THE FOX WATER-COLOURS OF OTARAIA PA

Turnbull Library Record, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 March 1967, Page 23

THE FOX WATER-COLOURS OF OTARAIA PA

A. G. B.

The decision in 1965 to include the water-colour painting by William Fox Wiararapa 1847 in the Library’s next series of reproductions gave rise to a number of problems of identification and dating not all of which have been fully solved. The water-colour which is one on loan from Mr J. C. Wilkie, Otorohanga, shows in the foreground a terrace above a bend in a river on which is a small boat with a white sail. The further bank of the river appears to be steep-sided with forest to the water’s edge. The bank in the immediate foreground is clear and level with a wellworn path rising up a small slope to the palisades of a pa on the crest of the higher terrace. There are a number of figures, European and Maori, on the lower slope in the immediate foreground. Suggestions as to the locality depicted were sought from a number of persons with some knowledge of the Wairarapa and its history. The known places of Maori occupation in European times did not readily fit the details in the picture. The most positive suggestion was that the pa was at Matapihi Point on the Ruamahanga some miles north of Masterton. The writer, who was consulted at the time, had no record of any Maori pa at Matapihi in European times, and felt that it was definitely on the lower reaches of the river but was unable to name a site which matched the painting.

Injime 1966, following the completion of colour copying, the original was returned to the Library when a renewed effort was made to identify the scene. X-ray examination failed to bring out any amplifying pencil note on the back of the paper while a subsequent lifting of the mount by the Auckland City Art Gallery 1 confirmed that the only note was that on the front. Apart from the characteristic features of Fox’s style the misspelling of Wairarapa in his individual but understandable version as he used in numerous other places, apart from the initials ‘W.F.’, would confirm the painting as his. However a number of other water-colours of the Wairarapa by Fox were known to be in the outstanding collection of the artist s work in the Hocken Library. Concurrently with this investigation plans were in train for a selection from available water-colours for a national exhibition to be mounted in 1967. The Hocken Library Committee had kindly granted permission for the Library’s paintings to be included and the collection as a whole was sent to Turnbull without prior selection of the Wairarapa paintings as had been suggested. On 15 July when the Hocken pictures were unpacked the major question of location was set at rest by the sighting of a seemingly identical painting entitled Oteriah Pah, Ruamahanga River, Wiararapa Valley, 1857. The difference of ten years between the dates of the two picutres will have been noted. The Hocken water-colour has the predominant red-dish-brown colour tone characteristic of much of Fox’s later work. Cor-

respondingly the 1847 picture shows the stronger contrasting dark blues and greyish-blacks of his work of the early and mid 1840 s. The same small boat and sail are included with the addition of a canoe while the foreground figures have been replaced by four cattle beasts being driven by two figures. Other detail corresponds except for minor changes in the angle of the pa and the appearance of the bush particularly at the water’s edge on the further bank.

Before we speculate any further on the significance of the two sketches, the known information about the scene should be placed on record. The pa, the only known representation of which is Fox’s sketch, was in active existence from 1846 to approximately 1850. It was situated on the true left bank of the Ruamahanga River on the Otaraia station then leased from the Maoris by Archibald Gillies at a point where the river bends to the southwest about half a mile from the present Eastern Lake Road. The site is on what is now the property of Mr Richard Martin, (Grid Reference 842232 nzms, 1, sheet 165). The pa is shown on two maps, one of 1855 and the other about the same year. 2 Although, according to documentary evidence the pa by then had been abandoned it is shown on the first, Captain Mein Smith’s map, with scattered buildings to the north. Today the slope which appears to have led to the pa on the rise above is hidden by a plantation. The elevation above the trees has a short hundred yard escarpment facing the river to the north of which is a valley and small stream with a burial ground by a stop bank. Beyond the burial ground, again, a further slope rises, known traditionally as ‘Pa Hill’. This escarpment runs north for some distance and represents the river-eroded ends of the last slopes from the Aorangi Mountains. The name ‘Pa Hill’ in the absence of any clear archaeological evidence would seem to indicate this northern terrace as the probable site, were it not for the fact that the river at this point is some hundreds of yards to the west across ground which is unlikely to have been reclaimed from the river in European times. However a local authority on the river, Mr H. T. Parsons of Martinborough, thinks it probable that this reclamation and straightening had in fact been undertaken by the Martins in the past. The pa which would appear to have been only palisaded and without protecting trenches would therefore have been on the terrace shown in the accompanying photograph.

