TANGITERORIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

TANGITERORIA.

A NORTHERN CENTENNIAL. WESLEYAN MISSION STATION.

(By J. BOX.)

In a Maori village on a deep curve of the Xo.-thern Wairoa, long eel weirs were built out into the river, r.nd as the swift current surged through the stakes a listener on the bank above could hear a dirge not unlike that produced o.i the war trumpet. So arose the musical name, Tangiteroria—the droning sound.

If you travel by road from Dargavillo to Whangarei, within sight of the sinuous river, you will pass eventually through the little village bearing this name. It is possible that you might pass without noticing the place, for there is apparently little to attract the motorist's attention, apart from the big wooden bridge spanning the river; yet here is a settlement of real historicinterest, the oldest in the Xorthern Wairoa district. At the end of last year Tangitercria celebrated its centennial.

One hundred years ag.i a fearless missionary of the Wesleyan Society, the Kev. Mr. Wallis. arrived in the Maori village to found the lirst station on the river. He was not the first.missionarj to set foot in the district, for Hi years previously, in August. IS2O, Samuel Marsden himself, on his hazardous journey overland from tile Waitemata to Whangarei Harbour, had passed through the village, making i.'.ie acquaintance of the chief, Tirarau. The pa was then in a state of defence, the people fearing attack from a marauding party of X'gapuhi warriors, who were thought to be approaching down the Maungakahia j valley. Marsden describes the high palisade of timbers 24ft to 30ft high, and speaks of the chief's wharepuni as being the best he had seen in Xew Zealand'. - Under Chief's Protection. However it was the Wesleyan Mission which eventually became established in the district. ' In 1830 the Rev. Mr. White made a preliminary expedition from Hokianga to the Wairoa and: Kaipara districts to report on suitable] sites for stations, and on his return, advised the establishment of missionaries on the Kaipara Harbour and on the upper river at Tangiteroria. Accordingly the Kev. Mr. Turner, chairman of the" Wesleyan Mission, instructed Mr. Wallis to proceed to the latter station At a bend in the river about two miles below the continence of the Wairoa and Mangakahia. sawyers i were soon busy cutth'g timber for the ! mission buildings. Under the protec- ; tion of Tirarau the station soon became iirmly established and by the ; end of a year there were ."iO church Despite the pioneering work of Wallis ! it is the , name of his successor which is j usually associated with Tangiteroria, for

he remained in charge from IS4O to the disestablishment of Hie station in 18~>4. James Biiller, a young Cornishinaii, who had eoine to New Zealand to act as tutor to the children of the Rev. Mr. Turner at ■ Hokiangn, was already familiar with the interior of the country, having completed the overland journey from Hokianga to Port Nicholson a short time previously. In IS4O lie wns directed to proceed to the Northern Wairoa to the Tangiteroria station. He has left ns a vivid record of his life hero in his hook, "Forty Years in New Zealand. ■' A hardy ivpc of pioneer, he lost no time in the erection of a weatherboard church to accommodate several hundred people, and before long had established a school which was attended by children from villages many miles away.

First White Settlers. By this time the first white settler. Mr. John Wilson, had come to the Wairoa. and, seeing the demand for sawn timber, had made his home on the banks of the river some two miles from Tangiteroria. and put down his saw pits. To-day his descendants still farm the original holding. Before long other settlers arrived and the white community grew and prospered beside the waterway, which was their only touch [ with the outside world. Up and down the river they pulled in their long boats, sometimes even to the Kaipara Harbour, whence they might bring news and supplies from Auckland. A familiar tignre on the river was the missionary Buller, who made long journeys to bring distant tribes into bis flock. Jt is interesting to recall that in IS-J1 he made just such a journey to Auckland to found a mission here, and for some little while the new station remained under the Kaipara circuit. Year of Tribulation. The year IS4.V when Hone Heke ami his r.U.v Kawiti raised the standard of 'rebellion, was a year of tribulation for all northern settlers, and in Tangiteroria there was real anxiety, for Tirarau was a kinsman of Kawiti. The crisis really came when the old Xgapuhi chief wrote I asking permission to use the waterway of Wairoa to bring a war party down upon Auckland by way of the Waitakere Ranges. On the following day Tirarau came to Buller asking him to write a 'reply to Kawiti. It was an eloquent j refusal to sanction the use of his ;eni!torv for an attack on a pakeha i-oin- ; mnnity. The anxious settlers were I further reassured ' when the old chief ! passionately affirmed his guardianship i of his white friends on the river.

After fourteen year.-? of service the j old mission station was closed ill ISS-J. | and the property was sold to a Mr. Adkins, who in turn sold it to a Mr. Watson, whose descendants are still in occupation. All that, remains to remind the visitor of those days of selfless missionaries and adventurous pioneers is a -imile-roofed shed, once part, of the mission home, but now used as a barn. The strong brown waters of the river still swirl round tortuous bends, but now their seaward journey lies thwm;_'h rich pasture land, and the English willows, dipping their weeping foliage in the stream, defy you to believe that they 1 do not belong.