History of Otago

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[edit] Archaic Māori Period

The precise date at which the first inhabitants of Aotearoa reached Otago (known to the Māori as Murihiku) and the extreme south remains uncertain. The Maoris are descendants of a race of intrepid sea-wanderers who, at some far-off age, moved from East Asia and South-east Asia to the islands of the Pacific. Tradition tells of their further journeyings from Hawaiki to Aotearoa and this homeland has been identified as Havai'i[1], an island in the Society Group. Overpopulation, scarcity of food and civil war forced many of them to migrate once more, and Aotearoa became their chosen home. It is reported that Kupe discovered Aotearoa somewhere about the middle of the tenth century and then returned back to central Polynesia. The Māori had explored the coasts of both islands by A.D. 1100 at the latest and had learnt to hunt the numerous species of Moa indigenous to Aotearoa. From time to time the people of Tahiti and the Cook islands continued to make contacts with Aotearoa, and when the main fleet sailed about 1350 AD, the navigators knew their precise destination.

As this portion of the new land was slowly occupied, intrepid bands of explorers and food-hunters made journeys even to the remote regions of the south. Inter-tribal quarrels became more frequent and slowly, driven southwards by inexorable forces, the weaker tribes were compelled to retreat to the Te Waipounamu, which became the home of refugees seeking sanctuary from their enemies. The first inhabitants of the South Island are spoken of as the Kahui Tipua, a tribe of whom many weird tales are told and who are generally classed as supernatural beings, the 'Band of Ogres'. After these fearsome people came another tribe named Te Rapuwai of whom also but little is known, perhaps because, as Waite suggests, no natives claim descent from them[2]. But they left many place names to record their presence, and heaps of shells along the beaches as more tangible evidence. The Kaitangata Lake district, in South Otago, was apparently a favourite haunt, and almost certainly there were settlements at the mouth of the Matau (Clutha).

Almost as little is known of their immediate successors, the Waitaha. It has been suggested by Hectorthat another tribe, the Katikura, an offshoot of the Ngapuhi tribe of Tamaki Makarau, lived in Otakou at some remote period before the arrival of the Waitaha. But beyond a vague tradition that it was they who burnt off the forest and made the open grassland (E Waka-Papihi) no information is available about them[3]. According to the lore of the North Island Māoris, the Waitaha people arrived in the Takitimu canoe whose captain was tamatea. The Takitimu, one of the great fleet of 1350 AD, made its landfall in the Bay of Plenty and then sailed down the coast of both islands, even as far as the Waiau River in Southland, leaving settlers at suitable districts. This voyage of Tamatea became so important a landmark in Māori history that the antiquity of any event, such as the great fires which destroyed the forests of Otago and Southland, would be indicated by the saying, "That happened in the time of Tamatea." Stack says the Waitaha occupation of Te Wahipounamu as covering a century, from 1477 to 1577 AD[4], a calculation based on the assumption of twenty years to a generation. The estuaries, mudflats, sandy beaches of Murihiku provided fish, seals, sea-birds, mussels, pauas, pipis and cockles. The dense podocarp forest, including matai, totara, kahikatea, and rimu, teemed with wekas, tuis, pigeons, and other birds. In the coastal lakes such as Waihola, eels abounded. At some point during the first centuries of occupation they discovered pounamu. Thus the South Island also became known as Te Wahipounamu. The southern Māori moved with the seasons to exploit the rich resources of Murihiku.

Tradition attributed to the Waitaha a profound knowledge of incantations (Karakia) and of the science of navigation. They painted crude designs in caves and named many of the distinctive features of the Otago landscape, well illustrated in the fictional tale of Takaihautu, the great digger of lakes[5]. The Waitaha invasion of the South Island seems to have inaugurated a period of peace and plenty. Stack says that "they increased and multiplied so rapidly that they are described as having covered the face of the land like ants[6]." What perhaps suggests a more credible explanation is that, on the arrival of the first Waitaha wave in the south, they found it an abundant land and, under such favourable conditions, their numbers greatly increased. At its peak, the Maori population of Otago reached as high as eight thousand[7]. However by the end of the fourteenth century, the environment of Murihiku began to change. The climate became cooler, the podocarp forest retreated, and the moa population began to decline. The changing environment affected those who relied upon moas and seals for food and forced them to develop more effective techniques for catching birds and fish. The largest settlements of the early centuries lost their importance and declined. The population declined because of emigration back north to regions where Kumara could be cultivated.

