at once to repair damages and to take such steps as were possible to get their homesteads into order again. Most of the Colonial forces were sent to Wairoa, where it was thought their services might be needed, but Westrupp, with his company of Forest Rangers, was stationed at Kohanga-karearea, on the Arai River, to guard against any possible incursion of Hauhaus from Wairoa. Wilson and La Serre, with their respective contingents were left for the time being at Turanganui in charge of the Hauhaus, but the Ngatiporou, under Hotene and Rapata were taken back to Waiapu.
The forces that were sent to Wairoa soon had serious work to do. It will be remembered that the second party of the Hauhaus who visited Poverty Bay in March, 1865, had come by way of Waikaremoana and the Upper Wairoa, and most of the people who occupied those parts of the district had accepted what they were given to understand was the revelation made through the Angel Gabriel to Te Ua. The people on the lower Wairoa, under their chiefs Pitihera Kopu and Paora Te Apatu, the Nuhaka people under Ihaka Whanga, and the Mohaka people under Hoani Te Wainohu, showed the Hauhaus no favour, and when those became aggressive, ranged themselves on the side of the Government. The opposing parties first came into collision on Christmas Day, 1865, on the Mangaaruhe stream, about 15 miles from the mouth of the Wairoa. They were afterwards followed up towards Waikaremoana, in which neighbourhood they had taken up a strong position on the ascent towards the lake, rifle pits having been constructed behind a tall growth of fern, which effectually concealed them. The advancing force was met here on January 12th by a fierce fire from the rifle pits, Ihaka Whanga, among others, being
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wounded in the thigh. The Hauhaus, however, were soon driven out of their position with the loss of over forty killed, the friendly natives also losing twelve of their number. Among the Hauhaus engaged in these actions were many from other parts, including a number from Poverty Bay.
1866. – On the 2nd of January I left the Bay of Islands on my return to Turanganui, but the means of communication were so irregular that, though I took passage by a small steamer for Napier I did not reach my destination till the 31st. The Maori population of Turanganui was now estimated at about 1000, of whom the greater number were the Hauhaus. The majority of these, now that Hauhauism was thoroughly discredited were to all appearance utterly indifferent in the matter of religion; but there were some who were ready humbly to acknowledge their grievous error in having associated themselves with it, and seemed thankful to have the opportunity of joining again in the worship of god as members of a Christian congregation. These, it may fairly be supposed, had joined what they considered to be the patriotic side without any intention of renouncing Christianity, and without a thought of the injury which they might sustain by intimate fellowship with those who openly confessed themselves to be anti-Christian.
As Waerenga-a-hika was now accessible I took an early opportunity of paying the place a visit of inspection, Lieutenant Wilson kindly accompanying me. The scene was one of dreary desolation, chimneys here and there showing where some of the buildings had been, fences on all sides were very much broken down. The Bishop’s house, though still standing, was now not much more than a mere shell, the roof having been stripped in many places and the doors wrenched off their hinges; much of the interior lining being torn down and taken away; the floor in some of the rooms strewed with fragments of books and papers which had been destroyed, it was said, in order that some of the people might have something less unyielding than bare boards to lie upon. Of the very few books which had not been destroyed or taken away we found a copy of the Latin Vulgate and a copy of the New Testament in Greek, neither of which probably owed its survival to any sentiment of reverence. For the greatest part of this damage the Hauhaus were not responsible as they had been kept at bay by Wi Haronga till the force from Turanganui was almost upon them. About 150 yards from the house was what was left of the pa, of which all the heavy puriri posts of the palisade were thickly pitted with bullet marks on the side facing the house, giving some indication of the deadly character of the hail of lead which had been discharged at the pa during those four terrible days. The pa had been demolished but enough remained to show what an enormous amount of labour had been spent upon the fortifications and the skill with which it had been devised, labour and skill worthy of a better cause and inadequate to the securing from disaster of those who had put their trust in it. Among the saddest objects were the temporary graves in which the slain of both sides had been hastily buried where they had fallen. One small enclosure was fenced in with door and table tops, and on one of the doors was written a statement in Maori to the effect that nine men were lying in this grave. The spectacle altogether was indeed most melancholy, and
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it was impossible to avoid the thought that all this ruin and loss of life had come about without any adequate reason.
On February 20th the district was visited by Colonel Haultain, who was then Minister for Colonial Defence. He spoke of the deportation of a number of the Hauhau prisoners to Chatham Island as a step which the Government had under consideration, the object being to have them out of the way until the question of the confiscation of land should be settled, as the people had been warned beforehand that they would be punished in this way for taking up arms against the Government. It was contemplated that, if they should be deported they would be brought back again in the course of about 12 months. The Colonel stated also that whatever course the Government might decide upon, Mr. McLean would receive full instructions in due course.
As the Colonel was going on the “Sturt” to Waiapu, I was glad to take the opportunity of revisiting the Ngatiporou, intending to return overland. I found the Rev. Mohi Turei at Te Ruaopango where the late defenders of Pukemaire were quartered under the charge of Mohena’s people. All were living very amicably together as though their peaceful relations had never been disturbed. There was a detachment of the Military Settlers stationed for the time being at Te Awanui. The people, who in time of peace, were distributed along the coast from Reporua to Waipiro, were still crowded together at Tuparoa in a pa which was protected by a rough palisade only, the Rev. Raniera Kawhia being with them. South of Tokomaru very few people were met with, the majority being at Turanganui.
On the surrender of the pas at Waerenga-a-hika some of the Hauhaus, as already stated, went off to Wairoa and others in the direction of Opotiki. An incident, however, occurred at this time which revealed the fact that some of them were still lurking in the bush some miles back. At the time of Patara’s visit a German, named Beyer, had discovered petroleum some distance up the Waipaoa Valley. On my return from Waiapu I found that Messrs. Espie senior and junior, with sergeant Walsh of the Colonial Defence Force and a Maori land had gone on an exploring expedition with the view of locating the petroleum. In the course of their journey they came to a steep hill, which, after tying up their horses, they proceeded to climb on foot. While they were so engaged a party of Hauhaus, consisting of six men and two women appeared. These first took possession of what they found on the saddles and then followed the party up the hill. Shots were exchanged with the result Walsh was hit in five places, though not seriously, and Espie senior was hit in the left arm. Walsh then seized one of the Hauhaus, and after a struggle took away his gun and secured him. The other Hauhaus then hurried away. After this adventure the party returned, bringing their prisoner with them, and reached Turanganui the following morning.
On March 3rd H.M.S. “Esk” arrived bringing Sir George Grey with the Hauhau prophet Te Ua, whom he had been taking to various places to let the people see that in spite of his fame as a prophet there was nothing awe-inspiring about him, but that on the contrary he had the appearance of an imbecile.
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The “St. Kilda” had arrived on the same morning, bringing Mr. McLean who had received full instructions with reference to the deportation of Hauhau prisoners to Chatham Island. His first step was to take counsel with the friendly chiefs and to lay before them the decision at which the Government had arrived, viz., that the prisoners should be deported to Chatham Island for a period which might not be much more than twelve months, during which arrangements might be made for the confiscation of such land as the government should decide to take. The friendly chiefs all approved of the measure, and ninety persons, of whom forty-four were men, were taken on board the “St. Kilda” as a first instalment. A guard was sent with them from Napier consisting of thirteen Europeans and twelve Maoris under Lieut. A. Tuke. Subsequent trips of the “St. Kilda” raised the number to about 300, some being taken from the Bay of Plenty.
The state of the country in 1866 could hardly be called one of peace, though after the fighting at Waikaremoana and after General Chute’s march through the forest at the back of Mount Egmont during which Te Au was captured there was a general suspension of hostilities. In the Waikato the ankati or interdict against any Pakeha entering the King Country was still rigorously maintained. Tawhiao the Maori King, issued a proclamation in April, couched in very figurative language and addressed to all the Maori people, inviting all to join Waikato in resistance to the Pakehas, success in which was assured inasmuch as God was their refuge, Anaru Matete, who had taken a prominent part in the proceedings of the Hauhaus in Poverty Bay, addressed a letter in pursuance of this proclamation to the principal chiefs in Hawke’s Bay, in which he urged them to join the King, as, in spite of the reverses which the Hauhaus had sustained, the blessing of the Almighty was resting on the King’s cause, giving full assurance of victory. The King was likened to high ground on which the people might take refuge from the Pakeha inundation. He also wrote in a similar strain to the people of Poverty Bay, urging them to “take refuge on the dry ground.” Te Ua, he said, had disowned Hauhauism and the work of Patara and Kereopa as they, by their wrong doing, had brought disaster on the cause of the Maori. This cause was now committed by him to Tawhiao, who would be supported by Tohu, Te Whiti and Taikomako; the Hauhau methods were to be discarded. These letters met with no favourable response, but they clearly indicated that the time of peace was not yet. In June the Hawke’s Bay chiefs who had turned a deaf ear to Tawhiao’s proclamation, were threatened with an attack from people occupying the country between Hawke’s Bay and Taupo under Paora Toki, but when they showed that they were prepared vigorously to defend themselves, the would-be assailants withdraw. Much uncertainty, however, continued to be felt as to their ultimate intentions. A little later in the month of August, Anaru Matete appeared at Te Pohue, on the Taupo track, with 270 armed men collected from various tribes who were said to be waiting for a signal from the Atua to attack Hawke’s Bay; but they came no further. Against, early in September he came to Petane with a body of from 80 to 100 armed men professing a great desire that terms of peace should be arranged, but soon returned again to Titiokura. Their subsequent movements seem to indicate that the object of his visit was to obtain information as to the amount of resistance which they would be likely to meet with if they should attempt to carry out the threat which they had previously made of an armed raid on the district, and by their
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profession of an earnest desire for peace, to put both the friendly natives and the English off their guard. Towards the end of the month an armed party of about 140 came again to Petane professing the same earnest desire for peace as on the previous visit. On the 4th October these moved on without invitation to Omarunui, where there was a small pa which they occupied. The circumstances were such as might well have aroused suspicion, but it was not until some information as to their designs which had been obtained by the Rev. S. Williams had been communicated to the authorities and to the friendly chiefs that any steps were taken to guard against surprise. On the 8th, the Volunteers and the Militia were called out and a small body of the Defence Force under Major Fraser and a force of friendly natives were summoned from Wairoa. The local friendly natives, under Renata and Karaitiana, also prepared to defend themselves at Te Pawhakairo. Mr. McLean, who was superintendent of the Province and Government Agent, sent the Hauhaus a message requiring them to leave the district, to which they replied that they would be guided as to their movements by their atua. It seemed to be quite clear that they intended mischief, and therefore on the night of the 11th, the Volunteers, the Militia and the friendly natives started for Omarunui, and Fraser and his men were directed to proceed at once to Petane to intercept a party from Titiokura. Both of these parties were summoned to surrender, but they preferred to fight, with the result that some of them were killed and others taken prisoners. It was afterwards ascertained from the prisoners that their plan had been that the party from Titiokura should attack the Port, and that, when the defending force should be engaged with them, the party from Omarunui should come down and make short work of Napier and the neighbourhood. It was a cause for much thankfulness to Divine Providence that the scheme was so completely frustrated.
Some apprehension was felt also in regard to Hauhaus at Wairarapa, but any intended movement on their part was probably prevented by what took place at Omarunui. From all this it was evident that some time must yet elapse before the occupations of a time of peace could be resumed without the risk of disturbance. The people nevertheless had begun to move away from the pas in which they had congregated themselves for purposes of defence and to turn their attention to the cultivation of the soil. At Waiapu the sharp antagonism between those who favoured the Maori King and the adherents of the Government had passed away, though many of the former were somewhat shy, still retaining, it may be supposed, the notion that they had been deceived by the missionaries.
The state of New Zealand at this time suggested to the Committee of the Church Missionary Society the question whether the time had not come for preparation to be made for the discontinuance, at no very distant date, of its work in this mission, in order that it might be the more free to take advantage of openings for missionary work in other lands. Mission stations in the Waikato, at Opotiki and at Waerenga-a-hika had been broken up, and many of the native tribes had been scattered. In districts, too, in which the population had been preponderantly Maori the proportion of European to Maori would now be reversed. The society did not consider that its work in the country had been so thoroughly done as to justify its withdrawal, but wished to be guided by the knowledge and advice of people on the spot, and therefore suggested that the older missionaries
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should meet in conference, together with Sir W. Martin and Dr. Maunsell to discuss the future conduct of the mission and to report to the society. The conference met in June and advised that the Society should not withdraw, but that advantage should be taken of every opportunity that might offer for the resumption of work in the disturbed districts, and that special attention should be given to the training of native clergy. It was never contemplated that the residence of the Bishop of Waiapu at the Bay of Islands should be of long continuance, and now that the settlements on the coast were in comparative tranquillity he was anxious to get back to his diocese as soon as it might be practicable. As the re-occupation of Waerenga-a-hika was at that time out of the question and Tauranga was, on various grounds, quite unsuitable, a suggestion was made that he should, for a time at least, reside at Napier, from whence the diocese would be much more accessible than from the Bay of Islands. This suggestion commended itself very strongly to the Bishop of New Zealand and also to the Bishop of Wellington, both of whom were of opinion that the Provincial District of Hawke’s Bay might well, under the circumstances then existing, be taken from the diocese of Wellington and added to that of Waiapu; that the Bishop of Waiapu might be commissioned to act for the Bishop of Wellington in that portion of his diocese until the change should be definitely effected by the general Synod; and that educational and training work might be carried on at Te Aute, where there was an educational endowment. Acting on their advice the Bishop of Waiapu decided to dismiss the remnants of the schools from the Bay of Islands, and moved his headquarters to Napier in January, 1867.
It was generally understood that it was the intention of those who were in authority to confiscate all the land belonging to those who had taken arms against the Government, but that out of the land so confiscated ample reserves would be made for their support. In order to carry this out a deed of cession was prepared to which the signatures were obtained of the chiefs and other representative men in the district who had no borne arms against the Government. By this deed was ceded to the Crown all the land to the east of a line taken from Lottin Point, in the north, through specified points to the north-east of Waikaremoana Lake, and to the north of a line drawn from thence to the sea so as to include the district of Wairoa, on the condition that each of the owners whose land was not to be confiscated should receive a Crown grant for his own portion. In the ensuing session of Parliament “The East Coast Land Titles Investigation Act, 1866,” was passed, the purport of which was to confiscate all land within the specified district which belonged to people “who had been engaged in the rebellion.” Two of the judges of the Native Land Court were appointed Commissioners to carry out the Act, and notice was issued that the Commission would sit at Turanganui early in 1867. The Commission was formally opened on the day appointed, and the people, who had been brought together were, to their great disappointment, dismissed with the announcement that, owing to a serious flaw in the Act, no business could be done, and the Commission must be adjourned sine die. The fact was that the Act which had been passed contained a reference to “The New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863”, which practically identified such “natives or other persons as shall not have been engaged in the rebellion” with those “who have been engaged in making or levying war or carrying arms against Her Majesty the Queen, or Her Majesty’s forces in New
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Zealand.” There was nothing for it, therefore, but to postpone the proceedings for twelve months to give the Parliament an opportunity of rectifying its own blunder.* The delay which was thus caused inflicted great hardship on the friendly natives within the district defined by the Act, many of whom had been fighting on the side of the Government, and moreover it was not unconnected with the disasters which befell the district at a later period.
