The Story of Kaiapoi

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 4, 18 August 1933, Page 3

The Story of Kaiapoi

(Exclusive to the Gazette)

CHAPTER 11. THE MAORI PERIOD fHE history of Kaiapoi is closely intermingled with that of the Maori. When the-white settlers first came to North Canterbury they found in the Kaiapoi district the foremost Maori settlement of the South Island, the chief strong hold and fortress of the Ngai-tahu tribe. In order to understand the rise of Kaiapoi to power and position, it is necessary to make a brief survey of the successive Maori migrations to the South Island. Although the South Island does not stand out so boldly in the annals of Maori as does the more densely populated North Island, still it is not without its story of conquest and. bloodshed, of peace and prosperity. Tittle is known of the earlier history of this island, although . according to shadowy native tradition, it was originally peopled by a fantastic race of giants and ogres. The first Maori, tribe of which there is any authentic information, is the Waitaha, who came to New Zealand in the famous canoe Arawa, in 1350. Their migration to this Island took place about the year 1470. Separated from their belligerent countrymen by the stormy Avaters of Cook Strait, the Waitaha were long left in peaceful occupation of this "food abounding island," and rapidly increased until "they covered the land , like ants." It is certain that they had a very large Pa at Kapukariki (Cust), about twenty-five miles north-west of Kaiapoi. in 1570 the Ngatimamoe were driven from the North Island, and coming south they conquered the Waitaha, and intermarried with them. Nearly a hundred years later, in 1650, another North Island tribe, the Ngai-tahu, instigated a ruthless warfare against the Ngatimamoe. They proved hardy warriors, but it was thirty years before the Ngai-tahu became masters of the South Island. A famous Ngai-tahu chief, who was wounded during an encounter, was carried to the village of Kaikai-a-waru. It was on the site of this village that the chief Turakautahi built the Kaiapoi Pa. about the time that Queen Anne came to tfie throne of England. The situation was six miles north of the modern town of Kaiapoi. The site was well chosen for defensive purposes, being enclosed on three sides by a deep lagoon, protected to the west by extensive swamps. It was considered so impregnable that it became a proverbial saying in allusion to it "Who can scale the inaccessible cliff of God?" However, the chief Turaukautahi was severely criticised for his selection of the site, owing to the inadequacy of food supplies, but replied that "Kai (food) must be poi (swung) to the spot." Hence the derivation of the name Kaiapoi.

After building the pa, Turakautahi gathered around him the chief families of the Ngai-tahu, and Kaiapoi soon became the tribal centre. Although war parties made occasional expeditions to Westland and Southland, there was little fighting at the pa itself, where the inhabitants enjoyed a peaceful though by no means idle eMstence. The present day Maori nas been accused of lack of industry, but this certainly cannot be said of his forbears. The daily round at Kaiapoi was an arduous one, entailing fishing, spearing birds, and the planting of. kumara. The latter had attained a religious significance, and wag identified with certain interesting rites. The present pa at Tuahiwi occupies the site of one of the old ceremonial shrines.

With the passing of the years, the population increased and the Pa became pre eminent in the South Island, both on account of its reputation for wealth, especially in greenstone, and for its being the headquarters of the aristocracy of the Ngai-tahu tribe. Greenstone had the same lure for the Maori as gold has for the pakeha, and many covetous eyes from the North were turned on the reputed stores held in the Kaiapoi Pa.

lii 1828 the Ngai-tahu's long reign of peace showed signs of coming to an end. Te Rauparaha, 'Jie great warrior chief of the Ngatitoa, having become master of the northern shores of Cook Strait, looked for new worlds to conquer. The reports of the fabulous quantities of the precious greenstone fired his imagination with the thoughts of a conquest of the South Island. A foolish boast by a Kaikoura chief that if the Ngatitoa leader came south he would if rip his stomach open with a barracouta tooth" gave Te Rai.paraha his excuse to open hostilities. Fired with revenge, he launched an expedition against the Kaikoura chief and sacked his Pa." Te Rauparaha then marched down the coaßt to Kaiapoi, with the intention of; spying out the land. Pretended friendly overtures were made, but the Ngai-tahu took the initiative and an affray within the Pa resulted in the death of many of Te Rauparaha's trusted chiefs. There was nothing left for the Ngatitoa warrior but to return to his island home of Tvapiti. Two years elapsed and the Ngai-tahu were lulled into a sense of false security, believing that Te Ran-

[By the Rev. H. A. Childs, M.A., Dip. Soo. Sol]

paraha had learnt his lesson. However, they were soon to be rudely-awakened. The story of the brig "Elizabeth," and the infamous Captain Stewart, is too well known to need more than brief reference. In conjunction with Stewart, - r fe Rauparaha carried out a treacherous deception on the Akaroa •Pa, resulting in the capture of the Ngai-tahu chief, Tamaiharanui, and the slaughter of many braves. This unsettled the Kaiapohians, but a developing trade with the whalers and traders of the coast soon fully engaged their attention.