There is a record of a pa in the area in Rangitane times. When some fifteen generations ago, the Ngai-Tahu and Ngati-Kahungunu displaced the Rangitane from the Wairarapa and the slopes of Wellington Harbour, Best records that the latter occupied many pa the largest and most famous of which was the Potaka-kura-tawhiti Pa at Otaraia. 3 The pa depicted by Fox had been erected only a year or two before his visit. During the invasions from the north by Ngapuhi and Waikato in the early 1820 s most of Ngati-Kahungunu in Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa

retired to the strongly defended sanctuary of Nukutaurua pa on the Mahia Peninsula. There is evidence both fr om Maori Land Court records and from the accounts of early European coastal visitors that this evacuation of the whole area was not as widespread or as lengthy as has been sometimes inferred. Nevertheless occupation was fugitive and precarious until the spread of Christianity 4 and European settlement. Kaikokirikiri was reoccupied about 1842 and in the lower valley Tauanui was the first place to be settled. Relations between the Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa Maoris seem to have been somewhat strained after the heke and it was in fact the rumoured threat of an invasion by Te Hapuku and his supporters from Ahuriri which led Ngatuere to build the pa. Colenso, passing up the valley in March 1846 from Te Kopi and McMaster’s, recorded his observation of the pa: ‘... proceeded 2 miles to Otaraia, where we were welcomed by Ngatuere, the Ch. and his party who were busy in buildg. a pa. This Chf. is still heathen, but always very kind, gave plenty of food, pork and eels, to lads ...’ 5

More detail was given by H. Tacy Kemp, Native Secretary, in a general report on Maori villages in the Wellington Wairarapa area. Otaraia was ‘... situated about 12 miles from Huangarua, and is the Pa built about four years ago when the celebrated chief “Te Hapuku” threatened a hostile descent upon the natives of the valley in consequence of some insult offered by them to his son: he came down from Hawke’s Bay but returned without doing any mischief. The Wairarapa natives were, however, obliged to make an atonement for the insult, and Ngairo was deputed to be the bearer of a considerable sum of money, together with some other articles of value, and to arrange a reconciliation which he accomplished. Ngatuere, Manihera and William King, are the Principal men of this Pa, and were the strongest opposers to the selling of the land. The Pa is now nearly a wreck, and since the peace with Te Hapuku, they feel more security in living in the plantation grounds, which are within a short distance of the Pa.’ 6

The report confirms the virtual abandonment of the pa and the dispersion into the cultivations shown on the map five years later. Three years later, in 1853, Sir George Grey obtained from the Kahungunu their consent to sell lands in the Wairarapa and from September 1853 Donald McLean was engaged in completing the acquisition for the Crown of extensive areas in the district. Otaraia was included in the Wharekaka Block the purhcase deed for which was signed formally on 4 January 1854. Most of the deeds concluded at this time were not specific about minor reserves and Otaraia pa and burial ground was apparently in a block of one thousand acres ‘towards the south of the Waihora to be given to Manihera as a permanent posession which land shall be surveyed and laid out by Captain Smith.’ 7 This was apparently done.

In the later 1850 s the Reverend William Ronaldson stationed at Papawai made periodic visits to the Maori settlements in the district. He mentions calling at Otaraia to see Manihera on at least two occasions 8 but makes no mention of any pa thus confirming that by this time the chief with others was living away from it. By now the main settlement was at Waitapu near Tauanui.