After the Commission had been adjourned Mr. McLean accompanied the Hon. J.C. Richmond on a visit to Wairoa with the Heretaunga chiefs, Karaitiana, Tareha and Hapuku. Mr. Richmond was the Commissioner of Customs in the Stafford Ministry, and the object of his visit was presumably to arrive at a definite understanding with the friendly natives as to the land in that district which was to be confiscated. The parts occupied by the Hauhaus were Whataroa on the Mangaaruhi, Opouiti on the Mangapouiki, Te Reinga and other places on the Ruakituri, and places on the south side of Waikaremoana Lake. A large meeting was held on April 3rd at Te Hatepe, the pa of Pitihera Kopu, who had been one of the staunchest opponents of the Hauhaus and had taken an active part in the fighting at Waikaremoana in January, 1866. The block of land which the Government proposed to take included a good deal on the Waiau and on the left bank of the Wairoa as far as the site of Frasertown, in which many of those who had been fighting on the Government side were largely interested. When the boundaries were indicated a good deal of opposition was naturally aroused, but great pressure was put on the objectors who were somewhat roughly told by the advocates of the Government proposals that they were taking sides with the Hauhaus. Kopu and his wife, who were among the principal owners of the land in dispute, had taken no part in the discussion, but brought it to an end by each of them saying, “The land belongs to me, and I consent to its being taken to make amends for the delinquencies of the Hauhaus.” Their action was dignified and worthy of the old Rangatira traditions, but it was not to the credit of those who were in authority that one who had rendered signal service to the Government should have been subjected to great pressure to induce him to consent to some of his land being confiscated. Much sympathy however was expressed when Kopu died a few days later after a short illness, and a monument was subsequently erected to his memory at the public expense.
The Parliament met in due course and an amending Act was passed which correctly defined the persons to whom the penalty of land confiscation was intended to apply. The Commission was advertised to sit again at Turanganui in March, 1868, but it would have been impossible to ascertain within a reasonable time what portions of land, as belonging to Hauhaus, had been declared to be confiscated, Mr. McLean made an attempt to negotiate a compromise with the friendly chiefs, and to get a certain portion of the land defined which the Government might take as representing the land belonging to the Hauhaus, it being understood that the Government would waive its claim to Hauhau land outside the defined block in favor of friendly natives; the attempt however proved unsuccessful. The people complained of the great delay which had taken place, and said that the business would have been easily settled if it had been taken in hand immediately on the conclusion of war. The various claims which had been advertised were then brought before the Commission, and each one
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was immediately withdrawn, so that no business could be done. It was, however, arranged that a block at Turanganui, roughly estimated at about 1000 acres, should be purchased by the Government for a sum of £2000. Upon this a township was afterwards laid out, to which the name of Gisborne was given.
In the Waiapu district the friendly chiefs had been informed that, in consideration of the valuable support which they had given to the Government at Waiapu Poverty Bay and Waikaremoana, it would be left to them to settle what land should be taken by the Government under “The East Coast Land Titles Investigation Act, 1866.” They accordingly marked off a block of considerable size, including the sites of the two Hauahau strongholds of Rikemaire and Hungahungatoroa, these two places being about fourteen miles apart. After the abortive session of the Commission at Turanganui. Major Biggs went to Waiapu on behalf of the Government that the boundaries of this block might be pointed out to him. On this being done he expressed dissatisfaction on the ground that the amount was insufficient, and indicated a considerable extension of the boundaries which, in his opinion, would be satisfactory to the Government. Much discussion ensued throughout the district, and a great meeting was held, at which Major Biggs received their answer to his demand. This was that the Ngatiporou acknowledged their indebtedness to the government for the timely help which had been afforded them in their conflict with their Hauhau opponents, but that, on the other hand, they had fought for the Government at Poverty Bay and at Waikaremoana, for which they had received little or nothing in the way of remuneration; that, as requested by the Government , they had set apart a considerable block of land to be taken by the Government as representing the land belonging to the Hauhaus, and that, if the Government was not satisfied with that, they would give none. At the same time they were quite willing to give up what they had offered if the Government would accept it. Biggs’ action in this matter was ill-advised and unfair to the natives, inasmuch as it was a violation of a pledged word of those who were in a position of authority. The difficulty thus caused was ultimately solved in a way which was satisfactory to all parties, as will appear later on.
CHAPTER VI.
The attention of both Pakeha and Maori was soon diverted from questions connected with the confiscation of land to matters of more immediate urgency. On Sunday, July 12th, a report was brought to Turanganui that the Hauhau prisoners had been brought back from Chatham Island and landed on the 10th at Whareongaonga, about eight miles south of Young Nick’s Head. As the day advanced the report was confirmed with additional particulars. The party was stated to be well supplied with arms, ammunition and provisions, which they had brought from Chatham Island, where they had overpowered the guard. Some were stated to have ridden over from Whareongaonga, to have inspected the
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friendly natives’ pa at Muriwai, and to have returned without holding any communication with the residents, not even answering when addressed. This conduct was regarded by the Muriwai people as an indication of hostile intent on the part of the visitors.
Captain Biggs had started that morning for Wairoa by way of Mahia, and had not proceeded very far before he learned what had occurred. He therefore turned back again and summoned the English Volunteers and friendly natives to be ready to march towards Whareongaonga in order that he might be able to ascertain what was the actual position, and what steps it might be necessary to take. The volunteers numbered thirty-one, and were accompanied by about fifty armed friendly natives. With this little band Biggs proceeded to a spot some three or four miles from Whareongaonga, and sent forward two messengers with the demand that the escaped prisoners should deliver up their arms. As the messengers advanced they encountered an outlying picket of about thirty men, armed with rifles, on the top of the hill overlooking Whareongaonga, and another similarly armed, at the foot of the hill. These escorted them to their leader, who proved to be Te Kooti Rikirangi, and answered their message by saying that God had given them their arms, and that they were not going to deliver the up at any man’s bidding. He intimated also that they wished to be allowed to on their way unmolested. During this interview the women and children were standing by in silence, Te Kooti having given orders that they were not even to utter the familiar salutation, “tenakoe.” On the return of the messengers, Biggs decided that the only thing he could do was to send to Wellington by the earliest opportunity a report of what had taken place. He therefore disbanded his force and directed the Muriwai natives to keep an eye on the fugitives and to report promptly to him any movement that they might make.
Te Kooti, who soon afterwards became so notorious, was a well-known character in Poverty Bay; he had not previously shown any of the qualities of a leader of men. The various traders knew him as being somewhat light-fingered, and generally as a troublesome fellow. During the time of the Waerenga-a-hika campaign he was among the supporters of the Government, while his brother, Komere, associated himself with the Hauhaus. One day, before the capture of Waerenga-a-hika, he was placed under arrest on a charge of having been in communication with the enemy, and of having given one of them some ammunition. He acknowledged that he had been communication with his brother, but that the object of his communication was to induce his brother, if possible, to abandon the Hauhau side, and so to avoid disaster. At all events, nothing seems to have been proved against him and he was set at liberty. When the Hauhau prisoners were being taken to Chatham Island, it is said that someone suggested that if Te Kooti were to be deported along with the Hauhaus, the district would be relieved for a time, at least of a very troublesome character. This, as far as I have been able to learn, is how it came about that he was taken to Chatham Island. Moss, in his “School History of New Zealand,” says that “at Napier he made three distinct appeals, through Mr. Hamlin, to Mr. Donald McLean to be tried, or at least to be informed why he had been made prisoner. No reply was given, but Te Kooti was put on board ship with the rest and sent to the Chatham Islands.” * He was by no means faultless, but he had not taken arms
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against the Government nor had he ever joined the Hauhaus, and he resented very keenly the grossly unfair treatment which he had received from those who were in authority. In the course of his enforced residence at Chatham Island he had a severe illness, and during his time of convalescence he took to studying the Old Testament, especially the Books of Joshua and the Judges, together with the imprecatory passages in the Psalter. After his recovery he began to assume the role of a prophet, basing his teaching on the stories of the Israelites’ victories. He also began to hold religious services morning and evening, teaching his fellow prisoners to recite together certain passages from the Psalms, or a cento of verses taken from the Psalms or from other portions of Scripture, after which he recited himself a few short prayers composed by himself in Scriptural language, and addressed to Jehovah, but without any reference whatever to Jesus Christ, each prayer concluding with the words, “Glory to Jehovah, Amen.” In support of his claim he is reported to have exhibited signs, one of which was that of light issuing from the skin of his hands, which unbelievers among his fellow-prisoners attributed to contact with the heads of wax vestas. One of the unbelievers was Keke, who told Captain Thomas that Te Kooti was contemplating mischief of some kind, but there may have been little in the way of evidence of which cognizance could be taken, though the sequel showed that the majority of his fellow-prisoners had come to look upon him as a leader whom they could trust, and were ready to place themselves implicitly under his direction. The opportunity for action came with the arrival of the schooner “Rifleman”, of 82 tons, from Wellington with supplies which it was the business of the prisoners to convey to the redoubt. The number of the guard had by this time been reduced to nine, of whom two only were on duty in the redoubt. Te Kooti seems to have laid his plans without exciting any suspicion, and on a given signal the redoubt was taken possession of. One of the two sentries resisted, and was immediately felled with an axe, whereupon his companion submitted to be tied up and so rendered helpless. The killing of the sentry was contrary to Te Kooti’s express orders, as was also the attempt to strangle one of the settlers. Having got possession of the redoubt the prisoners possessed themselves of arms and ammunition and had perfect command of the situation. Captain Thomas was bound in his own office, from which a considerable sum of money was obtained. The Captain of the “Rifleman” was on shore, but the chief officer and the seamen had no choice but to obey Te Kooti’s orders. The number of those who crowded on board the small schooner was 169 men with 86 stand of arms, 64 women and 71 children. Two of the men viz., Keke and Kawerio, kept themselves out of Te Kooti’s way and were left behind. Another, Warihi, who incurred Te Kooti’s displeasure from his having seen Te Kooti using the match heads for the illumination of his hands, had injured his foot with an axe and was unable to walk, but Te Kooti ordered him to be carried on board. After they had got under way on July 4th the wind was not favourable and they came to anchor off Waitangi. The next day they started again with a fair wind and made good progress, but as the wind was foul again on the 8th Te Kooti ordered Warihi to be thrown overboard, this being necessary, as he said, to propitiate his atua and to bring about a change in the wind. The order was promptly carried out, as no one dared to disobey. The poor man clung at first to the iron work on the side of the vessel, but, on the order being given, he was cast adrift and
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left to drown. The fact that the wind changed soon afterwards to a favourable quarter added greatly to the prophet’s prestige and inclined his fellow voyagers to render unhesitating obedience to any orders which he might give. They reached Whareongaonga as above-stated on the 10th.
After all were landed at Whareongaonga the “Rifleman” sailed direct to Wellington, and gave the first intimation to the outside world of the prisoners’ escape.
On the 13th of July Captain Biggs was informed that Te Kooti was moving away from Whareongaonga, taking a track over the ranges to the westward. The friendly natives suggested that his object might be to make his way down the River Arai and so cause trouble in the district. Biggs therefore assembled his little force of English and Maoris and, guided by the natives, took up a position near the spot where the track taken by Te Kooti would touch the Arai, and returned on the 19th to Turanganui to make arrangements for the necessary supplied to be sent up to the camp, leaving Westrup in command. As he was returning to the camp on the 20th he saw H.M.S. “Rosaria” coming into the bay, and came back to Turanganui to find that Colonel Whitmore had arrived to take command, with 30 volunteers under Captains Carr and Herrick. The “Waipara” also arrived the same day with a force of forty natives from Napier. On the following day the news was brought that the little army which Biggs had taken up the Arai had encountered Te Kooti on the 20th at Papara-tu; that they had been short of food, the supplies which Biggs had dispatched on the 18th having reached them only that day about 8.30 a.m., just when Te Kooti appeared; that after fighting all day, they had been obliged to beat a hasty retreat during the night, leaving their camp with about 80 horses, saddles and bridles, and the fresh supply of food in the hands of the enemy; one Englishman and one Maori having been killed, and seven wounded. The schoolroom at Matawhero was brought into requisition as a hospital, and the wounded men were placed under the charge of Dr. Watling who had recently arrived from Auckland. After the fight at Papara-tu Te Kooti and his party proceeded towards Te Reinga and on the 31st were met at Te Umu-pakake, where the track descended to the Hangaroa, by a small force from Wairoa under Captain A. Tuke, which, after a skirmish, fell back towards Wairoa, and Te Kooti went on up the Ruakituri, where it would have been prudent to allow him to go his own way.
Colonel Whitmore, soon after his arrival, got his various forces together and by July 30th had 140 English and 180 Maoris encamped a short distance up the Arai River. After various delays caused by the state of the track and the weather, they reached Pukehinau, on the Hangaroa, on August 5th, finding there the body of a half-caste youth named Brown, who had been shot by Te Kooti’s orders when on his way to Wairoa with despatches. At Whanuakura a little beyond Pukehinau, Colonel Whitmore dismissed the Poverty Bay contingent, reducing his force to 140, of whom 50 were Maoris from Hawke’s Bay, and formed a depot for provisions there before going on up the Ruakituri. He overtook Te Kooti towards evening on the 8th, and in the action which followed seven men were killed, including Mr. Canning and Captain Carr of the Volunteers. The number of casualties on the other side was not ascertained, but Te Kooti was reported to have been wounded in the instep. Both parties
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seem to have drawn off from the scene of action in the evening, but the pursuing force suffered much from want of food and from the inclemency of the weather, and did not get back to Whenuakura until the evening of the 11th, being in a very much exhausted condition. After a brief rest, the force moved to Wairoa, but the Colonel returned to Turanganui, and left on the 17th in the S.S. “Waipara” for Wairoa to take the force from thence to Napier.
On August 20th Captain Biggs received notice of his promotion to the rank of Major and was instructed to enroll in the ranks of the Militia all the able-bodied men who were not included among the mounted volunteers. These were duly sworn in on the 26th and 27th, forming two companies of thirty each.
The next reports of Te Kooti were that he was building a pa at Puketapu, on the Ruakituri, and that he had been joined by the people of Te Reinga and by Te Waru and his people at Whataroa.
At the end of September four men, Karaitiana, Reweti, Ahita and Karauria were sent out from Wairoa to get information as to Te Kooti’s whereabouts. Nothing had been heard of them for a fortnight when word was brought to Kopu’s pa, Te Hatepe, that they had been treacherously murdered by Te Waru’s orders. They had been received at Whataroa with every appearance of hospitality, and were tomahawked while they were asleep.