From additional evidence which had come to light in previous years, it does not seem unreasonable to assume that the Waitaha of Otago were the moa-hunters of whom so many traces have been found. They would therefore have have enjoyed a wonderful source of food supply for many years. The moa flesh was probably preserved in fat, wrapped up on bands of kelp, fastened with totara bark strips and bartered for such northern products as flax mats, huia feathers and kumaras (sweet potatoes). The Waitaha must have hunted the moa with such steady persistence that its complete extermination became merely a question of time, though at what date this occurred is not known. Certain it is, however, that the Moa found its last stronghold in the inland districts of Otago where the most valuable discoveries of Moa remains have been made[8]. Either the birds survived there much longer or else the remarkable preservative quality of the dry air caused the remains to resist decay[9]. Probably both these alternatives apply though it seems more likely that, as its numbers diminished and the attacks of its foes proceeded with unabated vigour, the moa became restricted to the fastnesses of Central Otago, especially to the area between Lake Wakatipu and the Lammerlaw Range. The moa lingered on in Otago till the beginning of the eighteenth century.

[edit] Classical Māori period

The Waitaha, a peace-loving race, were not destined to remain in undisputed possession of their hunting preserves. They fell victim to a misguided generosity. Seized by a friendly impulse, they sent across the straits to their friends, the Ngati Mamoe (or Katimamoe[10])), some of the surplus stores they had accumulated, and "as their friends smacked their lips over these dainties...they resolved to wrest the coveted preserves from the Waitaha[11]." According to Stack, the invasion began about 1477 AD. Although the Waitaha, unused to war, were soon subdued, a considerable amount of inter-marriage took place and there is little record of strife in Otakou during this period. Early in the seventeenth century, a hapu of the Ngati Kahungunu began to infiltrate the Ngati Mamoe domain. However they failed to advance beyond Kaikoura, where their chief, Manawa, was killed in a skirmish by a chief of Ngati Mamoe.

But with the arrival of a third hapu of the Ngati Kahungunu, the Ngai Tahu (or Kaitahu) somewhere towards the close of the 17th century, the stormy era of Otago history began. There is little doubt that the desire to possess unlimited supplies of the precious pounamu or greenstone, which was to be found only in the South Island, was a powerful incentive to invasion. As was to be expected, the process of subduing the Ngati Mamoe was slow and there were still pure survivors of the earlier stock when the first European colonists arrived[12]. Much of the history of this time centres around the turbulent careers of two chiefs, Te Wera of the Ngai Tahu, and Taoka, his bitter enemy. Yhere were apparently several episodes in which these two men figured in a durfeit of bloodshed. One such incident occurred when Te Wera killed and ate Taoka's son whom he and his men had encountered on the south bank of the Waitaki. In revenge, Taoka beseiged Te Wera's pa at Waikouaiti, at that time a stronghold of the Ngai Tahu tribe. The besiegers camped at the southern extremity of the sandspit in Waikouaiti Bay, called Ohine-pouweru, and lived there for six months. Frustrated in their endeavours to seize the pa, Taoka's men uttered the dire threat, "We'll starve you out." But back came the defiant cry, shouted by the Ngai Tahu chief above the great gateway, "You shall never reach us! Only by the army of thirst shall we be overcome[13]." Taoka then uttered threats in vain and when at length his food supplies had been depleted, he was reluctantly forced to raise the siege.

Similar skirmishes between Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu continued throughout the eighteenth century and, waged with a merciless ferocity that must have seriously reduced a once numerous population. On occasion, the battles between the two tribes became scenes of bloody carnage. Such conflict occurred in 1750 on the site of the present day township of Balclutha, which saw the triumph of the Ngati Mamoe. Some fifteen years later at Kaitangata, the Ngai Tahu avenged this defeat and routed the Ngati Mamoe. Eventually it was decided that on a conspicuous hill known as Popoutunoa, near Clinton, a post should be erected to mark the division of the territory. Thus the Ngati Mamoe were to be left unmolested in the southern portion of the island.

Unfortunately this short lived amity was destroyed in 1775 when the sons of Te Wera foolishly left Stewart Island to establish a pa between Colac Bay and Orepuki, in the very heart of the land of Murihiku. As the Ngati Mamoe could not allow this challenge to pass unnoticed, they rose and destroyed the pa. Their triumph was but fleeting, for while they made their way to the Otago Peninsula, Taihua and his Ngati Mamoe party were ambushed at Hillend, near the Pomahaka, and butchered. Before the close of the century, warfare had again broke out at the Otago Heads, Port Molyneux, and Preservation Inlet. In the vicinity of Lake Te Anau where the frowning walls of the western ramparts look over a scene of peace and beauty, one of the last and most desperate battles took place. A large number of Ngati Mamoe were killed and the broken survivors "disappeared into the gloomy forests and never again man's eye beheld them[14]." About the same time, the coast-dwelling Ngati Mamoe at Preservation Inlet were also defeated, a pitiful remnant escaping in the direction of Dusky Sound[15]. Summing up the warfare in Otago, Beattie states that of the twenty-five battles which took place south of Temuka, five were family affairs in which Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu fought among themselves. A feature of the warfare was the monotonous regularity with which the two sides won alternately until the closing phases when the Ngai Tahu established ascendancy. defeated in one battle after another, the dwindling band of Ngati Mamoe retreated in various directions, some to the western bank of the Waiau River, where they took refuge in caves, some to the far reaches of Te Anau and Manapouri, and some even to the cold shelters of the fiords[16].

