History pieced together from tradition

Press, 20 August 1986, Page 22

History pieced together from tradition

(From

STEVE LOWNDES,

Akaroa Museum)

The history of Hikurakl or Banks Peninsula, looms mysteriously out of the mists of time. What we know today is merely a distillation of tradition, interpretation and surmise. The origins of this peninsula lie in the eruption and erosion of three volcanoes, evidence of which can still be seen in the radial fan of bays and ridges that make up the coastline.

At Lyttelton and Akaroa, the sea has innundated the eroded craters and formed two distinct, deep-water harbours.

The first people stepped ashore about 1000 years ago, having travelled by canoe from islands in the central Pacific, and bringing with them some ol their own plants and animals.

About 500 years ago, when large tracts of forest had been burned off and many species of native bird, including the moa, had been hunted to extinction, they settled into a more static, villagebased, lifestyle. These people were the ancestors of the Maori, but the word, “Maori,” only came into use in the 1830 s to describe a people welded together from independent tribal units by

the incursion of the Europeans. Before that time, there were no concepts of race or nationhood.

Legend has it that the mischievous man-god, Maui, was the first to sight the peninsula from his canoe, Mahanui. The rock formation, known today as Pompey's Pillar, is also known as Omaui in celebration of his passage. Since Maui, four distinct waves of migration have come ashore in the bays and inlets of Hikuraki, each absorbing the last with gathering momentum. The first inhabitants of the peninsula were the tribe, Waitaha, who came to Aotearoa in their canoe, Arawa. They were a peaceful and numerous people who are said to have “covered the face of the land like a myriad of ants.”

The next tribe to sweep down and take up residence were the Koti Mamoe. They came at the end of the sixteenth century from the east coast of the North Island and have left traces of their occupation in the form of implements and place names.

Moki came around the northern coast of the peninsula in his great war canoe, Te Makawhui, the Desolator. The canoe was

made from a huge totara that had grown in the Wairarapa and was a legend in its own time. The Kai Tahu migration, which happened only 70 years before the first European contact with the peninsula, brought with it the classic era of Maori culture. There were native birds in abundance, and great stands of totara, matai and kahikatea. There were nuts, berries and roots to forage for, and a huge variety of fish and shellfish in the sea. Eels were bountiful at Lake Waihora. With these resources at hand, the people prospered and enjoyed a culture which, in neolithic terms, was amongst the most sophisticated the world has ever seen. There was one incident during this long period of peace, which although It could have had little or no effect at the time, was ah harbinger of things to come.

James Cook, on his voyage to establish the size of the southern continent hinted at by Abel Tasman, was beating an erratic path down the east coast of the South Island in February, 1770 — just over 200 years ago. In his log for February

17, he wrote: “At sunrise the next morning our opinion that the land we had been standing off was confirmed as an island

. . . This island, which I named for Mr Banks, lies about five leagues from the coast . . .” Cook’s mistake was understandable because Banks Peninsula very nearly was an island. In those days, it would have been possible to cross the isthmus in a flat-bottomed boat

Joseph Banks, whose name Cook honoured, was later to become a preeminent botanist and president of the Royal Society.

It was not until the early 1800 s that charts made by Cook and other explorers were sufficiently broadcast to lead the way for others more intent on trade and profit. Sealers arrived early in the century. Probably the first Europeans, or Pakehas, as they were to become known, stepped ashore off the sealing ship Governor Bligh in 1815.

Flax traders and whalers followed in the 1820 s and 30s. These men were rough and ready, outriders on a wave of immigration that was to have a shattering effect on the life of the Maori

throughout Aotearoa. One of the first and most significant effects of this early contact with Europeans was the introduction of firearms. The first time the report of a musket was heard by the peninsula Kai Tahu was during the “Kai Huanga,” or “eat relation” feud which broke out in 1825. The Upoko Ariki, or high chief of the Kai Tahu at this time, was a man called Te Mai Hara Nui. He was a man so exalted that no common person dared return his gaze.

The immediate cause of the conflict was an insult to his person, but fighting spread until all the families of the peninsula were involved with considerable emnity and loss of life.

The feud Kai Huanga only came to an end when the Kai Tahu became the target of an external threat in the form of a confederation of northern .tribes under Te Rauparaha, a redoubtable chief, known in the last century as the Maori Napoleon. Te Rauparaha had set his sights on the great wealth of greenstone accumulated at the principal Kai Tahu pa at Kaiapohia.

After a raid to the south, he came to reconnoitre and trade at the pa, but the suspicions of the Kai Tahu were aroused and they fell upon seven of his principal chiefs while they were bartering.

One Of these chiefs was Te Rauparaha’s principal lieutenant, Te Pehi-Kupe, who had spent two years in England and procured arms in Sydney. He was killed by Tangatahara, an Akaroa chief.

Two years later, on November 10, 1830, Te Rauparaha returned hidden in the hold of an English brig Elizabeth. He captured Te Mai Hara Nui and destroyed his village at Takapuneke. A year later he sailed south once more, this time with, a fleet of 70 war canoes. After a sixmonth seige, he laid waste to Kaiapohia, then came once more to Akaroa. Terrible retribution was exacted on the Akaroa families. 600 were killed, many taken in slaveiy and only a very few escaped. The following year, 1833, the Kai Tahu rallied, and, with help from the south, went on the offensive. Two expeditions went north to Cook Strait and effectively put an end to Te Rauparaha’s advances.

In 1837, the first permanent European presence in Canterbury was

established at Perakl by a shore whaler, Captain George Hempieman. Fleets of whalers began to arrive from all over the world, and especially from America and France. Among the French fleet was the Cachelot, commanded by Jean Langlois. While at Lyttelton, he purchased the whole of. Banks Peninsula from the Ngai Tahu living there for the sum of 1000 francs, or about 80 dollars. Nobody from an Akaroa family signed the original deed. Langlois returned to France and the NantoBordelaise Co. was set up to colonise the peninsula for France. Akaroa was to be called Port Louis-Phi-lippe.

In November, 1839, William Green landed 40 head of cattle near the site of Te Mai Hara Nui’s village, which had been destroyed nine years earlier.

At a time when the French boats were still preparing for their voyage to New Zealand, Governor Hobson obtained the first signatures on the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840.

On May 21, he proclaimed sovereignty over the whole of the South Island by virtue of Cook’s discovery, and a week later Major Bunbury, on H.M.S. Herald, obtained the signatures of two Akaroa chiefs on the Treaty.

When the French arrived at the Bay of Islands on July 11, Governor Hobson took the precaution of sending the frigate H.M.S. Britomart and two magistrates to Akaroa to put the question of sovereignty beyond doubt. When Captain Langlois finally sailed up the harbour on August 17, 146 years ago, he found that the British flag was flying and that court sessions had been held at Green’s Point, Onuku, and at several whaling stations. Captain Langlois was able to establish ownership of 120,000 ha of land, which was sold to the New Zealand Company when the Nanto-Borde-laise Co. was liquidated in 1847.

The fledgling European colony survived its first 10 years precariously, but in April, 1850, another immigrant ship, the Monarch, limped into Akaroa Even though the French settlers were very soon outnumbered, Akaroa retained a distinctly international flavour because of its whaling background. Today, Akaroa is visited by people from all over the world and that sense of internationalism persists.