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Ngā Tohuwhenua Mai Te Rangi: A New Zealand Archeology in Aerial Photographs

12 — Taranaki

page 167

12
Taranaki

Taranaki was a major region of Māori settlement, its boundaries expressed in Māori as 'Waitōtara ki Parininihi': 'From the Waitōtara River to Whitecliffs'. 1 An early centre of Māori resistance to the sale of land, from 1860 the region became an important focus of operations in the New Zealand Wars. Major themes to be covered in Taranaki are the gardening traditions associated with the Aotea canoe; the pā for which the region is so well known; intertribal fighting and the southwards migrations of Waikato tribes in the 1820s and 1830s; pā of nineteenth-century origin or occupation, including Pukerangiora on the Waitara River (site of the first British use of sapping in the New Zealand Wars); and redoubts of the 'West Coast' (i.e., south Taranaki) campaigns of the mid-1860s.

Two archaeologists have been active in aerial photography in the region: Alastair Buist and Nigel Prickett, who have both written extensively on the pā and pre-European history of the region. 2 Elsdon Best also wrote about the pā of the region. 3

The landforms of the inland parts of the region consist of extremely steep, broken hill country composed of mudstone rocks not dissimilar to the very roughest country of the East Coast. These inland areas were relatively little settled except along the course of the major rivers, and on the margins associated with the coastal terrace. The coastal terrace is of ancient Pleistocene (ice age) origin and varies in width from 5 to 15 km. It is generally about 50 m above sea level and has cliffed coastlines with stony reef or wave platforms, some covering very large areas. 4 The soils on the coastal high terrace are generally fertile and well suited to Māori horticulture. The central Taranaki region is dominated by the volcanic mountain. It is surrounded by a ring page 168 plain of lahar-debris, water-borne ash and rocks from the volcanic vents, extending down to the coast on its western margins.

In the coastal region, the ring plain forms landscapes similar to the coastal terrace elsewhere, for example the Bay of Plenty, except that there are frequent small lahar mounds and it is more often cut by narrow valleys. Coastal cliffs, narrow valleys and the mounds provided the natural tactical elements sought by Māori in the construction of pā. As far south as the Waitōtara River, the pā are heavily sculpted into the surface of the ground because of the relatively thick volcanic soils. The coastal landforms were cut at intervals by rivers rising in the ranges. From north to south, the most important rivers are the Mōkau, Waitara, Pātea, Tāngāhoe, Whenuakura and Waitōtara. The coastal cliffs and their immediate hinterland, including the river valleys, were the most important localities of settlement.

Traditionally, the distinction between north and south Taranaki is important. The tribes of the north (Ngāti Tama, Te Atiawa) ascribe their origin to the Tokomaru canoe; those in the south (for example, Ngāti Ruanui) to Aotea. 5 Of traditional sites, well-known examples are those of Turi, of the Aotea canoe, whose associations with the northern harbour of Aotea were reviewed in chapter 1. Besides naming many features of the Taranaki coast, north and south, he introduced the kūmara to southern Taranaki. 6 The Whenuakura River locality is also the site of kūmara traditions relating to both the Aotea and Kurahaupō canoes. Part of the patere concerning the travels of an important traditional figure, Wharau Rangi, mentions the importance of kūmara and karaka at Whenuakura:

Ka iri mai taua i runga i Aotea,
Te waka i a Turi.
Ka u mai taua te ngutu Whenuakura;
Huaina te whare, Rangi Tawhi;
Tiri mai te kūmara;
Ka ruia mai te karaka ki te tai ao nei. . ..

We two were carried hither board Aotea,
The canoe of Turi.
We landed at the river's mouth at Whenuakura;
The house there was named Rangi Tawhi;
The kūmara was then planted;
The karaka, too, soon flourished in the land. . . 7

The reference in the tradition here to karaka is of particular interest, and I will illustrate its association with storage pits and pre-European settlement at Paekakariki, Wellington region, in chapter 13.

