HAWAIIKI TO PATEA

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 13 October 1931, Page 8

HAWAIIKI TO PATEA

Maori and Pakeha STORIES- FROM THE PAST Whence came the name Patea ? The query and the answer open up a fascinating romance which began at Hawaiiki and ended at the .first settlement made near the mouth of the principal river of South .Taranaki. It is a page in the history of the Maori and pakeha which links the ancient, the earliest migration made by Turi ' and brother chiefs in the Aotea" and the other canoes that loom so large in tlie records of the first settlement of New Zealand by the ancestors of the present Maori people away back in the i4th century. Patea is said to have got its name from the famous Aotea; captain, who, after the long voyage overseas and the journey down the east coast, pitched camp near the site of the present Patea Harbour, tired with his wandering and glad to find a “resting place, a journey’s end.” -i'-i-Vr , . An interesting fact connected with the voyage is the landing at a small island. Rangitaliua. supposed, to have been the Kormadecs, and the procuring there of the seeds of the now well-known and beautiful tree the karaka. „ Another incident which is or interest was the birth of a child, whose descendants live in Taranaki among the Xgat-i Ruanui to-dav. About Christmas time tho canoe reached New Zealand, and it is generally conceded that she touched first about the East Cape when the lovely pohntukawa was in full bloom. It was a wonderful sight for these men who had been tossed by the waves for so many weeks. _ X n due course the wanderers reached 1 Waitemata in search of the fertile country described to Turi by Rape. Tradition lias it that they hauled the canoe over the isthmus to Manukau and sailed down to the Aotea anchorage at- Raglan, where they left the canoe and continued south on foot. A scout named Pungareku was sent out' and Turi with his people; followed on foot wiving names to the places as they journeyed. With few exceptions these names have persisted until the present day. - v , : ■' Ivawhia was first reached and so named because, being without canoes, they had to journey round the harbour And so' on they travelled, past tUarokopa. Mokau. Waitara, Mangati. Matakitaki. Ngumotu, Tapuwae, Oakum, Kaupolvonui, Maraekura, To TCnmini. Te Wningongoro. Taugahoe, Obingalmpc. Wbitikauv and . lastly Patea. a name given to commemorate a journev in which thev were burden heaves. There was a tribe led by Taikebu said to be in possession of. the country and tradition has it that The two agreed to settle'together and* the two tribes intermarried and becanie one neoplc. They chose the south side of the river, near the heads, as themost effectively defended by its natural formation, and the headland was called Rangitawhi. A substantial house was erected in the na. which was named Matangerei. and became the meeting house for the tribes. * \ storehouse or wliata was bin It and called Paeahua. and a spring of water nearby was named Pararakitenru. while to make provision for religious ceremonies an altar was erected and named Rangitaka. The tribes set to work to clear land for a mara (cultivation) near the present pilot station, breaking up tlie soil with wooden spades and chanting vomo of the old songs as they worked. Thev plan+nd the few remaining seed komaras thev the., .actual • ’•>l anting being ‘done by Turps wife, Rongomrgq. who was skilled in such wori- and'brc v e the- soil very finely, rnahiug it i” little heaps, in each of which- e was deposited a oie.ee of seed. The mara was named Hekehekeipaoa. c n fertile was the virgin soil that thev are said to have harvested an enormous ouantity of kuniaras. The old Maoris to whom have been handed traditions of the past have affirmed that originally the land extended much further seaward, and the evidence of erosion of the coast would bear, out this statement. The karaka seed brought overseas was for some reason planted on the north bank, and there were until comparative! v recent years traces of the old karaka groves' which grew from the seed. The place was named Papawbero. and from these' trees have been v carried seed up and down the coast. " A part of Tim’s people later hived off and settled to the north of the river, near a good spring at Otaraite and between two good fishing grounds, TVhitikau and Kaitangata. .. An incident connected with the his? - - tory of the tribe which explains -hly name that has persisted through the centuries to the present day is the departure of some of them under Turangaimua for the -south, when the chieftainess Taneroa. daughter of Turi, drew attention to the fact and uttered a bitter curse as the stood in the ;rLver. Thj& name Tiipatea (standing in . the Patea River) lias remained among the people of the district right up to tho present day. The disappearance of Turi is said to have occurred some years afterwards and to have been. due. to thedeath of his son Turangimea in an affray with another tribe. ' The old chief disappeared and is said to have gone back to Hawaiiki. and there is certainly no known resting place of his remains—a mysterious ending to such a life.

The land behind the Patea railway station has been known at Riiumano, or the place of a thousand leaves, and it is said to have been a swamp producing flax, tutu, raupo and toe toe, and was the home -of the pukeko, parent and kotuku. An old Maori misisonary told Rev. T. G. Hammond of an old chant recited many years before among the Maoris -of Hukatere, which told of a. great- landslide in 'that locality and which-carried away many people into the sea and across to the west coast.

It is to note, as told by Mr Hammond in his story of Aotea, that Patea . should have been sp.elt Pa-wa-tea, the pa with a clear outlook. The history : of the migration and settlement of Turi and his people at Patea is of very great interest, the name of the place and of niany others in the district forming links in the chain of six centuries that stretch back to the earliest times of the Maori. It is fitting that at. a time when people of Patea are recalling the birth of the European settlement they should also think of the people who originaly held the land ai\d whose history is 'so intimately bound up with the coast lands of Southern Taranaki. .