Wiremu Kingi
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Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake (c. 1795–1882), Māori Chief of the Te Atiawa Tribe, was leader of the Māori forces in the First Taranaki War.
Wiremu Kingi was involved in the major disturbances and migrations caused by the Musket Wars. He and his father probably fought alongside Te Rauparaha during his tribe's journey from Kawhia to Waikanae. However, he is mainly associated with Waitara in Northern Taranaki.
In 1839 Colonel William Wakefield toured the area and persuaded the Māori chiefs to sign various deeds which effectively transferred ownership of most of the tribal land to the New Zealand Company. To what extent this was deliberate fraud and to what extent it was an example of two cultures failing to understand each other is hard to say. However, the transaction was to cause a great deal of trouble and eventually led the two people to war.
However, Te Atiawa initially accepted the changes brought about by the arrival of the Pākehā and their new government. In May 1840 their chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Then during 1843-44 they built a large and beautiful Christian church for the missionaries. However, disenchantment began when the Land Commissioner, William Spain, awarded the New Plymouth settlers 200 km² of tribal land around New Plymouth. Wiremu Kingi wrote to the Governor making it clear that they would not yield their tribal lands particularly around Waitara. Their case was somewhat weakened at least in the minds of the settlers because the bulk of the tribe were then living around Waikanae about 250 km to the south. However, despite opposition from the Government, they returned to Taranaki in 1848 and settled around Waitara.
Over the next eleven years both the government and the settlers made numerous attempts to get their hands on more of the tribal land. They were restricted to about 20 km² around New Plymouth. Wiremu Kingi remained firm in his refusal to part with any of the tribal land. Gradually relations between the two peoples deteriorated.
In 1859 a minor tribal chief, Teira, who was feuding with Kingi, made an offer of some land directly to the Governor, Thomas Gore Brown. Despite knowing that the chief's claim to the land was highly dubious, the government accepted the offer. Not all the opposition came from the Māori; many influential missionaries such as Octavius Hadfield and a previous Chief Justice, William Martin, maintained that the purchase was illegal.
The stakes grew as Kingi refused to budge. Prominent settlers called for him to be surrounded, deported and, if he fired one shot, hanged.
Despite this, the Government pressed ahead and sent in surveyors, declaring that once the survey was complete, the land would be occupied by the military to prevent any Māori occupation. They were blocked by the Te Atiawa people, so the army was sent in. The first shots of the First Taranaki War were fired on 17 March 1860. The war lasted a year and decided nothing except that the Māori were better tacticians than the Pākehā. There followed an uneasy truce when the government agreed to re-examine the question and, three years later, Governor George Grey renounced the purchase.
After the war Kingi withdrew inland beyond the areas influenced by the Pākehā, probably to the Pa of Rewi Maniopoto. It was to be twelve years before he returned to New Plymouth to make his peace with the Pākehā government. Afterwards he retired to Parihaka where he lived with the prophet Te Whiti o Rongomai for several years. His last years were spent at Kaingaru near Waitara where he died on 13 January 1882.
Every subsequent investigation has justified the stand Wiremu Kingi took over his land at Waitara. As recently as August 2003 the New Plymouth District Council, which found itself owning 1.4 km² of the controversial land, decided to investigate the means by which it could be returned to Māori ownership.