Thirty years later, in 1888, some interest was expressed in the reserve by one Te Manga. A notice in the Maori gazette stating that the application would be heard at the sitting of the Native Land Court at Grey town on 7 June gave the boundaries as follows: ‘Te ngutu awa o Waiopini - nga rere atu ki Kauru kite awa o Maiho, ka whati kite Kauro o Kaiatehaku, kite Whitinga ote Huarahi, ka whati kite Ngutu awa ki Ruamahanga, ka ahu ki runga tutaki ki Waiopini - nga i te ngutu awa.’ 9 The precise significance of the place-names recorded has probably now been lost beyond recall. The court hearing was deferred until 26 June when the well-known chief and Maori spokesman Whatahoro on behalf of Te Manga said that the latter wished the land to be surveyed. It was described as Native Reserve no. 63 in the Wharakeka Block on the bank of the Ruamahanga adjacent to Section 23. 10 Whatahoro explained that it was not a reserve but a piece of land exempted from sale in the Block ‘where an old pa stood on the bank of the Ruamahanga’. He applied for a survey ‘in accordance with the boundaries described in the Deed’. The Court said that it would make representations to the Survey Department, but it appeared on reference to the map that part of the land now claimed had been sold. Although the case was technically only adjourned no subsequent appearance of the matter before the Court in the ensuing few years has been traced. However, although the deed referred only to an area of one thousand acres which clearly Manihera had sold during the intervening years, the burial ground at least must have been confirmed as a reserve either as a result of the application or later. The remaining question and perhaps still the most difficult of all to determine was when Fox in fact painted the scene.

It was of course the absence of any known documentary record of Fox’s journey on which the sketch was made which led to the difficulties in identification outlined earlier. Increasingly after the West Coast journey in February 1846 with Brunner and Heaphy, Fox’s sketchbook tended to become his diary as the pressure of his official duties increased. His first visit to the Wairarapa was in April-May 1843 with Messrs Clifford, Vavasour and Whitehead. On this occasion the party followed the Maori track roughly along the present Rimutaka Road route to the Tauherenikau turning north to the bush swamp and plain area between Greytown and Carterton to the Ruamahanga. They returned south parallel to it to roughly the vicinity of Martinborough from where they crossed to the west and left the valley by which they had entered it.

Three sketches made on this occasion In the Wairarapa Valley 1843 are in the Hocken Library, where also is the account of the expedition. They saw only one Maori and did not call at any occupied village. In September 1843 after the death of Captain Arthur Wakefield at Wairau, Fox was appointed New Zealand Company Agent in Nelson where he was heavily involved for the next five years. In February 1848 he was appointed attorney-general for New Munster but remained in Nelson for a while longer. However in September after the death of Colonel William Wakefield he became Principal Agent for the Company.

In October immediately after his return to Wellington he was involved in the renewed attempts to purchase the Wairarapa and left with Lieutenant-Governor Eyre on a visit of inspection of the Wairarapa road on which the bush had been cleared to Mangaroa. His account of his impressions is as follows: ‘The ride was of particular interest to me. In May 1843, accompanied by Messrs Clifford, Vavasour, & Whitehead I explored the Wairarapa and it then took us five days hard work, to force our way through the forest the same distance, as on this ocasion, I rode on horse-back in 12 hours. On the first visit the only tenants of the Valley which we met, were a few Natives, and herds of wild pigs. On this, we were hospitably entertained by an English woman, engaged in the occupations of the dairy, and saw a fine herd of cattle at the door of her husband’s hut. Of these, there are, I believe nearly 2,000 and of Sheep from 20 to 30 thousand now in the valley ...’ u

A strong implication of this report is that he was revisiting the district for the first time. To heighten the contrast he may have chosen to omit reference to any intervening journey the possibility of which is not however excluded by the actual wording used. The difficulty is not merely the Library painting dated Wiararapa 1847 but another in the Hocken Library: In the Wiararapa Valley, Wellington 1846. Mr Northwood’s station. The literal interpretation of these dates is that he visited the valley on two occasions in 1846 and 1847 or least he went there in one year or the other, painting the pictures in 1846 and 1847 respectively. Northwood and Tiffen occupied their Ahiarube station in August 1845 12 and the scene depicted shows some extensive clearing and substantial huts - more than could perhaps have been done in a few months work. Otaraia, we recall, was being built in March 1846. In February 1846 Fox made the journey with Brunner and Heaphy to the Buller River and for the rest of the year was busy in Nelson. A sketching visit to the Wairarapa seems improbable to say the least. In 1847 he was likewise in Nelson except for one visit to Wellington. The movements of a person of Fox’s position in the early years of the colony fortunately are likely to have been recorded. O 1 January Mr and Mrs Fox were report-