Military settlers had already begun to occupy sections at Marumaru, on the confiscated land, about twelve miles from the Wairoa township, and a blockhouse had been erected at Te Kapu, afterwards called Frasertown. On October 18th Marumaru was threatened by a party from Whataroa, and Captain Tuke withdrew his men from the blockhouse, and with the few men from Marumaru fell back on Wairoa township. As Wairoa seemed to be in danger of attack a reinforcement of 120 natives under command of the chiefs, Renata Tareha and Henare Tomoana, was immediately sent up from Napier to strengthen Captain Tuke’s small force, and the “St. Kilda” was sent off to Waiapu to fetch a contingent of the Ngatiporou.
Bishop Selwyn, who had gone to England to attend the first Lambeth Conference, and while there had been appointed to the See of Litchfield, had just returned to pay a farewell visit to his old diocese and to preside over the triennial session of the general Synod, which was to open on October 5th. As it was my duty to attend this Synod I arranged for my family to stay at Napier during my absence. The Synod concluded its work on October 17th, the 27th anniversary of Bishop Selwyn’s consecration, and on the 20th he left for Sydney en route for England, in the S.S. “Hero”. The first opportunity which offered for Turanganui after this enabled me to land there on the morning of the 6th of November. On Sunday, the 8th, I rode over to Manutuke to hold service with the Maori congregation there. Just after the conclusion of the service the Maori postman from Wairoa appeared, carrying the mail which was due at Turanganui on the following morning. Everyone was anxious to hear what the postman might be able to tell us of the happenings at Wairoa. The force at Wairoa, consisting mainly of Maoris, had been placed under the command of Colonel Lambert from Napier. The postman’s story was that the force had gone on the previous Tuesday to Whataroa, which was
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found practically deserted, there being only one man and one woman in the place. The man, he said, had been shot. The woman, when asked “Where was Te Waru?” said that she did not know. When asked again “Where was Te Kooti?” she answered, “He has gone to Poverty Bay.” The grave was found in which the four men had been buried who had been murdered there about three weeks before, and after burning all the whares, the force returned to Wairoa, which was reached on Thursday morning some time before the postman left.
On my way back to Turanganui I stopped for an English service at Matawhero where Biggs was then living. I told him of the report which the postman had brought, whereupon he exclaimed, saying that he had dreamt the night before that the force had gone to Whataroa and had found no enemy. When I mentioned the report that Te Kooti was on his way to Poverty Bay he said that he had received letters a few days previously from Majors St. John and Mair, who wrote from Opotiki to warn him that Te Kooti had been urging the Opotiki people to join him in a raid upon the East Coast, and that he was reported also to have been joined by a number of the Waikato and Tuhoe people. He said also that he had got a few scouts under Captain Gascoigne, who were keeping a constant watch on the various tracks leading from the Ruakituri or from Wairoa, and that a very short notice from them of impending danger would enable him and others to get away to Turanganui. These scouts were maintained at the expense of some of the local settlers, the Government having refused to make provision for any service of the kind. Those who were in authority seemed to be under the impression that the position on the East Coast was not nearly so critical as those who were on the spot deemed it to be.
The mail duly arrived at Turanganui on Monday morning, and among my letters was one from the Rev. S. Williams, in which he said that he had received information on authority which he could not doubt, that Te Kooti had started for Poverty Bay, and he urged that all settlers should without delay get into as secure a position as possible. Moreover, he had informed Mr. McLean and the Hon. J.C. Richmond, who was then in Napier, of what he had heard, that such action might be taken in the matter as might seem to those who were in authority to be necessary. As Biggs was holding the R. M. Court in the redoubt that morning I went to give him the news which I had received, expecting, at the same time to find that he had got full information from Colonel Lambert of what had been done at Wairoa, and that he might possibly have had some directions from Napier. It was much to my surprise therefore, that he told me that the mail had brought him no communication whatever, either from Wairoa or from Napier. He was expecting nevertheless to hear from his scouts at any time that Te Kooti might be somewhere in the neighbourhood, and he would be ready at a moment’s notice to come away to Turanganui. It is due to Mr. McLean to say that, though not out of the office, he had reason to know that he did not enjoy the full confidence of the Ministry, and that under the circumstances, it was for the Minister and not for the subordinate officer, to take what action might be necessary. It was, to say the least, extraordinary that there was no communication from Wairoa. Had it occurred to Colonel Lambert to send a small force over for Major Biggs’ assistance some lives at least might possibly have been saved. In
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little more than twelve hours after my conversation with Major Biggs, he and his wife and infant child were numbered among the dead.
Te Kooti, as we learned afterwards, made his appearance with his armed force some time after dark on the evening of the 9th, at Patutahi where there was a small party of natives, none of whom was allowed to go away. From them he ascertained where various people were to be found, and having laid his plans, sent out armed parties to cut off as many as possible of the European population. The first victims were probably Messrs. Dodd and Peppard, who had taken up a sheep run in the immediate neighbourhood, and had arranged to commence shearing on the following morning. Major Biggs and Captain Wilson were attacked soon after midnight, and in the course of the next few hours thirty of the European population, of ages ranging from a few weeks to near 70 years, were struck down, one of whom, though left for dead, succumbed to her wounds a few weeks afterwards. Of the survivors, those who were living on the south-west side of the bay made their escape to Te Mahia, and the rest to Turanganui. Several Maoris also were murdered in cold blood during the early hours of that morning and others in the course of the next few days, the whole number being about thirty.
This day, November 10th, had its full burden of anxiety. I was aroused at 4.30 a.m. by one of my Maori neighbours, who startled me with the announcement that hostile Hauhaus were at work in the neighbourhood dealing destruction to life and property, the news having just been brought by Maori refugees from Matawhero, where one at least had been killed and another wounded. Soon afterwards a party was seen coming across the Waikanae creek which proved to be Mrs. Bloomfield and her family, with Charles James, who had roused them after he had escaped from Major Biggs’ house. Refugees came in from time to time during the day, some of whom were able to inform us of the fate of some of their neighbours. One of these, Dan Munn, had ridden out in the early morning to ascertain the truth of reports which he had heard, and was fired at by one of Te Kooti’s men, the first shot taking effect in his left shoulder and the next fortunately missing him. Of some the fate could only be guessed from their non-appearance. The escape of some from the midst of the murder region seemed to be due to the murderers having retired to refresh themselves after the slaughter of the morning. Two schooners, the “Tawera” and the “Success” had got under way in the early hours of the morning, bound for Auckland and Tauranga. The wind fortunately did not favour them so that they were still within reach by boat. Captain Read, after some trouble in getting a crew, followed them in a whale-boat and induced them to return. The women and children, with two or three exceptions, were placed on board the schooners, some being taken to Napier and the others to Auckland. The wounded man, Munn, was also sent to Napier that he might be attended to in the hospital.
In the evening Captain Gascoigne came over in a boat from Te Muriwai, and, being the only commissioned officer present, took command of the small number of Volunteers and Militiamen. At night we all retired to the redoubt to get as much sleep as the excitement of the time and the extreme roughness of the accommodation the redoubt afforded would admit of. The time, too, was shortened as all were kept on the alert from 2 a.m. till daylight as a precaution against surprise.
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About 8 a.m. on the 11th we were relieved of much anxiety by the arrival of Messrs. Kempthorne, Poynter and Scott, who, with eight others, had come from beyond Kaiteratahi, having kept to the hills to avoid coming into contact with any of Te Kooti’s murderous bands. We were still further relieved by the arrival of the S.S. “St. Kilda” in the evening. She had left Napier before the news of our troubles had travelled so far. Captain Fox, therefore, as soon as he became aware of what had happened, weighed anchor and returned to Napier.
Early on the 12th the look out party on the hill announced that there was an armed party at Makaraka apparently on the way to Turanganui. This caused some little excitement, which, however soon passed off when it was found that the enemy came no nearer, but retired after discharging their files. We learned afterwards that it had been Te Kooti’s intention to make an early attack on Turanganui, but the arrival of the “St. Kilda” probably caused him to change his plan. After this, numerous columns of smoke rising up in succession indicated the destruction of various homesteads.
Te Kooti’s next move was to march on the friendly natives’ pa at Oweta. As the occupants were not in a position to offer him any effective resistance the few men with arms left the pa before he arrived. On his arrival he told those he found there that he did not mean to fight them, but that they must join him and go with him. As they hesitated he said that if they would not join him he would have them all shot, this being his usual method of securing obedience to his orders. It was well known that a threat from Te Kooti could not safely be disregarded, and the consent of all promptly followed. After food had been served he placed five of them under guard of Te Waru’s men and took off all the rest across the Arai, presumably on their way to Puketapu, on the Ruakituri. When all were out of sight and hearing, the five men, in accordance with Te Kooti’s orders, were all shot. Their names were Paratene Turangi, Iraia Riki, Renata Whakari, Ihimaera Hokopu, and Hira Te Kai. Their offence apparently was that they were known to be friendly to the Government. The corpses of four were buried at Oweta on the 16th, by people from Muriwai, but Hira Te Kai was found to be still alive, though he had received four bullet wounds and three bayonet thrusts. He was taken first to Te Muriwai, and three days later he was brought to Turanganui; where he was placed under the doctor’s care, but he died on December 6th.
Te Kooti went off with his captives up the Okahuatiu Valley, and on the 16th, a small party rode out from Turanganui to reconnoitre. They had not proceeded far before they fell in with Captain Wilson’s eldest son, a boy of eight years, coming with a message written on a card, from his mother, who was still alive. He was brought in at once by one of the horsemen and Dr. Gibbs promptly started off with a party to bring Mrs. Wilson down.
The story of Mrs. Wilson’s sufferings and of her son’s escape may here be briefly told. When the armed band came to the house in the small hours of the morning of the 10th, Captain Wilson had not gone to bed, having been busy with correspondence for the outgoing mail. The door, after ineffectual attempts to induce him to open it, was broken down with a heavy piece of timber, but even so the assailants did not dare to go in.
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After some time three shots were fired into the house, but without effect. At last the house was set on fire at both ends and the family was thus driven out. The party consisted of Captain and Mrs. Wilson, four children, one being an infant in arms, and Edward Moran. They had not gone far in the direction of their nearest neighbour, Goldsmith, before they were stabbed with bayonets, all but the eldest boy, James, who was with his father. When his father fell he scrambled away and was not pursued. He made his way to the house of Captain Bloomfield, which was about half a mile off, and lay down on the verandah. This would seem to have been about the time that the Bloomfield family were roused by Charles James and hurriedly left the house, but he did not see anything of them. For two days he wandered about finding a little food in one or other of the empty houses and hiding at times under a briar bush, but he saw no one. The first night he occupied an empty bed in the Bloomfield’s house, but as he heard people about the house after he had gone to bed he betook himself on the second night to his hiding place under the briar bush, having a little dog, “Flo” as his companion. As he lay quietly there in the early morning he saw a large number of people come to the house, who, after they had carried off many things out of the house, set it on fire as well as other buildings in the neighbourhood, and went away. When the place was quiet again, and there seemed to be no one about, he ventured out from his hiding place, and wandered towards the site of his old home. He went first to the house of a Maori who gave him a little food, and then strolled round to the old premises. There he found his mother in a small building which had not been burnt.
Mrs. Wilson, when she was struck down with a bayonet thrust through her body, received several wounds in her arms while trying to screen her infant daughter. She lay there is [in] a helpless condition until the following day, her clothing consisting of a shawl over her nightdress. The shawl, however, was taken away from her by a Maori man who lived nearby, and who supposed her to be dead. On Wednesday she managed to raise herself sufficiently to see the several corpses and missed her eldest boy. She then with much labour crawled to the site of the burnt house and quenched her thirst with water from the tank. She found a small kettle which she filled with water and by persevering efforts, conveyed it, together with a broken bottle from which she might drink, to the building in which her son found her on the next day. She had had no food for three days and the boy’s first business was to find her something to eat. He found some eggs which he managed to cook under her direction, and he also got potatoes from the Maori man who had given him food. The boy had on a coat of his father’s over his nightshirt, and in the pocket of the coat was a card case in which were a few cards and a small lead pencil. After several unsuccessful attempts Mrs. Wilson succeeded in writing a legible message on one of the cards which James might bring to Turanganui, the distance being nearly five miles. On two occasion the boy started, but missed the track near Makaraka and went back again. His third attempt was successful and he was met by the reconnoitering party and brought in by one of the horsemen to Turanganui as stated above. The journey to Turanganui must have been rather a severe trial to Mrs. Wilson her weak state, but as soon as she arrived she was carried across the river under the doctor’s direction and placed in a room in my little cottage, where she was carefully tended by Mrs. Jennings, the wife of one of the military settlers. Her
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relatives were communicated with as soon as possible and on the 27th her sister, Mrs Lowry, arrived from Napier, to do what she could for her. The doctor having strongly urged the move, she was taken to Napier on December 14th, but serious symptoms set in soon after she arrived, and she passed away on the 17th. Dr. Spencer, who attended her during the last three days, expressed great surprise that she had lived so long after sustaining such severe internal injuries.
Help was not long in coming after the return of the “St. Kilda” to Napier. On the 13th a force arrived of 160 natives from Hawke’s Bay, who were followed shortly afterwards by a few English volunteers and another detachment of 180 natives with 30 of the Ngatiporou from Hicks Bay. Two days afterwards the Hawke’s Bay natives started to follow up Te Kooti and overtook him on the 23rd at Te Karetu, on the Wharekopae, where his force had entrenched themselves on the further side of the valley, the people who had been carried off from Oweta having already been sent on in the direction of Ngatapa. Provisions and ammunition were taken up by bullock drays to a spot about two miles beyond Patutahi to be taken on to the front from thence by pack-horses. While the two hostile parties were facing one another at Te Karetu, a party of Te Kooti’s men, whose object probably was to get hold of some war material which had been secreted at one of the old Maori settlements, come by a circuitous route upon the depot and, having driven off the few men whom they found there, loaded themselves with ammunition and destroyed most of what they were unable to carry away, together with a large quantity of foodstuff. After this it was not surprising to hear that there was a shortness of food at the front, and that horse-flesh and fern-root were being resorted to to eke out the supply.
On the 29th Rapata and Hotene with about 370 of the Ngatiporou, who had been under the command of Colonel Lambert, at Wairoa, arrived on the scene, having travelled overland, and three days afterwards Te Kooti was driven out of his position at Te Karetu and fell back about three miles to Ngatapa, whither he was immediately followed by the Ngatiporou and the Hawke’s Bay people, but, a difference having occurred between the leaders of the two parties about the disposal of a prisoner, the chiefs of the latter brought away all their men to the number of about 250. Ngatapa was found to be a very strong position, accessible on one side only, on which it was fortified by earthworks, the approach moreover being commanded by two rifle pits. On December 5th the Ngatiporou made a vigorous attack on the place, and took possession of one of the protecting rifle pits, but they were unable to follow up this advantage owing to inadequate supplies of food and ammunition, and as Rapata himself was suffering from a severe cold and as Hotene also was out of condition, they withdrew with their whole force to Te Karetu on their way to Turanganui. Te Kooti’s loss in these engagements was over 65, that number having been actually counted.
When Te Kooti was being hard pressed at Te Karetu, the Rongowhakaata people whom he had deported from Oweta took the opportunity of making their escape, following the course of the Wharekopae and Waikohu Rivers.
