THE OLD FRONTIER
TE AWAMUTU
THE STORY OF THE WAIPA VALLEY
The Missionary The War in Waikato
Early Colonization The Pioneer Farmer
The Soldier Life on the Maori Border
and Later-Day Settlement
By
JAMES COWAN, F.R.G.S.
Published by The Waipa Post Printing and Publishing Company, Limited
Te Awamutu, New Zealand
1922
PREFACE
This sketch of the history of the Waipa district centreing in Te
Awamutu has been written especially with a view to interesting the
younger generation of colonists, and the now large population on both
sides of the old Maori border, in the uncommonly dramatic story of the
beautiful country in which their homes are set. The original settlers
to whom many of the events here described were matters of personal
knowledge are fast passing away, and a generation has arisen which has
but a vague idea of the local history and of the old heroic life on the
Waipa plains. The book is designed to convey accurate pictures of this
pioneer life and the successive eras of the missionary and the soldier,
and to invest with a new interest for many the familiar home
landscapes.
Much of the information given herein is published for the first time,
and therefore should be of special value to students of New Zealand
history. For the story of missionary enterprise the writer has drawn on
a MS. journal written by the Rev. John Morgan, the first civiliser of
the Waipa country; for the military history use has been made of an
exceedingly readable MS. narrative left by the celebrated Major Von
Tempsky, of the Forest Rangers. For the rest, it has been a peculiar
pleasure to the writer, as one bred on the old Aukati border, to recall
scenes in a phase of life which has passed away for ever.
J. C.
Wellington, N.Z.,
September, 1922.
CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER I.—TOPOGRAPHICAL AND LEGENDARY 7
The beautiful Waipa country. The garden lands of Te Awamutu and
Rangiaowhia. Hills of the Maori border. The cone of Kakepuku.
Ancient fortresses. Maori tribes of the Waipa basin.
CHAPTER II.—THE MISSIONARY ERA 11
In cannibal days. Rev. B. Y. Ashwell the first missionary in Te
Awamutu. A feast on human flesh in Otawhao pa. End of the
inter-tribal wars. Rev. John Morgan comes to Te Awamutu. His useful
mission work. How Mr Morgan sowed the good seed.
CHAPTER III.—PLOUGH AND FLOUR-MILL 14
Mr Morgan introduces English methods of agriculture. Maori tribes
become industrious farmers. The coming of the wheat. Large
cultivations at Te Awamutu, Rangiaowhia, Kihikihi, and Orakau.
Grinding the wheat. The first flour-mills. Mr Morgan’s narrative.
Clatter of the water-mill in many Maori settlements. Exporting
wheat and flour to Auckland. Rangiaowhia flour sent to England. Sir
George Grey’s practical sympathy with the Maori.
CHAPTER IV.—THE GOLDEN AGE BEFORE THE WAR 18
Te Awamutu and Rangiaowhia in 1852. Mr Heywood Crispe’s
description. A land of corn-fields and fruit-groves. The
peach-groves of Rangiaowhia. Visit to the large Maori village. Old
King Potatau. Hochstetter’s view in 1859.
CHAPTER V.—JOHN GORST AT TE AWAMUTU 23
Mr Gorst as Magistrate and Commissioner. The educational
institution at Te Awamutu. A newspaper established. Rewi’s raid on
the “Pihoihoi Mokemoke.” Mr Gorst leaves Waikato. Te Awamutu
re-visited. The last canoe voyage.
CHAPTER VI.—THE WAIKATO WAR, 1863–64 35
Fighting on the Waikato. British and Colonial troops invade the
Waipa country. Paterangi and Waiari. The Forest Rangers. Von
Tempsky’s narrative of the war. Bishop Selwyn at the Front.
CHAPTER VII.—THE CAPTURE OF RANGIAOWHIA 40
Von Tempsky’s story. A summer morning invasion. Skirmishing through
the village. Siege of a Maori whare. Colonel Nixon shot. Dramatic
death of an old warrior. Heroic little garrison annihilated.
CHAPTER VIII.—THE ENGAGEMENT AT HAIRINI 48
Sharp action at Hairini Hill. Field Artillery shells the Maori
lines. A great bayonet charge. Defeat of the Maoris. Work of the
Forest Rangers. Looting Rangiaowhia village. Comedy at the Catholic
Church. Von Tempsky and an Imperial Colonel. The return to Te
Awamutu. A curious spectacle. “Those rascally Rangers have got all
the loot!”
CHAPTER IX.—THE INVASION OF KIHIKIHI 55
Rewi Maniapoto’s headquarters. British force occupies Kihikihi
village. Burning of the council house. Von Tempsky’s night
expedition. A fruitless march. Harmless skirmishing. Redoubt built
at Kihikihi. Te Awamutu the army’s headquarters. The first
expedition to Orakau.
CHAPTER X.—THE BATTLE OF ORAKAU 59
Most memorable battle in New Zealand’s history. Brigadier-General
Carey’s expedition. Von Tempsky’s narrative. Animated description
of the siege. Work of the Forest Rangers. Heroism of the Maori
garrison. The last day. A break for freedom. The soldiers in
pursuit. Maori narratives. The reply to General Cameron’s message.
