TE HEUHEU'S LAST WISH

Te Ao Hou, December 1961, Page 32

TE HEUHEU'S LAST WISH The 17,620 acres of the Puketapu 3A Block lie between Taumarunui and Tokaanu. Until the second world war, the district was very isolated indeed, so that Puketapu's excellent stands of totara, rimu, matai, kahikatea, miro and tanekaha went unexploited. The building of the Taumaru-

nui-Tokaanu highway suddenly brought the timber within easy reach of a railway town. In the early forties, timber-cutting grants were made to two private firms who extracted some 18 million H.D. under war regulations. At this time Mr Pei Jones, and his younger brothers Toriwai and Walter, began to make plans. The two younger men had a great deal of logging experience. They thought the Maori owners could get at least twice as much royalties if they cut their own bush. The owners of Puketapu 3A are 600 members of the Tuwharetoa tribe whose paramount chief was the late Hoani Te Heuheu, a very ill man at that time. Some of the principal leaders of the tribe met at his home at Waihi and were in favour of forming a timber incorporation. Before Pei Jones left Waihi, the old chief spoke to him in his sick room. He said he was keenly interested in the idea and Pei should go ahead with it. The office in Taumarunui from which the affairs of the incorporation are still directed. Mr Pei Te Hurinui Jones. Managing Secretary of the Incorporation, businessman, tribal leader, scholar (Photographs: P. A. Blank)

Puketapu advertises its wares at the industrial fair at Eltham, where the incorporation maintains a joinery factory as well as a mill. The picture shows the variety of products being marketed. Taringamotu Mill. (Photograph: P. A. Blank)

Mr Walter Diamond, yard foreman at the Taringamotu Mill of the Puketapu Incorporation. His main interest outside working hours is deerstalking with bow and arrows. He was the founder of the Taumarunui Branch of the N.Z. Deerstalkers Association, of which he is still an eRecutive member. (Photograph: P. A. Blank) Hoani Te Heuheu died within a fortnight of this visit. During the tangi the subject of the timber incorporation was raised again. Recalling what Hoani had said on his deathbed, Pei Jones, Paterika Hura and Te Ngaronui Jones set out on a countryside tour to get the written consents of the owners of the majority of the shares. The government's reaction to this move was not exactly one of wild delight. There had been too many such ventures before which had ended in financial disaster and great loss to the Maori beneficiaries. The government soon came with what seemed then a reasonable offer for the Maoriowned timber in that district. Mr Skinner, the Minister of Forests, made a personal visit to Waihi, the centre of Tuwharetoa, in 1945, offering £100,000 as deposit and royalties of 6/- per 100 H.D. for totara and 3/- for other species. The offer made, the Ministerial party withdrew. A meeting of owners was then held which rejected the government's offer. The Minister of Forests accepted the rejection with good grace and wished the incorporation well. Shortly afterwards, Judge Dykes made a Maori Land Court order establishing the incorporation.