In the north, pā are typically on the coastal terrace and along river escarpments up to 5 km inland. In the south, pā lie on prominent ridge ends in the river valleys for many kilometres inland. 8 Many of the aerial photographs in this chapter are of south Taranaki sites, partly because Alastair Buist, who lived in Hawera, did most of his flying there; several of his photographs are used in this chapter.

The ring-ditch pā is a feature of the Taranaki landscape, especially in the north around New Plymouth and in the west. On the ring plain, ring-ditch pā on lahar mounds are distinctive. These pā are created by a single, occasionally double, ditch and bank around a rounded hilltop. 9 The full form is not needed where the hill country is steep or cliffed, as it is in the south and on the coast; here, the ditch simply encloses the cliff. Types of pā other than ring-ditch are also common in the region. On cliffs or points, the defensive perimeter of the pā was created by distinctive combinations of ditch and bank defences. The precise locations of these defences always shrewdly used the tactical advantages of localised landforms: the narrowest point on a ridge, the crest of a steep slope or the edge of a swamp. In the south, along the Pātea, Whenuakura and other rivers, are some of the largest and most distinctive pā in New Zealand. Putake, near Hawera, consists of four separate lines of ditch and bank defences, lying transversely across a broad ridge, narrowing to the principal platform. A pā near Otautu, on the Pātea River, presents three major platforms, each defended by double transverse ditches and banks and lying on a distinctive arrangement of ridges that defies simple description. This pā is not associated with the defeat of Titokowaru in 1869 at this locality, since he was attacked in an undefended village. 10 1 had long admired Alastair Buist's photographs of this site, 11 and when I first photographed it in light overcast conditions in August 1991,1 was surprised by how small it seemed, occupying a low, offshoot ridge, dominated by the mass of the surrounding, higher terraces.

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Putake, a pā 5 km inland on the Tāngāhoe River, near Hāwera

Putake, a pā 5 km inland on the Tāngāhoe River, near Hāwera

There are five sets of ditch and bank defences on the pā. The unique combination of defences of this pā show clearly the tactical combinations of ditch and bank and steep natural slope sought by Maori. The forward defences (nearest the viewpoint) are broad and enclose a large area between the gullies. In the rear (top centre) is a small 'citadel' with terraces and storage pits. The larger open area in the interior of the pā is pitted with the characteristic indentations of collapsed rua.

Horticulture

Taranaki is well within the climatic bounds suited to Polynesian root crops; the region also has a high rainfall and less risk of late-summer droughts than east coast localities. Evidence of pre-European horticulture is, not surprisingly, one of the outstanding elements of the landscape and, as in the Waikato, provides a good link with the traditional accounts of Turi and the introduction of kūmara. Apart from the storage pits on virtually every site, there is other very clear landscape evidence of actual gardening practice, for example, borrow-pits. The use of borrow-pits, for gravels to be added to the soil, is similar to their use in the Waikato.

About 4 km inland from the mouth of the Whenuakura River near Waverley, almost perfect, balanced Māori page break
A massive pā built on a ridge above the Pātea River near Otautu, 7 km from the coast

A massive pā built on a ridge above the Pātea River near Otautu, 7 km from the coast

Viewed from the south, the association with the river valley is clear. The pā is about 250 m long with a defensive perimeter of about 600 m. The massive double ditches and banks on all the obvious entry points and between the platforms show clearly. Further ditches and banks defend the head of the steep scarp to the valley floor. On the narrow ridge are massive storage pits, removed from the areas of habitation and taking advantage of the drainage. The white dots are sheep.

