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Important Judgments: Delivered in the Compensation Court and Native Land Court. 1866–1879.

Heteraka Takapuna And Ngatipaoa

Heteraka Takapuna And Ngatipaoa.

The name Ngatipaoa has been and will be used as meaning all the Thames tribes, unless some other tribe is indicated. And here I must stale the opinion of the Court that, after the most careful weighing of the evidence, and consideration of the arguments used by their counsel, we are quite unable to discover any connection, either in their grounds or their incidents, between the claim of Heteraka, and that of Ngatipaoa. Kapetawa's conquest has already been discarded; but, even if it had not, Heteraka does not profess that Kapetawa was an ancestor of his.. Kapetawa was six generations below the time when the Thames tribes branched off from Tainui, the ancestor of Ngatitai, and the direct ancestor of Heteraka; and four generations" below Haoraterangi, the great nephew of Tainui, through whom Heteraka claims another line of ancestry directly connecting him with Ngatipaoa. He could therefore have got no status from Kapetawa's conquest, even if it had been a conquest. And this was the only conquest on which he relied. Hoterene Taipari mentions a conquest of Te Waiohua by Ngatimaru on account of Kahurautao, who had been murdered by them; but he adds, "This is a different man from Heteraka's ancestor." That they were occupying the land together before Hongi's time in no page 85way connects their claims, unless it can be shown that the grounds or "take' or occupation were the same, or had an intimate connection. 'Heteraka asserts that he is the representative of Te Waiohua, the ancient possessors of this country; but he also asserts that he is the sole representative. It is true that this statement was often varied; for instance, in one place he says, "There are plenty of Waiohua left— Ngatipaoa, Ngatimaru, Ngatitamatera, Ngatiwhanaunga. There are Waiohua amongst Ngapuhi. These Waiohua own this land. There are Ioo there. They have a new name now. Ngatiwai of Whangaruru are the people." And using the term in a similar sense, he says in another place, "At this time Waiohua, under Kapetawa, were living at Orakei, under Hehewa at Taurarua, and at Okahu under Parakotia," forgetting that according to his own showing Hehewa lived three generations ago, Kapetawa seven. In another place he says, "There are no Waiohua left besides me that are knowu by that name." Now it is impossible soberly to urge that Ngatipaoa are interested in the estate as representatives of the old Waiohua, when we have living amongst us and appearing in this Court the lineal descendants of Kiwi. And if Kiwi was not a Waiohua (although the grandson of the man who gave rise to the name), and if all his tribe who were conquered by Te Taou were not Waiohuas, I cannot understand who the true Waiohuas were at Kiwi's epoch. Heteraka says they were living at Mount Eden and at Taurarua; but the circumstance continually recurs to my mind that when asked who was the chief, or who built the pa, or who was in it, the answer is always the same, "Te Rangikaketu or Te Hehewa." I cannot discover that Heteraka, from the time of Rangikaketu and Kiwi to Hongi's time, has ever mentioned the name of a single Waiohua as keeping possession of this great tract of country, or doing anything, except these two men. Waiohua, according to him, kept their ground at Mount Eden and Taurarua when the whole country was being overrun by a powerful tribe, who came to avenge the murders of their friends, at which Rangikaketu assisted; and yet, although questioned on the subject, he is silent as to any other persons composing the tribe except these two men. I merely refer to this subject now to show that the view previously expressed by the Court must be followed as the correct one, and that Kiwi and his people were the true Waiohua, although equally entitled to be called Ngaiwi. Ngatipaoa do not claim to be descended from them, and there are no other Waiohua to be descended from that I can discover. Hoterene Taipari gave a very curious version of this part of our subject, varying from that given by anyone else, and clearly inconsistent and absurd; "The ancient inhabitants of the country from Tamaki to the Whau were Te Waiohua. The Ngaiwi were from Te Waiohua. The lands of Ngaiwi were I don't know where. The people from Tamaki to Te Whau were killed by the Thames tribes. The pas of Ngaiwi were on that side of Tamaki towards Waikato. The pas of Waiohua were at Tamaki on the Hauraki side."

page 86

It appears to the Court to be a position which cannot be controverted, that the several things brought forward to support the joint title of Heteraka and Ngatipaoa must have some connection with each other, and some sequence or concatenary dependence, but we. have been unable to discover any relation of the sort. I can well understand that if, in times before the English sovereignty was proclaimed here and English law was supposed to exist, Heteraka had asserted a claim to this estate, and had succeeded in getting these powerful tribes to support him in maintaining it, their union with him would have been of the greatest value, for force would have decided the contention. But such considerations will avail nothing now, and this Court has already decided, in the great Hawke's Bay case, that it would recognise no titles to land acquired by intertribal violence since 1840.