[edit] Whalers, Sealers and Traders

Before 1800, few Europeans or Tongata Bulla - people of the boats - visited the southern coasts and if the local Māori had learnt about iron, it would have been from northern sources. The influx of sealers and traders after 1800 changed this situation and the Māori of the Foveaux Strait area quickly grasped the value of iron axes, adzes, and fish-hooks and began to grow potatoes for trade.

In 1809, Robert Murray saw potatoes being cultivated in the Foveaux Strait area and when Captain Fowler discovered the hidden harbour at Otakou[17] the locals already grew potatoes which they wanted to exchange for iron. The pattern of Māori settlement quickly altered to take advantage of the Tongata Bulla and its new goods. In 1810, the Sydney Gazette described the Māori of Foveaux Strait as 'particularly friendly' and anxious to swap potatoes for iron tools. The Ngai Tahu lived around Otakou and wanted to trade bur in their inexperience of the Tongata Bulla remained too truculent. Fowler discovered this the hard way. Buffeted by storms he allowed necessity to overrule prudence and entered the unknown harbour. The locals were hospitable and helpful but Fowler failed to reciprocate. Then one ship's boat was stolen, a second was removed by six deserters from the crew, while a third, sent to find them, did not return. The eight-man search party and the deserters were killed and eaten.

In 1817, Captain Kelly called at Otakou to trade; the local Māoris recognized two of Kelly's men as headhunters, the incident having occurred some years earlier, and the Māoris exacted utu (a form of retributive justice). The Māoris attacked Kelly and four of his crew at Murdering Beach and killed two of them. Kelly and the other two retreated to their ship only to find it occupied by Māoris intent upon taking them prisoner. Armed with sealing knives the Tongata Bulla drove the invaders off, resisted another attack, then destroyed 'all their navy' and burnt down the village.

As the seals became scarcer due to wanton killing, relations between the two races deteriorated. Between 1810-1820, frequent clashes occurred. Captain Edwardson, sent from Sydney to investigate the prospects for a flax industry, explained Māori truculence in terms of their 'vindictive', 'crafty' and 'lying' character which, he opined made them 'sensitive to the slightest offence'. But Edwardson realised that the Māoris dominated the situation. Trade occurred because the Māoris wanted to trade and they, being dominant, set the rules. In their enthusiasm for trade, however, the Māoris had been careful of European sensibilities and had even accepted into their tribe a handful of the intruders. A young deserter from a sailing ship, James Caddell, had joined the Foveaux Strait Māoris around 1807, married a chief's daughter, and had 'become quite as open a cannibal as any'. The Māoris kept other Europeans and Lascars as slaves and used their knowledge of the Tongata Bulla to more effectively control the invaders. 'It is difficult to resist the suspicion that some sealers, aware that the slaughter had wiped out the fur seal from Murihiku, provoked Māori violence'. Whatever the reasons, during that decade, the Māoris killed 'Captain Tucker and the crew of his cutter; five men from the cutter of the Sydney Cove, a whaling vessel...; fur men from the schooner The Brothers, massacred at Molyneux Harbour; several sailors from the General Gates, and finally, three lascars from the brig Matilda.' The Māoris also kept many prisoners[18].

In the early 1820s peace returned and even the 'unpredictably ferocious' Otakou Māoris modified their behaviour in the interests of trade. Their kin at Ruapuke not only held their traditional monopoly over the mutton birds but had effectively monopolized te tongata bulla and its wealth. Some 15-20 Europeans, many of them with Māori wives, lived on Codfish Island although they moved freely among the Māori kaiks on the mainland. These Europeans complied with Māori customs for fear of triggering that much feared 'touchiness'. The Journal of JOhn Boultbee, a sealer in the Otago region during the late 1820s, provides ample illustration. On one occasion he went to gather some vegetables which grew wild:

But my cannibal friends told me they were taboo (Tapu, meaning sacred), and I had to throw them away as they had been gathered from a place where a house had been built. Another time I happened to lay my knife on Tiroa's cap [Tiroa being Taiaroa, an Otakou rangatira], on this he took the knife & kept it 2 or 3 days, saying it was taboo taboo. I was therefore obliged to eat with my fingers.

