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Nelson Historical Society Journal, Volume 6, Issue 6, 2008

Some Surprises:

Some Surprises:

We don't, of course, intend to reveal the ending, for fear of spoiling the book for you, but we are going to comment on some aspects of the material which surprised us and may surprise you.

In general, European records, official and unofficial, tend to bear out Maori family traditions, with stories handed down through families most often verified, although not always. John's family, for example, has a tradition about the desecration of an ancestor's grave at Pariwhakaoho in Golden Bay. An official record found earlier this year explains what actually occurred and does not support the family belief, which has been nurtured for more than a century.

page 24

It is quite surprising that there appears to have been no European sanction, official or unofficial, against the practice of slavery, which persisted certainly well into the 1860s and perhaps later, although the taking of slaves ceased on 6th February 1840. We are surprised, because the abolition of slavery had been such an important issue in the Britain the settlers left behind, and there were strong relationships between the New Zealand Company and the Aborigines Protection Society back home. Far from attempting to abolish the practice in New Zealand, NZ Company and government officers openly employed slaves from local chiefs. The guides Kehu and Pikiwati were two such slaves, and Mrs Ironside bought two slaves from their chiefs with a pair of her best blankets when Ngati Toa evacuated Port Underwood after the Wairau Affray.

In 1848 Bishop Selwyn accompanied Henry Mauhara, one of his assistants, to Croisilles to attempt to buy Henry's mother and brother out of their slavery to the elderly local chief, probably of Ngati Koata. The mother refused to leave the chief, who was a Christian, however, saying she loved him and he needed her to care for him. The chief confirmed his need for the woman and said that, as he was not long for this world, she would soon be free. Selwyn concluded that slavery in New Zealand was of a "mild character".

Polygamy was tackled more assiduously by the churches in the beginning, with one Ngati Koata chief putting aside one of his wives, but other chiefs argued that it would be unjust to turn out a wife who had been a faithful companion for years and to whom there were obligations. Eventually the Churches appear to have turned a blind eye to existing relationships.

Kaikoura Whakatau of Amuri, south of Kaikoura, declined to give an immediate answer to Edward Jollie's questions about how he reconciled his two wives with his professed Christianity. The next morning, however, the chief conducted prayer, choosing a suitable Bible passage to illustrate his homily: "Abraham had two wives, Isaac had two wives, Jacob had two wives, so why should I also not have two wives?". Jollie concluded that Maori should never have been given the Old Testament.

Some readers will probably be surprised to learn that Maori children were generally regarded as smarter than Pakeha children when they were educated together, in English, at Motueka in the late 1840s and early 1850s. In addition, a greater proportion of Maori could read and write at the end of the 1840s than working class Europeans.

The speed with which Maori grasped and used European legal processes may also be surprising. In March 1842, one month after the Fifeshire docked with the first immigrants, a Maori woman from Wakapuaka was the informant in a charge of assault against a European man at the Nelson Court Petty page 25Sessions. The man charged was convicted and fined, and a number of other assault charges, usually successful, were brought by Maori against Europeans in the 1840s. In the first decade of the settlement Maori sued Europeans for debt, and Europeans sued Maori for debt. Tamati Pirimona Marino successfully sued his European business partner in 1847, and Maori in Motueka successfully sued some European neighbours for damages arising from cattle eating a stack of wheat in 1848. Maori appear to have been only minor offenders, appearing on petty theft and occasionally drunkenness charges, although there was a general consensus that Maori were not drinkers at that time.

In March this year we applied to the Minister of Justice for permission to access Nelson and Marlborough Court records held at Archives New Zealand. We discovered that the first serious case involving a Maori was a charge brought by a Queen Charlotte Sound Maori in January 1843 of assault and buggery against a European. The accused was remanded in gaol till the trial and we don't yet know the outcome.

Another puzzle was the ambivalence of individual Europeans who had warm, affectionate relationships with individual Maori, as David Monro did with Brunner's faithful servant, Eruera Rawiri Te Rauhihi. Monro consulted Mrs Brunner about a suitable gift for him, and sent a telegram from Otago to enquire about his condition when he had been ill, but made such statements as:

"One thing is very clear: that the Maoris have wanted a good licking for some time: … a black man has no respect for the white settler, until the latter has shown him that he is physically his superior".

and:

"These Maoris are a confounded nuisance: and they will never be brought to reason until they get an uncommonly good thrashing …".

and:

"… no legislation will ever make a white man regard a coloured man as his equal".

We were surprised by some of the items in the wonderful collection of materials lent to us by Mrs Lynette Wilson of Riwaka. They related to her Hadfield ancestors and their neighbours at Awaroa, the Winter family and James Perrott. Perrott's wife was Maori, so it is not such a surprise to find that page 26at least half of his diaries are written in te reo Maori. The Winters, as far as we know, were not Maori, so it certainly was a surprise to read diaries and letters almost entirely in te reo. The letters were between two brothers and a sister, with George Winter signing his letters "Te Hon Makariri" and Kristiana Winter signing hers "Kariti". Kristiana also wrote to Mr Perrott, often in te reo, and she was cured of a serious and disabling genetic condition by correspondence with the Maori prophet, Ratana. This apparent ability to cure her and another local European woman, Fanny Lammas, by correspondence was itself a surprise.