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The operations so far had been conducted by Maoris with the assistance of a small number of English volunteers. On December 1st, 61 mounted volunteers under Captain Tanner, arrived from Napier and rendered good service as an escort for the Transport Corps. On the morning of the 4th the Hon. J.C. Richmond arrived and was followed later in the day by Colonel Witmore and Major Fraser with a detachment of troops from Whanganui. Major Fraser was sent at once with his men to support the Ngatiporou. He met them a little way beyond Patutahi, and endeavoured to persuade them to return to Ngatapa, but they preferred to wait till better arrangements for transport should be made.
On the 8th Colonel Whitmore announced that the campaign was over. He had gone with Major Fraser and 50 men the previous day in the direction of Ngatapa, and had returned under the impression that Ngatapa was evacuated and that Te Kooti had gone off to Puketapu. The Hawke’s Bay natives were sent back at once to Napier, and arrangements were made for sending Fraser and his men back to Whanganui, notwithstanding that Maori reports stated that Te Kooti was still at Ngatapa. On the 12th about 150 men were put on board the P.S. “Sturt” to go to Whanganui, the boat having to call at Napier on the way in order to land Mrs. Wilson. Shortly after leaving the river the boat touched on a reef with the result that the water began to come freely into one of the several watertight compartments. The boat was therefore taken back into the river that the leak might be stooped, and the men were sent on shore again.
Considerable excitement was caused late in the afternoon by a report that Te Kooti was at Patutahi with a considerable force and also that about 20 refugees who had made their escape from Te Kooti were at a place about five miles up the Taruheru River. On making enquiries I was told by Notene that a party of Ngatiporou was under orders to go and shoot all the party of refugees. I immediately reported the matter to Mr. Richmond, who spoke at once to Rapata and Hotene, telling them that a party which was told off for this service might escort the refugees to Turanganui without using any unnecessary violence. The men who were preparing to go were evidently much relieved by Mr. Richmond’s version of the order. Scouts were sent out to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the report that Te Kooti was at Patutahi. These brought word that they had advanced far enough to satisfy themselves that the report was correct, and Colonel Whitmore started off early in the morning to Patutahi to find that the enemy was in the neighbourhood of Opou, on the Arai, where Finlay Ferguson, William Wyllie and a Maori had already been killed. A number of men were sent over with Major Roberts in the “Sturt” to the Waipaoa with a supply of ammunition, to the support of Ihaka Whanga, who had his men at Oweta. Te Kooti was then followed up and was brought to nay on January 1st at Ngatapa, from which, when thoroughly invested, there seemed to be no possible way of escape, but during the night of the 4th the greater part of the garrison made their way down the face of a cliff which had been left unguarded. As soon as day dawned their escape was discovered and they were immediately pursued and many of the were killed. Fourteen men were taken alive in the pa and about 66 women and children. Fifty-eight dead bodies testified to the terrible havoc made by the shells from the cohorn mortar. Their total loss during those few days was said to have been at least 125 killed, while the
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casualties on the other side were eleven killed and five seriously wounded. Te Kooti himself escaped, though not without a wound in the shoulder, which cannot have been of a serious character. He was now a fugitive, but as he was known to have so many sympathisers in various parts of the country it was impossible to feel confident that he would give no further trouble in this district.
CHAPTER VII.
1869. – After the fall of Ngatapa Colonel Whitmore with most of the English troops left for the scene of operations on the west coast. He also tried to persuade Rapata and Hotene to join him there with their men, but this they declined to do as they did not think it right that the East Coast should be left in a comparatively defenceless position. The apprehensions entertained by the Ngatiporou of the possibility of further trouble on the East Coast did not seem at all to be shared by those who were in authority, for it was proposed to leave sixty only of the armed constabulary at Turanganui, to be supported by an equal number of Ngatiporou, if they could be persuaded to undertake the duty.
On January 21st, 1869, Mr. W. Atkinson arrived in the capacity of Resident Magistrate for Poverty Bay, and Representative of the Government for the whole of the East Coast. From him we learned that the notorious Patara, who was to say the least, accessory to the murder of Mr. Volkner at Opotiki, and had been largely instrumental in bringing about the recent troubles in this part of New Zealand, was then holding a salaried office under the Government at Taranaki, being regarded as a most useful and loyal subject of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. We could not but admire Patara’s astuteness in securing such an agreeable requital of his misdeeds from the authorities of the Pakeha, whom, a short time before, he had been doing his best to exterminate or to drive out of the country; we were amazed at the same time at the fatuity of the authorities which could be so easily imposed upon by the plausibility of a crafty rogue. Patara’s doings in 1865 at Opotiki and in Poverty Bay were matters of common notoriety and they had led to the loss of a great many lives as well as to the expenditure of a large sum of public money. There could be no excuse for ignorance of these facts on the part of any Government officer.
Indications were not wanting at this time of the presence of some of Te Kooti’s followers at no very great distance in the back country, and as in the uncertainty as to their numbers they were the cause of more or less anxiety, Captain Newland used his best efforts to get hold of them and bring them in to Turanganui. On March 5th some of the friendly natives, who had been acting under his direction, sent him word that they had brought in a party of 16, including seven women, to a place near Patutahi. He went at once to see them and as the day was far advanced he directed that they should stay where they were until the following morning, when he would be prepared to receive them formally at Turanganui. Some one who saw the party from a distance concluded hastily that it was an armed force invading the district, which must have been about 500 strong. Word
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to this effect, at all events, was brought to Turanganui, together with a statement that the lives of Messrs. Poynter, Evans, Scott and Kempthorne, and of others who were with them at Ruangarehu were in imminent danger. All anxiety, however, was soon allayed by the arrival of an authentic report of what had actually taken place. At a late hour on that same evening two Europeans went to the place where the party was encamped and, standing a little distance away, called out two of the men, Hemi Te Ihoariki and Nikora. As soon as they came out they were fired upon. Te Ihoariki was killed, but Nikora, though wounded, got away and betook himself to the bush. Two persons were commonly mentioned by name as the perpetrators of this outrage, but, as I cannot vouch for their identity, the names are omitted. One of the persons named was in the employ of the Government. Mr. Atkinson had gone to Waiapu when this occurred, and after his return an inquest was held, but no one was ever called to account for the crime. Nikora probably knew where some of his friends were still in hiding, and it would have been no matter of surprise if the life of one or more Europeans had been taken by way of retaliation.
It was not long before Te Kooti again assumed the offensive. Major Mair in a letter to Mr. Atkinson from Opotiki, dated March 3rd, reported that he had been staying for some weeks at Waioweka with 130 or 140 men, and that he had been trying his best to persuade the Tuhoe people to join him in an attack upon Opotiki or some other settlement in the Bay of Plenty. The proximity of Te Kooti and his threatening attitude increased the reluctance of the leaders of the Ngatiporou to allow any of their men to leave the district. Mr. Atkinson had been instructed to enlist as many as possible for at least a year’s service in the Whanganui district, and with the aid of Mr. C. Ferris he had already engaged about 80 or 90, who were then on their way on board the “St. Kilda.” Rapata accompanied them as far as Napier that he might obtain the opinion of Mr. McLean, in whose judgment he had perfect confidence. Finding that Mr McLean’s opinion agreed with his own he positively refused to go to Patea or to encourage any of his people to go. His resolution was strengthened by a report which was brought soon afterwards from Opotiki to the effect that a surveyor, named Pitcairn, had been murdered on an island in the Ohiwa estuary.
1869 – On April 9th Te Kooti suddenly appeared with a considerable force on the Mohaka River and slaughtered the Lavin family among others, as well as a number of natives. The Mohaka people had erected a fairly strong pa on the terrace, which is about 150 ft above the present bed of the river. One of the chiefs, Paora Rerepu, preferred another site on the edge of the cliff immediately overhanging the river where he built another small pa. At the time of Te Kooti’s raid most of the available men were in the neighbourhood of Waikaremoana with Ihaka Whanga and the Wairoa force whose object was to intercept any invading force that might come across the lake, the pas at Mohaka being occupied by the older men with the women and children. Te Kooti surprised some of the people at Te Arakanihi, a few miles up the river. One of these was killed and the rest, some of whom were wounded, came down the river in a canoe and took refuge in the larger pa. When Te Kooti reached the pas he demanded admittance, which was steadily refused. Paora Rerepu’s pa was not well situated inasmuch as the palisade at one corner was over a hollow in which
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the besiegers were able to obtain complete shelter while trying to undermine it. After digging at the foundation for some time, they threw a rope over the corner post that they might pull it over. An old man in the pa jumped up with a hatchet and cut the rope, receiving at the same time a bullet in his thigh. On the rope being thrown up a second time he cut it again, but then was struck by a bullet in the head which killed him. Some of the defenders after this thought that their case was hopeless and that they would be wise to admit Te Kooti and to make the best terms with him that the circumstances would admit of. One man, Heta Te Wainohu, strongly opposed the suggestion, but after some time he was overruled and Te Kooti was admitted. The defences of the pa consisted of a strong palisade, inside which was a good earthwork. The only building was a large whare, at the front of which the defenders were assembled with Heta at their head. Te Kooti stood facing them with a number of his own men behind him, and demanded their rifles. On Heta refusing to give us his, Te Kooti drew a revolver whereupon Heta raised his rifle and fired at him. Te Kooti was said to have had his side scorched by the flash from the rifle and fell in trying to avoid the shot. His men then fired at the people of the pa, killing Heta and wounding some of the others, who immediately scrambled away and made for the other pa, being fired upon as they ran. In the meantime the news had reached the force in the neighbourhood of Waikaremoana, and a hurried march was made to relieve Mohaka. A small force also, under Major Richardson, was promptly sent up from Napier, arriving about the same time as the force from Wairoa, and Te Kooti was compelled to retire, making his way to the country of the Tuhoe to the north of Waikaremoana.
It was currently reported after this that Te Kooti had been killed by Heta, and as a boat had been seen to put off from the shore, and what appeared to be a corpse committed to the deep, it was assumed that Te Kooti’s body had been disposed of in this way that it might not come into the hands of his enemies. That he had not been killed a party of volunteers who were scouting on the Rangitaiki River soon afterwards found out to their cost, some of their number losing their lives.
Great efforts were now made to effect the outlaw’s capture. Colonel Whitmore took a considerable force to a place on the Rangitaiki River to which the name of Galatea was given. Maori contingents also came in from all sides, from Rotorua, from the East Coast, from Hawke’s Bay, and from Whanganui, making it to all appearances impossible that he should escape. For nearly two years after this he was hunted by columns consisting mainly of Maoris under Mair, McDonnell and Porter, but though at times he was so hedged round that his capture seemed certain, he always contrived to elude his pursuers, turning up soon afterwards in some place where his presence was altogether unexpected. After being driven out by Mair from Rotoiti in 1870, he attacked a pa occupied by friendly natives at Whakatane, from which he was repulsed with considerable loss. Then he made a descent from the back country on Omarumutu, a few miles east of Opotiki, and in the following July he dashed across the mountains with about forty men to Tolaga Bay, his object in all these cases being to replenish his stock of arms and ammunition. Twice he was refused an asylum in Waikato by the Maori King, but on his seeking it a third time he was allowed to remain, and as his pursuers had been strictly charged
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not on any account to enter the King Country, the pursuit was abandoned and Te Kooti was permitted to rest in peace at Te Kuiti.
After Te Kooti’s raid on Mohaka it was thought expedient to make some further provision for defence at Turanganui. A blockhouse was erected on the township block near to a large building belonging to Captain Read, which was known as the Courthouse. The two buildings were connected by a deep ditch with high banks and the courthouse was surrounded by “chevaux de frise.” The old redoubt on the other side of the river was then occupied by some of the Maoris.
Messrs. Munro and Logan, judges of the Native Lands Court, had been appointed Commissioners under the “East Coast Land Titles Investigation Act,” and opened proceedings under the Commission on June 27th. Mr. Atkinson had been successful in inducing the principal chiefs to agree to a compromise in order to avoid the necessity of unravelling the intricacies of title as between friendly natives and Hauhaus. By this compromise, according to a rough estimate, the Government was to take about 5000 acres of land inland of Waerenga-a-hika, about 5000 on the Patutahi side, and about 40,000 acres of the hilly country it being understood that all the Maori land outside the boundaries of these blocks should be regarded as the property of the friendly natives. This served to expedite the business of the commission. At an early stage in the proceedings the Repongaere block came under investigation. When the names were read out of the persons who claimed to be regarded as the owners, Mr. Atkinson, who was watching the proceedings on behalf of the Government, was asked whether he objected to any of these names as being those of Hauhaus. As he objected to none, Mr. W.A. Graham, who was acting on behalf of some of the friendly natives, called his attention to the name of Hoera Kapuaroa, who belonged to Patutahi and had been amongst the first to turn Hauhau in 1865. Mr. Atkinson during the previous few months had conceived a great regard for this man Hoera, and would not hear of his being disqualified, assigning as the ground of his view of the case that Hoera had not sided with Te Kooti during the troublous time that followed on the return of the prisoners from Chatham Island. He altogether ignored the fact that the Act of Parliament which set up the Commission had no reference whatever to any of Te Kooti’s proceedings, saying that the confiscation of land was not to be enforced against any who had no act of rebellion laid to their charge subsequent to 1866. Much of the time of the Commission was devoted to the investigation of the question whether Hoera had associated himself in any way with Te Kooti, and as it was settled that he had not his name was allowed to stand. After this it was considered useless to object to other names of those who had taken an active part against the Government in 1865, and titles to the rest of the blocks were settled without any question as to whether or not any of the claimants had been Hauhaus. Most of the original owners of the blocks of land taken by Government had been Hauhaus, but some few also of those who had strongly opposed the Hauhaus were largely interested in them, and were not compensated in any way for what was thus taken from them. According to the letter of the law the Hauhaus were landless, and reserves were to be made by the Government for their support out of the confiscated land. As a matter of fact the Government took possession of the blocks agreed upon in the compromise,
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and left the Hauhaus in possession of all land which they had possessed outside the confiscated blocks which, according to the compromise, had become the property of the friendly natives.
The proceedings of the Commission were suspended on July 2nd for the funeral of the English victims of the massacre of November 10th, 1868. The bodies had been temporarily buried where they fell a few days after the massacre. The remains were now collected into twelve coffins, one coffin serving in several cases for father, mother and infant, and in two cases the coffin contained the remains of four. Of the thirty English victims Mrs. Wilson had been buried at Napier, and the remains of Rathbone, who had been employed as cook by Messrs. Dodd and Peppard, had not then been found. The coffins were brought to the piece of ground which had been recently set aside by the Government as a cemetery, and the funeral was attended by a large number of the English population and by a considerable number of natives. To some of us the service brought vividly to mind the painful experiences of November 10th, 1868.
