OLD AUCKLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21515, 12 June 1933, Page 6

OLD AUCKLAND

MAORI WARS AND RAIDS STORY OF THE HILL PAS HOW MOUNT EDEN FELL An interesting account of pre-Euro-pean times on the Tamaki isthmus, with special reference to the pa on One Tree Hill, was given by Mr. George Graham on Saturday to members of the anthropology and Maori race section of the Auckland Institute, who visited the hill for the purpose. Mr. Graham briefly sketched the history of Maori settlement in the district after the arrival of various canocs belonging to the "great fleet" which arrived from Rarotonga about 1300. From this point he described some of the more important invasions from the north, south and east that made the Tamaki isthmus a battle-ground at frequent intervals until the last tribal combat in 1827. The speaker showed how many of these wars originated in trifling personal quarrels or fancied insults received by one chief from another, or sometimes from the treacherous murder of notables by their hosts of another tribe. The Last Siege It ■was due to one such murder, he said, that Mount Eden was finally besieged and capturecL A Hauraki chief named Rautao was visiting the Waiohua people of Tamaki when for some reason he incurred their enmity. It was not considered proper to kill him while he was actually a guest, but after his party had left for home it was pursued and massacred near the present site of St. John's College. The Haurakis naturally could not leave the deed unavenged, and some time later they invaded Tamaki in force and laid siege to Mount Eden. The defenders held out well for some days, but eventually they became short of water and were greatly troubled by thick smoke from fires lit to windward by the attackers. They accordingly made a sortie toward a swamp near where the Mount Eden railway station now stands. The besiegers successfully attacked the water-bearers and their covering party, driving them back toward the pa, which fell soon after. This occurred about 1620, and the site was never afterwards occupied, being shunned as an accursed spot. It reverted to fern and manuka, which, became so dense that later attempts by Europeans to climb the hill were a failure until a track was cut to the summit. The Heyday of One Tree Hill No such decisive event co.uk! be found in the history of One Tree Hill, said Mr. Graham. After the fall of Mount Eden it became the headquarters of the Waiohua people, and early in the 18th century it was famous under the rule of the chief Te Ikamaupoho and his wife, Te Tahuri. This lady was a noted patroness of all the Maori arts. She worked in the great plantations that covered the lower slopes of the hill, established schools of weaving, and entertained strangers most lavishly. Her son, by name Kiwi, a man of pride and ambition, brought ruin when he succeeded to the tribal leadership. He incurred the wrath of the Kaipara people, who killed him in battle at Titirangi, routed his followers and took all the pas on the isthmus. One Tree Hill then became the headquarters of the victors, the Ngati-whatua, and so remained until the advent of firearms made the hill pas untenable and Hongi Ika's exploits in 1821 practically depopulated the isthmus until Captain Hobson's purchase in 1840. In the course of his narrative Mr. Graham referred to the revered totara tree which once stood on ) the western slope of the hill. The tree, he said, was planted by a Ngati-whatua chief as part of the " christening" of his infant son. It was much revered by the tribe, but after the pa was deserted some early European settler cut it down, no doubt because he needed a few totara posts. In reply to questions, Mr: Graham said the pa probably had some thousands of inhabitants in its best days. The people always slept within the palisades, going out each day .to dig, to fish and to obtain water. The pits seen on some of the terraces were not food stores but the sites of huts built partly underground. When occupied, the 1 hill must have been practically bare of vegetation, and the surrounding country was covered with manuka and fern, instead or grass. The present appearance of the hill had no counterpart in older time*.