KARITANE

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22613, 19 January 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

KARITANE

(By W. A. Taylor)

The name Karitane has become a household word; throughout New Zealand through the child welfare activities of the late Sir'Truby King, whose home was on Karitane Peninsula at the mouth of the Waikouaiti river, Nortfl Otago. The locality was the dwelling place of men long before the main advent of the Maori people to New Zealand about 1350 A.D. The Rapuwai and Waitaha tribes made it their home, followed by the Ngati Mamoe, who in turn were displaced by the dominant tribe of the South Island of to-day, namely the Ngai Tahu. The older name of the peninsula was Huriawa (signifying the river turned round). The Waikouaiti river enters Waikouaiti Bay on the north side of Huriawa; as only a low neck of land a few chains wide forms the isthmus it is more than probable that ages ago the river entered the-sea at Puketiraki. Bay on the south side of the peninsula. The

pa of the Ngati Mamoe tribe was towards the point of Huriawa and was named Pa Katata. When the Ngai Tahu came to the district about 1730 A.D. the famous chief TeWera saw at, once that it was an '.ideal place to build his Maori .’fort. Tb Wera was a chief of the Te Ruahikihiki hapu. Karitane and its neighbourhood (Old Waikouaiti) has to-day for its Maori population members of the Kuahikihiki and Huirapa hapus. ; I made my first acquaintance with the district of Old Waikouaiti and Karitane in 1898 as the guest of the Hon. David Pinkerton, and from 1903 to ll)19 with his soh-in-law, Mr D. 11. Cameron; who- passed away recently. Many of the oldtime Maoris were then hale and. hearty, and from them much was to be gleaned. ,Mr and Mrs Mohi, Te

A FAMOUS MAORI STRONGHOLD

Wahia, Mr James Apes, Teotl Maruhoua (George Watkin), Mrs Maere Harper, Mrs Te Kini (a tattooed rangitira wahine), and many others used to foregather with me on a gentle slope above the spring on Huriawa Peninsula known as Te Wera’s Well (Te Puna a te Wera) and have a korero (talk) on events of the past. Many a Maori of to-day regrets not listening to the legends recounted at -such a gathering. Mrs Harper was well .qualified to speak on. the whaling days, as she used to carry the pakcha sailors ashore on her back. Mrs Te Kini, better known as Mrs Chicken, as she was a woman of 20 years when the Wesleyan missionaries, the Revs. Watkin and Cread, were labouring at Old Waikouaiti ,in the eary forties could speak with authority on the earliest European days. She passed away many years ago, aged 112 years.

In a radius of one and a half miles from the neck of Huriawa Peninsula has furbished my note book with 80 Maori place names. Only a few are recorded on the maps of the Lands Department, and many such recorded are of modern origin. The current pakcha version of the meaning of Karitane is of very doubtful veracity; it has been stated to be a parody on the name of the second Wesleyan missioner, the Rev. .Charles Creed. Kari= Creed. Tane=man, otherwise the man Creed. The current Maori version of the meaning of Karitane is that it refers to "a dance of welcome given by men only,” ages ago, at the place now called Karitane. There are several more versions, but they can be dismissed as equally improbable. The name Karitane means ‘‘bruised men,” and it refers to au incident in the siege of Te Wera’s pa by Taoka the turbulent.

Te Wera’s warriors were out fishing, and Taoka and his men essayed an attack on the pa from their encampment on the Waikouaiti Spit (Ohine Pouweru) only to be repulsed by the defenders, who were bruised or maimed men. Waikouaiti has been stated in print to be a corruption, and should be Waikawaiti. White, in “Ancient History of the Maori,” gives Waikouaiti as meaning “water that grows less.” Dr. W. W. Moore, a one-time frequenter of Karitane, now residing at Hastings, agrees with me that Waikouaiti is correct and is descriptive of the Waikouaiti estuary

with its broad waters which quickly diminish on every receding tide. The siege of Te Wera’s pa lasted six months. Te Wera had stocked up his fort with victuals and left very little vegetable food on the mainland for an enemy to enjoy. Taoka and his men living on a one-sided bill of fare suffered in health as a consilience (just as the English did against the Scots in the battles of the Chevy Chase), and failing in attack were forced to give up the venture. Thirst did not trouble Te Wera’s men; the spring which supplied water, still flows copiously. The gateway to To Wera’s pa was called Ngutu a Torctore (the lips of Toretore). The carved house Kuramatakitaki stood on the west side 'of the peninsula. Not far away was Owhara Kaika, and on the mainland near the isthmus was the old burial ground, Te Hau kapu kapu (trembling wind). On the south east side of Huriawa are the pinnacles known locally as the Old Man and Old Woman rocks. The Old Man (in the sea) is Maramai Te Whata (left from the store house), and the Old Woman (on the edge of the land) is Oraki Te Oraora (shaken to life). Not far away are two rocks having the appearance of two Maoris rubbing noses; these are the Hongi rocks. The little cove on the north side of the peninsula is Te Awa Mokihi; there Te Wera moored his fishing fleet. There arc three blowholes on the peninsula; these are called Pehu. According to legend the two better known were formed when "a runaway Maori couple who arrived back home to their parents for forgiveness were heaved through space from the Puke Maerorero hills (haunted hills) near Puketiraki by their respective unforgiving parents. The girl was heavier than the youth, and her parents could not throw her quite so far, and she landed nearest •on Huriawa and formed the larger blowhole. In the words of Alfred Domett’s poem there seems something applicable to this story of Karitane and its onetime people, Te Wera' down to Te Kini: “The seer has left the’ hill; Hark that-wailing cry, the shades he saw were the braves of the tribe te Eeinga passing by.”