The extraordinary success of Patara’s Hauhau propaganda at Opotiki and Poverty Bay in 1865 made so great an impression upon many people that in English settlements one might not infrequently hear it asserted as though it were an acknowledged fact that the mission to the Maori had entirely collapsed, and that those of the Maoris who had embraced Christianity in the past had now apostatized to a man. Reports of this nature, of course, reached England, where it was seriously suggested by some who were not very well informed on the subject that the missionaries having been deserted by those among whom they had been working, would do well to leave the country and seek work elsewhere. In 1868 the British and foreign Bible Society brought out the first complete edition of the Bible in the Maori language, and at the annual meeting of the Auckland Bible Association, 1869, this fact occupied a prominent place in the annual report. I was present at this meeting and took the opportunity of saying that, though it was a sad fact that many of the Maori people had been induced to abandon Christianity for Hauhauism, it would nevertheless be a great mistake to consider that the money spent by the Bible Society on this edition of the Bible had been practically wasted, because the great majority of the Maoris had not embraced Hauhauism, and I could testify that in the part of the country with which I was specially conversant, and in which the apostles of Hauhauism might be said to have achieved great success, there were at least four thousand of the people who were strongly opposed to Hauhauism. This statement was much criticised by some who thought they knew the state of the case better than I did; but they overlooked the fact that, even in Poverty Bay, there was a considerable number who opposed the Hauhaus, while a great number of the Ngatiporou of Waiapu and of the Ngatikahungunu of Wairoa and Heretaunga had been fighting the Hauhaus in co-operation with the Government, as also had large numbers of Arawa in the Bay of Plenty, and of the Whanganui people, while the tribes to the north of Auckland had not been at all affected by Hauhauism.
It was only to be expected that the state of unsettlement which had prevailed for so long on the East Coast should have a prejudicial effect upon the morale of many of the Maori Christians. There were grievous falls in the case of some who took part in the expeditions in pursuit of
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Te Kooti, not a few of them, when they had received their pay, giving way to the temptation to indulge in strong drink. But in spite of the indifference exhibited by very many of the people, there was by no means an inconsiderable number who valued their religious privileges and whose life was a continual protest against the laxity and vice which was all round them. In illustration of this it may be mentioned that, in the course of journeys through the district in 1870, at thirteen places at which the Holy Communion was celebrated, a total of 395 persons communicated, a preparatory class of instruction at which their names were given in having, according to our usual practice, been held in each case.
The Bishop was now contemplating at this time the admission to Deacon’s Orders of two men who had in the past been with us as students and of two Deacons at the same time to Priest’s Orders. It was intended that the ordination should take place at Tuparoa, where the candidates and the two clergy who were in Priest’s Orders should meet for a little time beforehand for some special instruction. The day fixed for the ordination was March 13th, the Bishop expecting to be landed on the coast by one of the small steamers then plying between Napier and Auckland. The clergy and candidates spent three weeks with me at Tuparoa, but the coasting steamers were not accommodating, and the Bishop was not able to join us. The ordination was therefore put off to some date to be fixed later on.
The General Synod had made provision in 1868 for the constitution of Native Church Boards consisting of the clergy, whether English or Maori ministering to the native population, and laymen representing the various Maori parochial districts, under the presidency of the Bishop or of his commissary. Arrangements were made for a Native Church Board representing the eastern portion of the Diocese to be held at Turanganui on October 31st, 1870, and as the clergy would be coming together for this purpose, the Bishop decided to hold the ordination on Sunday, October 30th. The two Deacons who were then ordained were to be placed, one at Te Kawakawa to succeed the late Rev. Rota Waitoa, who had died in 1866, and the other at Nukutaurua, on the Mahia Peninsula, in succession to the Rev. Watene Moeke, who died in 1865. The two who were admitted to the Priesthood had been ordained Deacons shortly before the troubles of 1865, which rendered necessary the abandonment of Waerenga-a-hika, and had been doing good work, the Rev. Hare Tawha at Turanganui and the Rev. Mohi Turei at Rangitukia, in the Waiapu district. This ordination brought up the number of Maoris in Priest’s Orders to four.
The Native Church Board sat on October 31st and the two following days. There were eight clergy present, of whom seven were Maoris. Of the laymen there should have been twenty, but several of these were absent from one cause or another. Various matters connected with the work of the church in the district were subjects of intelligent discussion. The lively interest which was taken in proceedings by outsiders as well as by members of the Board encouraged the hope that a reaction from the stolid indifference which had prevailed for some time past might set in before long.
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CHAPTER VIII.
In November, 1871, the notorious Kereopa, who took the leading part in the murder of the Rev. C.S. Volkner, was captured by a body of Ngatiporou near Waioweka, in the Opotiki district. He was delivered up to the Government and was lodged in the gaol at Napier, where he was afterwards tried for the murder, and was executed on January 5th, 1872. While in the gaol he was frequently visited by the Bishop and the Rev. S. Williams. At first he denied his guilt, but afterwards he confessed to the full the actual part he had taken in the tragedy.
The pursuit of Te Kooti having been discontinued after he had been allowed to take refuge at Te Kuiti, in the Maori King’s country, there was no occasion for any further warlike expeditions, and the land had rest from war. During the previous seven years the people in the East Coast from Hicks Bay to Mohaka had had much experience of the general unsettlement which is the unavoidable accompaniment of a time of war. It is true that there had been no actual fighting in the district since 1869, but the tidings of Te Kooti’s sudden descents upon one place after another in the Bay of Plenty maintained on every part of the coast a feeling of insecurity which was fully justified by his sudden appearance at Tolaga Bay in July, 1870; and the organisation from time to time of expeditions to go in pursuit of the outlaw, with the offer of a reward of £5000 for his capture, had not been conducive to the steady prosecution of the arts of peace. It was a great relief, therefore, to feel that there was at length a reasonable prospect of the people being able to follow their agricultural and other peaceful occupations without fear of disturbance.
The question of land confiscation at Waiapu still remained in the position in which it had been left by the ill-advised action of Major Biggs in 1867; but after the capture of Kereopa Mr. McLean, who was the Native Minister and Minister for Colonial Defence, took an early opportunity of visiting the Ngatiporou with the view of getting the matter settled. He told them that the Government had been very greatly indebted to them for the ready and efficient help they had given throughout the period of the disturbances on the East Coast, and that, in recognition of their hearty co-operation, the Government would forgo any claim to land which had been considered to be forfeited by those of their tribe who had taken an active part with the Hauhaus. Mokena, Rapata and other chiefs replied that they had always told the Hauhaus that their support of Patara would have to be atoned for by confiscation of land, and that they considered it right that the land within the boundaries which they had pointed out to Major Biggs should be taken by the Government in order that the Hauhaus might have before their eyes the consequences of the course which they had persisted in. Mr. McLean, however, refused to make any alteration in what he had stated as the decision of the Government, and added that as Te Awanui was the safest landing place for boats on this part of the coast, he would purchase the land adjoining it at a fair price and have it made a public reserve. This was readily agreed to, and the long-standing difference between the Ngatiporou and the Government was settled to the satisfaction of all parties.
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As a large number of the people had been diverted from their usual occupations to take part in the expeditions which had been organised for the pursuit of Te Kooti, and as some months would elapse before they could back to their old methods of employing themselves, the Government found some work for many of them in making much-needed improvement in the tracks leading from place to place along the coast. Surveyors were directed to lay off what would be passable bridle tracks, and the work was let out at a fair rate of remuneration in small sections to those natives who were willing to undertake it. To many of them this proved to be a great boon, as it not only provided them with a livelihood for the time being, but tended also to bring them back to settled habits of work.
From the time of Sir G. Grey’s first period of office as Governor, assistance had been given from public funds to schools for Maoris which were married on by missionaries of the Church of England, of the Wesleyan body, and of the Roman Church, the Governor himself manifesting great interest in the work. After the inauguration of responsible Government a sum of £7000 had been voted annually for the purpose of giving greater efficiency to the schools of the various missions, regard being had to the number of pupils and the character of the work done. One of the fruits of the Waitara war was that several of these schools had been altogether extinguished, and that there was no near prospect of their being resuscitated, but now that peace had been restored a new departure was made by the Government. Schools were to be set up in Maori settlements a stipulation being made that the Maoris in each case should set apart a site of about two acres and be responsible for half of the cost of the buildings and of the teacher’s salary. The Hon. Colonel Russell was appointed to take such steps as we necessary to bring the scheme into operation. He travelled through all parts of the North Island in which there was any probability of his meeting with a favourable reception; and though his efforts did not achieve the success which had been anticipated, a beginning was made and much valuable experience was gained, which was afterwards turned to good account. The scheme had been somewhat crudely devised, and was in need of considerable modification and development before it could be expected to work smoothly. One instance will serve to illustrate this. At Paremata, in Tolaga Bay, on the right bank of the river (the place which is now called Hauiti), Apirama Topi, a man who had had very scanty educational advantages, but could read and write his own language, and knew something of simple arithmetic was much concerned that the children of his kainga should be growing up in absolute ignorance, and, in the absence of any one better qualified than himself, got the children together to the number of about 60, and proceeded to give them regular instruction on week days and Sundays to the extent of his own acquirements. This had been going on for some time before Colonel Russell came on the scene, and this circumstance was a good omen for the successful inauguration of the new scheme. The prospect of a good school with a qualified teacher was very acceptable to the people, but they were somewhat disappointed when they were told that they must hold themselves responsible for half the cost of the necessary buildings and for half of the teacher’s salary, as there was no immediate prospect of their becoming possessed of the funds that would be needed. They had recently spent
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what money they had at command in the erection of a weatherboard church, and some of them suggested that possibly the church might be used also as a schoolroom. The Colonel hastily fell in with this suggestion and told them that the department would provide a residence for the teacher on the understanding that the church should be used as a schoolroom. The majority, however, were not agreeable to this arrangement and wrote shortly afterwards to the Department to say that the church would not be available, and to ask that a schoolroom should be built as well as a teacher’s residence, but this request was not granted. A small two-roomed building was erected for the teacher, and Mr. Parker, a young man who had been employed in a printing office in Napier, was appointed to the post. Mr. Parker began his work bravely, but under great difficulties. The only building available was a badly-lighted whare which would hardly accommodate the children seated on the opposite sides of two long tables. After a few months the little cottage took fire owing to the faulty construction of the fireplace, and was burnt to the ground. Mr. Parker and his wife took refuge in a room on the opposite side of the river, and the school was much disorganised. The people on the left bank of the river, who up to this time had ignored the school, now began to profess interest in it, and were urgent that new buildings should be erected on their side of the river. The question was left to the decision of a local officer who did not consider the convenience of the majority of the children, and for whose benefit the school was to be erected, and as the people on the left bank had some money in hand and were prepared to contribute £50 towards the cost of the buildings, he decided the question in their favour. After the new buildings were erected the attendance rapidly fell off owing to the difficulty of getting the children ferried across the river, and the community which had been most eager to have the school were thus to a great extent deprived of the benefit of it. Schools were opened in other parts of the district, but the condition that the Maoris should be responsible for half of the cost, was not always, I believe, insisted upon, and at a later period it was altogether abandoned.
The state of unsettlement which had so long prevailed had been very unfavourable for church work among the people, though the native clergy had on the whole used their best endeavours to cope with the difficulties by which they were beset. On the discontinuance of military service drunkenness and other forms of immorality became distressingly prevalent, some of the leading men being conspicuous for their flagrant disregard of moral restraint. This trouble, moreover, was aggravated by the reckless way in which licences for the sale of spirituous liquor were issued to Maoris as well as Europeans. In 1873 there were no fewer than eleven licensed houses on the coast from Hicks Bay to Tolaga Bay inclusive. The Europeans resident within these limits at that time did not number more than 50 or 60, and the liquors, which were of questionable quality, were sold in many other places besides the houses actually licensed. There was very little demand on the coast at that time for accommodation for travellers, and only three or four of the houses licensed made any attempt to provide for it. The immediate responsibility for this state of things rested with the Resident Magistrate of the district, who was prepared to issue a license to anyone who would pay the regulation fee, alleging as his reason for this that the trade could not be shut out, and that therefore he considered it better than the trade should be carried on under license
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than by stealth. At a meeting of the Native Church Board in that year held at Whareponga this was the principal subject of discussion, with the result that a numerously signed petition was forwarded to the Minister of Native Affairs, who remarked, on the receipt of it, that a petition was not of much value because it was a matter of no great difficulty to get any number of people to sign a petition for or against anything.
When the Reverend Samuel Williams was moved from Otaki t Te Aute chiefly at the instance of Sir George Grey, a promise was made by His Excellency that, in addition to the land which was set apart for the support of a school for Maoris a substantial grant would be made by the Government for the erection of the necessary buildings and for the purchase of stock. Sir G. Grey returned to England shortly afterwards and the promise was never fulfilled. The school was therefore practically in abeyance until the Rev. S. Williams had greatly improved the property and was able to borrow money on his own responsibility for the erection of buildings. The buildings were ready for occupation in the course of the year 1872, and the school was opened for boys in the beginning of the following year. Pupils attended this school from all parts of the Est Coast. The Bishop had long been anxious that something should be done for the education of Maori girls. The re-opening of schools at Waerenga-a-hika seemed unlikely to be possible for many years, but by the aid of personal friends in England he was enable to raise sufficient money to erect a building on a site which he had acquired in Napier. The now well-known Hukarere School was opened in this building in 1875. In the meantime the Waerenga-a-hika estate was let by the trustees until the accumulation of the rents received should justify their proceeding to build and open a school.
The changes in the district which were consequent upon the recent troubles soon became very evident. The land taken by the Government at Wairoa in 1867 was surveyed at once, and sections at Marumaru, as already stated, were awarded to military settlers who were disturbed in the following year by Te Kooti’s appearance in the district. A village was also laid off at Te Kapu, which was named Frasertown after Major Fraser. Land on the left bank of the Waiau extending some distance towards Waikaremoana had been awarded to the friendly natives of Nuhaka, Mohaka, Wairoa and Heretaunga, who afterwards received a sum of £12,000 in lieu of it, and it was then opened up by the Government for settlement. After the purchase of land at Turanganui in 1867 the township of Gisborne was surveyed and the first sale of sections took place in 1870. Sites at no great distance from the river were soon occupied and built upon. Military settlers were awarded sections on the inland side of Waerenga-a-hika and the village settlement of Ormond was laid off nearby. Up to the time of the disturbance very little of the land in Poverty Bay had been parted with by the natives and it had been a matter of some difficulty to induce them to give any Pakeha a lease, though there were indications in 1865 of a likelihood of this reluctance being overcome, at least in some parts. Some of the confiscated land about Patutahi was awarded to the friendly natives who had assisted the Government in the military operations on this coast, but a compensation in money was afterwards substituted for the land, which was then made available for settlement.
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In 1870 Dr. Nesbitt, who had been Resident Magistrate at Maketu, came to Gisborne in the place of Mr. Atkinson, who had returned to New Plymouth. It was a boon to the small community to have in the place a medical man, who, though largely occupied with Magisterial duties, was not unwilling to give professional help in cases of serious sickness
Among early needs was a school for the children, and the committee which was appointed to take the necessary steps for the erection of a school-room (for which in those days the local residents were responsible), considered the site of the present main school; in Derby Street “too far out of town,” and preferred an education reserve at the intersection of Childers Road and Lowe Street. On this site an unpretentious building was created and Mr. W.D. Lysnar having been appointed teacher with the concurrence of the inspector of the Auckland Education Board, the school was opened in February, 1872. The scale of fees to be paid by the parents was one shilling a week for the younger children up to eight years of age, and two shillings for those who were above that age, some reduction being provided for in the case of parents who should be able to satisfy the committee that they were unable to pay the prescribed fee.
