THORNDON TO WAIKANAE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 766, 5 November 1886, Page 24

THORNDON TO WAIKANAE.

A CHAPTER IN HISTORY. The travellers on Wednesday from Wellington to Waikanae had a most enjoyable trip through a country entirely new to most of them —a country abounding in beautiful scenery and rich in historic events. One strange difference exists between travellers in Europe and those in this Colony. The former are eager not only to see the sights along their way, but also to learn their historical associations. In New Zealand people are apt to think entirely of the scenery and altogether to ignore the history. New Zealand, young as it is, has a history, and it is a thousand pities that people should so resolutely ignore it. Take, for instance, this very route. How few of those who had journied through it had any knowledge of the many interesting points, or could tell anything about the events which happened at each. Yet every stream has its history, and el very peak and fertile plain some connection with the past history of the Colony. Of course almost all these events are connected with the Maoris alone or in their their dealings with the early colonists. About the earliest date, when the true history of the district can really be said to dawn, was the night in 1840, when Mr McKenzie, now a worthy and much respected Councillor of Wellington, camp.-d and spent the first night ever spent by a white man on the Thorndon Flat. Almost all before that was in the dark ages. _ All Thorndon Flat was bush, and scrub lined the bank where Hobson-street gardens now look down upon the Manawatu Company’s reclamation. Maoris abounded in the district. There were Maori plantations high up Tinakori-road, and a pah where Cottle, ville-terrace joins Tinakori-road ; another at the site of Mr Izard’s house, and a third at the bottom of Hobson-street. In the capital pictures by Mr Bree of Wellington in its early days is one depicting a number of naked Maoris dragging a canoe to the sea down Hawkestone-street, which they had, cut from a tree from the forest at the top of that now cement-paved, gas-lighted road. The Maoris, crossing the island. from Porirua to the west, called Wellington Harbor Whanganui-a-te-ra, meaning the great expanse to the east. They believed that the great god Maui, who is worshipped more or less by the whole Polynesian race, fished the North Island out of . the sea, and their name for it was Te Ika o Maui —the ■fish of Maui. The Tararua and Ruahine ranges, forming the backbone of the island, were said by the. Maoris to be the backbone of the big fish caught by Maui. The part north of Auckland was its tail, and Taranaki and Cook County the fins. Wairarapa Lake was the fresh water eye, and Wellington

Harbor the salt water eye of this wonderful sea monster.

MAORI HISTORY.

