The Founding of Te Awamutu Station.

At Otawhao Village the missionary beheld the most ferociously savage and horrifying spectacle that had ever met his eyes. The Ngati-Ruru war-party, under the chiefs Mokorou and Puata, had just returned from a victorious expedition to the Rotorua country, and had brought with them many bodies of the slain foe-men to cook and eat. Quite sixty back-loads of human flesh, packed in flax baskets, were brought into the pa to eat.

Next day—July 30, 1839—there was a great cannibal feast, in which the people of the surrounding villages shared. The missionary quitted the fortified pa of the man-eaters in disgust, and set about removing from the scene of savagery those natives disposed to become members of the Christian Church. He assembled those people, who were termed the Whare-Kura, that is, the “house of instruction”—and proposed that they should leave Otawhao and select a site for a Christian village.

More than two hundred of the Ngati-Ruru and related tribes joined him and left the cannibal pa. A site was chosen at Te Awamutu, beside the Manga-o-Hoi stream (which flows from the Maungatautari Ranges and joins the Mangapiko, a tributary of the Waipa). That is where the historic church and old mission buildings stand to-day. There a new pa was built; it was fortified for defence if necessary, though the occupants wished for peace. At the Whare-Kura's request, Mr. Ashwell drew up laws and regulations for them; and daily worship, school instruction and Sunday services were established. So was founded Te Awamutu, the lone oasis of peace and beginnings of civilisation in a pagan region. Before Ashwell left the place to return to Waikato Heads he visited all the principal chiefs in the neighbouring settlements, including Rangiaowhia, and obtained their promise that the Whare-Kura disciples should not be molested. Indeed, that was not likely for all these people in the various villages around Te Awamutu were related to the Rongo-Pai converts.