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Te Puia, a pā on the coastal terrace near the mouth of the Mōkau River

Te Puia, a pā on the coastal terrace near the mouth of the Mōkau River

The Mōkau River runs into the sea at bottom left. The point immediately above the river mouth and seaward of the road has been lived on, but its landward defences were prone to attack. It was not suitable for a pā, but was an undefended village, named Kautu. Nearest the camera viewpoint on the coastal cliff, the Waipapa Stream, cutting through the terrace, formed a gully and a point in the terrace. There, a pā, Te Puia, was created by the construction of a large ditch and bank. About 100 m from the narrow point is a second, outer ditch and bank about 90 m long (centre bottom, above the cliff). This pā was the scene of fighting in the 1830s between Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Toa under Te Rauparaha. At top left in the estuary is the island Motu Tawa, scene of further fighting in the 1830s.

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Settlement and horticulture on high terraces near the Whenuakura River, south Taranaki

Settlement and horticulture on high terraces near the Whenuakura River, south Taranaki

In this photograph, small-scale, nineteenth-century arable fields show against a background of earlier pre-European gardens. Sand has been taken from borrow-pits, showing as irregularly shaped holes up to 8 m across, right foreground. The sand would have been added to the heavier topsoils of the terrace to improve their physical qualities (tilth, warming), and possibly as a mulch amongst growing plants. The spreading of sand from the borrow-pits in irregular heaps shows clearly, near right. At the top of the terrace risers (about 3 m in height) are lines of eroded kūmara storage pits. Beyond them again, the well-drained and easily defended finger-shaped points of land on the edge of the terrace have been used for pre-European pit storage.

At left and centre, a number of low ridges show clearly in oblique light. They are not dissimilar to the downslope lines of pre-European garden boundaries, but these are normally seen only in stony soil. These ridges were in fact formed at the edges of ploughed fields: they are 'lands' or plough lynchets. In the middle foreground is a rectangular enclosure, probably formed by a ditch and bank fence. The view is to the south, and the stream in shade is an unnamed tributary north-west of the Whenuakura River.

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At another point on the edge of the terrace, a pā has been built with many pits on its surface. The pā has been constructed by a simple ditch across the ridge with substantial artificial ditches and scarps around the terrace edge. The enclosed area is about 35 by 20 m. The dimples on the surface of the pā are probably collapsed rua while outside the pā, where space is not at a premium, there are a number of open rectangular pits. The distinct rectangular line to the right of the pā is probably stockwear along a former post and wire fence. The narrow ridge in the foreground has a substantial ditch and bank fence on its crest. The view is to the west.

page 174 settlements can be seen over the terrace landscape. Here pā, storage pits, borrow-pits, gardens and later nineteenth-century ploughing were once able to be seen, although now, unfortunately, the garden areas have been destroyed by horticultural plots. On the various levels of the terraces, layers or pockets of sand lie below the topsoils and were borrowed to add to the volcanic ash topsoils of the terraces. 12 On points formed at the edge of the terrace, overlooking the low coastal and stream plains, are storage pits and defensive ditches and banks. The detailed pattern of the wider site is not easy to interpret. It is probably the result of nineteenth-century mixed arable and stock farming overlying pre-European settlement and horticulture. 13 Although definitely nineteenth century in origin, the field areas, defined by low ploughing banks or 'lands', are not necessarily of European origin; they may be of Māori origin, reflecting the flourishing agricultural production of Taranaki in the 1850s. In the 1860s the area was delineated by survey as special (Māori-purpose) reserves, and not part of military settlement blocks common in this particular area, 14 so its sites of strictly Māori origin may continue past that period.

Nineteenth-century sites

In the early nineteenth century Taranaki was a major channel for the movement of iwi between the central and south-western North Island. The Waikato elements of these movements have already been considered. The Mōkau River was a key route in gaining access from the inland Waikato to Taranaki. It was the site of considerable fighting in several incidents from 1820 to 1835 between Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Toa (from the inland and coastal Waikato, respectively) and Taranaki tribes. 15 The river flat on the north side of the river was the site of a Methodist (Wesleyan) Mission settlement under the Revd Cort Schnackenberg from 1844 to 1858, whose activities at north Aotea we reviewed in chapter 8. The pā, Te Puia, was the scene of fighting in the 1830s between Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Toa under Te Rauparaha in the course of the latter's southwards migration from Kāwhia. 16 It consists of a very large transverse ditch and bank running from a stream gully to the coastal cliff and cutting off a distinct point formed on the high coastal terrace at the southern entrance of the Mōkau River.