The census which was taken in March, 1874, gave the European population of Gisborne as 552, and that of the surrounding country as far as it was then occupied as 615. On the plan of the township a section was marked as a reserve for a hospital, but, in order that it should be utilised, it devolved upon the small community to take such steps as they might find to be possible. The need was emphasised in 1875 by the fact that two old men without means were struck down with paralysis. It was necessary that something should be done without delay to provide accommodation for the two men. On one of the public reserves ten small cottages had been erected by the Government for the reception of emigrants, and these were then unoccupied. The two paralytics were placed in one of these cottages with an able-bodied man to attend to them. Soon afterwards a second of the cottages was moved up and the two were added to in such a way as to make provision for a small number of patients. Subsequently, as the population increased, more up-to-date accommodation was provided.
As Charitable Aid Boards had not then been instituted a Benevolent Society was formed with a working committee of a few ladies, who were assisted by the several ministers of religion resident in the town. Needy cases were thus provided for.
In November, 1875, Gisborne was brought into close contact with the outside world by the completion of a telegraph line from Napier.
Permanent provision for the spiritual needs of the rapidly-increasing European population was a matter which involved more difficulty. My own duties included frequent visits to Waiapu and Hicks Bay on the north and to Wairoa and Mohaka on the south, so that my work in Gisborne and the neighbourhood was very intermittent; the Bishop, however, made a point of spending as much time in the district as his other duties allowed, and Mr. Lysnar was appointed by him to hold services as lay reader whenever there was no clergyman available. Towards the end of 1872 a Roman Catholic priest, whose name I am not able to recall, came to take charge of the members of his own church, and in 1873 the Rev. W. Hevingham Root came to be pastor of the Presbyterian members of the community.
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There had been some delay in the procuring of sites for churches owing to the dispute between the General and Provincial Governments as to which of the two had the right to dispose of the sections in the town ship. Under ordinary circumstances land acquired by purchase for the Crown was under the control of the Provincial Government. The site of Gisborne, though not confiscated, had been acquired during the disturbed time and while discussion was in progress as to the boundaries of land which was to be confiscated. The General Government, being short of funds, took charge of Gisborne as thought it had been part of the confiscated land, while the Provincial Government very naturally maintained its claim. The question was ultimately decided in favour of the Province of Auckland. The practice in the province then was that, in the case of a new township, sections were set apart in suitable positions and applications were invited from the various religious bodies to be sent in by a definite date, when priority of choice would be decided by lot. The site having been settled it was not till November, 1873 that the Anglican community took definite steps for the erection of a church. Mr. Kells, architect, of Auckland, was instructed to prepare plans, but before these were ready he was prostrated by a serious illness, from which his recovery was slow. Owing to the delay thus caused the work was not taken in hand till August, 1874, but the building was finished early in the following year, and was consecrated on April 11th, as the Church of the Holy Trinity. Great difficulty was experienced in obtaining clergy for the newly-settled districts, but in August, 1874, the Rev. J. Murphy undertook the duty at Gisborne for three months, and afterwards for a further period, but he resigned the post before he had held it for six months. Shortly after his departure the Rev. Edward Williams was licensed to the cure. In the same year, 1875, the Rev. William Lambert was licensed to the charge of the Wairoa district, but the cure became vacant again at the close of 1876.
Up to 1865 the population of the Diocese of Waiapu comprised very few Europeans, the provincial district of Hawke’s Bay not then having formed part of it. There then had been four annual sessions of the Diocesan Synod in which the proceedings had all been conducted in the Maori language, all the Synodsmen and several of the clergy being Maoris, and possessed of very little knowledge of English. Subsequent to that date great changes had taken place. The Provincial District of Hawke’s Bay, in which there was already a considerable European population, was transferred from the Diocese of Wellington to that of Waiapu, and European settlers in no small numbers were taking up sections of the lands of which the Government had taken possession at Tauranga, Opotiki, Poverty Bay and Wairoa. It was evident that the European population would soon be largely predominant, and that the English element must prevail in the Synod, though the licensed native clergy would necessarily be members of it. The circumstances in which the Diocese was placed and the irregularity and uncertainty of the means of conveyance from distant parts, made the assembling of a legitimate meeting of the Synod a matter of considerable difficulty. The Bishop, however, did summon the Synod to meet at Napier on 13th of August, 1872. The licensed clergy in the Diocese then numbered sixteen, of whom nine were Maoris, and of the selected Synodsmen there were thirteen. For a valid meeting of the Synod it was necessary that, besides the Bishop, there should be a quarter of the licensed clergy but not fewer than four, and one quarter of the Lay Synodsmen, but not fewer than
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seven. The Synod met on the appointed day, five of the clergy and eight or nine of the laity being present. None of the clergy from the northern part of the diocese attended, and the one representative of the Bay of Plenty was a Napier layman. Meetings of the Diocesan Synod were held in the three following years, but without any of the clerical members from the northern part of the Diocese, though laymen resident in Napier had been elected to represent the norther laity.
The Bishop was disabled by a paralytic stroke on Lady Day, 1876, the fiftieth anniversary of his first landing at the Bay of Islands in 1826. Two months afterwards, as there seemed to be no prospect of his recovery, he forwarded his resignation to the Primate.
At this time the Rev. E.C. Stuart, who, after twenty-five years of missionary work in India, had been obliged to leave that mission on the score of health and was then on a visit to his brother in Sydney, was requested by the committee of the Church Missionary Society to visit the New Zealand Mission and to report to them on its conditions and prospects. After going the round of the various stations in which work was still being carried on, he settled at Auckland, the work having been assigned to him of training Maori candidates for the ministry.
The Diocesan Synod was summoned to meet in the following September. The fact that a clergyman had to be elected to be Bishop of the Diocese assured a good attendance of members. The number of licensed clergy in the Diocese was now twenty-five, and of these seventeen attended, including five of the Maori clergy. The lay members numbered eighteen, and of these only one was absent. The election of a Bishop, however, was not accomplished until the following year, when the Rev. E.C. Stuart received the unanimous vote of the Synod, and was consecrated at Napier on Sunday, the 9th of December, 1877. Bishop Williams had been confined to his bed for about a month before the consecration of his successor, and had been suffering a great deal from neuralgia. On Monday he was able to see the new Bishop and to express his gratification at what had now taken place, giving him at the same time his blessing and presenting him with a Maori Bible. On Friday the visiting Bishops paid him a farewell visit, all being much affected. His mind being now at rest the neuralgia, which had been so troublesome, had now altogether left him, and his strength failed gradually until he passed to his rest on February 9th, 1878.
CHAPTER IX.
When Te Kooti was allowed by Tawhiao to remain in the King country where his pursuers were forbidden to follow him, he settled down quietly at Te Kuiti, and, inasmuch as anywhere outside the King country he would be absolutely defenceless with a reward of £5000 offered for his capture, he was under no inducement to venture beyond the boundaries of his asylum. To the Maori King and his immediate followers he seemed to be an object of pity rather than of direct sympathy, though Rewi Maniapoto was inclined to treat him as a friend, and, as his residence among them brought them no embarrassment, they were content to leave him very much
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to himself, and to the attentions of any of his friends from other parts, who might choose to visit him. Of these there were not a few, and though he had now no armed following he still exercised an extraordinary influence on those who had supported him in the past, including the Ngaiterangi, of Tauranga, the Whakatohea of Opotiki, the Tuhoe people between Whakatane and Waikaremoana, besides some small sections of the people in other parts. By these he was frequently consulted on questions of all kinds, the greatest deference being paid to his opinion and his advice would be implicitly followed whatever inconvenience it might occasion to those to whom it was given. On one occasion, when visiting the section of the Tuhoe people living to the south of Waikaremoana, I found that they were all scattered about the country away from their ordinary habitations and apparently without any special object, the only reason assigned for the movement being that Te Kooti advised it; nor did they seem to have any definite notion of anything untoward that might have been apprehended if they had ignored the advice given to them. Soon after Bishop Stuart assumed the charge of the diocese I accompanied him on a visit which he paid to those parts which had been most disastrously affected by the late war, with the view of ascertaining at first hand the religious condition of the natives. We travelled through most of the settlements in the Bay of Plenty, then visited Taupo, and afterwards I went through the Tuhoe country on the headwaters of the Whakatane and Waimana Rivers. The Whanau-a-Apanui tribe at Raukokore and Te Kaha and the Ngaitai at Torere in the eastern part of the Bay of Plenty, the Arawa at Maketu and Rotorua, as well as the Ngati Tuwharetoa on the north and east of Taupo lake, were found to be for the most part maintaining their profession of Christianity, though with much laxity of practice on the part of the majority. On the other hand, the Whakatohea at Opotiki, the Tuhoe at Ruatahuna and Maungapowhatu, the Ngaiterangi at Tauranga, who had all been opposed to the Government in the war, and on whose mind the notion seemed to have taken a firm hold that the missionaries had acted a deceitful part towards them, had all, with very few exceptions adopted Te Kooti’s form of worship. By Te Kooti’s direction they ignored the Lord’s Day and observed Saturday as a day of rest from ordinary works, but apparently without any special religious observances besides their usual morning and evening devotions. The usual practice for morning and evening was that after one who acted as leader had said, “Let us sing to Jehovah,” a cento of verses from the Old Testament was chanted in unison by the whole assembly. This being concluded the leader recited a few short prayers addressed to “Jehovah” to which the people responded with a loud and somewhat prolong “Amen.” As the prayers and the passages of Scripture which were used, were fixed in the memory of all by constant repetition, the office of the leader required no special qualifications. When travelling through the Tuhoe country we brought up one evening at a place called Tawhana, where there was one good-sized whare occupied by a family of three generations, viz., an elderly couple, a young couple and a small infant. Though these were Ringatu they treated us hospitably, and allowed me and my companions to occupy the outer end of the building. As soon as day dawned the infant disturbed the grandmother, and while she was paying attention to it the old man was roused. He immediately sat up and began to recite the “karakia.” This roused the other two and the four adults chanted the Scripture verses in unison, after which the old man
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recited the prayers, the other three responding with the “Amen.” My companions were still sound asleep and my hosts did not known that I was awake. We had our prayers soon afterwards in which our hosts did not join us. The promptness with which these Ringatu began their devotions as the very first business of the day was very striking and very commendable.
Though the Sabbath was not marked by any special religious exercises Te Kooti laid great emphasis on the twelfth day of the month, and it has been the usual practice of the Ringatu in any district to meet together on that day at one or other of their settlements for special observances. Whether or not Te Kooti assigned any particular reason for this regulation, it is enough for those who observe the day that Te Kooti ordered it.
In most of the Ringatu settlements we were treated with civility, and in some with genuine old-fashioned Maori hospitality, though, so far from showing any disposition to return to the practice of Christianity as they had been taught by the Missionaries, they were rather inclined to lay stress on the points wherein they differed from us. At Tuwharua and Te Koingo, on the Waimana, where we were delayed two days by the weather and were hospitably entertained by the chiefs Rakuraku and Tamaikowha, we were asked to sit by while the ringatu recited their devotions, it being apparently anticipated that we should not be able to make any serious objection to them. Their manner was reverent and the petitions contained in the prayers were framed in language taken from the Old Testament, but the obvious objection to the whole systems was that it was anti-Christian, being a deliberate rejection of all that the love of God has provided for sinners in Jesus Christ.
The only place where we were received with discourtesy was Kokohinau, near Te Teko. We had been unexpectedly delayed at Matata and were rather late in arriving at Te Teko, where we were accommodated at the hotel. After getting some refreshment we walked down to the pa at Kokohinau, where we found the people assembled in a large whare and possibly engaged in some special business which was interrupted by our arrival. As soon as we were seated we were addressed by their leader, Tiopira in tones which seemed to make it quite clear that our presence was not desired. He began by saying, “You have not visited us for years, and now that you have come to us again you find that we have given up the way of the Son and have adopted instead the way of the Father”; by which he would have us to understand that they had renounced Christianity though they professed to regard Jehovah as their father. As Tiopira was their chief spokesman, and was disinclined to listen to anything that we had to say, our visit was not prolonged.
At Tokaanu on the southern shore of Lake Taupo, where there was a Roman Catholic mission, not far from the Rev. T.S. Grace’s old station, most of the people seemed to be indifferent or to consider themselves to be adherents of the Maori King not only in politics, but also in matters of religion. In the course of our visit to this place one man remarked that the people connected with the Roman Catholic mission had no good reason for neglecting their religion, but that the case was very different with those who had been in connection with the Church of England mission.
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On being asked for an explanation he adduced Bishop Selwyn’s presence at Rangiahoia at the time of the fighting there in 1864, when some women and children were said to have lost their lives in a whare which was burnt by the troops. When he was asked what part the Bishop took in the proceedings at Rangiahoia, he mentioned the name of a man whom he had met on the road who, he said, could testify that the Bishop was there, and that he heard him call out after the firing had cease, “any who are wounded come to me.” They could not understand his presence there as having any other meaning than that he had ranged himself distinctly on the side of their enemies, though it needed no argument to prove that one who did nothing but succour their wounded could not be their enemy. This explanation was promptly given, but did not necessarily carry conviction.
At Marumohue, on the Waiotahe, near Opotiki, we found Te Waru and his people, who belonged properly to Whataroa, on the River Wairoa, in Hawke’s Bay. After the conclusion of the war it was no considered that Te Waru’s life would be safe if he were to return to Whataroa or to any place in that neighbourhood, as there was very bitter feeling against him in that district on account of his complicity in the treacherous murder of Karaitiana and three others at Whataroa in 1868. The Government therefore, had placed him and his people on this portion of the land which had been confiscated that he might be out of harm’s way. He had been a very strong supporter of Te Kooti, but whatever he may have been in the past he now disclaimed connection with the Ringatu and made no profession of religion of any kind.
The information obtained on these journeys showed plainly the character of the work which lay before the church in this part of the diocese. The older missionaries were far advanced in years, and the Rev. George Maunsell, who had been placed at Tauranga in 1875, was the only really able-bodied missionary in the district.
There was urgent need of reinforcements, but these were not immediately available. Two recruits had just arrived from England, one of whom was to have been placed at Taupo, but proved to be unsuited for Maori work. The other, Mr. W. Goodyear, was not in Holy Orders and had been sent out to help in the work on the East Coast.
As far as the general public was concerned Te Kooti had for years been little more than a historical character. He was known to be at Te Kuiti, but his name was seldom mentioned until the Act of Amnesty was passed in August, 1882. After this he came to be very much in evidence, and whereas a few years before he had been hunted as an outlaw, he now came to be treated by those who were in authority with very special consideration. After the passing of the Act the Native Minister took an early opportunity of paying a special visit to Te Kuiti for the purpose of shaking hands with Te Kooti; but the reason why, among all the people to whom the Act applied, Te Kooti should have been selected as the object of this particular compliment, is not very obvious. He certainly had been grievously sinned against by the Government, and that fact might well be held to justify the condoning of the atrocities which he had committed by way of avenging himself, and to account for his not having been excluded from the operation of the Act of Amnesty, but there was at least one crime of which he was guilty which had nothing of a political character
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about it. This was the cruel murder of Warihi whom he ordered to be thrown overboard from the “Rifleman” on the voyage from Chatham Island. A further mark of Ministerial regard was the appropriation of a sum of £600 of the public funds to the purchase of land for his benefit.
