8. Land Shortages: Kehu as Explorers' Guide:

The New Zealand Company's affairs reached a crisis when, by late 1842, it became obvious that even after surveying the Upper Motueka and Moutere valleys and the Takaka and Aorere districts of Golden Bay there was still insufficient land available to satisfy the requirements of the Nelson settlement scheme. The scheme needed 221,100 acres of arable, cultivable land and after all of these surveys were completed by early 1843, the Company was more than 120,000 acres short of this target. Arthur Wakefield therefore turned to the Wairau. He and other Company Agents insisted that the Wairau had been purchased from Te Rauparaha and other chiefs, and tried to enforce the purchase by sending surveyors into that district. They dismissed or ignored the protestations of several delegations to Nelson and Wellington of Ngati Toa chiefs, and others; the armed confrontation and killings in June 1843 at Tuamarina in the Wairau were the result. The inquiries and investigations following this tragedy confirmed the illegalities of the Company's attempted takeover and exonerated Te Rauparaha and Ngati Toa from blame for what had happened. One of the immediate impacts on the Nelson settlement scheme was that the additional land required would have to be found elsewhere. The outcome was an upsurge of exploratory activities to the hinterlands of Nelson and to more southern districts. Again the Company agents turned to local Maori for assistance. Over the ensuring years Kehu was frequently hired as porter-cum-guide to lead a number of exploratory parties back to those districts which he had known so well as a free-page 8born youth and as mokai of Poutini Ngai Tahu. He came to guide a number of the greatest journeys of overland exploration in the colonial history of this country.

Authority for the employment of Kehu in this capacity appears in a letter from Frederick Tuckett dated 8th November 1843, confirming that he had authorised Thomas Brunner

"… to employ a native, Ekehu, as a guide on his recent journey of exploration at the same rate of remuneration as the other, Epito ¹¹ , has received – 14/- a week and rations." ¹²

Tucket went on to say that as Kehu had not consumed any rations, his weekly rate had been adjusted to £2/2/- per week; apparently he had been able to live off the land during the expedition.

For the first couple of years Kehu and other Maori guided parties on a number of exploratory expeditions of two to three weeks duration, into the various inland districts of Nelson. None discovered the hoped-for great plains of arable, cultivable pasture lands which the Company desperately sought and therefore by the mid-1840s longer excursions further afield were being undertaken. In February and March 1846 Kehu led Brunner, Charles Heaphy and William Fox ¹³ through the Rotoiti and Rotoroa districts en route to the Matakitaki. The previous year, apparently in anticipation of their own possible occupancy of these parts, Kehu and a group of his whanaunga (extended family) had made their own excursion to the lakes districts, to build shelters in a number of places, and to clear areas for planting; in at least one locality, Lake Rotoroa, they built a small canoe and hid it for future use. These shelters and huts, and the canoe, were used on this expedition with Brunner, Heaphy and Fox, and on subsequent exploratory journeys.

One evening while in these parts Kehu showed his superior fishing skills and a rather curious mix of Christianity, vulgarity and ancient beliefs:

"The Maori watched to see the eels at the bottom, and putting the bait in their way, had them the next moment in the canoe, splashing the more unfortunate sportsmen who still had nothing but nibbles. After supper, when we had relinquished the spot, he recrossed the river, and, to dispel all feelings of lonesomeness, commenced chanting his Wesleyan missionary service, mixing with the translated version of the ritual special incantations to the taipo of the lake and the river for propitious weather and easy fords, together with request to the eels to bite quickly, and not keep him longer in the cold. Then, as he caught one which would not die quick enough to please him, would he introduce some decidedly uncomplimentary language which he learnt at a whaling station, and again subside into the recitation of his Wesleyan catechism and hymnbook, bringing in our various names in the versification. He did not leave off till long after we were asleep: and in the morning when we awoke, four fine eels were roasting for breakfast, and another four were hanging from an adjacent tree." ¹⁴

Of the February 1846 exploratory party, only Kehu's name has been immortalised in these districts by the naming of a peak in the Travers Range behind Lake Rotoiti. Heaphy did try to page 9give the name Fox River to the Upper Kawatiri, but eventually this river became known as the Buller. Their journey took them to the Matakitaki district; probably on the plains near present-day Murchison.

Kehu proved to be the complete guide; Charles Heaphy often wrote disparagingly of the Maori people he met, but even he spoke glowingly of Kehu in his report published in the Nelson Examiner on 7th March 1846:

"E Kehu, our guide, is thus a perfect bushman, and is of very great service on an expedition; he has none of the sluggishness of disposition so common to the Maori, but is active and energetic, displaying far more of the characteristics of the Indian savage than are to be seen in the usual lazy inhabitants of a pa; thoroughly acquainted with the 'bush' he appears to have an instinctive sense, beyond our comprehension, which enables him to find his way through the forest when neither sun nor distant object is visible, amidst gullies, brakes, and ravines in confused disorder, still onward he goes, following the same bearing or diverging from it but so much as is necessary for the avoidance of impediments, until at length he points out to you the notch in some tree or the footprint in the moss, which assures you that he has fallen upon a track, although one which he had not been previously acquainted with. A good shot, one who takes care never to miss his bird, a capital manager of a canoe, a sure snarer of wild fowl, and a superb fellow at a ford, is that same E Kehu; and he is worth his weight in tobacco!". ¹⁵

By this time, Kehu was approximately 48 years of age. Kehu appears in sketches by Heaphy and watercolours done by Fox as part of their pictorial record of this journey.