All round Wellington Harbor about the year 1840 were a number of small Maori pahs, and from the moment the train starts from Thorndon till it reaches Waikanae the traveller will gee fresh views of places of historical interest. For instance, away to the right is the modern village of Kaiwarra, where formerly a Maori pah stood, and two miles further on is Ngahauranga. This was a larger pah,'--in’ which dwelt' a. hapu that had not long before come down on a marauding expedition from North Taranaki. This was the hapu of the now famous Te Whiti. Here he lived as a child. His father, Waripori, was the chief rangatira of the tribe; a man of great stature, and equally great strength and great courage. One afternoon an English sailor came trudging along the beach road from Petone to Wellington. The Ngahauranga stream was breast high in flood, and Waripori demanded toll from the Englishman ere he allowed him to - cross the brook. Naturally, the white man refused. High words soon followed. The Maori was huge and strong, and a noted warrior; but the Englishman was not to be bounced. Words changed to blows, and hot and strong was the death struggle as they wrestled and struck. After a fierce fight the Maori warrior gave in. Both men were much damaged; but so badly was the Maori hurt, so severe his internal injuries, that he quickly died—within a week of the gallant fight. At the back of the second hotel at Ngahauranga is still to be seen half of a canoe stuck upright in the ground, in memory of the gallant chief. His name will live in the annals of the city of Wellington as long as “ Waripori ’’-street endures. His brave rival shifted to other lands ; his name, too, might worthily be affixed to some street. The first tunnel on the line runs through the property of the late Mr W. B. Rhodes, who first came to the Colony in 1835, in command of a barque called the Eleanor, trading out of Sydney. Mr Rhodes claimed to have bought all the land from Port Nicholson to Ahuriri, and from Wairoa River to Table Cape, for £l6O worth of beads, blankets, &c. This huge claim proved valueless. He used to buy land anywhere along the shores of New Zealand from the Maoris, and after each bargain was done would take off his hat and reverently exclaim, “I take possession of this land in the name of God, and Smith and Jones, wholesale merchants, Sydney.” The first station reached is Crofton, erstwhile residence of Sir William Fox, a Premier of the Colony, and the site of a large and noted private school kept by the Rev Woodford St. Hill, now rector of Hastings, in Hawkes Bay. A few chains further on is a 100-acre paddock, one of Colonel McLeverty’s reserves. It was at one time meant to be a Government domain. A little fnrther on are the remains of an orchard and garden planted by Sir Charles Clifford. All along the line to the right is the Old Porirua-road, the first important road made in the district, at great cost, by the New Zealand Company, to the Johnsonville and Porirua settlements. RORIRUA. The land from Porirua to Wellington harbor was all dense bush, and no Natives lived along the line now traversed by the railway. A few dwelt at Makara, and had a track to a hamlet at Ohariu, and thence to Porirua. The last place has for many generations been the haunt of Maoris, and about 1840 they were very numerous, and had pahs there, and at Pahautanui and Horokiwi, and at Plimmerfcon. Ngatitoa possessed all the land on both sides of the bay, and a colony settled at Mana, on the residence of the great chief Rangihaeata, son-in-law of Te Rauparaha. One of the earliest land courts ever held in the Colony was held at Porirua under Mr Commissioner Spain. In 1843 it was feared that the Maori hordes would sweep down from Porirua and destroy the town of Wellington. The railway traveller of to-day will ask in vain: “Where is the great pah ? ” And half a dozen dawdling Maoris at the station will represent the armed warriors that have passed away. Mr Spain rode over wretched tracks, amid tangled woods, to meet Te Rauparaha at Waikanae, to save Wellington from the horrors of a threatened massacre. In September, 1844, Wellington feared an attack from tribes gathering at Porirua, and again in 1846. Many of those who visit Porirua on this festive occasion will remember vividly those anxious times. Most interesting must be their thoughts when, gazing ©ut of the windows at Porirua, and seeing a handful of Natives loitering about, recollecting the big city they left half an hour ago—they begin to contrast past and present. How vast the gap between then and no w ! Many of these travellers in bygone years bore arms and did military duty against the Maoris. Among those were such well-known names as Plimmer, G. Allen, J. Johnston, J. Martin, Pharazyn, Mantell, J. H. Wallace, Sutherland, and a host beside, many of whom still look hale and hearty. For many years troops were stationed all around the bay, at Forirua, at Paremata (the haunt of whalers), and Pahautanui ; at Fort Elliot and other stockades, under Majors Durie, Last, and Edwards, and other officers, as Robertson, Servantes, and Blackburn. When Sir George Grey was Governor, in 1846, Rauparaha, though 77 years of age, was as young and fresh and vigorous as Mr Gladstone, and kept the district in a state of turmoil and anxiety. Sir George, therefore, despatched a corps of 150 strong to Porirua, and they caught the old chieftain asleep in .his whare near the new Plimmerton station. This event happened exactly 40 years ago. The Maoris afterward assembled in the Horokiwi under their fighting leader Rangihaeata, who had left his stockade at Pahautanui ; and in the beautiful wooded valley of the Horokiwi was fought a battle. A few Maoris were killed, and, after a brisk fight, they were driven back. -. That was the last struggle made by the Maoris south of Manawatu. The Europeans consisted of several hundred soldiers and seamen from the Calliope, led by Major Last. Between Porirua village and the sea is a neck of land, and near its end are 200 acres of land, set apart by Bishop Selwyn, on which to place a future Trinity College, to promote the Christian religion among both races. It may interest visitors, to look out for the spires and gables of this great