Having now been assured of the hearty goodwill of the Government Te Kooti soon began to visit his Maori friends in various parts of the country, travelling generally with a band of 150 or 200 followers. In March, 1884, he announced his intention of paying a visit to Poverty Bay in the following summer. As his route would most probably lie through Mohaka and Wairoa the announcement caused no little excitement among the relatives of the victims of the massacres of 1868 and 1869, especially as it was stated that he would be accompanied by a large number of people of the Waikato, Tuhoe and other tribes. Representations were made to the Native Minister that, if he should carry out his intention there would probably be trouble and possibly bloodshed, and it was suggested that, if possible, the visit should be forbidden on the ground that it might lead to a breach of the peace. The people at Mohaka who had been staunch supporters of the Government during the disturbances on the East Coast, and fifty-seven of whom had been cut off by Te Kooti in his raid in 1869, had always said that if he should come near the place again he should forfeit his life. As soon as they heard of the proposed visit they proceeded at once to build a strong pa, so as to be ready against all emergencies. Mr. Ballance, the Native Minister, opened communication with Te Kooti and he was persuaded to relinquish the project. In the following year, it was announced that he intended to visit Wairoa on the invitation of some of his friends in that district. As in order to do this he must necessarily pass through Mohaka the people of that place were much disturbed, and a deputation of them in company with Renata Kawepo and other Heretaunga chiefs waited upon Captain Preece, then Resident Magistrate Napier, begging him to urge the Government to prevent Te Kooti from coming and so obviate the possibility of a disturbance of the peace. The only answer that they could get from the Native Minister, was that Te Kooti had now been pardoned, and therefore was at liberty to use the usual highways like any other man, and Captain Preece was directed to reason with the deputation and to persuade the, if possible, to offer no opposition to Te Kooti. After much discussion an agreement was come to through the influence of the Rev. Hoani Te Wainohu, the Native clergyman at Mohaka, that Te Kooti should be allowed to go along the high road, but that if he should venture off the road in the neighbourhood of their pa, he would do so at his peril. The case would have been different if Te Kooti had been intending to travel with two or three companions only, but what especially hurt the feelings of the Mohaka people was that he was intending to come through the scene of his former atrocities as a hero in a kind of triumphal procession with a whole army of followers. The visit took place towards the end of December, 1885. The Government took the precaution of sending extra police to Wairoa, directed the ferryman at Mohaka to put Te Kooti’s party of about 200 across the river without charge, and gave him £10 for his trouble. The pa stood about thirty yards off the main road, and as Te Kooti passed escorted by a half-caste policeman several men within the pa kept him covered with loaded rifles ready to shoot him if he should leave the road and go towards the pa. When opposite the pa Te Kooti called out to the people within, but getting no response proceeded on his war.
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As he passed on his return a week afterwards the people in the pa maintained the same attitude. These people had always borne a very high character, but that the Government should encourage and assist Te Kooti as they did, in his quasi-triumphal procession pas their pa, was to submit their loyalty and sense of duty to a very severe strain. It was mainly owing to the influence of the Rev. Hoani Te Wainohu, that no disturbance took place. As the visit passed off without any breach of the peace the notion came to be entertained by many that the risk of such a thing happening had been grossly exaggerated, but such knew nothing of the intensity of feeling on the part of the Mohaka people nor of the circumstances which were the cause of it.
In the following summer Te Kooti passed through Napier on his way to Porangahau, but his proceedings attracted little attention except from the small party who had invited him. He was still hoping to pay a visit to Poverty Bay notwithstanding that the Rongowhakaata tribe had expressed a strong objection to his doing so. His supporters there were the Aitangi-a-Mahaki tribe, living chiefly in the neighbourhood of Te Karaka, who had erected a large whare for his reception. In January, 1889, he announced definitely his intention to pay his proposed visit. Early in February he went to Auckland and while he was there he saw the Hon. E. Mitchelson, who was then Native Minister, and who tried to dissuade him from going to Poverty Bay, alleging as the reason the great opposition to him which had already been manifested there. Te Kooti, however, had made up his mind and refused to alter his plans. On February 22nd he passed through Opotiki to Omarumutu with some 200 followers and was joined there by about 100 more. In the meantime preparations were already in progress in Poverty Bay for opposing his entry into the district. A meeting of settlers had been held at Makaraka on the 18th, at which an influential committee was appointed to take such steps as might be deemed to be necessary, 160 volunteers were enrolled and a sum of £50 was subscribed at once towards any expenses that might have to be incurred. The first reports of the local opposition not Te Kooti’s visit were made light of at Wellington, where it seemed to be thought that nothing extraordinary was likely to happen, inasmuch as nothing had happened under similar circumstances at Mohaka three years before. But when the people began to take the law into their own hands and to show that they were in real earnest the Premier, Sir H. Atkinson, came at once to Gisborne, and sent an urgent message to Te Kooti at Omarumutu telling him not to come on. As this message was not complied with it was decided that Te Kooti should be arrested as one whose action was likely to result in a disturbance of the peace, and on the 25th a force of Europeans and Maoris was dispatched from Gisborne to Opotiki. Four days afterwards Te Kooti was arrested at Waiotahe, and, on being brought before the Resident Magistrate at Opotiki, was bound over to keep the peace. He was taken to Auckland, as soon as the necessary sureties were obtained he was released and returned to Waikato. The action of Sir H. Atkinson in this matter was the subject of a good deal of unfavourable criticism which was borne out soon afterwards by the decision of the Supreme Court, but that decision was subsequently set aside by the court of Appeal. The circumstances were certainly exceptional. Had Te Kooti been allowed to come on from Omarumutu there would have been an assemblage of 800 or more of his partisans, some 200 having already come
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over from Te Karaka from Wairoa and other places. This fact alone would have served to increase the tension of feeling and a breach of the peace would have been a by no means remote contingency.
Te Kooti made no further attempt after this to visit Poverty Bay, and he died at Ohiwa on April 17th, 1893.
In 1881, a conference of missionaries was held in Auckland to consider what steps it might be possible to take for the furtherance of the work of the church among the Maoris, especially in the disaffected districts. The Church Missionary Society was already contemplating its withdrawal from New Zealand, and no additional help therefore could be looked for from that quarter. In order that a supply of the necessary agents should be provided for it was decided that a central training institution should be set on foot as soon as possible at Gisborne, which could be supported by the proceeds of property which had been acquired by the C.M. Society in past years for the purposes of the mission.
In the following year arrangements were made by the C.M. Society for transferring the management of the mission to a board, to be called the New Zealand Mission Trust Board, which should consist of three Anglican Bishops in the North Island, ex officio, and of one clergyman and one layman representing each of the three North Island Dioceses, the Society engaging to continue its help, but at a steadily decreasing rate, for twenty years, after which it would be responsible for nothing more than the support of such of the old European ordained missionaries as should be still on its roll. It was anticipated at the same time that the Church in New Zealand would accept responsibility for missionary work among the Maoris. The property which had been acquired by the society for the purposes of the mission was conveyed to the New Zealand Mission Trust Board, which took over the superintendence of the work in January, 1883.
Among the first proceedings of the board was the placing of the Rev. W. Goodyear, who had then been ordained to the Priesthood, at Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty. Since that time native clergymen have been stationed at various places in that district, with the result, under the blessing of God, that much improvement is now evident among those who had maintained their profession of Christianity, while work among the Ringatu has met with considerable encouragement, notably at Tauranga and Ruatoki, on the Whakatane River. But those in the Waiapu, Poverty Bayt and Wairoa districts still hold themselves very much aloof from Christian instruction. In accordance with Te Kooti’s instructions they have avoided all intercourse with Mormon teachers, but they have no formal creed, and their religious observances consist simply in the recital of the forms taught them by Te Kooti, combined with the revival of some of their old superstitions. The fact that they address their devotions to Jehovah and that they have introduced the Saviour’s Name into some of their prayers tends to make the task of winning them over to Christianity more difficult inasmuch as they claim that their prayers are addressed to the God whom Christians worship, and that there is no necessity for doing what, from their point of view, would be merely altering the method of their worship. The schools which have been planted by the Government in all the Maori districts have had a beneficial effect in making the younger generations more accessible than their fathers and grandfathers who were
Page 85
actively opposed to the Government in the war time and there is therefore a bright prospect opening for working among them.
After the capture of the Hauhau pa at Waerenga-a-hika, the school estate remained for some time unoccupied, except that one building which was weather proof was inhabited at times by a detachment of the Armed Constabulary. The resumption of such occupations as were in progress before the Hauhau invasion were out of the question. There was no money available for the restoration of buildings and fences, and the only course open to the trustees was to let the property and allow the funds to accumulate until such time as it might be possible to erect the necessary buildings and to carry on such work as that for which the property was held in trust. Owing to the troubles of 1868 no tenant could be induced to occupy it until 1869, and additional delay in the resumption of educational work was caused by the fact that in the original occupation of the estate it had been necessary to borrow money in order to make such occupation possible, and the repayment of this money became a first charge on the income of the estate. In 1889 the necessary buildings were taken in hand and a school for Maori boys was opened in the following July so that the estate is now being used again for the purpose for which it was originally set apart.
Page 86
APPENDIX.
Page 4.
EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE REV. S. MARSDEN.
* August 27, 1819. I shall here mention an instance of retaliation, some of the circumstances of which came within my own knowledge.
About 15 or 16 years ago a vessel belonging to Campbell and Co., of Port Jackson, called the “Venus” was taken by the convicts at Port Dalrymple. When the pirates had possession of the Venus they sailed for New Zealand, and touched at the Bay of Islands from whence they took the sister of a chief named Temarangha, and afterwards sold her at an island near the East Cape for some mats. Two of the natives afterwards quarrelled about her, in consequence of which she was killed.
Some time afterwards some natives arrived from the East Cape at the Bay of Islands and gave information relative to Temarangha’s sister. Temarangha’s father was alive, and previous to his death, caused Temarangha to swear that he would revenge the death of his sister.
In 1815 Temarangha accompanied me to Paramatta, and, two years after his return he mustered his tribe and set off to the East Cape to perform the oath which he had sworn to his father. He killed the chief of the island where his sister had been murdered, and brought away the chief’s wife as prisoner, and gave her to his brother, with whom she now lives.
September 15, 1819. On my return through the village (Ranguhoo) in company with Mr. Kendall, I observed the heads of four chiefs stuck on four poles at one of the huts. I requested Mr. Kendall to accompany me to the hut in order to ascertain the cause of the death of these chiefs and from whence the heads had been brought. On making enquiries of the people we received the following account:-
Some years ago a vessel from Port Jackson touched at the Bay of Islands, from whence the crew took a woman belonging to Shungee’s tribe and afterwards landed her at or near the East Cape on the mainland. After Temarangha had heard of the fate of his sister (who was taken at the same time), he sent up spies to ascertain the particulars and the situation of the people who had killed her. Temarangha’s spies travelled as traders all along the coast; and when they returned they brought information of what had become of these two women. One had been killed and eaten on an island, and the other on the main at a greater distance. Temarangha set off to avenge the death of his sister, as already stated, and Shungee followed when he was ready. They both returned without meeting after taking vengeance on the respective people who had committed the above murders; and the heads which I saw were of four chiefs whom Shungee had killed in battle. He also brought with him two chiefs as prisoners and many more heads. Mr. Kendall told me that Shungee was eleven months on his voyage, and returned eight months ago with many prisoners of war who were shared between him and his subordinate chiefs.
Previous to closing this day’s observations I met with Shungee and Temarangha. Wishing to know every particular relating to their expedition towards the East Cape I requested them to accompany me to Mr. Kendall’s that I might, with his assistance, examine them very minutely. After a conversation of nearly two hours I collected the following particulars relative to their expedition and customs.
Temarangha went chiefly to avenge the death of his sister as already stated. He took with him 400 fighting men, and after attaining his object returned with a few prisoners of war. He went on his expedition previous to Shungee, but they never met on any part of the coast. Shungee had two objects in view: The one was to avenge the murder of the woman belonging
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to his tribe, who had been taken away by the Venus, as already stated; the other to assist Houpah, a chief at the River Thames, to avenge three murders which had been committed on his tribe several years before. Houpah had long solicited Shungee to aid him in punishing the tribe who had cut off his people. Shungee left the Bay of Islands on the 7th February, 1818, with his fighting men to join Houpah on the River Thames. When they sailed from the River Thames their forces amounted to 800 men. On their arrival at the district where they intended to make war such of the natives as were able fled into the interior, leaving their habitations. Shungee says that they burnt 500 villages. The inhabitants were very numerous between the River Thames and the East Cape. Many of them were taken by surprise and had not time to muster, and therefore were obliged to fly for safety to the country as Shungee advanced. A number of people were killed either by surprise or in defending their towns or people; and many of their heads brought away by the conquering party. The settlers informed me that about 70 heads were brought to Rangihoo in one canoe. They also took 2000 prisoners of war whom they brought back with them as their spoils, consisting of men, women and children. These prisoners were shared among the chiefs and their officers and made slaves.
(From Proceedings of C.M.S., 1870/1).
Page 4.
EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF C.M.S. 1822/3. PAGE 185).
† On the 5th September, after the most formidable preparations the largest party of natives which ever left the Bay set forward to the Thames with Shungee at its head to murder and ravage without pity.
From the Journal of the Rev. John Butler.
April 19, 1821. We were visited by a chief named Showracke, whose place is about seven miles down the river, towards the mouth of the harbour. He has been away a long time on a war expedition towards the South Cape of New Zealand. The chief place of action seems to have been at a district called Enama-Heora, about 400 miles from the Bay of Islands. He has brought away 40 prisoners of war as slaves, several of whom were in his canoe; they were men of noble stature; they appeared dejected. Several women that he had taken were also in his canoe, one of whom, a chief’s daughter, he had made his wife. Her father had been slain in battle, and his head was in the canoe with several others. When it was held up as a trophy the poor creature lay down in the canoe covering herself with her mat.
Page 8.