Boultbee did not understand the 'strange custom of tabooing' but he recognized that 'any willful breach of it considered a serious matter, & in severe cases punishable by death. The security of the intruders depended upon the goodwill of the paramount rangatira in Murihiku, Te Whakataupuka. The son of Honekai, whom had harried the Tongata Bulla wherever he could, Te Whakataupuka proved to be less truculent and more skillful in manipulating the invaders. It was he who first recognized the strategic importance of Ruapuke because he shifted from the mouth of the Matua-a to make his home on the island. Te Whakataupuka impressed James Boultbee as 'the most complete model of strength, activity & elegance I had seen combined in any man'. He placed the Europeans under his chiefly protection and at times played and joked with them freely. Limits existed to this familiarity. Once, when a group of Pakeha engaged in a mock battle with the great rangatira, one accidentally hit his head with a potato (the head of the chief being tapu). This 'excited him suddenly & caused him to seize a tremendous log of wood, which he threw at them...' Cooling quickly he told them to desist lest he should 'perhaps get vexed & hurt them, which he would be sorry to do'. When Te Whakataupuka's son, who preferred to live with the Europeans, died, Boultbee and his companions were terrified lest Te Whakataupuka hold them responsible for the boy's death. Despite his grief the rangatira refused to allow his warriors to exact revenge[19].

The chiefs of the hapus at Otakou from the early 1820s until the 1850s were Taiaroa and Karetai. Unlike Te Whakataupuka and his nephew, Tuhawaiki, who became the paramount rangatira in 1834, neither Taiaroa nor Karetai were physically impressive and renown warriors. Tensions existed between them. Karetai was the local chief but Taiaroa, who had close kinship ties with the Canterbury Ngai Tahu, had been given land on the western side of the harbour where he established a small settlement. When Europeans began visiting regularly he shifted his village to the eastern side, close by Karetai's in order to muscle in on the trade. Trade had increased rapidly. In 1823 Kent noted only two villages within the harbour; in 1826 Captain Herd reported five villages. The Otakou Māoris prospered and Boultbee recorded the arrival at Ruapuke of a boat from Otakou laden with '2 large fat hogs & 100 baskets of potatoes each weighing 35 lbs' For this they received two muskets and one adze[20].

[edit] War with the North

[edit] The Campaigns in Canterbury

As was often the case in the past, an increase of Māori population inaugurated an era of Inter-tribal warfare. Although the more enterprising of the North Island tribes were by the 1820s armed with the musket, the South Island Ngai Tahu, lulled by a sense of false security, clung to their traditional weapons. Before they came into contact with their northern adversaries, they perversely destroyed their unity by engaging in internecine warfare, and at banks peninsula the bloodiest of all the Ngai Tahu wuarrels, the Kai Huenga (Eat-relations feud) broke out. Fortunately for the South, the feud did not spread to Otago, and though petty quarrels between the Otakou and Murihiku natives occurred from time to time, open warfare never took place. The Kai Huenga troubles began in Canterbury. One Murihaka, a woman, tried on a dog-skin cloak belonging to Tamaiharanui, a chief. Some members of Te Tamaiharamhui's hapu, exasperated by this sacrilegious act, killed the servant of Hape, a friend of Murihaka's. Hape's whanau, finding the retribution excessive, killed some members of the whanau which had avenged the original presumptuous act. This whanau took utu by killing Hape himself. Hape's wife then took refuge with her brothers at Taumutu and they in turn killed three prominent members of yet another whanau. By now, most of the Māoris of Banks Peninsula had become involved. The dynamic is simple enough. If one Māori offended another, the aggrieved party's whanau or hapu was obliged to exact an appropriate penalty. In most quarrels this often ended matters unless, as in this case, the penalty seemed excessive. Meanwhile, Te Tamaiharanui sought aid from kin at Kaiapoi and successfully attacked Taumutu. The Hapu at Taumutu, which included taiaroa's sister, sent another woman, Hinehaka, who had close ties with several southern chiefs to ask for help. Taiaroa mobilised a large Taua or war party which headed north in canoes. Taiaroa also had kin among the hapu he intended to attack so he went ahead, warned the enemy, then returned to lead the assault. At Wairewa on banks Peninsula, the southerners won an unsatisfyingly bloodless victory. Fearful of being met by taunts and jeers on returning home, they killed a kinsman of Taununu, a powerful rangatira from Kaikoura who had settled near his kin at Kaiapoi and controlled Ripapa, a large pa in Lyttelton harbour. Utu, which involved revenge, was bringing in train a bloodbath. Taununu led a successful Taua south and Te Whakataupuka now decided to intervene. He and Taiaroa organized a war party and headed north to seek vengeance. As the southern taua approached their enemy Taiaroa again went ahead to warn his kin; 'Escape! Fly for your lives! Take your canoes out to sea! We have guns.' This time the enemy moved too slowly. According to survivors of the vanquished hapu, the southern warriors defeated two canoes overcrowded with helpless fugitives. The triumphant warriors from Otakou, Ruapuke, and the villages around Foveaux Strait proceeded north to Ripapa, Taununu's pa. After destroying the pa the southern warriors evacuated the entire population of Taumutu and brought them south. Te Tamaiharanui later followed and persuaded most of them to return home, where he finally took his revenge. The fighting continued spasmodically until 1828, but the southerners took no further part.

