THE UREWERA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 264, 29 January 1941, Page 8

THE UREWERA

LAND OF THE TUHOE CLAN!

MEMORIES OF TE KOOTI'S RAIDS

The Urcwera is a hill country j bounded to the west by the Rangi- « taiki River, which flows to the near O'potiki, and running almost , as far south as the Napier-Taupo Road. The original inhabitants were called Tuhoc, and were a clan of- the Ngapotiki tribe which arrived some hundreds of years prior to the Great Migration in 1350. Maungapohatu was their mountain fastness, and from it these "children of the mist" sailed forth as raiders on their neigh bours, always extending their territories, and at no lime suffering permanent defeat. They were nevei strong in numbers, but their hearts, were bold, so that it was said of them, "A few of Tuhoe will make the world of Hades laugh." I'n 1818 they first learnt of muskets from coastal people fleeing before Hongi Ika and Tc Morenga, and with mus- | kets they later met their enemies. They preferred to fight well away from their homeland, with their backs protecting Tuhoe, but clashes with the pakeha brought sorrow ) l o Tc Whaiti, to Ruatahuna and Jo Maungapohatu. Exciting Times in the 'Sixties They were the last of the Maoris to accept the pakeha on anything ' like a friendly footing, and although

they embraced Christianity with the same alacrity as did the early Britons, it was in a perverted form which fed their fanatical ardour in the Avars of the 'sixties. When Te Kooti arrived on the East Coast as a martyred leader of exiles after his imprisonment on the Chatham Is->

lands, all Tuhoe leapt to serve him. His lightning raids on the helpless lowland people were their delight, and their loyalty was his safeguard.

Nor is Te Kooti forgotten there Old people remain who could tell o

fearful ambushes, and of the strength and cunning of Te Kooti in the days Avhen bush fighting harried his forces. These old people fought stubbornly for him to the last, even while their women and children were driven from the unprotected pas to starve in the forest. Long after the chasc of Te Kootii ended the pakeha was hated and repulsed. No stranger dared enter luhoeland, the hill people were nursing their wounds.

Never True Agriculturists

Late in the century there came \ amongst them a man who neither' praised nor condemned. This was j the late Mir Klsdon Best. Living ; amongst them, he slowly gained their ] confidence, and was initiated into , many a strange rite. So much did he gather during his stay that for i 30 years he devoted himself to* re- . cording their history and mode of life. We find from him that they 1 were never true agriculturists. The country was, almost everywhere rough and hilly, and everywhere it was too cold for the kumara, the taro and the yam. EVen the cctamon bracken fern was rare, the greatest supplies being obtained after the conquest of part of the shore, of Lake Waikaremoana. Thus their attention was turned to the collecting of roots and berries of the forest, and to the snaring and spear ing of such birds as the kaka, tui and piegon. They were adepls at this work. It is obvious, I lien, that life was* always precarious, and that it could be sustained only by ceaseless industry. Kven now the people suh"terribly when Ihe potato crop ends or Cails, Cor they have lost their old forest lore. Gone, too, is the .briel' period of prosperity in Maungnpohatu, when Run's power was its height; when line cocksfoot was grown for seed in the clearings round the extremely neat kainga. Ragwort has inarched in;, taking a golden victory where never before has a victor lingered. Land Full of Romance

After a visit to Maungapohatu one turns from this hillside village l o the steep backbone of the Iluiarau Range with a sigh that is more for the proud, quiet people in th\i shadow of mountain than for the broiling' climbs that lie ahead, before the vale of Ruatahuna and Te Kooti's meetinghouse at Matntua can be readied. Valley and ridge speak of endless fighting. Ibis land is brimming over with romnnro. right from Waikaremoana to the abj rupf do:;cv.*nt o? the balls' or* the | (CoiV ia c

Kaingarea plains? but' it is also n land of lost endeavour, sad as it narrow valleys when the sun dips m the afternoon sky and the (\enn.-. chill strikes swiftly home. Once old Tuhoe crept into the low sunk wliare jun-is, shutting out darkness and cold, but now modern huts topped with abominable corrugated iron, have come to stay, and an arrogant white ribbon of highway W, cars grinding through the fores! s where the first English ox pi ores.s went warily as umvaaled visl-