One New Zealand Foundation Inc.

TARANAKI LAND CONFISCATIONS.

The report by the Waitangi Tribunal that there was a holocaust in
Taranaki is correct. It’s the date they got wrong. The actual “holocaust” took
place between 1830/ 34 when the Waikato came down from the North and completely
annihilated the people of Taranaki; one third were slaughtered, one third taken
to Waikato as slaves and the remainder fleeing to Wellington. In Maori lore,
being taken as slaves or fleeing forfeits all rights to their land*.

The first of many European purchases of the same Taranaki lands
was made by William Wakefield of the New Zealand Company, with the assistance of
whaler, Dickey Barrett. When Wakefield arrived in Taranaki in 1839 he found
Barrett protecting the 50-Maori survivors of Ngati Te Atiawa – Ngati Te Whiti
hapu, who were still under siege from the Waikato Maoris. Were it not for
Barrett’s cannons and muskets, these last survivors would have been
overwhelmed.

A group of these people, who had fled Taranaki, later commandeered
the brig Rodney and invaded the unprotected Chatham’s Island Moriori,
slaughtering hundreds of peace loving men women and children*. The remainder
became slaves, or were farmed like sheep for the next 7-years, into virtual
extinction. Another “holocaust”, or in fact, Genocide!

* ‘They were laid out along the beach over a quarter of a mile
touching one another, parent and child; some of the women with stakes thrust
into them were left to die in their misery’ (see The Musket Wars by R.B.
Crosby, Reed Publishing, 1999, pp 294-295). Of the estimated 1700 Moriori at
the time of the invasion only 101 survived the years of slavery and cannibalism
that followed (see 1862 New Zealand Gazette, census, pp.
29-32).

The New Zealand Company then bought a large part of Taranaki from
a mere handful of people who had hidden from the Waikato and remained after the
siege, but most of this claim was either returned by the Governor to the
ex-slaves from the Waikato or sold to the Cornish settlers*.

*William Wakefield of the New Zealand Company, with the
assistance of Dickey Barrett, went to Waikanae, Wellington district and
purchased a large section of Taranaki from former, vanquished chief in exile,
Wiremu Kingi.

It was only when the Wesleyan missionaries christianised the
Waikato and led the now ex-slaves back to Taranaki*, did the people who had fled
to Wellington and the Chatham Islands return, but now under the protection and
safety of British rule. The Waikato claiming ownership as conquerors being paid
off by the Governor. It seems the Taranaki people were quite happy with the
British and their justice system when it suited them. Without the intervention
of British rule, it is extremely doubtful if Taranaki people would have ever
returned to Taranaki. The Governor allowed the people who had fled to Wellington
to return, but only on the understanding that they remain on the north bank of
the Waitara River. They didn’t keep this promise and crossed over into the
ex-slaves domain.

*Reverend John Whiteley of the Church Missionary Society,
Kawhia Mission Station negotiated hard and long with paramount Waikato chief Te
Wherowhero and other Waikato chiefs for the release of the Taranaki slaves, thus
saving their lives and restoring their freedom. Whiteley was later murdered in
Northern Taranaki by raiding Maoris from Waikato. His profoundly humane work on
behalf of Maori slaves has been vilified by present day Taranaki Maori
activists, who label him as a British spy. They recently insisted that the
monument to his memory be removed, when in fact many of these same Taranaki
activists would never have been born, were it not for the ongoing pleadings and
negotiations undertaken by Whiteley in behalf of their ancestors.

For six years these southern returnees led an inter-faction civil
war against the despised ex-slaves, destroying both Maori and European farms,
buildings and stock as they went.

About this time the Waikato “rebels” decided that Taranaki was the
place to fight the Pakeha and a large contingent travelled south to join the
Taranaki “rebels”. Eventually the Governor was forced to bring in the Imperial
Troops to bring this small band of rebels to justice. This with the blessing of
many tribes throughout the country who disagreed with these people’s “rebel”
actions.

This was not a land grabbing exercise by the British, far from it.
It was to squash the anarchy and rebellion and bring law and order to this small
group of people, as asked for and agreed to in 1840. Britain had to make a
stance to the commitment she had made to the rest of the country and warned that
the treaty would be abnegated if the anarchy persisted, but the warning went
unheeded and the troops were brought in.

