ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4186, 15 September 1939, Page 5

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

COLONEL WAKEFIELD BUYS WELLINGTON. MAORI CHIEFS EAGER TO SELL. THE TORY AT ANCHOR IN THE HARBOUR. On 20th September one hundred years ago the New Zealand Company advance ship Tory glided to her anchorage between Somes Island and Petone beach. The principal chiefs, Te Puni and Wharepouri, had come on board while the ship was moving up the harbour, and they spent the night on board, reporting the visit of the Wesleyan mission vessel which had called in July. In 1839 the people of Port Nicholson were comparatively uncorrupted by white contacts except for the few who had been employed in the Cloudy Bay whalers’ settlements across the water. They were not used to European trade goods, and were consequently eager to sell their land for useful and ornamental objects. There was only one ■white man living with them. They looked forward to more to raise their standard of living.

LONG KORERO ABOUT THE SALE OF LAND. The Port Nicholson chiefs did not agree to sell their lands without due consideration. The first discussion was held on 21st September. On the sarnie day Colonel William Wakefield and the whaler-interpreter, Dicky Barrett, were paddled up the Hutt River in a Maori canoe, and formed a very good opinion of the country in the valley. On 23rd September the Tory party rowed down the harbour to Wharepouri’s home at Ngahauranga, where the chief himself was discovered working at a sixtyfoct canoe. Two canoes came in from the southern end of the harbour. A korero was held on the burning subject of land sales, for word of Colonel Wakefield’s intentions had gone round the harbour as if by invisible telegraph. The vigorous Puakawa opposed the sale. The aged Matangi supported it. Next day the furious discussion was renewed at Petone, Puakawa still filling the part of devil’s advocate. His argument that the whites would come and drive out the Maoris was countered by a reference to the provision for native reserves, and by the end of the day the chiefs had virtually come to their decision.

DIVIDING THE SPOIL. On 25th September there was a display of the trade goods that would form the price of the sale on the deck of the Tory, but so many natives crowded on board that the ship had to be cleared. Next day the chiefs and their sons came on board alone to inspect the goods. Puakawa took advantage of the occasion to urge again the folly of selling. “What will you say when you find that you have parted with your land from the Rimurapa to the Turakirae and from the Tararua to the sea ? ” he asked. On 27th September, however, the chiefs came on board to divide the price among their tribes, Wharepouri supervising the whole operation. . The goods were divided into six main portions. Wi Take, son of the Pipitea chief, received the share of that hapu; Taringakuri took charge of the Kaiwharawhara share; and the venerable Te Puni received for Petone. Wharepouri distributed the Ngahauranga share, and sent a share, purposely made smaller than the rest, to the slave tribe at Te Aro. Puakawa, although he had so vehemently opposed the sale, condescended to take his portion of goods. These were the usual miscellaneous parcel of trade goods—loo red blankets, 100 muskets, tobacco, 48 iron pots, gunpowder, cartridges, lead, shirts, trousers, 60 red nightcaps, lengths of cloth, two dozen pocket handkerchiefs, one dozen hats, 2 lbs beadsj 100 yards of ribbon, two suits of superfine clothes, one dozen shaving boxes and brushes one dozen sticks of sealing wax, and numerous other useful or ornamental articles.

A DINNER AND A' FEAST. Before they went ashore the chiefs signed a deed of sale drawn up on the model of those used by the missionaries when buying land in the north. Wharepouri and Te Puni came to dinner on board rather self-consci-ous in their new European suits. Both chiefs had been to Sydney, and were anxious to assume the civilisation of the white men at the earliest possible moment. However, they soon shed some of their European garments.

On 30th September the whole transaction was celebrated by a feastgiven by the Tory party on Petone beach. The New Zealand flag was hoisted and saluted with 21 guns. A large party of natives obliged with a ferocious pero-pero or war dance, and then numbers of Maoris, of both sexes gave a haka accompanied by appropriate song. The recently-distributed trade goods made an obvious contribution to the colour of the scene. While the Maoris sat down to roast pork, the white men pledged the chiefs and people of Port Nicholson in bumpers of champagne,” taking possession of the land they had bought. The Tory stayed a few days longer, the ship’s company fishing in Lowry Bay or shooting pigeons on the hills behind Petone. Before they left they set up boards here and there inscribed “ New Zealand Land Company,” an act typical of the European’s sadlyparticularist attitude towards land, which was still to cause trouble with the communal-minded Maori who had so freely welcomed the white man and his attractive trade goods.