EARLIEST WAIRARAPA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1938, Page 7

EARLIEST WAIRARAPA

DISTRICT BEFORE ARRIVAL OF PAKEHAS EVIDENCE OF VAST TOTARA FOREST. FIRE DEVASTATES VALLEY. In the second instalment of a series of articles on early Wairarapa, written specially for the “Wairarapa Times-Age” by Mr Charles Bannister, an interesting account is given of the district in the days before the arrival of Europeans. Mr Bannister states: — In the early 1870’s I had for a friend an aged Maori, named Tukanohi Tamihana, who used to take me with him on his fishing expeditions. ,His campfire stories were wonderful to listen to. He told me that the Wairarapa was once a vast forest of totara trees of a large size. Most of them were “kaikoked.” Kaikaka is derived from dry rot inside, what the millmen call “kaikohed.” Kaikaka is derived from the kakas tearing the top branches (which are always dry on these trees) to pieces to get the grubs. If a bushman sees a totara tree with dry top branches he is wary of it for timber purposes. One very dry summer —it must have been dry as he said there had been no rain for six moons —the kumara crop failed. So they were getting an extra supply of eels from the dried up creeks and rivers. One party was working their way up the Ruamahanga. They had got up as far as Day’s Hill, or Tirohanga as he called it, where they had a camp. This was somewhere about where the Opaki Railway Station is. It was called Mokonui then.

GALE SPREADS FIRE. They had been collecting fish for several days and had left them drying over the smoke when a heavy northwest wind sprung up, blowing the fire about in all directions and setting fire to the bark on the totara trees. The gale lasted for several days, driving the fire from one end of the valley to the other. This killed most of the bush in the Wairarapa, except in the damper parts, which were of matai and white pine. Once the bush was killed it was only a matter of time and subsequent burning till it was all cleared up. I asked old. “Tu” when had this happened. He said: “Nomua nonamata,” a long time ago. His father’s grandfather was one of the party catching eels, so it must have happened about two hundred years before the pakehas came to New Zealand. The Maoris can relate things in a wonderful way. In order to verify that Wairarapa was a totara forest, when we went to live at Opaki in the 70’s I broke up a lot of virgin land with a plough. In doing so I often came on totara roots and places where stumps had been burnt out. We also could pick up cartloads of short lengths of totara, the remains of the trunks. These were blood red when split, and still very sound. The same applied to the Taratahi Plains. OTHER GROWTH APPEARS. After the bush was burnt, fern, Wild Irishman (Tumatakuru) and manuka took its place. In some parts native grass was predominant. The Maoris were glad of the fernroot as it was one of their food supplies and in a time of kumara failure it was their main standby, as it never failed. When Captain Cook let his pigs go they soon took to eating fernroot and when they got to the Wairarapa they increased to thousands in a short time. I asked Tukanohi if his great-grandfather had ever seen any moas. He said no, only the bones, but had caught kapapos up on the Tararuas. He also told me about Nanakia, a mythical being who lived up in ‘ the Tararuas, who made trips to the plain’and carried away people to his place, which was supposed to be up at the head of the Hector River. I was told to watch for this chap, as he was a very bad man. I never had the pleasure of his company. Everything in the way of rough weather was blamed on to Nanakia. The Maoris said at the time of the train being blown off the line on the Rimutakas that it was old Nanakia showing the pakehas what he could do when he was wild. They said it was his breath. He must have had a good pair of lungs.

WAINGAWA BREAKS BANKS. He also told me that the Waingawa River broke its banks up at Kuhangawariwari (now owned by Mr G. H. Perry) and came down across the Upper Plain, by Mr H. Evans’s property, crossing the Kaituna Road at the Fernridge School, then on to cross Kibblewhite Road in two or three places between Mrs A. M. Rose’s and the Maori cemetery, crossing the Akura Road at the Maori pa, then straight across to join the Waipoua at the back of Mr L. T. Daniell’s milking shed. The traces of it could be seen through Masterton. One . large gully started up at the top end of Albert Street, crossing Lincoln Road by the Implement Co’s Buildings, crossing Chapel Street at the Gas Show Rooms under Levin and Co’s, and G. H. Perry’s; thence crossing Perry Street under all the back portions of those shops facing Queen Street from Page’s to the Regent. Crossing Queen Street in front of Mr R. Russell’s it turned to the right and went on to the Knox Church corner, then crossed Dixon Street on to the Makora. This has all been filled up and built over. Another branch went down through the Park out by Archer Street and down Elizabeth Street. This also has been filled up and built over. One has only to see-all the different formations of soil on the Upper Plain, also the large boulders strewn about in places to imagine the force of water running across the plain. RUAMAHANGA OF OLD. “,Tu” also gave me a description of the Ruamahanga River. This used to run across the Te Ore Ore Plain just in front of Mr Walter Cameron’s house, crossing the road by the soldiers’ settlement road, then turning to the right and crossing the Te Ore Ore Road a few chains past the drive across to Mrs F. Percy’s farm and into the Waipoua at the mouth of the Wangaehu River. “Tu” said that after a big earthquake the Ruamahanga changed its course. It cut its way through to the Waipipi Creek and followed around the Lansdowne terrace and over the low flats- and swamps to the Waipoua by the Colombo Road saleyards. I asked the old chap when this happened. He said after the big fire. I once saw a horse drowned in Queen Street. A very high flood was on. The Waipoua overflowed its banks at the dairy factory and came down the gully through the town. The bridge across Queen Street had not any handrails and was only a little wider than the metal. The water was about two feet higher than the bridge. Mr G. Dixon was carting some