Incidents of the siege.
CHAPTER XI.—CAMP LIFE AT TE AWAMUTU 79
The troops in winter quarters. Description of camp life. The
soldiers’ whares. The house-opening dance. Sawyers near
Rangiaowhia. The 65th, a model regiment. Soldiers become
capitalists. Looting the Maori horses. The romance of Ariana. The
hunchback and his flute. A militiaman’s heart and hand, and
Ariana’s scorn.
CHAPTER XII.—PIONEER LIFE ON THE OLD FRONTIER 84
Perils of the King Country border. An unknown, sullen land. Picture
from the north side of the Puniu. The pioneer settlers’ life in the
Seventies. The peach-groves of Orakau. A chain of blockhouses and
redoubts. The murder of Timothy Sullivan. Grave danger of another
war. Te Awamutu Cavalry Volunteers. Patrolling the out-settlements.
The return of peace. When Tawhiao came out. “The King of the
Cannibal Islands.” The peace-making dance in Kihikihi. The capture
of Winiata. Mahuki’s raid on Alexandra. Peaceful pakeha conquest of
the King Country.
CHAPTER XIII.—KIHAROA THE GIANT 96
A Folk-Tale of the Maori Border. The “Giant’s Grave” at Tokanui.
Fortified hills of “The Three Sisters.” The story of an invasion.
An army in ambush. The battle of Whenuahou. The death of Kiharoa.
Matau, the Giant of the Wairaka.
APPENDICES 101
Maori place names. The capture of Winiata. Mr Hursthouse’s
adventure in the King Country. Mahuki’s raid on Alexandra, and his
capture. The King Country railway.
THE OLD FRONTIER
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHICAL AND LEGENDARY.
For landscape interest conjoined to the traditional and historic I know
of no part of New Zealand more attractive than the zone along the old
frontier line of the Waipa country of which Te Awamutu may be described
as the metropolis to-day. Beauty of physical configuration! fertility
of soil, poetic Maori folklore, memories of the heroic pioneer days,
tales of sadness and glory of the war years—all these elements combine
to invest the border line of the Waipa and the Rohepotae with a
singular value, above all to those who have had the fortune to be
reared on this well-favoured land. The physiographic charm of the
country on the north side of the Puniu and the east side of the Waipa
River is produced by the gently-rolling lie of the land with its
countless sheltered valleys and its well-sunned slopes, with its
leisurely-winding streams, with here and there a small lake; the old
Maori garden lands of Te Awamutu, Rangiaowhia, Kihikihi, and Orakau,
now covered with pakeha farms and tree-groves, with fat flocks and
herds, and wearing all the aspect of a comfortable countryside enriched
by the tillage of two generations of white farmers. The south side of
the old Aukati line, more recently broken in from the wilderness of
fern and tutu, is even more promising as a land of fat stock and good
crops, of dairy herds and meat; and it is singularly interesting to the
physiographer and the geologist. Pirongia, Kakepuku, the tattooed cone
of Kawa, the fort-scarped “Three Sisters” of Tokanui, Tauranga-Kohu and
its neighbour hills, the Maunga-tautari Ranges, curve sicklewise along
the old-time frontier, a romantically-shaped ceinture of volcanic
saliencies which seem to mount guard like giant sentries over the
Rohepotae, just as they formed a belt of fiery lava mouths and cones in
the remote geological past. Kakepuku, a Ngauruhoe in miniature, is a
peak to hold the eye for many a mile. I came to look on that lone
mountain with very much the kind of affection in which it is held by
the Maori people who live around its base, whose local folklore and
poetry enshrine many a reference to Kakepuku. The fair blue hills of
boyhood! Once upon a time when we rode in daily from the other side of
Kihikihi to school at Te Awamutu the uplift of Kakepuku, looming a few
miles across the valley to the westward, seemed an enchanted mountain,
holding infinite suggestion of mystery and adventure. Pirongia is twice
its altitude, building up a noble rugged western skyline, but
Kakepuku’s indigo-blue cone, with the crater hollow scooped out of its
top, was the peak to capture the imagination. On clear days as we
viewed it from the Kihikihi hills every line of the deep ravines which
scored its sides stood up as bold and sharp as the singularly scarped
terraces of Kawa’s nippled hill. Kakepuku almost seemed shaped and hewn
from the landscape by the hands of veritable mountain gods, so regular
and symmetrical its outline. Truly a picture mountain. Moreover, it was
our weather glass. When Kakepuku put on his fog-cap, and the mists
filled the long-dead crater of the volcano and crept down the upper
slopes, the countryside knew that rain was at hand. The other
mountains, such as Pirongia, might cloud themselves with mist and the
sign go unheeded, but Kakepuku’s tohu-ua never failed. Then there is
the curious nature-myth which tells how gently-rounded Kawa was
Kakepuku’s wife, a story told with much circumstantial detail by the
old Maoris of the Waipa and the Puniu, a story over-long to be told
here with its tale of battle between the jealous Kakepuku and that
mountain Lothario Karewa—now Gannet Island, off Kawhia; one which seems
dimly to reveal the geological past of these volcanic peaks. [1]
This singular beauty of landscape setting cannot but enhance the love
of one’s native land in those whose lives are cast within sight of the
mountains and hills of the border. The Maori loved the country, albeit
he made comparatively little use of it, with an intensity which not
many pakehas realise. There is a song of Ngati-Maniapoto often chanted
in the old days when a fighting column paraded in the village marae
before setting out on the warpath. The chief, facing the parade of
warriors, uplifted his taiaha and shouted as he pointed to the blue
mountain looming near:
Ko whea, ko whea—
Ko whea tera maunga
E tu mai ra ra?
