MAORI MISSIONARIES BROUGHT THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

Te Ao Hou, March 1959, Page 7

MAORI MISSIONARIES BROUGHT THE CHRISTIAN FAITH The close relationship between the school and the spirit of the community is symbolised by the beautiful site, adjacent to the Uawa River, on which the new school was built. This site is rich in Maori traditions and it was the marae of the Ngati Kuranui hapu for many centuries. The school derives a constant source of water from an old well that belonged to the ancestor Kuranui, many generations ago. The Auckland Museum is now the proud possessor of the wonderfully carved Te Kani meeting house that once graced the marae. An ancient totara whata kai once stood not far from the meeting house and there are still old people alive in the district who can remember passing part of their childhood in Te Kani. This house was erected about 1870 to commemorate the great chief Te Kani who refused the offer of Waikato leaders to make him king of all the Maoris, just as readily as he refused to sign the treaty of Waitangi. Maori middens, abundant shell heaps and an adjacent old cemetery bespeak the close association the school site has had with the original owners of the land. The surrounding hills abound with the evidence of a once numerous Maori population. Numberless house and store pits cover their ridges, while many still retain the ditches and ramparts of fortifications that surrounded the fighting pas. It is said that the preeuropeon Maori enjoyed a most excellent standard of health and we attribute that principally to his diet of sea foods and bird flesh, together with his habit of siting his houses on the ridges as before mentioned. When one inspects these old hill pas it becomes evident that the Maori sited his pas so that they would be warm and well drained. Each house would hold no more than four adults and even the larger houses would be strained to hold more than thirty persons. There may have been much larger houses on the flats but cattle and other stock have obliterated almost all the traces that may have remained. The fighting pas were built to withstand assault and their positions were often very exposed on the very summits of the high hills. Skilful use was made of the natural precipices and the further combination of ditch, mound and walls of pointed stakes made the attacker's task a difficult one indeed. The advent of the European brought trade, muskets, rum, clothes and new diseases. The old Maoris of the district came down to live around the stores and the whaling stations. The threat of intertribal warfare with muskets as the weapons of death caused many of the hapus to aggregate for the common defence, and in the earlier life time of Te Kani a Takirau almost the whole of the people of the district, as far south as Whangara, were banded together at Tolaga Bay for their common defence. The Christian faith was brought to the Ngati Porou at the tribe's own request. A great convocation of the chiefs of the Waiapu sent a chief to the Bay of Islands to learn the new faith direct from the Mission stations there. On his return, four chiefs were selected to carry the word of the new faith to the main centres of the tribe. The Ngati Porou like many other tribes in that time, conducted their own conversion rapidly and effectively without the help of European missionaries. The great majority of the Ngati Porou chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, although, as has been mentioned, their foremost chief, Te Kani a Takirau refused to sign away his sovereignty. Te Kani, however, was not hostile to the Europeans and indeed he extended his protection to the Rev. Baker when the inland hapus journeyed down the river on their canoes with every intention of attacking his simple little mission station.