SVEN BERGGREN IN NEW ZEALAND

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 3, Issue 3, 1 November 1970, Page 143

SVEN BERGGREN IN NEW ZEALAND

Section II

TAURANGA AND ROTORUA (continued from vol 3 no 1 P 42)

After some days in Auckland Berggren arrived in Tauranga by sea on 20 December 1874. He seems to have accepted the enforced break of the Christmas season and in his journal lets himself go in recording impressions and incidents more fully and fluently than on any previous occasion. Appropriately he described the Maori celebrations, the Boxing Day carnival - and the Europeans. While the events are probably little different from other end-of-year festivities which would have been reported in the Bay of Plenty Times, no file covering Berggren’s visit appears to have survived. Not that Mr Langbridge or any part-time contributor would have viewed the contemporary scene quite with Berggren’s vision, which, after all, is why we have invited attention to him.

The following extracts from his diary, which it has seemed desirable to leave in journal form, are from the end of his Diary no 3 (to 27 December) and the commencement of Diary no 4. Diary no 4 is supplemented by separate Notes of New Zealand visit 1874-5. The paragraphs Tauranga, In Oropi and Rotorua have been added in square brackets at the end of this section. Wednesday 23 December. Excursion with Silver 1 in his boat to his island Motuhoa. 2 Strong adverse wind. The captain a tattooed Maori. He was bearing up against the wind. Silver’s kotiro ‘Pourangi’, stupid. On the beach some Maoris were painting a boat for the yacht-races. A dark, tattooed man, eating some stinking corn out of a tin mug ‘kapai tena’ and with a shell as his plate. . . . Walked with Silver up to a Tapu place, where peaches and high grass were growing. An old pah with an old sap where peaches now grew and their trunks, dead or living were now forming a thicket, like Pinus Punito [?]... On a wooden frame, dry sharks were hanging, their bellies full of oil and full of flesh - large wheat cultivations. Potatoes and Kumaras. Dinner in the house of our guide’s. Fish, potatoes, coffee and bread. Silver left a bit of fish on his plate, and a Maori pointed to it when he thought he was unnoticed and showed it to the others. This is a sign of an undignified man. The guests always start to eat first and either finish their meal or get well into it before their hosts start eating and this happened all the time, since they ought to have an appetite so that nothing should be left of the food that had been prepared. The women always stay outside and hardly pop their heads within the door when they hand in the food. Mats spread

out of course. Silver could get the chief’s . . . ‘Kotiro’. Went for an excursion out into the settlement. . . . Came to Tauranga on the Monday. Then into a peach tree forest - a red-yellow haired (brown in the sunlight) halfcast - group on the hillside to the north, peeling potatoes, had a gulp of wine made from Coriaria-berries (was sick after dinner, possibly because of this, possibly because of the tehe . . . kauf ka diarrhoea). Promised to meet in Tauranga. Kapai, soft and heavy, the returning raft aground in the evening at 8 o’clock in the moonlight. Difficult to get afloat. Silver and the Maori in the water, while I was shoving along. Neither now nor on the crossing of the lake did the kotiro lose her cheerfulness . . . landed at the pah just on the other side Tauranga (opposite T.)

Thursday 24 December. Went by boat at io o’clock to the settlement [Mohitipu?]. Wide wheat plantations, potatoes and kumaras. Walking a long way before finding a road. As usual, I could not see a single person around the settlement. Came suddenly to a spot from which there was a good view. A Maori saw me, peeping out dressed only in a shirt; his people were moulding up the kumaras - he came towards me on to the road; I jumped over the fence in order to meet him. Got a drink of water and when asked, I promised to give him ‘wai pirau’ and in return he came to Tauranga; then he accompanied me for one mile, showing me the way to the sea.

(As I write this (Sunday after Christmas) I can see in the street a redbearded, foppish but pleasant-looking Scotsman going to Church with his family. He carries four hymnbooks, gilt-edged and shining in his gloved hand, which he holds in front of him in the same manner in which the barmaid carries her tray - In order to show himself off as much as possible he turns back to drag his dog, who wants to come along too, back to his house!!! It is good form, it furthers one’s satisfaction and bliss: but the aim is worldly. If one passes judgement on a sermon, it is only the form that one considers, the outer form, the turns and phrases of the preacher, how he has approached the subject and how he has treated it - but never does one hear anything about the moral effect, about how it has affected one’s heart - Religion has a purely worldly end in this people - a cult - It cannot touch a heart that does not exist.)

