AKAROA’S WAITANGI DAY IN MAY, 1840

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 20

AKAROA’S WAITANGI DAY IN MAY, 1840

(Speciaily written for •'The

Press” by

D.J.C. PRINGLE)

"The Treaty of Waitangi,” writes T. Lindsay. Buick in his book with that title, "the first diplomatic arrangement of its kind entered into between Britain and a native race, was a wise, politic, and humane measure, the justice of which has been vindicated with the lapse of time.” After the signing of the Treaty at Waitangi on February 6, 1840, the Lieutenant Governor, Captain W. Hobson, felt that many more signatures should be obtained before it could really be said that the inhabitants of the country had accepted Queen Victoria as their Sovereign. With the co-operation of the missionaries, copies of the treaty were taken round various parts of the North Island, and on April 28 the frigate Herald, commanded by Captain Joseph Nias, left the Bay of Islands carrying Major Thomas Bunbury, who had been commissioned by Governor Hobson to accept the signatures of the South Island chiefs. Mr Edward Marsh Williams was engaged as interpreter.

Response to Request Major Bunbury and a portion of his regiment (the 80th) had been sent to New Zealand by Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales, in response to a request by Captain Hobson for military support. Just before they left Sydney the news of Captain Hobson’s severe attack of paralysis was received, and Major Bunbury was authorised to act as Lieutenant Governor in the event of the former’s death or resignation. The major, in his “reminiscences,” stated that Captain Hobson begged him to undertake the southern mission because of the quarrels he (Hobson) had previously had with Captain Nias over the salutes he was to receive, and other details. A small company of marines travelled in the frigate “to add somewhat to the impressiveness of the occasion," and Major Bunbury was instructed to negotiate as honourably with the native people as Hobson had done previously. Arrival Off Peninsula After calling at Coromandel harbour and Tauranga the Herald arrived off Banks Peninsula during the night of May 24, but calms and storms in turn interrupted her progress, so that it was not until May 28 that Major

Bunbury was able to disembark at Akaroa. He was accompanied by the Interpreter and a Captain Stewart, the discoverer of Stewart Island, and not the infamous commander of the brig Elizabeth that had carried Te Raupanzha and his Ngati Toa warriors to Akaroa in 1830, to capture the paramount chief, Temaiharanui. Captain Stewart’s personal acquaintance with the southern chiefs, and his knowledge of the Ngai-Tahu dialect enabled him to be of great service to the mission. At Akaroa they found a native pa in which lived the remnant of the Ngai-Tahu people who had survived Te Rauparaha’s last raid in 1832. There was also a whaling station at Peraki, and a cattle run established by a Captain Lethart, who had arrived from Sydney during November, 1839. Treaty Signed The Treaty was signed by two chiefs, one being Iwikau, a brother of the late Temaiharanui, who claimed leadership of the Ngatiamoa tribe, and the other Hone Tikao who signed his adopted European name, John Love. Tikao was chief of the Ngatikahukura tribe, and a very intelligent Maori. He is said to have been captured by Te Rauparaha when the Onawe pa fell in 1832 and taken to Kapiti Island. He later visited France, probably in a French whaling ship, and acquired a knowledge of French and one or two other languages. In “Earliest Canterbury,” by James Hay, of Pigeon Bay (published by the Christchurch Press Company, Ltd., in 1915) the author says that Tikao “could accurately measure a piece of land, no matter what its shape. He chained it, mapped it out on paper, and calculated the acreage, and I don’t think he was ever known to be in error.” The Hays employed Tikao to measure all bush felling

and planting contracts they entered into with the Peninsula Maoris.

"Tikao was naturally intellectual and refined,” wrote James Hay, “always conducting himself with dignity and propriety. Sir George Grey held him in high esteem.” Civil Court

Pula, a daughter of Iwikau, married James Robinson Clough, later known as Jimmy Robinson, who three months later was appointed by Captain Stanley of the Britomart to summon all inhabitants of Akaroa to Green Point, where the magistrates Murphy and Robinson were to hold a civil court to give substance to the shadow of sovereignty acknowledged by the two chiefs on May 28, and particularly to do so before the arrival of the French colonists and their escort.

Tikao was quite willing to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, though much less happy eight years later with the conditions of the sale of the NgaiTahu block and the Akaroa block.

Down through a century of claims and counter-claims heard in the Native Land Courts the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi have been referred to again and again. To quote from a Maori chief’s address to Lord Ranfurly: “The treaty has been rained upon by rain, it has been exposed to the blast of the storm, but the words are still clear they cannot be obliterated.”

On the facsimile of the Treaty of Waitangi issued to schools can be seen the moko (tattooing pattern) of Iwikau and the slightly scrawled but clearly legible original signature of John Love, together with those of the two witnesses, Major Bunbury and Captain Nias. Thus was history made in quiet Akaroa harbour on that far-off twenty-eighth day of May.