“SINGING BIRDS”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12905, 4 July 1936, Page 10

“SINGING BIRDS”

MANU-KORIHI PA

ITS HISTORIC ASSOCI ATIONS,

r j v HE history of the Manu-korihi pa (“Singing Birds”) celebrations at Waitara .stretches back to the early days of Maori settlement in Taranaki. .The late Air Percy Smith, in his book “History and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast,” states that the pa, was origin-ally established by the Ngatumaru tribe which had probably inter-married with the tangiwhenua or aboriginal inhabitants that were overcome by the Maori emigrants from Hnwaiki. Later, probably about the middle of the fifteenth, century, the pa was developed by the Nga.ti-awa or Ng-ati-kah.ii tribe which left Whangnroa, North Auckland, and journeyed via Waikato, Mokau and Alimi to the Waitara district where the tribes settled, and ultimately became part c f the Ati-awa people of which there were 13 main divisions. One of those divisions took their name, Manu-korihi, from the pa which was the division’s chief centre o' population. The late Colonel Gudgeon reported that the hapu . was strengthened by some arrivals from Whakatnne, Bay of Plenty, who migrated to Taranaki 10 generations ago on account of local quarrels at Whakatane, but Air Smith records that ho could find no Taranaki confirmation of the 'Whakatane migration.

At all events, in the most prosperous period of the Ati-awa settlement on the West Const the Afanu-korihi pa was one of the most important defensive posts on the main route along tho Taranaki coast from north to south. It coveroed.a large area, roughly that beginning from the bank of the Waitara, River north of the bridge, extending up the river for 10 or 12 chains, and going back in’ depth to the swampy ground behind the meeting ground in the present day pa where draining operations are still proceeding. The pa, was strongly fortified. Three of the outer boundaries wore palisaded, the rear one fell away steeply to swamp land, now of course mostly drained, and there were three main lines of trenches, each palisaded with a hank behind the stockade for the defender’s further advantage. The ovens and food stores were located near the river, within reach., that is to say. cf a water supply, and there were underground connections between the trench systems.

Afanu-korihi was an outpost of much importance. Air W. H. ’Sklnner, New Plymouth, has recorded four expeditions of northern tribes in tho 10 years 1810-1820. Each <>f these expeditions were welcomed at Afanu-korihi, their object being to harry the Taranaki tribe. In the last two invasions the European musket was used by the northerners, and with the arrival of.firearms the oldtime Maori system of warfare and ol fortifications wa.s brought low. From that time the mana of the Ati-awa tribes began.' to wane. The process was hastened by a mysterious epidemic. said- to have been introduced by a ship that put in to the Hauraki Gulf for spars in the year 1820. and considered by some authorities to have, been measles, a disease much more deadly among hitherto uninfected races than it is among Europeans. Whatever the disease, the mortality i ; . caused was heavy and the year nrite • tho plague saw the beginning c! the migration of West Coast Alaoris 1 1 the Waikanae and Otaki districts. A second migration took place ni 182-1, in which many of the Manukorihi people joined, and the pa was finally abandoned in 1818. Three years later the Ati-awa tribe was utterly routed at Puke-rangiora pa and the survivors fled to the forests or found their way southwards to rejoin their relatives there. Ahinii-korihi pa, which had never suffered destruction at the hands m invading northern tribes, gradually decayed. Twelve years after its evacuation. when the European settlors airived in Taranaki much of the palisading had disappeared and bush was growing between the trenches.

With the arrival of the European settlers, the Ati-awas began to drift hack to their former homes in Taranaki, to Manu-korihi among others. There was, however, no attempt to restore tho pa as a fortification, and when armed conflict with the pakehas began it was at a pa cur the Now Plymouth side of the river that the Maori forces assembled. Nevertheless Maori occupation of Manu-korihi has continued. and respect ■ for it's traditions maintained. That Wiremu T\ingi—whoso defiance of European claims to Maori land led ultimately to war—was horn at Manu-korihi added to tho latter “mana” of the pad The celebrations which commenced last week will add another chapter touts colorful history.