Taranaki was the setting for the initial actions of the most significant period of the New Zealand Wars, page break
Pukerangiora, on the Waitara River about 6 km inland from Waitara township

Pukerangiora, on the Waitara River about 6 km inland from Waitara township

The site complex consists of a pre-European section on the crown of the hill, Te Arei (in the form of the British redoubt of 1864) right of centre, and the final section of a sap created by the British forces in 1860-61 (obscured by the line of low native shrubs at bottom left by the road). The view is to the south-east and the whole complex is some 350 m long.

The pre-European pa was occupied in the 1820s and 1830s in the course of the musket wars. The redoubt, Te Arei, was first built by Maori in defence against the British attack of 1860-61. The Maori forces also occupied the cliff edge above the Waitara River, forward of the Te Arei position itself, hence the location of the sap some distance off the cliff edge. Maori gun pits can be seen at the cliff edge, one only a few metres from the end of the demi-parallel.

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The original pre-European pā, Pukerangiora.

The original pre-European pā, Pukerangiora.

The view is to the north-west. The pā was probably occupied as a fallback position in the course of the fighting in 1860-61, but features little in contemporary narratives. It does not appear to have commanded positions flanking or forward (westwards) of Te Arei, hence its relative tactical insignificance. The exact function of the large ditches and banks is not clear, but they appear to have enclosed the cliff edge (to the right) and the hilltop (foreground, this side of the fence). Just above the fence running across the foreground, and running at an acute angle to it, is a line of rifle trench with returns, possibly defending the rear of the Maori positions (including Te Arei) against the British attacks of 1860.

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The line of the British sap in front of Te Arei

The line of the British sap in front of Te Arei

Running out to the right to the forested slope is a demi-parallel, apparently designed partly to enfilade the Maori positions on the cliff edge (out of view, bottom right) and to present a line of solid fire against Te Arei (which is beneath the camera viewpoint). The view is to the north-west.

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'Limit of the Sap' by F.H. Arden, a contemporary view of 1861 after the fighting showing the sap running towards Te Arei

'Limit of the Sap' by F.H. Arden, a contemporary view of 1861 after the fighting showing the sap running towards Te Arei

Te Arei was stockaded and entrenched on the crest of a low rise in the ridge (which does not show well in the aerial photograph), and the sap has been made up through ground very exposed to the defenders' fire. Gabions (wicker baskets) hold up the walls of the traverses and the demi-parallels (at left). The value of the demi-parallels in offering a full line of fire against Te Arei is obvious. The modern road follows a line somewhat to the right of the horse track and must have damaged the right flank of the British redoubt built on the site of Te Arei in 1864.

subsequently involving the King movement and regular British military forces. The north Taranaki campaigns involved two main phases. The First Taranaki War 1860-61 began when the infant New Zealand Company settlement in the enclave of New Plymouth was isolated by the opposition of the surrounding hapū. Some hapū had sold land to European interests, but these settlers from outlying districts had returned to the defences flung up around New Plymouth. When British troops and the European colonists took the offensive, it was about disputed land claims to the east of New Plymouth, in the vicinity of Waitara. 17 This offensive required a chain of defensive fortifications stretching east along the cart road from New Plymouth to the Waitara River valley. Towards the closing of the attacking action, many redoubts linked by saps were constructed by the British forces. These drove the attack against the Māori inland into the readily defended, forested hill country up the Waitara River. Māori, for their part, re-worked pre-European fortifications, especially in the Waitara valley, the primary theatre of the conflict. Pukerangiora, the traditional pā of the Puketapu hapū of Te Atiawa, had been occupied by northern tribes in the course of the Amiowhenua raid of 1821, and occupied again in 1831 when Te Atiawa were attacked and defeated by Waikato. 18 In 1860-61, the Māori forces, 19 having fought a protracted defensive page 179 action at the edge of the forested country, occupied their final defended position, Te Arei. This lay within the wider defended perimeter of Pukerangiora, inland about 8 km from the coast in a commanding position on a ridge above the Waitara River. To the east were steep, impassable cliffs to the river; to the west, easier ground, sloping down away from the defensive positions.