(“What is yonder mountain soaring high above us?”)
And with one voice the warriors yelled, as they burst into the
ferocious stamp and weapon-thrusting of the tutu-ngarahu or peruperu
dance:
’Tis Kakepuku!
’Tis Pirongia!
Ah, ’tis Kakepuku!
Ah, draw close to me,
Draw close to me,
That I may embrace thee,
That I may hold thee to my breast!
A—a—ah!
A similar chant, applying to Mount Egmont, was used by the Taranaki
Maoris. In each case the mountain was regarded as a lover, and
symbolised nationality and clanship, and a reference to it never failed
as a patriotic stimulus.
Now the ancient owners of the Waipa and Puniu plains are but a remnant
and their tales and songs are but the faintest memory; but the old
volcano-gods remain, graceful nature-carved monuments, and their poetry
no less than their beauty of form should inspire even the
matter-of-fact pakeha with something of the Maori love and veneration
for the high places of the land.
The ancient Maori story of the Waipa plains and downs, as preserved by
the word-of-mouth historians, the old men of the tribes, is a record of
land-seeking, exploration, and place-naming by the chiefs who came in
the Tainui canoe, and by Rakataura the priest; then a succession of
tribal feuds and wars, raids, pa-buildings and pa-stormings, ambush,
massacre, slave-taking, and man-eating. That warrior tale need not be
gone into here; we take up our story of Te Awamutu with the first
introduction of the pakeha interest, and in truth the place was savage
and rough enough then. Here and there, on the well-settled lands
to-day, one finds relics of the old cannibal era, when every tribe’s
hand, and often every little hapu’s, was against its neighbours. Round
about Te Awamutu, even, the lines of ancient trenched forts remain,
particularly on the banks of the Mangapiko, where the numerous crooks
and elbows of the river provided pa sites readily made formidable
strongholds. The celebrated Waiari, a few miles from Te Awamutu and a
mile from Paterangi, is an example. Another excellent specimen of Maori
military engineering is an old earthwork called Tauwhare, on the
Mangapiko, a mile south of Mr Harry Rhodes’ “Parekura” homestead; this
is distinguished by a series of enormously deep trenches and high
parapets, on the cliffy verge of the river. These forts on the
Mangapiko belonged to the Ngati-Apakura tribe. But the King Country, on
the south side of the Puniu River, is the land for hill-forts. Every
cone, big or little, is trenched and scarped; every eligible
river-elbow has its double or triple earthwork. Even on the very top of
Mount Kakepuku, crowning the ancient crater rim, are the ruins of two
fortresses of the Ngati-Unu tribe.
Te Awamutu was inhabited, when the first pakeha ventured into these
parts, by the Ngati-Ruru, a section of the great Waikato tribe.
Rangiaowhia was peopled by two other large Waikato clans, Ngati-Apakura
and Ngati-Hinetu. Ngati-Maniapoto held all the Puniu country and the
land to the southward; their northern outpost was Kihikihi. The Orakau
district was held by the Ngati-Raukawa and a hapu of Waikato called
Ngati-Koura.
NOTES.
The terms “King Country,” “Rohepotae,” and “Aukati” require a little
explanation for those who are unacquainted with the origin of the
phrases.
The King Country, embracing a vast area of territory south of the Puniu
River and west of the Upper Waikato, with the Tasman Sea as the western
boundary, was so called because the Maori King Tawhiao with his
adherents took refuge there in 1864 after being dispossessed of
Waikato. For some years Tawhiao’s headquarters were at Tokangamutu,
close to the site of the present town of Te Kuiti. The name Te Kuiti is
an abbreviation of Te Kuititanga, meaning “the narrowing in,” a
designation given by the Kingites in reference to the conquest of
Waikato and the consequent hemming in of the Maoris in the country
south of the Puniu.
“Rohe-potae” means a circular boundary line, literally a boundary
resembling a head-covering. The term was applied to the King Country in
the early Eighties by Wahanui and his fellow-chiefs, when defining the
area within which no pakeha surveys or land-buying or leasing would be
permitted.
“Aukati” means a line which may not be passed; a frontier or pale. It
was particularly applied by the Kingites to the northern border of the
King Country, the Government’s confiscation boundary; pakeha trespass
over this line was forbidden.