TE WHAITI-NUI-A-TOI

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 102, 20 December 1939, Page 2

TE WHAITI-NUI-A-TOI

whakamoe, of Tuhoe. This was a golden opportunity to avenge themselves and they carried the body tt> Oturoro, at Te Whaiti. There the body was suspended from a tree and dismembered; the flesh was eaten and the bones used for the points of bird'-spears. On hearing of this the Tuhoe attacked these people at Oturoto, slaying several of them, including the chief, Mamanga. It is said that this party was also "under the command of Te Arohana..

YEARS OF HISTORY IN THE TE WHASTI DISTRICT

It was not the actual visit of Hape and his party of NgatiManawa to Ruatahuna. that caused the trouble which was to last for so many years'; it was after the visit, when Hape and his band, returning to their homes on the lower Whiri-na-ki, halted on the Tahua-roa range and sending the non-com-bajtant members of his party home Hape decided to return to the valley of Ruatahuna, He had decided that the tribe so recently his hosts should suffer but history has recorded no reason for his decision.

Near Te Umu-toi. just above the large carved house of Matatua, at Ruatahuna, Hape-horo-marama and his warriors slew several of the tribe, including a chief, Tahaki'and it was perhaps unfortunate for the Nga-ti-Manawa, that they captured Tahaki's widow, Whakarotu, and allowed her to live;

They were doubly unfortunate in that they released Whakarotu from their custody at Oputara and allowed her to return home to Ruatahuna. Perhaps they had too much confidence in themselves. Tahaki's widow, on arrival at her home, resolved that the death of her husband should be avenged. Appearing before the assembled people of Ruatahuna, clutching her breasts and giving way to her grief in a violent manner, she demanded blood vengeance on the slay ers of Tahaki.

But the bush-men of Ruatahuna doubted their ability to give her all she wished and so Whakarotu sent a token to Te Arohana, of the lower Whakatane, craving armed assistance. So this tribe got its fighting men together and started from Nga Mahanga to avenge the death of Tahaki.

This force, together with those of the Ruatahuna willing enough, marched under Te Aro hana and Tu-tonga to attack Ngati-Manawa at Whiri-naki, where they found that people together with Ngati-Apa, living in the Oputara pa. Crossing the main range west of the Whakatane River, the force descended the. spur between Koko-tahi and Oirakau and proceeded to the attack.

Two day's seige of the pa produced nothing conclusive a.nd a resort to strategy was necessary Thus, on the third day, the attacking* party assembled on the flat land just beneath the fort, there executed a posture dance.

This was done with the idea of distracting the attention, of the garrison and the plan succeeded

After some time the chief Hape and a score of warriors left the pa and descended the spur in order to get a better view of the entertainment. Forgetful and dumb they were! A few minutes and the Tuhoe braves, dropping their haka, dashed up the slope to cut off Hape and his companions. This they did, and the careless spectators were slain.

It was a comparatively easy matter after these warriors were disposed of, for the Tuhoe to force the fort and they took it with considerable slaughter. As was usual, however, there were some: who escaped and among' them was Te Aroakapa, a'Ngati-Manawa chief, who fled down the flat. But he was pursued and caught where the steep bluff descends sharply to the Whiri-Naki River. Here he was killed.

The Tuhoe force returned to Ruatahuna and was accorded a great reception. Whakarotu, wid ow of the slain chief Tahakianina, made over to Te Arohana that block of land on the east side of the Whakatane River between the Opuhou stream at the Matafcua village and the Ma-haki-rua at O-haua-te-rangi at the best piece of land in the Ruatahuna district. This was in recognition of Te Arohana's services. After the fall of Oputara some of the Ngati-Manawa, people, offspring of Matanga, found and exhumed the .body of Ta-