[edit] The Ngati Toa Invasions

The shore whalers initially obtained their toehold within Otakou because stark military necessity confronted the southern Ngai Tahu. By 1830 the old threat of the invasion of the South Island by the warlike tribes of the north again appeared menacing when Te Rauparaha, chief of the Ngati Toa, treacherously invaded the South and stormed the Takapuneke Pa at Akaroa Harbour. A year later he organized a grand attack on Kaiapoi, the chief centre of the Ngai tahu in Canterbury, and lay siege to it. A strong relieving force of Otakou warriors led by Taiaroa, who stood alone among the Ngai Tahu leaders of his day both in energy and military ability, marched hurriedly into the beleaguered pa, slipped past Te Rauparaha and entered it by night. After a long defence in which he played a leading part, Taiaroa, seeing the hopelessness of the position, escaped with his men to Otakou, now the tribal outpost of the Southern Ngai Tahu, to prepare a counter-stroke. At last the southern Māoris realized the importance of the musket. In response to Te Rauparaha's first attack in which he conquered and massacred the northern part of the South Island, and in order to meet the Ngati Toa on more equal terms, Te Whakataupuka sold sixty acres of land at Preservation Inlet to the whaler, Peter Williams, on payment of sixty muskets, 1000 lbs of gunpowder, 1000 lbs of musket balls, two 12lb cannonades, two air-guns, and a large quantity of tobacco, pipes, spades and hooks. Leading 350 well-armed warriors, Te Whakataupuka and Taiaroa marched northwards and overtook the retreating Ngati Toa warriors at Cloudy Bay, near Cook Strait. Here Taiaroa and another young chief, Tuhawaiki, seized Te Rauparaha, only to have the wily chief slip out of his cloak and dive into the sea. He then swam to his canoes. The Ngai Tahu claimed a victory; the Ngati Toa retorted that they had successfully evaded the ambush. The subsequent skirmish at sea proved inconclusive, except that Te Rauparaha escaped. In 1835 Taiaroa, again accompanied by Tuhwaiki who, on Te Whakataupuka's death in that year, had become the paramount chief of Murihiku, organized another large expedition of four hundred men which once more inflicted severe losses upon the Ngati Toa and their prestige, with that of their chief, had suffered considerably in these encounters with the warriors of Otakou and Murihiku.

When the Ngai Tahu flexed their muscles the Pakeha trembled. In August 1834, the Captain of the Lucy Ann reported in Sydney that the Oyakou Māori now treated the Pakeha at the whaling station with the greatest contempt, talked of wiping out all Pakeha, and took what they wanted. Their 'insolence' was such, one captain complained, that 'they take from us whatever suits their fancy, such as our clothing. and food from off our very plates - help themselves to oil, in such quantities as they require...[21]'. Four captains of whaling vessels complained:

"a powerful tribe of one or two thousand natives from the Southward, under a chief called Taiaroa...are at war with the tribes of the straits, and last year destroyed fifty tons of barrels, and some oil with the huts and the property..."

Their own Māori patrons refused to or could not protect them[22]. There can be no doubt that Taiaroa's warriors were exceedingly stoppy when they came home and it is possible that Taiaroa adopted these truculent tactics as part of his developing feud with Karetai. Disease now tipped the balance. In September 1835, measles and influenza spread among the southern Ngai Tahu. The most notable casualty was the great Te Whakataupuka. It is not clear how many had died. One European said that the hapu at the mouth of the Tokomairiro River owned nine canoes, but had enough men to crew only one. The whalers often attributed to disease a marked decline in Maori numbers. Many Pakeha happily regarded the ravages of disease as providential proof of Pakeha superiority. Certainly, given the extent and duration of contact, it seems odd that these diseases took so long to Strike in Murihiku, and that the hapu in Taieri Plain survived the epidemic unscathed. The two diseases undoubtedly had an impact. They probably killed the very young and the old but the loss in numbers may have been more than compensated for by the arrival of refugees from around Banks Peninsula.

But the last act in the inter-tribal war had not yet been fought. In 1836 Te Puoho[23], a kinsman of Te Rauparaha, tried to persuade the ageing warrior to march once more against the people of Otakou and Murihiku. Te Rauparaha refused and said: "It is easy to burst the tree at the root (Kaiapoi), but harder to burst it at the branches (Murihiku).". "He must not expect the people in the south to be sitting in trees with their breasts open like pigeons facing the sun[24]." It may be that Te Rauparaha gave an official blessing, conditional upon victory. At any rate, in the summer of 1836, Te Puoho led his war party, about seventy in number, down the West Coast as far as the Awarua River, toiled painfully and crossed what is now known as Haast Pass——a miracle of endurance——and, half famished, moved doen the valley of the Makarora River and captured a village at Wanaka. The invaders then proceeded up the Cardrona Valley, crossed the Crown Range and the Kawarau River, using a natural rock bridge, then finally, by follwing the Nevis and Nokomai Rivers, entered the enemy's heartland, Murihiku. After a short rest to recuperate, they pushed on along the old Māori track that ran over the low hills west of Gore and, soon after crossing the Mataura River, the party reached Tuturau and sacked the village. Unfortunately for the invaders, the whole south was soon aware of the ill-tidings, for Te Puoho did not know that the news of his presence had, depsite precautions, been taken to Tuhawaiki at Ruapuke. Nor would he have known that Taiaroa was visiting the island. The two rangatira hastily assembled a force of between 70 and 100 men. The whalers transported the warriors to the mainland. The local Pakeha, 'in a state of considerable alarm', prepared to flee at a moment's notice. The unsuspecting Ngati Toa slept at Tuturau while the Ngai Tahu surrounded the village. During the night, the Ngai Tahu tohunga summoned up the pulsing heart of Te Puoho, a favourable omen, and in the morning the Ngai Tahu quickly defeated the invaders, killing Te Puoho. Taiaroa intervened to save the lives of some of his kin who had helped him to escape Te Rauparaha's clutches during the Siege of Kaiapoi in 1833. At Ruapuke, Bluff and Otakou the Pakeha and the Ngai Tahu celebrated their triumph with enthusiasm and relief[25].

