HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1940, Page 9

HUNDRED YEARS AGO

BUNBURV’S HISTORIC MISSION SECOND VOYAGE OF H.M.S. HERALD. EXPERIENCES AROUND COAST. One hundred years ago. on the morning of April 29,' 1840, H.M.S. Herald glided out of the Bay of Islands on her second mission in New Zealand waters. Her first had been to convey Lieutenant-Governor Hobson and his small staff to New Zealand to negotiate the Theaty of Waitangi. In March Captain Nias had taken the Herald back to Sydney, but after a very short interval he had been ordered back to New Zealand. Now in late April he was commissioned to take Major Thomas Bunbury, officer commanding the military forces in New Zealand, on a long tour to secure the signatures of the more remote 'chiefs to the Treaty ci Waitangi. Major Bunbury had arrived in New Zealand from Sydney on April 16 on board the store-ship H.M.S. Buffalo, which had brought a company of soldiers and had also given a passage to Mrs Hobson and her children. Bunbury was an experienced officer who had just returned from a term as Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island, then a convict settlement. At the time he was sent from Sydney the reports of Lieutenant-Governor Hobson's first illness were very alarming, end Bunbury was instructed that in certain circumstances he would have to take over the government. OLD HOOKNOSE SIGNS THE TREATY. Accompanying Bunbury as his interpreter was Edward Marsh Williams, the eldest, son of the veteran missionary, the Rev. Henry WiU* am s. A small company of marines under Lieutenant Hewitt sailed on the Herald to help make an impression on the natives where they landed.

The first port of call was Coromandel Harbour, which they reached on the 30th. A korero with the local chieftains was arranged for the 4th May. On the appointed day a good many Europeans appeared with the natives to discuss the Treaty, the Thames district being then the centre of a flourishing export trade in timber. Four chiefs added their signatures, including Horeta Te Taniwha, the principal chief ol the district. He went by the nickname of “Old Hooknose,” claimed to remember Capfain Cook’s visit seventy years before, and was later to take a prominent part in the sale of the Coromandel goldfield. Two signatures were obtained at Mercury Bay. Bunbury left the Herald and proceeded to Tauranga on the schooner Trent. He found that most of the chiefs of that neighbourhood had already signed the Treaty, but he had some profitable talks with the local chiefs. None of this work was easy. The Maori could produce an interminable series of questions, and Bunbury had to be ready to make adroit answers. SIGNATURES AT AKAROA. The Herald did not come to anchor in Akaroa Harbour until May 28. Captain William Stewart, the reputed discoverer of Stewart Island, had joined the Herald from his residence at Mercury Bay, and his services as pilot and interpreter of the southern dialect were invaluable. At Akaroa, Iwikau, a brother of the great Tamaiharanui, the victim of Te Rauparaha’s treachery, signed the Treaty, and so too did Tikao, another chief of the diminished remnant of this branch of the Ngai--lahu tribe. The Herald party were all favourably impressed by the appearance oi Banks Peninsula. Indeed Bunbury in his highly interesting report recommended that the area should be surveyed and settled as soon as possible. He did not, of course, then know anything about a French claim to the Peninsula. AT RUAPUKE ISLAND. On June 4 the Herald anchored at Sylvan Bay. Port Pegasus, after Captain Stewart had alarmed Captain Nias by taking the ship in through a narrow passage. There were no chiefs in the neighbourhood, so the next day, June 5, a proclamation of British sovereignty was made over an island whose beauty had deeply impressed the ship’s company. On June 9 the ship sailed for Ruapuke Island, the home of that redoubtable Ngai-tahu chieftain, Tuhawaiki, commonly known as "Bloody Jack,” a not inappropriate nickname for a warrior who had bested Te Rauparaha. Tuhawaiki wore a smait goldlace uniform given him a few months earlier in Sydney, and he was said to be able to dress twenty men in British uniforms— except for the hats and boots, which they did not possess. Tuhawaiki gave the party an enthusiastic welcome, and he and two other important chiefs, Taiaroa and Kaikoura. signed the Treaty. Before the Herald

sailed Tuhawaiki was treated to a display of smallarms drill and sword exercise by the marines and sailors, which he witnessed with the close attention of a connoisseur. The Herald continued its historically interesting voyage to Otago and Port Underwood, where sovereignty was proclaimed over the South Island. But that is a matter beyond the scope of the present article. This second voyage of the Herald was almost as important for the future of New Zealand as its first voyage. Both were closely linked to the Treaty of Waita n g i.