TIKAO, THE VOYAGER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 143, 20 June 1927, Page 6

TIKAO, THE VOYAGER.

Last week there died at Kapaki, a small Maori village on the shore of Lyttelton Harbour, overshadowed by the volcanic crags of the Tort Hills, an old chief of the Ngai-Tahu tribe named Hone Taare Tikao. He was the last of the word-of-mouth historians and folk-lorists of the hapus in his district. Many hours the present writer spent discussing with him such matters as the South Island place-names ami their meanings, and noting down the local stories and songs which preserved the doi.'.gs of bis ancestors for centuries back. A certain story from Tikao's lips has always appealed to one an example of the enterprising and adventurous character of the old-time Maori. It concerned his uncle, an Akaroa man named Tikao, who m his later years took the name of "John Love." This Tikao, who was in his prime a century ago, and who died in 1853, was of almost giant stature and strength. His nephew said that this powerful warrior could support two men hanging on to his outstretched arm. His favourite weapon was the taiaha, or tongue-pointed broadsword; none could touch him at that weapon-play, for he had a great reach. At the capture of the Akaroa villages by the ferocious Kauparaha over ninety years ago Tikao was one of the prisoners taken, lie was spared because of his warrior bearing anil his prowess in 1 .attic; Kauparaha was too astute to waste good lighting material for his t-.iimii>al army. In the mid-thirties Tikao shipped as a sailor in a French vessel which called at Kapiti Island, and quickly his seamanly qualities gained for him the high regard of the officers. He left the ship in France, and lived there for several years, earning hie way at one occupation and another, and avidly gathering in pakeha knowledge. Ho travelled to Germany, and then to Kngland, and at las-t, just prior to the time New Zealand beat in v a British possession, he worked his passage home again. A.* 'John Love" he signed the Treaty of Wattaugi when Major Bunbury, in H.M.s. Herald, took some sheets of the document to Port t'nderwoo.l. Cloudy Bay, in IS4O. Then lie returned t<» Akaroa," where he astonished Maori and paki-ha alike with his varied white-man accomplishments. Among other things, he had contrived to pick up a good working knowledge of land surveying. Ha well understood money \allies, too.

When in 1848 H.M.s. Fly, a frigate which spent much time in the Waitemata in that era, sailed into Akaroa. bearing Mr. Kemp, the Government agent sent out to buy the South Island for the Crown, our masterful chief indignantly opposed the acceptance of the ngent's offer. "Two thousand pounds!" lie cried in disgust, as he paced up and down on the frigate's deck before his fellow tribesmen. "Rather should the Government pay us five millions! That is nearer the value of our lands."

But the golden bait, two thousand sovereigns in bags displayed on the Fly's quarter-deck, won tho chiefs over, and they signed the Kemp purchase. And only the other day the Native Land Court was sitting at Tuahiwi to assess the method of compensating the remnant of NgaiTahu, Tikao's people among them, for the unfulfilled promises made in the deed signed on board the frigate in 1848.

A forceful and patriotic Maori was Tikao, as intelligent as he was powerful of phvsique. A curious thing was his "moko" decoration; he was tattooed on one side of his face oiilv, as his nephew remembered. Maybe the Rauparaha raid had interrupted the artist's work. There was an old Maori of South Taupo named Hanaero, whose port and starboard cheeks were similarly dissimilar; we used to see him about Tokaanu some twenty years ago. One aide of his face was blue-scrolled like a carved image, the other bare as any pakeha's. , j q