Between Two War Parties at Whangape.

The shore of the large lake Whangape, on the western side of the Waikato River, was the scene of one thrilling episode in which “Te Ahiwera” displayed his diplomatic skill and his fearlessness. This was in March, 1843. A quarrel respecting the ownership of a pa-tuna or eel-weir called Kororipo threatened to involve the whole of Waikato in a war. This pa (also called Rauwiri) was a great V-shaped structure

The historic English mission church at Rangiaowhia, built for the Maoris eighty years ago. This church, which is of the same architecture and age as the mission church of St. John's, at Te Awamutu, was the place of worship of the Ngati-Apakura tribe before the Waikato War.

page 20 page 21 extending nearly across the lake, near the place where a stream flowed from Whangape to the Waikato River. At the apex of the work, the hinaki or eel-traps, woven of mangémangé creepers, were set.

The valuable eelery was claimed by the Ngati-Pou, who lived near the spot, with their chief Uira. Their claim was disputed by Ngati-Mahuta, whose head was Kepa, brother of the great Te Wherowhero. In the missionary's opinion Ngati-Pou had the best right to the pa-tuna and its takings of the teeming eels. Ngati-Pou built a fortified pa opposite the disputed spot; it was on a narrow neck of land between lake and swamp. Kepa arrived with three hundred men armed with muskets. Uira, the chief of the residents, a good old man, anxious for peace, asked the missionary to go to the hostile camp and persuade Ngati-Mahuta to sit there quietly.

Ashwell went to and fro, trying to avert fighting. Ngati-Pou loaded their guns and prepared for battle. Ashwell ran towards them and begged them to sit down and wait. He returned to the Ngati-Pou, who by this time were in a frenzy of excitement and were about to dance their war dance. He tried to dissuade them from it, but they said “No; we will draw a boundary line and you shall stand on it, and we will not pass you.” Ashwell hurried back to the Ngati-Mahuta, and they agreed, too, not to pass the boundary.

Now, picture that little missionary, a puny but heroic figure, standing his ground between the two fierce war-parties who a few years before had been ferocious cannibals. The two columns leaped up, each man with his loaded musket ready, and tomahawk in belt. They came charging down towards each other. “I thought,” Ashwell wrote in his reminiscences, “they would have swept me away, they came running with such force.” Both parties, as soon as they approached within a few yards of the boundary line, stopped dead. Each man dropped on one knee, he held his musket across his body, at the ready.

For about a quarter of an hour they remained there, each band glaring fiercely at the other, the missionary standing patiently between. Then one of the mission adherents stood up and repeated a passage from a psalm; dead silence; then one of the others responded with the next verse, until the whole psalm had been repeated, and then, as the missionary related, the Gloria Patri was recited. The tenseness relaxed, anger died, the warriors sat down and peaceful speech-making began. Presently all were feasting together in the Ngati-Pou pa, on potatoes and those Whangape eels.

No more was said about the disputed fishery. Both parties worked amicably at the eel-taking, and the exact ownership of the pa-tuna was never disputed or settled; it was held in common. But had it not been for the missionary's valiant efforts to stay the warriors' hands there would have been a desperate battle on the lake shore that day.

The Church Mission people were not always so successful in their appeals for peace. Three years after that episode at Lake Whangape there was a dispute between the Ngati-Pou and Ngati-Tipa tribes over a piece of land called Ihu-taroa, on the Lower Waikato. Dr. Maunsell and Mr. Ashwell had persuaded the rival tribes to agree to an aukati or boundary line, but a young chief of Ngati-Tipa crossed it, out of bravado. A chief of the other side engaged him in a wrestling bout, an unfortunate blow drew blood, and soon both war-parties were into the fray. Thirty-two men were killed in the battle. That was the last fight of tribe against tribe on the Waikato.