Famous For its Huge Gatherings

Te Ao Hou, March 1965, Page 36

Famous For its Huge Gatherings The present meeting-house, Hikurangi, was opened in 1888. Soon after this, three other meeting-houses and their outbuildings were erected; their names were Aotea, Waipounamu and Potaka. From then until a few years after the turn of the century, Papawai was famous throughout the land for the great meetings held there. The leaders of the pa at this time were Hoani Rangitakaiwaho, the hereditary chief, and Tamahau Mahupuku, who married the widow of Hoani's uncle. It was at Papawai in 1896 that the chiefs of the Wairarapa signed away their rights to Lake Wairarapa, receiving in exchange £3,000 and several thousand acres of bush country near Mangakino. In the following year the Kotahitanga Movement's ‘Maori Parliament’ or ‘Federal Assembly’ was established at Papawai, with Tamahau Mahupuku as premier. In 1898

tribal delegations from many parts of the country, including Parihaka, Waikato, Northland and the East Coast, travelled to Papawai to discuss new government proposals to put an end to the land troubles. Richard Seddon, the New Zealand premier, and King Mahuta, leader of the Waikato tribes, were among those present, and the meeting was one of the largest held in the colony for a long time.