AN OLD-TIME MARRIAGE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 269, 10 February 1941, Page 8

AN OLD-TIME MARRIAGE

MAORI AND PAKEHA AT WHAKATANE IN 1845 Did you know that nearly a hundred 3 r ears ago Whakatane was the home of Philip Tapscll, one of the most interesting pakeha traders of early New Zealand days. Tapscll Vvas married at Whakatane in 1845 to a lady of the Arawa tribe. The

marriage ceremony was performed by Bishop Pomjiallier.

Tapscll's original name was Hans Hoinman Felk; he took the name Philip Tapsell when lie entered the British merchant service in order to pass as a Manxman, on account of his accent. He had served in the Danish Navy against Britain and Sweden; he did not serve in the British Navy, as stated in the book under notice. At one time he w r as in command of a privateer ship in the Baltic, an:l later was a prisoner of war in Sweden. Such are some of the facts about a very remarkable and fine man, who was one. of the best types of traders on the New Zealand coast in the wild old days when so much depended on the masterful and fearless character of the pakeha-Maori settler who was a little king among the people. Married Three Times. Some of the facts about Tapsell and his marriages—he was three times legally married to Miaori wives ■ —have been placed on record by Mr James Cowan, the noted writer on New Zealand history. In 1823 Mr Tapsell, who was then chief mate of the whaling ship Asp, was married to a young woman of the Ngapuhi tribe named Maria Ringa. The marriage took place at O'ihi (where the Marsden Cross now stands at the Bay of Islands), and the missionary who united the pair was the Rev. ! Thomas Kendall. The date in the Church records is June 23, 1823. The marriage was a very short-lived affair; the bride ran away and disappeared soon after the ceremony: Tapsell went to sea. and when he returned some vears later he Avas'told that she AA r as dead.

In 1830. when he had settled in New Zealand as a trader, he ried another Ngapuhi woman, a

sister of the chief, Waikato, who had visited England in 1820 with Hongi Hika. It Avas at this marriage (which took place at Kerikcri, not Kororarcka) that Mr Marsden was the officiating clergyman. In the "Marsden Journals" this.young cliieftainess is described as of "very amiable disposition" "a very fine young woman", she spoke English pretty well, having lived with a missionary family. She died at Maketu, after.a brief married life, to the great grief of Tapsell. He enclosed her body in a box which he tarred and caulked in his ship-shape way, and took it back to the Bay of Islands in a small craft, and the sister of Waikato was laid to rest on a hilltop above Oihi. Christenings and a Wedding. It was later that Tapsell married Hine-i-turama, the great lady of the Arawa. This union ay as without benefit of cleigy until Tapsell and his wife went to live at Whakatane, where he bought flax from the

Maoris. One day—the date is uncertain, but it wns about 1845—the Roman Catholic Bishop Poinpallier arrived at Whafcatane in his small schooner, on a cruise of visitation from the Bay of Islands. He visited the trader, and, seeing a family of little half-castes, asked Tapsell if they had been christened. The dialogue which follows was narrated by Tapsell himself in 18(59: "Oh, yes," he said: "T christened them myself. The missionaries refused to do it." J

"Those missionaries," said the good Bishop, "did not know their duty. You have done Avell in christening them yourself. But if you like I will christen them myself now and marry you afterwards." "That is just what I want, sir," said Tapseli. "Where will you have it done?" asked the Bishop.

"Not indoors, but out in the open r, where till hands can see it,"

Avas the trader's reply. And there in the garden, in front of the. thatched whare. with the tribe gathered round, the children first were christened, and then the parents were married by the Bishop; and such was the third wedding of Tapseli. It is from this union that the- present.Whnnau—a-Tapi-hana, the offspring of Tapseli, are

descended

Continued at foot p v evimr-