The British forces, moving towards the general line of the ridge, came under Māori fire from cover at the top of the cliff to the Waitara River and from Te Arei itself, a relatively small enclosure defended by rifle trench and a stockade. They were forced to sap their way for some 2 km in two different sections, incorporating several redoubts along the course of the sap. Artillery was also brought up through the sap and emplaced in a 'demi-parallel' at very close range (about 120'ni) to Te Arei, the Māori entrenchments. A 'demi-parallel' is a trench placed more or less parallel to the line of the defenders' fortification, and at right angles to the sap. This opened up a broad field of fire to the attacking force, who could not shoot effectively from the sap. At Te Arei, it also gave access from the sap to the cliff-edge to the east, enabling clearance of the Māori rifle pits and other positions there.

Surveying the area south-west of Waitara in the 1920s, James Cowan 20 remarked that it was 'studded with the ruins of British redoubts and Māori entrenchments'. Today only a few of these sites, British or Māori, have survived, 21 but they include the scene of the final action. These are the site of the traditional pā, Pukerangiora, at the crest of a prominent cliffed hill above the Waitara River; the 1861 Māori defensive position, Te Arei, later worked into a redoubt by European forces; and the final section of the sap constructed by the British and colonial attacking forces. The principal areas of the site along the cliff to the east survive in good condition, although the road and the adjacent farming have destroyed the true western extent of the main defensive perimeter. 22 Preserved as historic reserves (probably instigated by S. Percy Smith) through much of the era of European settlement, in the 1930s and again in the 1950s they were planted in pine trees, which were both protection and menace. The pine trees protected the site from rain and stock erosion, but if allowed to grow too big they would have destroyed the sub-surface features. After a second crop of trees was removed carefully by the Department of Conservation in recent years, the archaeological features showed in very well-preserved form.

The aerial photographs shown here, probably the only ever taken of this site, show the last 200 m of the sap, its uphill end finishing within 100 m of Te Arei, the Māori position. The sap is of double width, with traverses (internal walls) from either side to prevent enfilading fire from the ridge crest ahead of the sap. The demi-parallel still shows clearly in the aerial view, as do the defensive Māori positions and the older 1830s and pre-European pā.

The expense in terms of labour of the British method of attack attracted some derision from the European settlers confined in New Plymouth, who saw them as expensive military follies, although it was defended strongly by the British military. 23 The British military evidently sought to avoid casualties from the first of the significant engagements in Taranaki. The virtues of this debate are not for an archaeologist to judge, except to note again the lessons of the Northland campaigns of a decade and a half before, the Crimean experience and the unfolding events of the American civil war, where the advantage of entrenched defence became obvious. 24 The overall importance in New Zealand history of the Waitara events of 1859-61, culminating at Te Arei, is immense. Keith Sinclair has noted that:

it was a main cause of the later campaigns, for the way in which it began confirmed the Māoris in their worst fears. ... an idea that this was the first of a series of operations intended to deprive them of their land. 25

A subsequent offensive phase was designed to secure the Taranaki region west of New Plymouth for European interests. Ngāti Maniapoto (Waikato Kingites) had been involved on the side of Te Atiawa in all these events. Their association led inevitably to the Waikato phases of the New Zealand Wars, the region where Māori strength was perceived to be greatest. Following the Waikato wars, there was further armed resistance by Māori in Taranaki. European forces in the Second Taranaki War of 1864 completely dispersed Māori settlement from the Waitara River valley. Te Arei was reoccupied during the course of these events, and the existing 'redoubt' survives in the form modified by Europeans in this campaign. 26