ǂ Orakaiapu was the principal pa in the Poverty Bay district, and as the larger pas of old-time had many features in common, a short description of this one may be of interest. The pa was situated on the bank (about 20ft high), of the Kopututea River, just below the junction of the Waipaoa and Arai, the area being about three acres. The fortifications consisted of a strong palisade about fifteen or twenty feet high, with inner fences and a ditch and bank of considerable dimensions, some of the remains of which are still visible, though a large portion of the site of the pa has been carried away by the river before it changed its course in 1876. The interior of the pa was irregularly divided by fences of light construction into a number of small enclosures, which were rendered accessible by narrow passages intersecting the pa in various directions. Within these small enclosures stood the whares or huts. These were all built of one pattern, the entrance being at one end and generally facing the north-east. A doorway about three feet high and a small aperture which served as a window were placed on either side of the post which supported the ridgeway pole, the doorway on one’s left as one approached the hut and the window on the right. Though the dimensions were small the huts were always well contructed [constructed] and neatly finished, the doorway and window being neatly framed in wood and the thatch of toe-toe grass being securely fastened and protected from damage by wind with the wirelike stems of ake or metrosideros scandens. The interior was lined with reeds of the toe-toe,
Page 88
kakapo, or arundo conspicua. Besides the ordinary huts there were several buildings of considerably larger dimensions, each the property of one of the subdivisions of the tribe. These were used for gatherings of the people on special occasions or for the entertainment of visitors. These larger constructed buildings, though on the same general plan, were more elaborately constructed and more freely decorated, sometimes with most elaborate carving. One of these, which stood formerly in the Orakaiapu pa, is now in the Dominion Museum at Wellington. The uprights in the walls of this building were all carved, and spaces between the uprights were ornamented with strips of phormium tenax, or other plants ingeniously worked into patterns in black, white and yellow, producing a very pleasing effect. This building is worthy of better treatment than it has received at the hands of the museum authorities. Another of these buildings, called Hamokorau, was used for a number of years as a temporary church after the church was wrecked by the wind in 1842.
Page 9.
* Christianity among the New Zealanders. P. 284
Page 9.
† Christianity among the New Zealanders. P. 286
Page 10
‖ Christianity among the New Zealanders. P. 288
Page 12.
§ Christianity among the New Zealanders. P. 290
Page 13.
** Annals of the Diocese of New Zealand. Page 46.
Page 23.
* The late Dr. Shortland in “Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders,” Chapter IV, gives an account of a séance at which he himself was present. Tarapipipi, of Masterton, who wished to convince Shortland of the reality of communications which were said to have been made by “atua,” or spirits of departed chiefs and warriors to their survivors, took him to the abode of an old woman, at whose bidding the “atua” of the tribe had been in the habit of appearing, with the object of asking her to call them up. After some preliminary conversation which was “interrupted by a sound as if something heavy had fallen on the roof of the hut, and then a rustling noise such as might be made by a rat, crept along the thatch until it stopped just over our heads. The old woman covered her head and face in her blanket and bent herself nearly double, her head resting on her knees, and immediately from the spot where the rustling noise had ceased issued sounds of imitative of a voice, but whistled instead of being articulated in ordinary tones. The moment it was heard Tukaraina and the others who were present recognised the voice of Te Waharoa, Tarapipipi’s father.” After a hint given to the spirit by Tarapipipi, he continues, “immediately the voice welcomed me after the manner of the tribe . . . . Tarapipipi, though outside the hut, was still very close to me, and, leaning towards me he said in a whisper: ‘put your hand over the old woman’s mouth quickly!’ I no sooner did as he bade me than the same voice demanded ‘Who has put his hand to touch me?’ This seemed sufficient proof that the voice came from the mouth of the hold woman; and I also noticed that, whenever the whistling voice was heard, I could not distinguish her breathing; but immediately on its ceasing the breathing was heard as if accelerated after an exertion.”
Page 27.
† The following may serve as an illustration of the difficulty of travelling from one part of the country to another in early days. In 1856 I was directed by Bishop Selwyn to meet him at Wellington that I might
Page 89
be admitted to Priest’s Orders. Opportunities of going south were then very rare so, in order to make sure of reaching Wellington in time, I availed myself of an opportunity of a passage to Napier by a small cutter which sailed from Poverty Bay on November 6th. At Napier I had to wait till November 25th for the schooner sailing to Wellington, which accomplished the voyage in eight days. At Wellington I found a message from the Bishop directing me to proceed to Lyttelton where he was awaiting the arrival of Bishop Harper, who was then due from England. After a delay of ten days an opportunity offered for Lyttelton by the small steamer Zingari, which performed the voyage in fine weather in 36 hours, arriving on December 15th. I was free to return after Christmas, but I could not reckon on getting back to Poverty Bay by any definite date, therefore I gladly accepted the suggestion of the Bishop that I should accompany him to Chatham Island in the schooner Southern Cross and he landed at Poverty Bay on the way back to Auckland. I reached home on February 6th, having been away exactly three months. Under modern conditions I should have been back in less than two weeks. No letters which I had written after I left Napier arrived until after I myself had returned home.
Page 54.
* The “East Coast Land Titles Investigation Act, 1866” contained the following clause:-
“Such natives or other persons as shall not have been engaged in the rebellion shall include all persons appearing to be entitled to land within the said district who shall come within the description contained in the fifth clause of The New Zealand Settlement Act, 1863. The fifth clause reads as follows:-
V. – Compensation shall be granted to all persons who shall have any title, interest or claim to any land taken under this Act. Provided always that no compensation shall be granted to any of the persons following, that is to say to any person:-
1. Who shall since the 1st of January, 1863, have been engaged in levying or making war or carrying arms against Her Majesty the Queen and Her Majesty’s forces in New Zealand.
2. Who shall have adhered to, sided or assisted or comforted any such persons.
Page 32.
ǂ The paper “Te Manuhiri Tuarangi,” which is quoted from in the following dispatch from His Excellency Sir George Grey to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, was widely circulated among the Maoris.
Government House
Auckland
11th August, 1863.
My Lord Duke,
I have the honour to call your Grace’s attention to my predecessor’s dispatch, No. 10, of the 25th January, 1860, which contains as an enclosure a letter from Mr. Parris, the District Land Purchase Commissioner at New Plymouth, dated the 4th December, 1859, in which the following paragraph occurs:-
“W. King avowed his determination to oppose the sale without advancing any reason for so doing, upon which I put a series of questions to him, which I called upon the Rev. M. Whitely to witness, viz.,
Q. Does the land belong to Te Teira and party?
A. Yes, the land is theirs, but I will not let them sell it.
Q. Why will you oppose them selling what is their own?
A. Because I do not wish that the land be disturbed, and though they have floated it, I will not let it go to sea.”
2. It is understood here that a great deal of importance has been attached in England and elsewhere to this apparent admission on the part of W. King, that the land claimed by the Government at Waitara as a
Page 90
purchase from the chief Taylor, belong to the chief Taylor and to his party alone, and that no other person had any claim to it.
3. It has therefore been thought advisable that I should call Your Grace’s attention to the fact that the Government published two distinct statements of what passed between Mr. Parris and W. King at the interview alluded to in Mr. Parris’s letter of the 4th December, 1859.
4. One of these statements is that which I have quoted above. It is a summary given in English of a conversation which passed in the Maori language. The other is a statement published in the Native Gazette, which is published by the Government under the title of “Te Manuhiri Tuarangi.” This paper is printed in two columns, the one in the English language, the other in the Maori. In this newspaper the following statement is given in the native language of the question proposed by Mr. Parris to W. King, and of that chief’s replies:-
Mr. Parris enquired: – “Does not that piece of land belong to Taylor?” He replied, “It belongs to Taylor and all of us, but as he is setting it adrift to sea, I shall seize upon it and drag it inshore again.”
Ka patai atu a Parete: – “Ehara ko ai i a Te Teira taua wahi?” Ka ki ake, “No Te Teira ano, no ma tou katoa hoki, otiia nana i tuku ki te moana, naku i rere ki runga, maku e to ki uta.”
The statement here made by W. King is stronger in the native language than it appears to be in the annexed English translation, the real meaning of the native words used by him being, “It belongs to Taylor together with all of us.”
I have, etc.,
G. GREY.
His Grace the Duke of Newcastle.
Page 34.
FROM APPENDIX TO JOURNALS OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1863.
§ ”It was necessary to declare some cause for the intended attack, not so much with the view of producing an effect on the Maori themselves as of justifying the war in the eyes of the British public. General Cameron was about to advance, and there was no much time left for the manufacture of a proclamation. This proclamation, moreover, proved as difficult to compose as the celebrated one announcing the surrender of Waitara, and like that was not finally issued till too late for the purpose for which it was nominally designed. No Declaration of War reached the Waikatos until after blood had been shed.” (Gorst’s “The Maori King.” Page 377).
“I met the messenger carrying the first copies printed in the native language, on the evening of July 14th, at dusk. He was then on the road between Auckland and Otahuhu, and did not reach the Waikato until after the Battle of Koheroa, which was fought on the 15th.” (The same p. 380).
Page 34.
‖ When forwarding a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi with signatures of Waikato chiefs attached, to Lieut.-Governor Hobson, the Rev. R. Maunsell wrote:-
“In forwarding the accompanying document I would beg to observe in reference to ourselves that, cordially as we desire to co-operate with Governor Hobson in all measures consistent with our principles, we cannot but state that we feel strongly the responsibility in the eyes of the natives by the steps we are now adopting.
I would beg therefore, with all deference, to add that, having put ourselves thus prominently forward in obtaining an acknowledgment of the sovereign power of the Queen on the part of the natives, so we trust that that acknowledgment will never be made, even apparently, the basis of any measure that may hereafter result in their prejudice.
Page 91
The steps we have taken have been taken in full dependence on the well known lenity and honour of the British Government, and we rest assured that we shall never hereafter find ourselves to have been in these particulars mistaken.”
Page 36.
THE FOLLOWING IS PATARA’S LETTER
March 25th, 1865.
Patutahi.
The following is the account which was given of Patara’s arrival at Opotiki by Mr. S.A. Levy, who kept a store there in 1865.
“Saturday, February 25th: A letter has just arrived to say that Patara was then on the beach some three miles from here. The natives are all coming in from every village there is near to see what the great man can do. I should say there the some 800 natives on the plain in front of the church, some erecting tents, putting up flags, carrying firewood, and all those things ready for a large encampment. At last about 3 p.m. Patara arrived, the whole of the women (257) being formed in a double line for his reception, when, as he drew near, the line of women opened and he passed through them amidst the greatest rejoicings and welcomes, Patara in advance of his forty followers with a large horse-pistol in his hands, held across his breast. After passing through the women there was a general review which lasted for some three hours, the natives going through every manoeuvre known to them in warfare, and likewise several sorts of stag hunts one after another. Previous to the arrival the natives had erected a very high flag-post near the church, and, as soon as the party came in, the Paimarire flags were hoisted on it . . . . The females were all now getting the kapura maoris ready for a grand feed when, shortly after, there arrived some five carts laden with five dead oxen and some hundreds of kits of potatoes; likewise several loads of water melons. When all the carts were got together they were taken before Patara, who went through several forms of grace, holding a piece in his right hand, and throwing it away after each prayer. After these ceremonies the carts went to the different fires to get their contents cooked, which as soon as done grace was said and then came the grand feed . . . . I then went to see Patara who seemed very much pleased, mentioning at the same time that he was very glad that I was a Jew, he being very fond of them, giving, as his reason that the Jews were once a very grand people, but were no reduced to a very small one through the persecutions they had gone through, the Maoris believing themselves to be undergoing the same. While the natives were having a grand feed Patara walked to my house and had tea with me, Tiwai being present. Atara was telling Tiwai in my presence what his intentions were form the time of his leaving Taranaki, which took one month and 24 days to reach Opotiki. They fully intended to take the heads of all ministers, soldiers, and Englishmen, to carry as trophies to their great prophet Horopapera at Taranaki. I told him I did not like to see so many guns knocking about, there being some 300, when he told me to make myself quite easy as to their doings, that he would give me a written protection for my safety during his absence, Patara promising to come back and sleep with me, and mentioned to me that had Mr. Volkner been at Opotiki on his arrival it was his full intention to take his head to Taranaki and that he intended taking possession of his goods and house. At about 5 o’clock Kereopa the prophet came amongst them with the head of a soldier and placed it at the foot of the worship post, laying the cap alongside, which had on it “70th Regiment.” This caused great excitement among the natives, Kereopa coming in front of the skull to give a lecture which lasted some hour and a half, the whole lecture being on religion, stating that, up to the present time, they had been labouring under a great mistake, and the whole of the ministers had been robbing them of their lands, money and blood through the lies the said ministers had told them and advising them strongly to take to the new faith which there is very little trouble to do, when under the influence of Patara. He wound up the discourse by bringing forward the soldier’s head to the natives, telling them it would speak at sunset, which I waited to hear, expecting a little
Page 92
ventriloquism, but was disappointed. Several of the natives put their ears to the skull’s mouth and, fancying it spoke, would start off like mad running over the plain. Patara now went through the new form of religion, the whole of the natives forming in single line and passing under Patara’s right arm, and so into the church where they again formed into double line, back to back, the forty Taranaki’s who had arrived with Patara continually running round them shouting, hallooing and going through many old-fashioned forms of incantation, of the principals examining each individually to see if they were affected by his influence. Finding they were completely under his influence, they were then singly taken hold of by the shoulders by three or four of the principals and well shaken until they spoke or gesticulated some of their mad peculiar tongue. They were then taken by the hand and swung round until so insensible they could not stand and then taken out on the green, where they remained on the ground in a state of stupidity for some days, some of them actually going for four or five days without touching meat or drink. The natives remained in both churches all night, going through their worship and ringing the bells, I myself sleeping in the church with them. The most fearful scenes of barbarism and savagelike propensities were enacted during the night.
Sunday, February 26th: Everybody, men, women and children in the village converted to the new faith. Daybreak, church bells ring for prayer, the usual service, there being no Sunday observed in their religion, all days in the week being alike. Before entering the church and after coming out again the natives all went round the post several times muttering their gibberish and asking me if I understood the, as they said it was a language of their own given them by God, and that no one else but themselves could speak it. After service Patara sent for me to go with him to Rev. Mr Volkner’s house, where he intended selling everything off by auction, and wished me to buy the fowls, which I declined. He then went up and ransacked the house, selling everything to the natives for a mere nothing, even horses, and some fine ones among the, fetching 5s. each. The books, medicines and bedstead were the only things they left, and Patara told me that anything I wished for in the house I could have for the asking, but I declined the offer. The natives then went back to their prayers, Kereopa lecturing to them the greater part of the day, carrying the soldier’s head about with him under his arm. During his lecture the newly-converted natives were again put under Patara’s influence on account of fresh natives arriving. They only eat once a day, and that at sunset. The feast was now commenced and was gone through the same as on the previous day. They then returned to their worship, some remaining in the church all night, and others walking round the sacred post, but the greater part lying all night on the plains in the open air in a state of stupidity and nudity. The principal portion of these were women.
Page 37.
ǂ Dear friends being informed that you are afraid of the natives who have lately come here i write you these few lines to inform you that you need not have the slightest of fear in your hearts for they do not intend you the slightest of harm. There is only one person implicated in the murder of the minister and i dare say you know his name so you must not blame a whole flock because there is one scabby sheep in it. I am desired by the natives to inform you that if to-morrow is a fine day they the natives wish to see you all at eight o’clock precisely do not be afraid but come boldly forward for if there was the slightest of danger i would be sure and warn you of it.
So no more at present but remain,
Your friend,
WILLIAM BUTLER.
This letter is for all the Europeans at Turanga.
Herald Print, Gisborne.
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