ed as leaving for Wellington in the barque Hope 13 which vessel arrived on the 7th 14 . On 22 February the brig Victoria arrived in Nelson with the Foxes on board. 15 He would appear therefore to have had a month in Wellington. He may have abandoned Mrs Fox to the social delights of Wellington while he dashed off to the Wairarapa on a Sketching trip. He is however much more likely to have been closeted with Colonel Wakefield for most of the time on urgent company business, although a journey is marginally possible. H. D. Bell and George Clarke were in the Wairarapa in February and March on land purchase negotiations but their reports make no mention of any visit in company with Fox or discussions with him. Press reports of Wairarapa activity, the letters of other visitors, the diaries of residents are all silent on the visit of Fox. If, in fact he visited the district between 1843 and 1848 only one such visit, possibly in January 1847, was practicable, when he may have sketched both Ahiaruhe and Otaraia. In February 1848 when he received his New Munster appointment he crossed briefly to Wellington, arriving on 10 February in the ketch Supply. 16 He left in the same vessel on the 17th for ‘Queen Charlotte Sound’. 17 The last point which seems to call for comment, is the existence of the two paintings of different dates - 1847 and 1857. Fox in common with others of his contemporaries made two or more paintings of the same scene but was inconsistent in his dating, the year of many not being noted or, when given, being naturally the year when the painting was fnished. Clearly, if the pa was in a derelict condition by 1857 it could not have been sketched in that year. Again, as pointed out earlier, the style of the second is in conformity with the work of his later period. There is still a possibility that further research or the rediscovery of relevant contemporary records will clear up the circumstances of the visit. Meanwhile in enjoying the reproduction we may be grateful to Fox for his interest and skill which enabled this unique record of early Wairarapa to be made.

POSTSCRIPT The summer 1847 journey was marginally possible. As proofs of this article are being corrected confirmation of Fox’s visit to the Wairarapa in January-February 1847, by a most fortunate conjunction of circumstances, has been received. Captain T. B. Collinson in a letter to his father dated 31 January wrote: ‘Mr Fox has gone with a party a few days journey up the country to the Wairapa [sic] Valley, taking with them, meat, biscuits & other supplies for ten days’. From the general context of the letter Collinson arrived in Wellington on 21 January and met Fox at the anniversary day celebrations on the 22nd. It is probable therefore that the ten days journey was from about the end of January to early

February. The Library is indebted to Mr T. W. Ramsay of Richmond, Victoria for kindly donating photocopies of the Collinson letters which coincidentally arrived in time for this postscript to be added.

REFERENCES 1 lam indebted to Dr M. C. Laing of the Dept of Health for arranging the X-ray, and to Mr L. C. Lloyd of the Auckland City Art Gallery for undertaking the further examination. 2 SMITH, Cptn Wm Mein. Map of Pohangena or WharrekakaPlains ... 1855. Plan of Mr McNaughten’s Block, Wairarapa’ n d. 3 BEST, ETe Whanganui-a-Tara in Journal of the Polynesian Society 10:135 1901. 4 eg evidence in Native Land Court hearing, Tipua Mapuna-atea block, October 1888. Ikaroa M. B. no. 9. 5 COLENSO, Wm Journal 18 March, 1846. 6 New Zealand Government Gazette, Province of New Munster, no. 16, 21 August 1850, p.Bo. 7 TURTON, H. Maori deeds of land purchases in the North Island of New Zealand, 1878. Vol 11, p. 302. 8 RONALDSON, Rev Wm. Journal, 5 Jan. and 24 May, 1856. 9 Ko te Kahiti 0 Niu Tireni, 25 Mar, 1888, no 18, p. 85. 10 Native Land Court hearing, Ikaroa M.B. no. 7p. 406 11 FOX, Wm. Report 16 Oct, 1848, N.Z. Co. (3/9) (6/48). 12 WAKEFIELD, E. J. Hand-book New Zealand. London, 1848, p. 124-5. 13 Nelson Examiner 9 Jan, 1847. 14 New Zealand Spectator, 9 Jan, 1847. 15 Nelson Examiner, 27 Feb, 1847. 16 Wellington Indepemdent, 12 Feb, 1848. 17 New Zealand Spectator, 19 Feb, 1848.