“ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO”

Evening Star, Issue 23372, 15 September 1939, Page 3

“ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO”

COLONEL WAKEFIELD BUYS WELLINGTON MAORI CHIEFS EAGER TO SELL THE TORY AT ANCHOR IN THE HARBOUR. On September 20 one hundred years ago the New Zealand Coiutpany advance ship Tory glided in to her anchorage between Somes Island and Petone Beach. The principal chiefs, Te Puni and Wharepquri, had come on board while the ship was moving up the harbour, and they spent the night on board, reporting the visit o) the Wesleyan mission ship which had called in Julv. In 1839 the people of Port Nicholson were comparatively uncorrupted by white contacts, except for the few who had been employed in the Cloudy Bay whalers settlements across the water. They were not used to European trade goods, and were consequently eager to sell their land for useful and ornamental objects. There was only one white man living with them._ They looked forward to more to raise their standard of living. LONG KOREROS ABOUT THE SALE OF LAND. The Port Nicholson chiefs did not agree to sell their lands without due consideration. The first discussion was held on September 21. On the same day Colonel William Wakefield and the whaler-interpreter, Dicky Barrett, were paddled up the Hutt (River in a Maori canoe, and formed a very good opinion of the country in the valley. On September 23 the Tory party rowed down the harbour to Wharepouri s home at Ngahauranga, where the chief himself was discovered working at a 60ft canoe. Two canoes came in from the southern end of the harbour. A korero was held on the burning subject of land sales, for word of Colonel Wakefield’s intentions had gone round the harbour as if by invisible telegraph. The vigorous Pnakawa opposed the sale. The aged Matangi supported it. Next day the furious discussion was renewed at Petone, Puakawa still filling the part of devil s advocate. His argument that the whites would come and drive out the Maoris was countered by a reference to the provision for Native reserves, and by the end of the day the chiefs ijaad some to decision?

DIVIDING THE SPOIL. On September 25 there was a display of the trade goods that would form the price of the sale on the deck of the Tory, but so many Natives crowded on board that the ship had to be cleared. Next day the chiefs and their sons came on board alone to inspect the goods. Puakawa took advantage of the occasion to urge again the folly of selling. “ What will you say when you find that you have parted with your land from the Rimurapa to the Turakirae, and from the Tararua to the seaF ” he asked. On September 27, however, the chiefs came on board to divide the price among their tribes, Wharepouri supervising the whole operation. The goods were divided into six main portions. Wi Tako, son of the Pipitea chief, received the share of that hapu._ Tariugakuri took charge of the Ivaiwharawhara share, while the venerable To Puni received for Petone. Wharepouri distributed the Ngahauranga share, and sent a share, purposely made smaller than the rest, to the slave tribe at Te Aro. Puakawa, though he had so vehemently opposed the sale, condescended to take his portion of goods. These were the usual miscellaneous parcel of trade goods—loo red blankets, 100 muskets, tobacco, 48 iron pots, gunpowder, cartridges, lead, shirts, trousers, 60 red nightcaps, lengths of cloth, two dozen pocket handkerchiefs, one dozen hats, 2!b beads, 100 yards of ribbon, two suits of superfine clothes, one dozen shaving boxes and brushes, one dozen sticks of sealing wax, and numerous other useful or ornamental articles. A DINNER AND A FEAST. Before they went ashore the chiefs signed a deed of sale drawn up on the model of those used by missionaries buying laud in the north. Wharepouri and Te Puni came to dinner on board I rather self-conscious in their new Euro--1 pean suits. Both chiefs had been to : Sydney, and they were anxious to asI sume the civilisation of the white man i at the earliest (possible moment. However, they soon shed some of their European garments. On September 30 the whole transaction was celebrated by a feast given by the Tory party on Petone Beach, The New Zealand flag was hoisted and saluted with 21 guns. A largo party of natives obliged with a ferocious pero-pero, or war dance, and then numbers of Maoris of both sexes gave a halka, accompanied by appropriate song. The recently-distributed trade goods made an obvious contribution to the colour of the scene. While the Maoris sat down to roast pork the white gentlemen pledged the chiefs and people of Port Nicholson in P bump <Mi» to sekioK

formal possession of the land they had bought. , The Tory stayed a few days longer, the ship’s company fishing in Lowry Bay or shooting pigeons on the hills behind Petone. Before they left they set up some boards here and there inscribed “ New Zealand Land Company,” an act typical of the European’s sadly particularist attitude towards land, which was still to cause trouble with the communal-minded Maori who had so freely welcomed the white man and his attractive trade goods. .