college! Further west is Mana, oalled Table Island by Captain Cook, now owned as a sheep run by Mr J. F, E. Wright, of Wellington. Leaving Plimmerton, and on the left of the site of Te Rauparaha’s vanished pah, the train ascends to the old Maori gardens and village at Pukerua. From this height is seen the striking isle of Kapiti or Entry Island, and the beginning of the long, level plain and sand dunes reaching from Paikakariki, at the foot of Pukerua, and thence to Manawatu right along the ooast as far as Cape Egmont. In the near distance is Waikanae, and farther on Otaki and Horowhenua—all famous places in Maori history. KAPITI. Kapiti was once a centre of pakeha civilization some years before Wellington city was founded. It was a great rendezvous for whales, and on the Waikanae side, under the lea of its high wooded ranges, lay many a fine whaling ship. Other vessels came down with provisions and stores sent by Sydney traders in the years 1825-45. Occasionally as many as a dozen ships were anchored in the offing together, when whales in many shoals came. cruising through Cook Straits. Kapiti was then a scene of wild revelry and much rum drinking, and the birth-place of many half-caste 3. For years the whale fisheries were successful and profitable, but gradually the ranks of the whales were so thinned, and the animals themselves became so frightened, that they almost' quitted these shores, and whaling a 3 a trade stopped many years ago. Even now, however, there are old whalers living at Waikanae and Otaki, left stranded, relies of a by-gone age, but still willing to tell again the story of their exciting whale hunts. At the south end was a big pah, and another in the north, whilst in the middle was the pah of Te Rauparaha ; thence his fleet of canoes could easily carry his eager warriors to attack almost any part of the coast. He had living round him a large number of Maoris, but the island is now almost deserted by them. It is rented by Mr Henry Field, of Waikanae, and is used as a sheep and cattle run by that gentleman, and before him in turn by Bell, by Petersen, and by Brown. It was to Kapiti that Colonel Wakefield went in 1839 to negotiate with the astute chief Te Rauparaha, who, because of his wily tricks, was called by the whalers “Satan,” or “ Old Sarpent.” High up amid its wild steep ranges on the west is a scarcely accessible cave, strewn with skeletons of old Maoris—once the sacred lone burying-place of their chiefs. Te Rauparaha himself came from Kawhia, and conquered the tribes living on Kapiti in the early years of this century. He overran the country from Paikakariki to Manawatu, and hunted and cruelly treated and butchered as many old inhabitants as he could catch. WAIKANAE. Waikanae was a large and fortified pah, and the chief stronghold of the Ngatiawa, and in October, 1839, a bloody battle was fought at this spot, when Ngatiawa fought Ngatiraukawa, and slew many of them —a battle eagerly watched by Ngatitoa under the command of Te Rauparaha. When Coloniel Wakefield visited Waikanae at the end of October, he found Ngatiawa wanted “nothing but firearms,” a natural wish, surrounded as they were on all sides by deadly foes. Coionel Wakefield soon after this assembled some chiefs and bought all Wellington district, and Taranaki, for a few guns, pairs of scissors, 2 dozen combs, 2 pounds of gaudily colored glass beads and a few other sundries, and for this paltry sum it was asserted was bought outright, Wairarapa, Otaki, Wellington and Hutt, Manawatu, Rangitikei, Wanganui, Patea, Hawera, Taranaki. This quaint purchase was an improvement on the older plan of pointing to one cloud and then another, and then buying all the land between these ever-shifting hazy boundaries. Buying “from cloud to cloud'” was a splendid way of making work for lawyers. In 1539 a Mr Hadfield, who had left England on account of ill-health, arrived at Waikanae, and for many years lived there and at Otaki. A few years later Bishop Selwyn, on one of his long tours through the land, called at Waikanae, and was (pleased to find that the Rev Mr Hadfield was still alive and doing good work—though for the past four years his friends had daily expected to hear of his death. That dying man is to-day the spare but active Bishop of Wellington. Waikanae River was the port of departure for canoes visiting Kapiti, and for many years was a very important point in Maori history. Governor Fitzroy visited tthe chiefs at Waikanae, and later Sir George Grey wished to buy it; but the Maoris refused. The original pah wa3 nearer the mouth of the river than the present one. Maori legend says that a man named Han sought his wife, who had eloped, and travelled all down the coast in his search. When he came to this place he “ looked out of the corner of his eve ” and called it Waikanae—expecting there to find the lady and her lover. Between Waikanae and Kapiti, but nearer the latter, are two or three islets, one known as Evan’s Isle, where a man of that name had a house and store, and supplied grog to whalers. From Waikanae an old Maori track leads to the Upper Hutt through a considerable extent of fine country. DISAPPEARANCE OP THE MAORIS. A sad feature running all through the history of the Maoris during the last 50 years is their rapid decay—the awful rate at which, year after year, they die and are not replaced. Forty-five years ago, Major Heaphy records that there were Maoris living at both ends of Hobson-street and at Lambton-quay, where Messrs Harcourt and Co.’s warehouse stands. About 100 Maoris lived at these places ; now there is one family at Pipitea Point. The pahs at Kaiwarra, Ngahauranga, Makara, and Ohariu have long since vanished. Hundreds of Maoris swarmed all round the jagged coast-lines of Porirua Bay, and dwelt in fortified pahs at Porirua and Pahautanui. About 20 years ago 300 Maoris dwelt at Porirua ; to-day there are about 40 at Porirua, and none at Pahautanui. At Waikanae, some 45 years ago, there were 500 fighting men, beside women and children ; five years ago the census showed 20 —all that was left of them. Now travellers can see for themselves how this pah has shrunk. At Ohariu Bay, at Mana, Kapiti, and Paikakariki there were Maoris—but all are gone ! It is a sad history ; and the outlook for the race is no brighter.