Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 2 (June 1, 1933)

The Tale of a Maori Curse

The Tale of a Maori Curse.

The Maori trouble was a kind of family squabble, arising out of what was regarded
(Rly. Publicity photo.) Napier To-day

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Napier To-day

as a curse. The principal chief of Hawke's Bay, Te Hapuku, also called Te Ika nui o te Moana (“The Great Fish of the Ocean”) had been from the first the friend of the land-purchase officers and the settlers, and he had led his tribe in selling large blocks of land to the Government. Next to him in importance was Tareha Te Moananui. He also had sold land, including the site of Napier town. In 1857 a quarrel arose between the two chiefs, always jealous of one another, and Te Moananui, somewhat illogically taunted Te Hapuku with having sold land and forests to the pakeha. “As he has sold the forest,” he said, “he must now cook his food with the bones of his ancestors.”

This speech was a most serious kanga, or curse, to the Maori mind, and “The Great Fish of the Ocean” raised a war-party of his clan and attacked Te Moananui. In vindication of his war-making he said: “A blow is soon forgotten, but insulting words live for ever.”

Te Moananui, in his turn, besieged Te Hapuku in his palisaded pa. As the scene of the trouble was within a few miles of Napier the white population became alarmed and the Governor of the day was appealed to to send soldiers to protect the settlement. Now came into action the founder of Napier, the great Donald Maclean (afterwards Sir Donald), who was the Government agent in Hawke's Bay. He arranged a peaceful settlement. Te Hapuku, who seemed to be getting the worst of it, agreed to evacuate his pa and remove to a more secure spot, his ancestral lands at Poukawa. He burned his village, and with all his people marched off with the honours of war.

Meanwhile, the 65th detachment, commanded by Colonel Wyatt, arrived and established a camp at Onepoto, a valley and beach on the side of Scinde Island facing the inner harbour. One-poto means a short strip of sandy beach. Some facetious members of the Royal Tigers christened the camp “One-potato Gully.”