FRONTIER DAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

FRONTIER DAYS.

WHEN MACLEAN METTAWHIAO

KING COUNTRY HOME KULE.

(By J.C.")

Waitomo, the heart- of the Cave Country, is a. place with a certain historical interest, unknown to tl\osc who tread its wonderful limestone halls and marvel at its fairy dome of glowworm lights. Human associations should enhance the pleasure of travel; beautiful scenes, without the values of story and legend and poetry, leave me, at anv rate, with the feeling that there is ' ° something vital wanting. There is a satisfying plenty 1 of this element of human history in such King Country scenes as Waitomo. Long before its limestone caverns had been explored by Maori or pakeha, it was a place of some importance. The ICgati-Maniapoto people prized its well-sunned valleys as a land where food-crops could be grown to perfection. There were large wheatfields there before the Waikato War, in th© era when the 2tfaori found farming after the pakeha methods a profitable occupation, for the man-power of the commune. The country in this limestone land carried a strong appeal to a people who always had a keen eye for attractive home sites—the sheltering hills, with their outcropping crags, the clear cool streams, the many tracts of white-pine bush and other lorest patches, abounding in food for the pigeon, the kaka and the tui.

In this desirable land King Tawhiao and his exiled Waikato followers found a refuge after the war. They lived first at Xe Kuiti, and then, 60 years ago, we find them cultivating the soil at Waitomo and growing large quantities of food, under the patriarchal control of their hereditary chiefs. All this time, since the confiscation of the conquered lands of Waikato by the Government, Tawhiao and his people were practically the guests of Ngati-Maniapoto, and they lived on that tribe's land, and sometimes there were indications that the general feeling of loyalty to Tawhiao was put to a severe strain by Waikato's longcontinued occupation of their refuge camps. Many of the Waikato were apt to take it for granted that that occupation was to be a permanency.

A Conference at Waltomo. It was at this stage of the King Country's story that the Native Minister of the day, Sir Donald Maclean, visited Tawhiao and his chiefs at Waitomo for the purpose of opening negotiations for a resumption of friendly relations between the Kingftes and the Government and settlers. The frontier of Waikato was a frontier indeed in those days of 1874-75. On the southern side the redoubts and blockhouses and townships and farms of the pakeha; on the other the Hauhau country, where the defeated but unconquerable tribes lived in their many villages and camps, rejecting all pakeha overtures for friendship that did not include the return of the confiscated land.

In 1874 that excellent intermediary between pakeha and Maori, Major William Mair, R.M., whose station was Alexandra township (named after Queen Alexandra), now Pirongia, succeeded in arranging for a conference between his chief, Sir Donald Maclean and the Maori King. On February 1, 1875, the Native Minister arrived on the border. In those days the means of travel to Waikato were coach and river steamers. It took Maclean and his party two days, travelling from daylight till dark, to reach Alexandra. There, on the Waipa River, two large canoes were waiting for them, under charge of the Chief Whitiora, sent down from Otorolianga to meet "Te Makarini" ("The Maclean").

Canoeing "Up the Waipa. On the 'second of February an early start was made on the canoo voyage. It was a pleasant chaijge from the bumpy coach. journey. The Minister and his friends reclined at ease while they were poled up tlio river by stalwart crews, heaving with their long "tokos" in unison. As it was the height of summer the Waipa was rather low, and at the shallower places the crews got out and hauled the canoes along with ropes. With Sir Donald were Major Mair, Mr. R. S. Bush, R.M. at Raglan and afterwards in Auckland, and Mr. Kemp, Civil Commissioner. There were also several visiting chiefs, including Paul Tuhaere from Auckland, ajid Major Te Wheoro of the Lower Waikato.

The canoe voyagers landed for a meal at Te Kbpua, near the foot of Mount Kakepuku, -where they saw large fields of -wheat, which had been grown from seed given, to tho Maoris by tho Government in 1872. In the afternoon they reached Otorolianga, where Sir Donald and his party stayed at John Hetet's home 'at M,arac-o-Hine. Next day horses were brought for them and they rode out to Waitomo. There they were received with ceremonial dancing and chanting at the large Kingite village,. lying amidst its. cultivations. Tawliiao was there to greet them. With him were his principal chiefs, including Patara te Tulii and Honana Maioha and the great orator To Ngakau. Taonui was there as the leader of iNgati-Mania-poto; another chief of that tribe was llone Wetere te Rerenga, of the Mokau. A Korero of Friendship. As the conference between the Native Minister and Tawhiao was by way of preliminary to further negotiations for the removal of the isolation which had so long bound the Kingite party, the socechcs on the first day were chiefly in tiie nature of felicitation at the renewal of friendship between the two races. Sir Donald was greeted by Tawhiao as llie good friend of his father, Potatau, the first Maori King. On the second day the Native ..Minister foreshadowed certain terms to which the Government would be willing to agree for the selfgovernment of the people of the King Country. Most of the people were Hauliaus at Ibis time, and the prayers and chants of Te Kooti and other spiritual leaders were repeated by hundreds "of Voices several times a day.

On the second day of tlie meeting Tawlijao asked that the Waikato confiscated lands should he returned to the Maoris, and. that the fortified posts on the frontier should he abandoned. Sir Donald ilaclean said this was impossible. The Wa'ikato was covered with pakeha townships and with the homes of settlors. Tuwhiao, nf course, knew that the Government could- not restore AVaikato, but ho .\vjto abound to ma,ko tlio reauost on behalf. of his people*

The conference then dealt with the broad terras on which a scheme of control of the Kingite territory could be based. The tentative offer made by Maclean to the king and his chiefs was as follows: —

First —Tawhiao to exercise authority over the tribes within the district of which he was recognised as the head.

Second—A certain number of chiefs to be selected by Tawhiao to assist in maintaining order and repressing crime among his people. . Third —The Government to support Tawhiao in his carrying out the duty which would thus devolve on him. Fourth—A suitable house to be built for Tawhiao at liawhia, and portions of land on the Waipa and Waikato Pavers to be granted to him. With these general proposals Tawhiao expressed himself satisfied, and he and his chiefs repeated their sentiments of friendship and pleasure at the breaking down of the barriers between the two races. Sir Donald left Waitomo with the knowledge that something at any rate had been accomplished in the direction of restoring good relations and removing the old feelings of distrust on both sides of the frontier. In the border settlements, too, there was a feeling of relief when the news of the meeting was circulated. There would be no more alarms of coming raids on the frontier farms. The Way to Peace. The most remarkable feature of the conference was the offer of virtual home rule for the King Country on behalf of the Government and the recognition of Tawhiao as the head of his people. This was to a large degree an admission by the pakeha government of the principle of self-government, for which the Maoris fought in 1863-64. The rights originally claimed by the Jcsdngite party were not conceded in full, but in effect a special Maori province was proposed by Maclean For various reasons this never developed beyond the proposal stage. Sir Donald died at the beginning of 1877, and Tawliiao's advisers were not in agreement. The Ngati-Maniapoto chiefs, headed by Wahanui and Taonui, did not wish to see the Waikato tribes become permanent occupants of the Roliepotae. But Maclean's diplomatic visit of 1875 led to the final reconciliation for which he had laboured, though he did not live to see it. When, in 1881, Tawhiao and his men laid down their guns at Major Mair's feet in Alexandra township, in dramatic demonstration of their desire for a lasting friendship, the King of Waikato said: "Mair, this is the result of Waitomo."