Thus ignominiously ended the invasion, memorable because it was the last act of Māori warfare in the South Island. In January 1838, Tuhawaiki and Taiaroa made a sudden march to Queen Charlotte Sound, and in December of the following year, led another war party in sixteen sealing and four whaling boats, but Te Rauparaha, still smarting from his former humiliations, never again faced the southern warriors. Although these excursions were little more than a dramatic demonstration of Ngai Tahu rights over Banks Peninsula, they proved that, once and for all, the fear of the predatory northerners had been dispelled.

[edit] The Ngai Tahu and Christianity

Tuhawaiki had become the paramount rangatira of the Ngai Tahu and played a decisive role in shaping the future of his people. A nephew of Te Whakataupuka, Tuhawaiki had been born at Taununu, at the mouth of the Matua-a (or Clutha), around 1805. A direct descendant of Hautapu-nui-o-tu and Honekai, he also had an impeccable Ngati Mamoe lineage and close kin ties with such prominent Pakeha as James Cadell and John Kelly. He had won great mana in both worlds. His prowess as a harpooner and sailor had been well established, he had an intimate knowledge of Pakeha customs, and in the long campaign against Te Rauparaha he had enhanced his mana. Like his uncle he understood the value of the Pakeha presence and placed them under his mana. Even the truculent Taiaroa obeyed. Unlike his uncle, Tuhawaiki realized that his people could only survive the expansion of European society by borrowing more extensively. He owned a trading ship, built himself a Pakeha house, and dressed like a Pakeha. He encouraged agriculture, traded widely, and appears to have blessed Jones's attempt to colonise the Waikouaiti region. He must also have recognized that the Pakeha presence afforded additional protection against Te Rauparaha. Most Pakeha agreed that he was shrewd, wily and knowledgeable, 'probably one of the most Europeanised Māori...most correctly and completely dressed in white man's clothes, even to the refinement of the cotton pocket handkerchief.'

Tuhawaiki doubtless realised that the world of his people had been transformed by whaling. Many kaiks or villages moved to be near the whaling stations (although some may have been founded by refugees from the Ngati Toa). Large numbers of Māori men worked in the whaling stations while many women lived in de facto marriages with Pakeha men. These Māoris joined one of the lowest strata of European society, characterised by violence and drunkenness. Many observers concluded that Māori wives helped to civilise the whalers. Yet some demoralisation occurred. Perceptive observers like Shortland thought relations between the two races were often very good at the whaling stations. Probably no other tribe in New Zealand was so extensively intermarried with and involved in Pakeha society. Possibly nowhere else was the Pakeha so willing to tolerate or adopt Māori customs. Most of the Māori living in the whaling stations dressed like Europeans and during the 1830s acquired an addiction for tobacco and alcohol. But in this they did not differ from the whalers.

Tuhawaiki adopted a three-fold strategy for coping with the new world. First, he encouraged the development of skills appropriate to the emergent world of Pakeha and Māori. Secondly he clearly envisaged the peaceful integration of these two worlds on terms acceptable to the Māori. And third, he recognised the importance of Pakeha religion and the power of the Pakeha Atua (or God). Tuhawaiki, widely traveled and knowledgeable in the ways of the Pakeha, possibly ascribed to the Pakeha Atua the role of unifying the two peoples. In accepting James Watkin, the Methodist parson at Waikouaiti, and yet inviting another missionary to Ruapuke, he may have been responding to the 'conversion' of his own followers. In any case he traveled to Waikouaiti to hear Watkin's first sermon, asked for a missionary to be sent to Ruapuke, and extended a warm and hospitable welcome to visiting clergy.