‘Come back and get some dinner’ he said to me, he was a missionary, limping, tattooed. Went to the sea shore across the swamps and Manuka moor, the Maketu road. Sandy beach, with Convolvulus, Cassinia, Coprosma, Desmoschoenus and other grasses, many shells but no algae. He saw me when I returned, called out to me, waving his hat, This one a utu of tekau bobs, but Ahea ‘Toana’ - by and by . . . ‘Koia-apopo-ki Tauranga’. But first the day for the races - Ki ta moenga au

i ano - the other one a utu of i\ bobs showing to te moenga i te kainga, and wanted - otira ka kitenga tangata, which was looked for and thus returned. He was a missionary . . . His wahine 2| bob disappeared. He brought me in a canoe to Tauranga and got bobs. Friday 25 December. Christmas day - Good dinner with Champagne at Cook’s hotel where I stayed. After dinner Langbridge, 3 newspaper editor, offered a bottle of Champagne. Saturday 26 December. Boxing Day - Holy Day - Races - (1) Rowing race - two canoes (2) Yacht race - schooners and boats (3) Horse racing on the beach (4) Men running race on the beach (5) As above, but with boys (6) Rowing race, in war canoes with 12 pairs of oars (7) Catching of a pig in a sack, hanging from a mast sticking out from the prow of a boat.

Wonderful sunshine on this midsummer day over Tauranga harbour. Its azure blue (a colour of the South) surface more beautiful than usual. The constant breeze was not missing, however. The peninsula rising outside the harbour was at its fairest, and the wheat fields beautifully green climbing the mountain sides, cultivated by some industrious Maoris and the swelling, soft, swinging willows. Beautiful peach trees on the shore stand out as . . . the grey-brown colour typical of New Zealand and that you find on the mountains covered with fern and manuka - and at a distance other more deeper bluish forest-covered mountains. A row of Pohutukawas (Christmas tree) with their blood red crowns draw a line along the shores of the peninsula and many of the houses in Tauranga have their windows and walls decorated with this. Already early in the morning one could notice a bustling throng of people at a distance, boats with white sails, paddling canoes coming from all places inhabited by the natives and on the beach riders . . . And soon the whole beach is full of anchored canoes (two brown war canoes ...)... and boats. Groups of women, men and children squatting down on the green grass, on the sandy beach etc. A more colourful scene can rarely be seen. The women by themselves, the men by themselves, the young men in groups among both men and women, but mostly walking around, foppishly dressed. The children stay with those to whom they belong and the young beauties sit apart from the others in groups according to [social] position, descent and dress. The free and graceful movements of the Maoris, the lively conversations... the wider groups mixed with Europeans often dressed in clothes adapted to the season and the climate, all this makes a colourful picture. But the native part of it is by far the most appealing to look at, because here one is able to see all the different ways of adapting the original

costumes to the foppish European ways of dressing with black top-hats, silk waistcoats and scarves and fine white linen and the same [?] with the native women, (i) First, as far as the men are concerned - one sees them with a bare head, tattooed naturally, greenstone earrings, wool or linen shirts and shawls around the waist hanging down to the calves and bare feet. (2) the same plus felt hat and linen trousers, bare feet. (3) the same but a shawl over the shoulders. (4) Only shirt and a shawl or (more seldom) a blanket covering the whole body and which is held together on the shoulder, sometimes a patchwork quilt made up from cotton squares. Now ... all sorts of mixtures such as a black top-hat, black cloth coat, but a dirty woollen shirt without a collar and a bare chest, linen trousers, bare feet. Generally the feet seem to be the last part of the body to be covered, while the shoulders, after the waist, get covered first. The European workers in the Colony always have boots but often bare arms. Some carry a sharp edged greenstone club, hidden underneath the cloak . . . the only one of the owner’s . . . dressed in a shawl over the shoulders and another shawl around the waist. One had brought a fencing weapon decorated with feathers. They seem to have a preference for the black cloth coat but also for suits, grey, and grey top-hats with crape bands!!

