STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 229, 26 September 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

B y james cowan.

MAORI INVASION OF AUCKLAND — A WAR CANOE EXPEDITION — GOVERNOR GREY AND THE NGATI-PAOA TRIBE.

North new Zealand enjoyed many years of peace after the end of Hone Heke's war in 184'6. The people of Auckland from the first days of settlement lived on the most neighbourly terms with the surrounding Maori tribes, especially the Ngati-Paoa (Pah-oh-ali).. This tribe had many villages on the mainland and islands of the Hauraki Gulf, and with its neighbouring tribe, the Ngati-Maru, kept up a regular trade with Auckland town. The Maoris had hundreds of canoes and many pakeha-built boats. They kept the town supplied with potatoes, kumara, melons, pumpkins and peaches, or whatever the season and their cultivations afforded, besides, of course, pigs by the canoe load. They returned to their homes in their leisurely way, their canoes laden with pakeha' goods. Sugar and ship's biscuits, flour, axes, knives, blankets and clothing were the trade items most in demand. Muskets and ammunition also were bought, because every Maori liked to be armed, even if there were no wars to call for their use. This traffic was peaceful and profitable for both sides, and the two races lived very happily on the shores of the beautiful Waitemata and the Hauraki. But the Maori was ever ready to resent an injury, an affront to personal dignity, or a serious breach of ancient custom. There was one serious alarm of invasion when a war canoe expedition of the Ngati-Paoa threatened Auckland town, as the result of an injury inflicted on a chief of the tribe. This incident, which I shall describe, occurred in 1851. The Tale of a Stolen. Shirti One day in April of that year a Maori named Ngawiki, passing the door of a storekeeper, Osborne, in Shortland Crescent, saw a shirt hanging there. He wantecj a- shirt, and he took it without troubling to pay for it. He was followed and arrested by two policemen, a white man and a*Maori, and was lodged in the lockup. Ngawiki was living among the Ngati-Paoa at, the village of Te Huruhi, on the south-western side of Wailieke Island, about ten miles from the town. He was associated with a liapu, or sub-tribe, of which Te Hoera was the chief. One of the Ngati-Paoa canoes speedily carried the news of Ngawiki's arrest to- -Wailieke, and the story spread around the gulf. Te Hoera manned his canoe and sailed up to the town to investigate the affair. Ngawiki was not a man of any importance, in fact he was a slave. Nevertheless, Hoera, as the chief of Te Huruhi, considered it necessary that he should inquire into the cause of the arrest. His arrival

on the strand at Waipapa (Mechanics' Bay) with a large party, some of them armed, created the erroneous impression in the town that he had come to rescue Ngawiki. He and his followers came into conflict with the police, who were assisted by some white civilians. Hoera was roughly handled in the scuffle and received a blow on the head from the baton, or rather bludgeon, of a native policeman, a half-caste. He was arrested and placed in the lock-up with Ngawiki. The blow drew blood, and as it happened that he was under the law of tapu at the time, the insult and injury were very serious. The blow upon his tapu head from a common policeman, a man of no account, aroused his furious anger. The magistrate, Mr. Thomas Beckham (formerly of Kororareka) investigated the affair that evening, and ordered Hocra's release. Before this occurred, however, a canoe party had hastened down the harbour to Wailieke Island and the Ngati-Paoa villages all round the gulf were soon made aware that one of their greatest chiefs was in prison. As for Ngawiki, the cause of all the trouble, lie was brought up before the magistrate next morning on the charge of theft of the shirt and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. This punishment earned for liim among the natives on his release the name of "Toru-Marama," or "Three Months." To Avenge the Injured Chief. The canoe crews had all left the town, and two days having passed peacefully, the townspeople imagined that the chief's anger had subsided with his release. Down the gulf, however, all the tribesmen were up in arms. Canoes filled with the men of Ngati-Paoa came paddling in to the bay at Te Huruhi, which was the general meeting place for the people of that tribe. Every kainga on the islands and the mainland from Coromandel to Maraetai sent out its armed men to vindicate Hoera's offended honour. The chief himself had remained with some of his friends in Auckland, brooding over his injury and awaiting his tribe. Five large war canoes and a number of smaller craft were assembled at Te Huruhi Bay. The crews numbered in all between 250 and 300 armed men. A council of war was held and it was decided to make a descent on Auckland and demand the release of the chief and the surrender of the policeman who had clubbed him. The Warriors' Landing. A few hours later, on the morning of April 17, 1851,. those Auckland people who had a view of the lower harbour saw a fleet of seven or eight war canoes swiftly approaching from the gulf islands, the blades of nearly 300 paddles flashing in the sun as they lifted and dipped. The canoes drew in to the Waipapa Beach; it

was the top of high water, and when the crews jumped out, the great canoes, each with a carved and feathered figurehead and sternpost, were soon left high and dry by the receding tide. The Town's Defences. But the pakeha authorities were not taken unawares. The Governor, Sir George Grey, had received warning of the proposed demonstration of force, by a friendly Maori messenger from the gulf, and military precautions were taken. The New Zealand Fencibles, a body of British army