During the 1830s Christianity had caught on through much of the North Island. Slaves of the Nga Puhi in Northland first accepted the Gospel. The news spread fast. Weariness of war, the mana of the Bible, and a passion for literacy fueled the fire. Māori teachers, often self-taught, carried the Word far beyond missionary control. The magic of literacy most dramatically expressed the power of the Pakeha Atua. Bibles, or a few pages from any book, represented a new magic which they believed could protect its owner from death in battle, bestow eternal life, ward off sickness, and thus complement the power of traditional karakia (or incantations). Ngai Tahu sailors must have heard the Word. Northern converts such as Te Rauparaha's son, brought the new Word south. When Watkin arrived at Waikouaiti he found ready a Māori market for his spiritual wares. A large crowd attended his first service and listened attentively "tho' they could not understand anything that was said. When he printed some Bibles, 'they were eagerly sought after'[26].

Pakeha magic and the mana to be won by possessing its secret persuaded the southern Māori to turn, in their own way and for their own reasons, to Christianity. When Wohlers arrived at Ruapuke the tohunga karakia (or priests) welcomed him as a comrade and explained their theology. The chiefs, led by Tuhawaiki, also adopted the new faith and sponsored for baptism traditional Ngai Tahu teachers. The tohunga karakia quickly accepted certain elements of the Christian faith, but they, like the young men of inherited mana who patronized Watkin's school, wanted to adapt the new Gospel to the old karakia. These men also wanted to achieve mana as teachers of the Pakeha magic and quickly voiced resentment when the Pakeha tohunga started to baptise everyone. Wohlers discovered that both Watkin and Bishop Selwyn had complied with this pressure and for a while the Māori teachers so arranged matters that "applicants [for Baptism] had to go to them in order to be recommended[27]." They then realised that their mana as teachers depended on the number of converts they made. Watkin's register of baptisms records the explosive result. In 1841, he baptized two Māoris, one of them intended marrying a Pakeha; in 1842 he baptized three Māoris; and then in 1843 he baptized 193 and another 158 before leaving in 1844. As many missionaries realised, the Māori transformed Christianity in the process of 'conversion'. To the despair of Watkin, the Māoris interpreted the Christian karakia in their own way. Much to the dismay of the practical Wohlers, the strict moral code of the Old Testament proved infectious. When Selwyn preached a 'sermon on contentment with one's lot' the Māoris stopped producing food and trade with American whalers fell off abruptly; "the pigs ate the potatoes, the Māori ate the pigs, and there was nothing left[28]." At Waikouaiti and Moeraki the Māoris refused to work on Sunday. Not only did the Māori shape the Christian message to their own beliefs but they found in the denominational structure a familiar world. The different churches proved to be a perfect instrument for sustaining traditional rivalries and animosities while learning Pakeha ways. Because the Ngati Toa became Anglican, most of the prominent Ngai Tahu joined the Wesleyans. Some villages acknowledged the mana of each denomination's Atua. Very small kaiks sometimes built two churches and two schools and the chief at Moeraki made part of his hapu Catholic, part Anglican, and part traditional. Among the Māoris the generosity and mana of the Pakeha tohunga counted for much. The Roman Catholic Bishop, Jean Baptiste Pompallier visited the south in 1840, and poor Watkin watched his flock transfer allegiance to the Papist. The worried Wesleyan confided in his journal: "Their mode of worship and wonderful legends would lead me to fear that Popery would prevail over Protestantism[29]." The local Māoris, probably with a strong leavening of northern refugees, flocked to the new tohunga. His robes and vestments attracted much favourable comment, the pomp of Catholic ritual and liturgy impressed, and some Māoris told Watkin to his face that they regretted his 'plain dress and equally plain mode of conducting religious worship'. Pompallier baptised freely, unlike the prudent Protestants, and responded with tolerance to Māori dance and tatooing. To Watkin's horror, Bishop Pompallier even told the local Māori that Hine, the wife of Maui, was the Virgin Mary. The Catholic Church lacked the resources to capitalize upon the Bishop's success and the Wesleyans, left to themselves, regained the lost ground. But allegiances remained volatile. When Selwyn, walking south, swam a flooded river, an entire village joined his church.

[edit] Land Sales and the Signing of the Treaty

In the 1830s and 1840s, the Māoris of Otakou and Murihiku, possibly anxious for a strong Pakeha presence, agreed to sell many of their traditional lands. Back in 1833, a further sale of Murihiku land had taken place when Joseph Weller acquired from Te Whakataupuka the whole of Te Picamoke (Stewart Island) and two adjacent islands for one hundred pounds[30].