The women always wear dresses, often a jacket on top, not seldom silk dresses, often in bright colours but also much white and black. A half fan-shaped hair ornament made of feathers that I saw for the first time here on women and children. Sometimes just three feathers put in in different ways. The elegant young people in full European attire with shoes and white stockings and flower hats, but some of them bare-foot. Their love for bright clothes, their free and graceful gait, the forceful bearing of the men, all this makes the mixture of people a strange and interesting thing to watch. The rowing was vigorous between the competing canoes. The men naked, with only a girdle, following an ancient custom. One was standing up in the middle of the canoe, commanding and encouraging the others. . . swinging his club. ‘Ehoa, Ehoa, haere maf was called out from the shores, and when they had reached the goal and a salute announced that the race was finished, a glistening oar was raised in the winning canoe by a strong-looking man with a victorious expression. And when the redbrown crowd jumped into the water and waded ashore with their oars, they grouped themselves on the beach in order to start a war dance, which did not last long, since one of the men asked for .£io, which was not collected. When the sun was setting, there was general departure and the white sailing boats of the natives reached their own shores at the same time as the sun disappeared below the waves of the Pacific Ocean. During this picturesque departure, a Maori woman in civilised [?]

dress, was carried as a sack on the back of her partner while . . . [another?] carried onboard one of the men who did not want to wet his pants or his boots. Sunday 27 December. Today everything is just like an ordinary Sunday here; quiet, boring. Monday 28 December. In the English character religion has a superficial, cold form.

Often this type of motivation: you ‘beat’ me, I feel inferior to you, but here is a neutral spot where we both bend our knees, here I want to be superior to you and then you are beaten since those things that elsewhere push you forward such as energy, riches etc. are here counted for nothing and I have as much as you - Tuesday 29 December ... Left Tauranga by coach at 6.30 in the morningthe only passenger. Cultivated fields near the town but also much fern. The ground consists of dry alluvial sand, very light but still fertile . . . The river has steep banks just as in Taupo ... The ground sloping down evenly, the upper part consisting of white pipe-clay and yellow clay. Then into the bush with a grey-violet rock, easy to carve and because of this not easily weathering. A whole gorge of this rock in the bush with vertical sides and in the valley a little river. From Tauranga to Orope many Coriaria species mixed with fern and growing high up onto the mountain sides in rounded shrubs more abundantly than I have ever seen before. To the left on the side towards the sea the mountains become higher, likewise to the right to . . . Colville Peninsula . . . The bush very luxuriant with lianes. By the road as always

Aristotclia and Fuchsia . . . The Tawa is particularly abundant throughout the bush - enormous trees especially on the western side. Of the coniferous trees mostly Dacr cupr, thereafter Podoc more seldom. Spicat [?] and even more seldom Totara [?]. Panax Col., Schleffera, Rata, Hinau, Griss lucida higher up Weinmannia and Ixerba in many mixed . . . The road zigzags up to the top. The barometer down to 28.50 from 30 in Tauranga. When the top of the hill is behind us we go downwards. Soon we are at the end of the bush and Rotorua with Mokoia expand in front of me as well as the lime-like hill of Whakarewarewa. There is a flat field between the mountain Nga ? [Ngongotaha] and the lake . . . where on both sides of the road there are several boiling pools looking like little lakes with grey or white water, and also many boiling mudholes. One turns over the bridge and is met by natives, lost my hat which is picked up by Maori boys who come to the hotel to get paid and who understand to divide my belongings in 3 parts in order to carry them some steps to the other hotel in Ohinemutu. Friday 1 January 1875 (Frederick). Got my foot in a hot pool in Paterika’s house

Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 January. Rough and cold easterly wind and a heavy rain. The English government docs not want and the English people are not able to understand other than what is useful. Saturday 16 January. Left Ohinemutu at 6 o’clock and came to Tapuaeharuru Monday 18 January. On horseback with Davies, Young and Warbrake [sic] to Omatangi. Wednesday 20 January. Returned from Omatangi to Tapuaeharru. Thursday 21 January. Left in the steamship Victoria for Tokano where I arrived at 6 p.m. In Ohinemutu Capt. Mair and 50 men ‘native force’. Hakas in the evening at Mair’s. The more important of the military there - Taipoa, the chief and Pererika. More lively than it was in September, more people and more young people - still many were absent - more summer clothes. Boys on horses. The little chief - halfcast and adopted by Ngahuruhuru [?] begged for sixpence all the time. Boys asked to be paid for picking up my hat. Storekeepers, [?] Allom and Dr Cowan 4 with native wives. Dancing in Wilson’s new house. Haka in the meeting house, the sick Mr Carter from Australia. The rich . . . from there too [Australia] have both stayed at Tikitere. The rest of the company mere oafs with shirts patched all over and in shirtsleeves or barefoot with a shawl around the waist a la Maori - walked in .... slippers. Got the letters from [home] . . . Old Tairua ‘ka kino kahore riwai kahore moni’ A boy fencing . . . the young people ask if wahine are desired. Bathing in the lake shamelessly.