veterans who had been settled in Onehunga and other outlying parts, were hastily assembled, and they lined the Parncil hills; and three companies of the 58th Regiment, forming the Auckland garrison, with some field artillery, marched to the top of Constitution Hill and hastily constructed some entrenchments on the crown of the hill, commanding Mechanics' Bay. These forces were commanded by Colonel Wynyard. Moreover, the British frigate Ply, which was in port, moored off Fort Britomart, dropped down the harbour and anchored where the guns commanded the bay and the war canoe fleet. A Warrior Captain's Story. Sitting under the trees at the top of Constitution Ilill in 1901, a grand old chief of Ngati-Paoa who commanded one of those war canoes told me the story of the raid from the Maori side. ' It was just fifty years

after that expedition in which the Maoris of the gulf shores showed their teeth in defiance of the pakeha law. That they had sound reason for their anger is undeniable, for Maori honour and mana had been violated seriously, and no attempt had been made to appease Hoera's wounded pride and compensate him for his injury. Hori was a man of about 25 at the time, when he commanded a crew of his clan in his large and decorated canoe the WaiKohaere. He was in the prime of young manhood then. I could well imagine the splendid figure he must have made, as he stood amidships giving the time with measured chant for his fifty paddlers. When I knew him he was still a strong warrior figure, tall and lean-framed, with features of strong and handsome mould. His face was deeply and beautifully tattooed. His photograph on this page was taken at the Thames some ten years before my talk with him. He was a type of the Maori race at its height of proud dignity and bold athletic strength; we shall not see his like again'. "We did not intend to attack Auckland town at all," said Hori, as we sat there on the spot where the Governor and the troops looked down on the beached canoes and the madlyexcited warriors that day half a century before. "Wo simply wanted to show our strength and demand redress for the insult to our sacred chief. We wanted to have the offending policeman handed over to us so that we could exact revenge for the wrongful blow." (The old man here gave the names of his fellow chiefs and their canoes, and the numbers of the crews.) "We jumped ashore just where the road to Parnell is now, down yonder, near the Maori hostelry. We formed up all together and leaped and shouted in a great war dance, the usual prelude to battle. We were all armed with guns and tomahawks; and around our waists and across our shoulders we wore our cartridge holders. After our first great dance, the oldest chiefs went up the hill for a conference with Governor Grey. They demanded the policeman, but that was refused. The Governor told them that they must leave at once and return peacefully' to their homes; that their comrade Hoera had been released. Here where we are sitting there were earth parapets, newly thrown up, and there were soldiers 011 parade, redcoats with glistening white cross-belts. While we were gathering at Waiheke Island the Governor had received word of our intentions, and he had forestalled us. "So in the end, for all our angry demands —and we were very angry indeed —there was nothing for it but to give in and leave Waipapa Bay with our grievance still hot."

When Te Hoera, Puhata, Pokai and the other chiefs of whom Ngakapa spoke realised that they would have to obey the Governor's peremptory order, they asked for time until the tide returned. Their canoes were a long way from the water. But the request was declined. By the time it was high water again it would be dark, and the authorities feared an attack if the Maoris remained until then. Besides, it was reported that the celebrated warrior Taraia might arrive with his men from the Thames and Ohinemuri. So the Ngati-Paoa set to at the heavy task of dragging their flotilla down over the sand, shingle and mud to the low water level. With . loud chants and the choruses used in canoe-liauling and timber-dragging tlfey toiled away, the crews assisting one another, until all the canoes were afloat. It was well on in the afternoon before all were embarked; and the townspeople of Auckland who crowded the hills saw with relief SJie war party headed down the harbour, under the guns of the British frigate. The Maori Peace Offering. The angry and disappointed war expedition did not return at once to Waiheke Island, but camped at Orakei and Rohimarama. The leaders held council there, and consulted with the local chiefs. The Orakei tribal heads counselled peace, and sent reassuring messages to the Governor and to the church mission people at St. John's College. The war party made submission, and sent delegates to the town to present greenstone meres to the Governor in token of peace. The warriors paddled home to their villages on island and mainland shores, and so the great excitement subsided. It was certainly serious enough while it lasted. When the warriors were addressed by their chiefs on Waipapa Beach and had been stirred to frenzy by the war songs, they were ready for anything. Auckland indeed nearly witnessed a fight tha.t day. It could only have had the one result, for some five hundred well-armed soldiers, many of them veterans of the Indian and Afghan wars, lined the slopes and flat commanding the bay, and the artillery could have swept the beach. There were four field guns on the brow of Constitution Hill, and there was a similar armament on Parnell Hill. Besides the infantry and artillery there was a naval party of 80 seamen and marines from H.M.S. Fly. This naval company was extended on the left front of the Feneibles to link up with Colonel Wynyard's 58th —the veterans of Heke's war in the North—and cover the approach to the Domain bush. Ngati-Paoa in the Waikato War. That was the only occasion on which the peace of Auckland was seriously threatened during the first 20 year's of British settlement. The

friendly traffic between the Hauraki villages and the towns was soon resumed. It was not until 1803, when the Waikato War began, that this Maori trade was broken up. Most of the Ngati-Paoa went off to the war, to fight for the Maori King's cause. Hori Ngakapa was one of them; he - led his men in many skirmishes and he was one of the

garrison of Rangiriri Pa. After the war he and his surviving comrades, who had so bravely fought and lost, returned to the shores of the Hauraki, to such parts as had not been taken from them by the Government, and often in after years we saw him in Auckland, stalking along straightbacked, with dark-tattooed head lifted high, a perfect specimen of the olden Maori at his best. He died in 1904 in his little village near the Miranda, last of the warrior leaders of his tribe.