In 1838, Tuhawaiki, accompanied by four chiefs, visited Sydney and sold enormous tracts of land "with all the solemnity of archaic phraseology and legal circumlocution[31]" Sydney speculators pursued the golden future with an enthusiasm which increased in intensity with the prospect of annexation. On 14 January, Governor Gipps of New South Wales issued a proclamation forbidding future sales, unless to the Crown, and warned that all titles already claimed would be investigated by commissioners and, where appropriate, validated by Crown grants. One month later on 15 February 1840 during a second visit to Sydney, Tuhawaiki, Karetai and three subordinate chiefs, Kaikoarare, Taikawa and Poneke signed an agreement which 'Sold' the "Island of Te Waipounamu, also called the Middle Island of new Zealand, also the island called Stewarts island...together with all seas, harboiurs, coasts, bays, inlets, rivers, lakes, waters, mines, minerals, fisheries, woods, forests, liberties, franchises, profits, hereditaments...save and except such portions of the said island as have been already disposed of..and also the island of Robuchi"[32]. The purchase was made partly by cash payments and partly by annuities. Tuhawaiki signed for "One hundred pounds of lawful British money and an annuity of fifty pounds a year during the term of his natural life.". Hence by February 1840, every acre in Otago and Murihiku, as indeed in the entire South Island, had apparently been alienated by the Māoris to hopeful speculators who gambled on receiving from the Crown some title commensurate with the expenses they alleged had been incurred.

The highly questionable nature of these transactions became more evident when Captain William Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands on 29 January 1840 to win from the Māoris their allegiance to the Crown. Then followed two proclamations, the second stating that Her Majesty could not acknowledge as valid any titles of land which were not derived from, or confirmed by the Crown. After the northern chiefs had signed the Treaty, Captain Nias set sail for the south in HMS Herald on 29 April and it was not until June that British Sovereignty over the South Island was proclaimed on Stewart Island. On 9 June the HMS Herald called at Ruapuke and Major Bunbury who was collecting signatures for the Treaty of Waitangi, recorded that "Tuhawaiki, who had recently returned from Sydney enriched by the spoils of commerce, came on board in full dress staff uniform of a British aide-de-camp, with gold laced trousers and cocked hat and plume in which he looked extremely well, accompanied by a native dress sergeant dressed in a corresponding costume[33]." Tuhawaiki signed the Treaty without hesitation, his example being followed by Kakoura and Taiaroa who were also at Ruapuke at the time. Tuhawaiki also had a bodyguard of 20 men, all dressed in British uniforms, although they refused to wear boots[34].

[edit] The Scottish Settlement Scheme

[edit] The Gold Rush Period

[edit] References, Notes and Further Reading

  • ↑ Vikings of the Sunrise, Peter H. Buck, p.65
  • ↑ South Island Maoris, J.W. Stack p.15
  • ↑ Waite, op. cit., p.29
  • ↑ Stack, op., cit., Volume Ten, p.60
  • ↑ Rakaihautu, The Great Digger of Lakes, H. Beattie, Vol.27, p.142
  • ↑ Insight Guide to New Zealand, p.87.
  • ↑ South Island Maoris, J.W. Stack p.23
  • ↑ On Recent Moa Remains in New Zealand, J. Hector, Vol. 4, p.115
  • ↑ TPNZI, Hutton, op, cit, Vol 24, p.168
  • ↑ It will be observed that the northern form of spelling is used. The southern dialect is thick and gutteral. Thus the "ng" of northern or classical Maori becomes "k" in the southern dialect.
  • ↑ A Compendium of Official Documents Relative To Native Affairs in NZ, Alexander McKay, vol 1, p.40]
  • ↑ Taiaroa and Tuhawaiki, two famous chiefs of the early 19th century, were of mixed Ngai Tahu and Ngati Mamoe stock.
  • ↑ The Maoris of New Zealand, J. Cowan, p.231-2
  • ↑ JPS, The Last of the Ngati Mamoe, J. Cowan, Vol 14, p.196
  • ↑ Ibid. p.197
  • ↑ Beattie, The Southern Maori, p.46
  • ↑ Historical Southland, F.G. Hall-Jones, p.65
  • ↑ The name for the northern tip of what we now call the Otago Peninsula. Otago is an accurate phonetic rendition of Otakou. The name of this area on the Peninsula was the site of the most important Maori settlements in this region and was also given to the whole province.
  • ↑ Ibid., p.217
  • ↑ Ibid., p.196
  • ↑ Ibid., p.197
  • ↑ Cited by McLintock, Otago, p.91
  • ↑ Cited by McNab, Old Whaling Days, p.68
  • ↑ Te Puoho and His South Island Raid, A. Ross, 1933.
  • ↑ Southland Times, December 4, 1937, The Tuturau Maori Raid, H. Beattie
  • ↑ Angus Ross, Te Puoho and His South Island Raid, 1933.
  • ↑ Begg, Conversion to Christianity, Historical and Political Studies: 15
  • ↑ Wohlers, Memories of the Life of J.F.H. Wohlers of Ruapuke, p.69
  • ↑ Natusch, Wohlers, p.86
  • ↑ Ibid, Claim 240e
  • ↑ McLintock, Otago, p.100
  • ↑ Mit. L. MS. The Wentworth Indenture
  • ↑ Reminiscences of a Veteran, T. Bunbury, 1861, p.105
  • ↑ Reminiscences of a Veteran, T. Bunbury, 1861, p.106
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