MAORI HISTORY

Opunake Times, 29 August 1947, Page 3

MAORI HISTORY

TE NAMU PA NOTABLE LANDMARK by John Houston, LL.B. (all rights reserved) , On the whole, Te Niuiu and Te Namu-iti are fairly w-n preserved, so far as general appeartince and earthworks are concerned. As in the case ft the Orangi-tuapeka and Waimate Pas at the mouth of the Kapuni, difficulty of access has protected them from trampling by stock, and, unlike so niany of the pas of South Taranaki, they ' have not been desecrated by the plough. The carved stockades and the whares of Te Namu were burned by the Alligator Expedition in 1834. In not one single instance from the North Cape to the Bluff do the complete palisades of any pre-European pa survive. According to Dr. Marshall's description of Te Namu Pa as he saw it in 1834, a stockade ran along the edge of the rock on the two sides of the pa by which it was possible to escalade the fortress. On these two sides also, he writes, "the inmates had raised projecting stages, from the front of which an inclined plane had been carried, serving as a breastwork for the defenders, and helping materially to repel their assailants."

Dr. Marshall records that the entire space enclosed was divided into fourteen enclosures, each under a chief, while " all were under the command of a superior.. In all these enclosures were patches of ground hedged or fenoed as culinary gardens. The chief's house was readily distinguishable by its size, ornaments and situation. It was twice the size of any other whare, and its front was ornamented by five grotesque figures, rudely but elaborately carved. These figures, he writes, were mistaken by the roldiers for native gods, and were torn down and used for iuel. The chief's house commanded immediate intercourse "with every part of the pa, and was so nituated that every part had to bs taken separately before access could be had to the enclosure in which it stood. A concealed way was contrived for the es' cape of the chief in case of necessity. When the Doctor entered the pa, he saw on stages baskets of seed potatoes carefully sewed up in dried grass and covered with fern leaf. Long strings of dried shell-fish hung smoking over fires in the cook-house. He makes reference to the food storage pits as-varying in depth from four to eight feet. Several officers and nen suffered bruised shins and tattered garments from accidents occasioned bv exposed rua, especially after nightfall. He noticed that there were traces of detraction by fire of the whares i tit the flat in front of the main strong-hold, and that the stockade v/as scorched in several places. Part of the flat land referred to was thickly sown with turnip ai.6 kimara, whose foliage cloaked numerous food storage pits. On th( > floor of the whares within the pa were dry reeds anct old mats. Their small doors were hung upon hinges made of pieces of dog's or pig's hide. In the centre of each whare was a little hollowed fireplace. "The tapu'd •bundle of prepared sticks was suspended from every roof." In the sand at the base of the pa, the tribesmen had dug a small harbour for their canoes. The Doctor writes: "The interior of a New Zealand pa is too intricate to admit of a description at once particular and intelligible; and upon the one at Te Nainu I shall only further observe that, while necessarily compact from the narrow limits will in which it needed to be confined, the most had been made of the spice allotted for building that could be made, so- as to combine the advantages (if a fortified town, security and defend;, with the comforts of a country village, detached residence and separate garden grounds."

The dark record of the Waikato raids into Taranaki is relieved by many a story of heroic defence and stubborn resistance. The acquisition of the musket gave the northern raiders an enormous advantage, for the Maoris of Taranaki had not at that time an opportunity of similarly/ arming themselves. However, the southern tribes acquitted themselves most gallantly with the weapons of the stone age. Although many were sla ugh tore 1 in the unequal contest, although a great number were carried into slavery, and although parties migrated to comparative safety towards Kapiti, still the resistance of the ill-arm-(Continued toot of next column)

ed few to the large and well-arm-ed northern war-parfies was resolutely continued, and the fires of the tribesmen have never ceased to burn in the land that was theirs. In the end came the wellmerited victory and the final peace-making- by the mouth of the Kapuni, ever to be remembered to the honour of Ng'a-Rua-hine-rangi and of Taranaki. (To be continued.)