In the next year 1831, Te Rauparaha with six hundred picked warriors made a determined attack on the Kaiapoi Pa. After three months' fruitless seige, he realised that she Pa could not be taken by a regular assault, and adopted a stratagem hitherto unknown in Maori warfare, that of firing the palisades. Three months passed and the dry manuka was piled high against the palisades and anxiety was intense within the pa. All depended on the wind. At last a strong wind from the north-west promised deliverance to tbe stricken Kaiapohians. Puneko, one of the Ngai-tahu chiefs, flung a firebrand into the great pile of brushwood, and the wind carried the fierce flames away from the Pa. However, with a capriciousness so well-known in Canterbury "the nor'-west buster" suddenly veered to the &outh-west and Te Rauparaha's hour of ti'iumph had come. And as the fierce light gleamed On the warriors they seemed Like fiends, unloosed from Hell. A struggle, fierce and short, And of the fort Were slaughtered for the feast And the red sun in the West Went down aa Kaiapoi fell . . ("Musings in Maoriland," Bracken) In the smoke and confusion, the Ngai-tahu fell easy victims to their ruthless foes, and of the one thousand inhabitants of the Pa only two hundred escaped with great difficulty through the swamps. After scouring the countryside for fugitives, and partaking of a great cannibal feast, Te Rauparaha returned to Kapiti with hundreds of slaves. The scattered Ngai-tahu gradually returned and settled not at the old pa but in three small villages around Tuahiwi. This soon became the principal native community of the South Island. The Ngaitahu later made two partially successful expeditions against the Ngatitoa at Kapiti and in the end, Te Rauparaha, greatly harassed by his neighbours, sued for peace. In 1843 the mission of two Christian converts, Tamihana, son of Te Rauparaha, and Matene-ti-whiwhi his cousin, resulted •in the conversion of the entire population to the Christian faith and the disappearance of the old bitterness between the Ngai-tahu and Ngatitoa.

When New Zealand became a British colony in 1840 several Kaiapoi chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, by which the Maori transferred the rights of sovereignty to the British Crown. In 1848 the Kaiapoi chiefs with others of the tribe, met Commissioner Kemp at Akaroa, where land negotiations were completed. Among the reserves made was the site of old Kaiapoi, which, in Mr. Mantell's dispatch to the Governor in 1848, is referred to as follows:—"I have guaranteed to the natives that the site of the ancient Pa, Kaiapoi, shall be reserved to Her Majesty's Government to be held sacred for both Europeans and natives." On this historic spot there stands today a monument, erected to the memory of its brave defenders and in honour of Turakautahi, the founder of this grand old fortress. The centenary of the fall of the Pa was celebrated by the Maoris in 1931.

A few years after the arrival of the Canterbury Pilgrims, settlers had penetrated to North Canterbury, and 1853 saw the beginning of the township of Kaiapoi on the north branch of the Waimakariri.

A visitor to Tnahiwi to-day in search of native atmosphere would be sadly disillusioned, finding instead of an old pa, a thriving community of four hundred "Maoris, dressed in pakeha fashion, living in pakeha houses, and adopting in their agricultural and pastoral pursuits!, pakeha methods. It seems fitting at the conclusion of this chapter on the Maori period to refer to the good relations which have existed between pakeha and Maori in the South Island. It is a striking feature of the British occupation of this island, that there has been a singular absence of that friction with the native population which characterised the earlier efforts at colonisation in the North Island. It was not that the Ngai-tahu were less warlike than their countrymen in the North; it was due rather to their scarcity of numbers, and to the fact that they had not been embittered by long association with unscrupulous traders, or victimised by the mismanagement of. ill-informed government officials. In Canterbury in particular, the natives made their first real contact with the white settlers as. an organised community, a circumstance which was more inclined to favour a just and deliberative consideration of. their rights.