"BIG WEPIHA."

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 258, 30 October 1926, Page 21

"BIG WEPIHA."

;;;.,;;-- WAIAU;; / tjX •TOltT ' OF A mXEMAm%mKAMZ£ lilt* ' v .v--V'-(By ; 'xa)-".'.' ; ; The' announcement the AttofheyGeneral that the, great land-claims of William Webster, American citizen and early New Zealand settler, had finally been rejected, set mc looking up what Sir John Logan Campbell had to say about this old-timer in his reminiscences 'of' the, Hauraki.' "The..Father of Auckknew Webster very well and liked and admired '• him as a thorough-going "specimen' of a Pakeha-Maori." Campheirs book of early New Zealand memories, j "Poenamo,". isy perhaps, not much \ known to the" present - generation. It has. lorig been out' of print, but it is .worth.picking "up whenever; it can be got, .for.:, it is in its: way a little classic "of pioneer ''Ufe. : Frorii the venerable we knew him best—l have heard, too, memories of his old host and friend of the early days, his first guide and mentor in matters -faprl..' L ''''■'■..''.-""''-. ■"' r ~-.',~ ..,- Those unacquainted with Maori:may not recognise William Webster in Campbell refers to 'hfa» as -'Waipeha," or ''Big Waipeha,'' and nowhere' gives 'his English name. The usual j Maori; pronunciation -is "W_piha, n and as Campbell was not strong on Maori,orthography (witness the name of his book), we' may adopt that version. '. f *?.;'-/, ■) '■' (Waial) now Coromandel—lie ' was : styled by tCampbell .ffaadH .it .was- :• a.-, sufficiently accurate title, for the Pakeha__abrt vwaa ' a; : wealthy man' in trade in 183940. His "mana,"- hdwai«r, quickly dwindled when Auckland became

established •as the capital of the new colbnyf. the British" flag; in fact, brought ruin . f t 6* '!Bfg W*jjih--" y .-s r' r % h

;*■ did not become known as Coromandel until some years after Webster'ftidayi was a- beautiful unspoiled ?place when k young Dr. Cainpbell landed there, on the. pretty* beach;of Herekirio, where y WebsterT had >, hhv< trading store and a small coasting craft building, establishment. Between the spurs slop-, ing down 'from the fthickly forested hUls ; of gold that had yet to be ; were lovely yalleys in which small Maori villages snugly, nestled. 'Everywhere along the coast -were such' villages, 'the shores of the Hauraki teemed with Maori life, and the great focus and centre of the trading life of that era, more than three generations ago ''was the trading store of Wepiha, the : Yankee/ : He reignedsupreme, Campbell -tells us, not only ,in Waiau, but along >the whole shore of.the, gulf,-even to'ithe mOuths of the Waihou and the' Piako Rivers, 1 and in the other direction up to "Waiheke and the other .islands, Orakei, -and ' the present sites of Auckland and Onehunga. He was physically, too, a big man; "though a Yankee,": Campbell writes, he Was "as burly "as .4,veritable. John BulL He Was ribt only big in body, but. also in brains, whence came the retaining of the.' power he w^el-ed,,- though ,npt j the power itself."/ He'had taken a wife from the. tribe of "the, great' Chief Te Taniwha—"Old, :Hookri6se" of early, Auckland "chronicles. , ( He' was on! the most friendly, terms with: all the rangatiras.; of: the' Hauraki: and flotillas of canoes . were continually coming and going,/ bringing, /.dressed" flax, . -pigs, potatoes other, produce to barter formuskets and ; gunpowder,; tomahawks, blankets, tobacco, and a score of, other articles, t 'The, Maori produce, Webster shipped, to. Sydney' by trading yessela, Which, called into Waiau periodically,' and ;he; also; arranged with ,the Maoris to, prepare cargoes. of-kauri spars : for ships from Sydney, India and, London. -One- of. these vessels in 1840; was a barque of five hundred tons, called the Delhi, which was loaded V»t . Waiheke with, kauri spars , for Sydney, br the trader's, timber-working Maoris. 'From - Campbell's, description of i tbe. iplace! it. ■wgs evidently Maniof-War Bay, at the east end ,of .Waiheke,l- Thei Maori; was a capital timber-worker in - those-days, as always... - -..-'*• .. ■

- ; /, Ran Away From Whale Ship. ./How did "BigWepiha'* reach Waiau and acquire his: power as a bush merchant? In-the statement of claim put forward 40 years ago, -before the tribunal;,which investigated -the long-drawn land claim jcase in the;United-Strifes/ it was said that' he landed in New Zealand :as a trader with a' capital of (JOOOddl invested in trade goods/and settled at Coromandel.- ".' .;, ./The only thing I ever heard whispered against, him swas that 'tie '"had tun away iron* his 'whale ship." Whether a' friendly, mate lowered his tool chest into the boat he escaped in he best knows, but he had first wielded his axe mi the forest before he developed" into the King of Waiau; I speak of iiim as • I found. him—a :fine, right-hearted, easy-going, kind fellow, with plenty of brains,, and knowing ; tidw to use| them*,-/// ',' ' / ;;' "/'.; . , It. wns , "Big * Wepiha" who first told Campbell,and his mate, Brown about the Waitemata Harbour. ,- ; ._! hey were discussing -the beauty, of the "Hauraki—-by which: they meant the Waiau side, all they had /seen sri; far—and they wondered why .Governor. Hobson,.had 'just' selected the Bay of Islands as his capital, when he could have conic.to the Hauraki, when the. pakeha-Maori said oracularly: ''Wait, until you) see: :the Waitemata.'' They. stared at him, andVhe repeated the words—which were J prophetic. <■■ The ''Pungiof Waiau"! knew that there could be found no more desirable place than the Waitemata,-where no European; had yet fixed his home. ■:•:;*_ ..- ■■'- A: little .picture-.of life in .Big Websterrs domains in, those first weeks of 1840 is a curious illustration of the fact that there were land booms that burst even in ..our. early/days..' Some ' f'Sydhey land-sharks,"- who had come, across in a .schooner only to find themselves "completely dished," ,as Campbell puts ' it, by the ■ Government .anti-land dealingi pro-' clamation, were at'Wepiha's place. Awaiting the arrival of. some chance .vessel to take them away from the pastures in which Hhey. had hoped to revel, they found it. hard-work to.kill time. :And. when. Campbell, set foot on Herekino Beach, inWaiau's beautiful harbour, the first sight he beheldiWas a knot of young, fclows , tpsjMng, for , soyereigns—apparently' a -kind •of precursor of **two>up." Gold was* a drug in the"Waiau market .in 1840.'.'.