Races on the 14th and sports on the 15 th January in this place. Philips in a red coat. Silver plays a very minor role, Maori the important person here. Contributed with -£l. First two men. (2) the same (3) . . . more (4) twice round the course. Then the military and finally Maoris and Maori women. Many fell off their horses. Two hurdles to jump over. Racing is just the thing to amuse Maoris and this brings money to the hotel owners - mostly Pakeha took part. Many Maoris from Maketu and Paeroa with horseloads of potatoes and pork, hanging . . . the trees and the church and the school and eat raw potatoes and peaches that were not yet ripe. Colourful groups the red and white on the women, less colourful clothes at home.

I could not see Edward Rodger 5 nor Taipo with his bare legs during the first day. But the elegant Parerika was faithful at the bar. Both publicans . . . between Ohinemutu and Whakarewarewa. Terrible noise. Maoris laughing. A stand had been built for the judges. Many drunks. The Maoris unmanageable, hitting and kicking and showing their ill will against Pakeha. But otherwise more calm than in a group of drunken Europeans. The women gather around a reeling drunk

Maori . . . and stands on his head . . . holes and . . . himself in the fat. Loud cheers for the winners ‘Haere mai’ - Many in silk . . . with a handkerchief on . . . boots and only a few with bare feet. The winning Maori girl in a red jacket and her hair streaming in the wind (riding astride) came a long way before the others. One of them fell off and the polite . . . and a lot of people were on the spot immediately. A lot of Tauranga [ale] was consumed. The people were sitting on stones (silicone blocks), the spectators in different groups on a little hill. Pipes were lit and passed from mouth to mouth. Such is the Maori . . . Groups according to family or village. One could often see them rub their noses together. First a handshake, then they pressed their noses together, then another handshake, then they part in silence, or perhaps there are some wailing sounds during the ‘nose rubbing’ about what has taken place since they last met. Already early in the morning everybody was up and about, shouting and talking and Scott said that yesterday everyone had been a bit flustered and full of ideas for the races.

The following day at one o’clock there were sports. Not nearly as many people watching and many in their working clothes and with bare feet, (i) boys race (2) girls race (Scott’s [daughter?] won) (3) racing two by two with legs tied together (4) riding on each other’s backs running on all fours (5) putting sticks through rings while riding. A halfcast man was the most skilful at this. One Maori behaved very clumsily; Skinner likewise. Finally a swimming contest. Earlier there had also been some fencing with Maori type staffs. An old man, tattooed and naked except for a linen cloth tied around his waist, stepped forward. No one wanted to fence. The Maoris easily forget their old customs. Finally a man, not tattooed, about 30 years old stepped forward and thrust his staff against the old man’s chest. Shouts of ‘Patu, patu’ were heard. . . . tightly with the staff in one hand and the other hand hanging straight down with rigidly separated fingers, moving now to the right and now to the left, the staff is forcefully grasped and thrust forward. The tongue is poked out, the features are distorted, the eyes wide open in order to give the face as terrifying a look as possible and frighten the adversary. There had also been boxing earlier, a white man and a Maori. Like ordinary boxing . . . The place for the sports was alongside the river with the camp in the background. The road leads from Ohinemutu, very near Whakarewarewa, and when I had come up through the pass I was met by the sight of grass covered fields when . . . earlier were only Ferns and Manuka. Then grass meadows alternate with Ferns. But around Tapuaeharuru there is grass and Manuka, while between Opotiki [?] there is only grass. Soon we reach the high mountain edge in the west (Horohoro?) and just in front of this is Pacroa which as well as Orakeikorako can be seen to be not far from the bridge across the Waikato river and where the horses

