“MAU-INAINA.”

Thames Star, Volume LXI, Issue 16877, 19 May 1927, Page 5

“MAU-INAINA.”

THE HAURAKI GULF. * SOME MAORI HISTORY. BY FERGUS DUNLOP, M.A., LL.M. In the clays when Hongi Hika, the Napoleon of late Maoridom, was wont ■to raid the Hauraki Gulf and the Bay of Plenty, the Gulf was inhabited by two main tribes, Ngati Paoa and Ngatl Maru, whose headquarters were, respectively, at the Totara Pah, near Thames, and at Mauinaina, or Mokoia, on the Tamaki, on the site of the village of Pamure and the slopes of Mount Wellington,. That these tribes fought frequently between themselves goes without saying, for the Maori’s sport and pleasure was war with his neighbours. But their quarrels never led to any very devastating results, and the two great pahs had remained in the same ownership for several centuries. In early missionary days these natives had attained to a prosperity that might almost be described as civilisation, and their advancement in this respect has' been the subject of comment by more than one chronicler. They are said to have been taller, fairer and more athletic than Maoris elsewhere; their canoes larger and more richly carved and ornamented; their houses better and more numerous. Furthermore, they had sensed the force of the maxim, "Si vis pacem, para helium’’;' they were always prepared, and ready at 'any time to present a united front to the Ngapuhi invader. So it was that up to a late period, invasion had passed them by, and the Waiheke Channel and western shore had been respected by the raiders, who seem usually to have entered the Gulf by Cape Colville and the Barrier, and to have devastated the coast of the

! peninsula. The ship “Coromandel,” from which the peninsula is named, was off the coast in 1820, and found ! the natives there in a state of unimaginable misery and squalor, existing in barren inland fastnesses and scarcely ‘daring #0 approach the shores, i Blit -to HOngi Hika, the continued existence of Mauinaina and Totara was- an eyesore and a reproach ; his haughty spirit could brook nothing that-.ihe -could not conquer. So it was that on his return from England, it was against Mauinaina that he first turned to account his muskets. It w*as In November, 1822, that Hongi arrived at the Tamaki, and camped before the pah. The defenders were surprised, for his visit was as unexpected as it was unwelcome. However, they knew no cause; of quarrel, and resolved to put the best face, on the matter. They came out with gifts and peace offerings; they welcomed Hongi as a guest and a kinsman. .Would he deign to join them in> a feast? Hongi was sufficiently gracious. He accepted the giftsL On the matter of the feast he was'grimly silent. 'He was thinking of ■a feast of another kind. So matters remained for a few days, and Hongi seems to have been in two minds. Perhaps; he was a little softened by the [gifts, jberhaps a little impressed by the.:property of the people, or by the exhortations of Mr Marsden, to which ! hq had no doub.t but lately listened. It 'sefemed he had made up his mind to spare. '* But; unluckily, 'Hongi ha.d a wife> .Kiri, a woman blind, bloodthirsty and bitter. Like Jezebel of old, she assailed the conjugal ear with reproaches—were not these people given him to klay, and not to spare? What foolish talk was' this? So, on a still summer morning, the deed was done; Mauinaina and its people \Vere reduced to ashes and scattered bones.

| The story of the massacre is a little alleviated by the deeds of one Te Ranga Whenua, a “toa” of Ngati Paoa. This man, surprised by the attackers, seized a carpenter’s adze and defended himself right valiantly. Hongi, as it happened, had caught his foot in the palisade. and was trapped. Te Ranga advanced upon him, adze up-raised, but Hongi had pistols at his belt, and drew them. Te Ranga, seeing attack hopeless, turned and plunged, adze and all, into the river and swam over—but not to escape. For one; Te Ihi of Ngapuhi, shouting across, challenged him to single combat, and Te Ranga swam ba'ck.. A ring was formed, and ensued a terrific combat, hatchet against adze. The story ought, of course, to end in victory for the adze, but there is a duty to veracity. A left-handed blow of the hatchet laid the champion low : —and so ended Mauinaina. The work of devastation completed, Hongi and his war party paddled southward to deal with Ngati Maru, at the Totara Pah. Totara . was a fortress of extraordinary strength, and never in its history had it been reduced. Indeed, not many years before, it had withstood a siege of the combined forces of the Waikato tribes, when, as the legend picturesquely puts it, the sun could not shine on the .earth for the multitude of besiegers. But the earlier besiegers had no muskets, whilst Hongi had an ample supply. The besieged are said to have possessed an old musket, but to have understood its use so vaguely that, without loading it, they levelled it/at Hongi, while the tohungas offered up prayers that it would go off and slay him. The fact that it did not do so might have enlightened its proprietor as to the fallacy of fanaticism and superstition, and perhaps have shaken their faith in tohungaism, but, unfortunately, they were all too soon deprived of any opportunity of amending their beliefs. Hongi, doubting his ability to carry the pah by direct assault, resorted to treachery. He approached Ngati Maru in friendly guise and asked for a greenstone mere as the price of peace. The mere was gladly surrendered, and Hongi, with assurance of good faith, withdrew; but like the Greeks at Troy, only to return to ambush. A man came out of the pah. Hongi promptly shot him. The sound of the single shot brought all the warriors of the pah running out to see what had happened. They thought Hongi had gone. He had not. A volley or two fired into their unarmed ranks laid most of them low. and Hongi took the pah. It is said that here, again, as at Mauinaina, Hongi was inspired to treachery and atrocity by his blind wife Kiri, but I doubt very much if he was in need of inspiration. Hongi was a great warrior but it would be a mistake to impute him any exalted sentiments of chivalry. Though dignified in manner and appearance, he was really neither an amiable nor a gracious person. For

example, at Totara Pah, after it was reduced, he is said to have commanded, in ambiguous terms, two chiefs of the place to sing a farewell to their tribes. Hongi sat and listened to their performance with, every sign of interest and approbation. At the conclusion of the song, he rose and knocked both songsters on the'head with his mere. So passed the glory of Ngati Paoa and Ngati Maru, the immediate predecessors in title of the citizens of Auckland and its environs. , •/