There was also resistance to European settlement from Ngāti Ruanui in south Taranaki. These led to the Taranaki and West Coast campaigns of 1865-66, designed to secure the land between New Plymouth and page break
Kākāramea Redoubt, near Pātea, built in 1866

Kākāramea Redoubt, near Pātea, built in 1866

The redoubt is pentagonal in layout with bastions on two sides (at right and left) and flanking angles (at the other corners). It is about 50 m across in its greatest dimension. The trench running out to the right of the photograph is a communication trench to huts dug into the slope at right. The site was part of the military settlement of this part of south Taranaki.

Wanganui, and the wars against TItokowaru, principally in the north-west, in 1868. 27 The redoubts built in this phase in south Taranaki provide fine landscape records, well known from Alastair Buist's pioneering aerial photographs. They include Kākāramea, built in 1865 by the British forces under Cameron 28 and illustrated here. Inman's and Thacker's Redoubts were illustrated in chapter 6. The redoubts were intended to be used subsequently as the defensive positions of military settlers. However, few of the allotted areas were taken up immediately because there was very little communication or transport from Pātea to the settlements of either New Plymouth or Wanganui. 29 Of Māori fortifications probably of this campaign the most interesting is a pā, named Oika, 30 commanding a crossing of the Whenuakura River 4 km from the coast.
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Oika, a pā of the period 1865-68 in South Taranaki

Oika, a pā of the period 1865-68 in South Taranaki

This pā is on the edge of the high terrace landform on the south side of the Whenuakura River (to the left) and just above the state highway (below the viewpoint). The view is to the west. The use of regular traverses in the perimeter rifle trench was designed to prevent enfilading fire (fire along the length of the trench). The use of traverses on the lefthand side of the pā is problematic since the site does not appear to be commanded from outside on this line. The traverses in the trenches would nevertheless have some value if the attackers had been able to enter the pā. The defensive perimeter is about 50 m long by 20 m across.

1 The Mōkau River, to the north, is within the rohe of Ngāti Maniapoto (Prickett, 1983: 281-287).

2 Buist (1964); Prickett (1980; 1982a; 1983; 1990).

3 E. Best (1927: 189-239).

4 Neall (1982).

5 Prickett (1983: 284-286).

6 Simmons (1976: 191-201).

7 Excerpt from 'He Oriori mo Wharau Rangi' by Rangi Takoru of Ngāti Apa. 'Rangi Tawhi' is a puzzling reference to the pā of Turi at Pātea (Ngata and Jones, 1958, Poem 282, Vol. 3: 376-381). See also Davis and Wilson (1990: 65-67).

8 Buist (1964); Prickett (1983).

9 Prickett (1980; 1982a).

10 Cowan (1983, Vol. 2: 294-295).

11 Buist (1976: 6, dustjacket, P1.4).

12 Buist (1976: 3); Cassels and Walton (1992); Walton and Cassels (1992).

13 A. Walton (1992, pers. comm.).

14 Thomson (1976: 29).

15 Phillips (1989: 151).

16 Phillips (1989: 151).

17 Belich (1986: 81-116); Cowan (1983, Vol. 1: 145-211). For maps, see Cowan (1983, Vol. 1: 186); Prickett (1990: 45-53).

18 S.P. Smith (1910a: 219-220); Kelly (1949: 387-391).

19 Cowan (1983, Vol. 1: 211-220); Belich (1986: 108-113).

20 Cowan (1983, Vol. 1: 219).

21 Prickett (1991, pers. comm.).

22 S.P. Smith (1910b: Map 5).

23 Belich (1986: 108-113).

24 Chandler (1974).

25 Sinclair (1961: 232).

26 Prickett (1990: 52).

27 Belich (1986: 203-257); Cowan (1983, Vol. 2: 46-71).

28 Buist (1976: 9).

29 Buist (1976: 15).

30 Buist (1976: 7, 11, also Plate 6).