are changed and where dinner, consisting of boiled eggs, bread and butter and tea can be obtained for 2/-. The coachman [bought] one bottle of Rum for 10/- I pass some small Maori cultivations and a pah. A group of completely naked Maori children. A field ... at Waikato (see map). Near Waikato a beautifully shaped conelike mountain; many blocks spread all over the place, and the beautiful, swift river and all the way from Waikato to Taupo these very peculiar deep furrows (riverbeds) [diagram]. Often like terraces rising . . . from the ground. Also I pass the Tuahuru (?) mountain and advance towards Opepe where the road leads through just such a canal. Sunday 17 January. Lunch together with the two Australians . . . with Davies 6 and Young to Pihipi’s 7 place (ex postmaster). He came towards us all dressed up in an elegant blue uniform jacket with a kind of gold embroidered collar that he had obtained from the government. He received us outside at first and after a little while gave a speech full of polite allusions to Pakeha ‘they are the ornaments of the Maoris’ and other beautiful things ‘The Whare was greeting the subjects of the Queen’. Then reply from first one and then the other of the Australians adorning their speeches with images . . . ‘Kapai’ Pihipi said when the images pleased him. Then, on behalf of the ladies, one of the Australians greeted Mrs Pihipi, who without embarrassment and with great eloquence had welcomed the ladies (a Mrs Neil and a Mrs Hastey [?]) The lunch was excellent; fried chicken, fish and roast pork. The Pah and the houses were inspected. Afterwards we went to the Huka waterfall. We discussed the matter of boats and Young asked whether we would be allowed to take the big boat. Finally Davies, Kleote [?] and I went in a canoe which the fat Pihipi himself was rowing together with another Maori. A fascinating trip in a rapid pace on the beautiful, blue Waikato’s waves; small islands, potato cultivations, shores edged with high ferns, bending their tops deep down into the water, the handsome Arundo Australis with its swinging, yellow plumes. High walls . . . white ... we pass the crow’s nest . . . the boiling steam, like an irregular steam engine. Many torrents in places. Finally we land and walk (the others were in the boat) to the field. A narrow furrow (15-20 ft wide) with shimmering white (150 ft approx.) . . . forming a real waterfall . . . beautiful white foam . . .

TAURANGA The man who is in charge of the coach service between Tauranga and Napier (Hannon) is paid -£1,500 a year by the government - he wants sixpence for the road between Taupo and Tauranga . . . Generally not many passengers and the Tokano landlord was in some despair about his future livelihood. Twice a week from Tauranga (Tuesday and Friday) and on the same days from Rotorua to Tauranga. I had an excellent coachman, George; and was the only passenger. Great dif-

ference in the condition of the road now and during the winter. No bush before one comes to Oropi. First one passes Gates Pah. IN OROPI It seems to be an unsuccessful enterprise to build an inn, since only transit passengers and coach travellers come here. The bush is magnificent and there are more ferns and mosses than there usually are in the bush. One species I have not found before. Then all the way through the bush, the road winds itself up the hill which is almost 2,000 ft. Once out of the bush one can see Rotorua and the people on the shore. Came to the bridge; my hat blew off, Maori boys picked it up, later came to the hotel and demanded reward; not one but two, one picked up the hat and the other handed it over.

ROTORUA Nothing much has changed here. The only exception is the military camp and the slightly more violent manners of the population, possibly a result of the warmer season or a result from the amount of money that is in circulation here due to the presence of the military camp. Gilbert Mair 8 ... is now magistrate. He saw me first . . . then he came to the hotel with a newspaper in his hand, I introduced myself and he took up the paper and sat down to read in a corner. I left without a word. Later made an effort to show his botanical activities . . . Generally no pleasant company here . . . churlish manners in more or less everyone. Scott is the best of them. Travellers seem to be dressed in the Maori fashion . . . shirt . . . and bare legs. Cowan (doctor and school-master) has taken possession of. . . those who are married to Maori women arc more or less half wild. Allum seems to be a decent fellow; however. Especially the younger ones are very much given to begging.

NOTES 1 Silver would probably be W. A. Silver who appears in a list of officials for the Tauranga annual regatta, St Patrick’s Day, 17 March 1875 (Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society, no 21, September 1964, p 26) 2 Motuhoa Island, Mr L. W. Melvin tells me, is still under Maori title so if Berggren had not misunderstood the situation Silver’s interest could not have been firmly based. 3 William Bartlett Langbridge with H. W. Penny was the founder in 1872 of the Bay of Plenty Times. 4 Dr Cowan was apparently teacher at Lake Tarawera School in 1873 and at Pukeroa Hill in 1875 (see D. Stafford, Te Arawa, Wellington, Reed, 1967, pps2i, 513.) 4 Edward Roger or Rogers of whom Berggren made an interesting sketch may have been living at Rotorua during this period. 6 Davies would be C. O. Davis who at the time was engaged in Maori Land Court work in Rotorua and Taupo. 7 Pihipi was Poihipi, the well-known chief of Tapuaeharuru or Taupo who was a consistent supporter of the pakeha during the Maori wars. Numerous travellers of the post-war years met him and were indebted to him for hospitality and assistance. 8 Unfortunately the Library’s set of the diaries and notebooks of Captain Gilbert Mair does not appear to contain one for this precise period so we have no record of what he thought of Berggren if he even registered his visit.