It was two years later that the land, which British intervention
had returned, was confiscated as payment for the wars. Much of this land was
returned as Maori reserves later. The land confiscated was a result of a war,
not a reason for it. It was a war of Sovereignty.

Many of these people then travelled north to join the Waikato to
continue their defiance of Sovereignty and the law of the land, agreed and
accepted by the majority in 1840. But this is another untold part of our
history.

For another sixteen years the Governor tolerated Te Whiti’s now
passive resistance to law and order until their patience was exhausted and again
a stance had to be made. Parihaka was invaded, but without casualties. Te Whiti
was imprisoned for sedition, after his trial, in New Plymouth on the 14th of
November, 1881.

In 1883, some eighteen months later, Te Whiti was released and
returned to Parihaka where he re-established his settlement and continued his
passive resistance to the country’s law and order, but on a very low key.

The West Coast Settlement Reserves Act was passed in 1892 and the
reserved land leased to give the Maori owners an income from very productive
undeveloped land that had been lying idle for over 30-years since its return.
The lessees, with blood, sweat and in many cases tears, turned this land into
some of New Zealand’s most productive farming areas, returning much needed
capital to New Zealand and at the same time, an income to the Maori owners. From
these facts, I do not see why the people of New Zealand should be expected to
pay compensation. Compensation for the improvements should be paid by the people
who are to benefit when the land again becomes available to them at the end of
the lease term. They have gained in so many ways without so much as lifting a
finger.

The fact is, the Taranaki people first lost their land to the
Waikato in 1830/ 34. They then sold most of it, which in Maori lore did not
belong to them, to the New Zealand Company. It was the Governor who paid off the
Waikato owners and then returned it in 1841 with the protection of British law
and order. The leasing of the returned land was a means of the Maori owners
receiving a return on very productive land they were uninterested in developing
or farming. Not only have they benefited by the leases on this land, but also
from the huge taxes the farmers have paid to the Government over the years. A
full and final settlement has already been made and honoured by the people of
New Zealand in 1946 for the land confiscated by the Crown in 1863. All this to a
people who virtually wiped out a complete race of people single handed while
they waited to have land they had lost and then sold returned to them again, but
this time on a golden platter.

I hope this puts the record straight on the total events
surrounding the confiscations, the taking of Parihaka and the leased lands. The
people of New Zealand have a right to know the full story. There was no
holocaust at Parihaka; the holocaust occurred in Taranaki in 1830/ 34 and on the
Chatham Islands in 1835, long before the British became involved. The British
made it possible for the Taranaki Maoris to return to their defeated lands, as
well as receiving a return for 100 years without even lifting a finger, but
still they want more!

For additional study, please read: “The Realms of King
Tawhiao”, by Dick Craig.

BY 1860 TARANAKI HAD BEEN FULLY PURCHASED THREE
TIMES.

There is evidence that land sold by the
Maoris to Europeans settlers in the early days was sold more than once. Yet we
are constantly being told the settlers were land grabbers and crooks, “puting
one across the Maoris”. In The History of Taranaki, published in 1878 by B.
Wells, provided extracts from a letter the warrior chief Ihaia Kirikumara wrote
in conjunction with his friend Tamati Tiraura, to the settlers in New Plymouth;

“Friends, formerly we, the Maoris, lived alone in New Zealand;
we did wrong one to another, we ate one another, we exterminated one another.
Some had deserted the land, some were enslaved, the remnant that were spared
went to seek other lands”.

“Now this was the arrangement of this Ngatiawa land. Mokau was
the boundary on the north, Ngamotu on the south; beyond was Taranaki and
Ngatiruanui. All was quiet deserted; the land, the sea, the streams, the lakes,
the forests, the rocks, were deserted; the food, the property, the work was
deserted; the dead and sick were deserted; the landmarks were deserted”.

“Then came the Pakeha hither by sea from other dwellings, they
came to this land and the Maori allowed them – they came by chance to this place
– they came to a place whose inhabitants had left it. There were few men here –
the men were a remnant, a handful returned from slavery”.

“And the Pakeha asked, where are the men of this place? And
they answered, they have been driven away by war, we few have come back from
another land. And the Pakeha said, are you willing to sell us this land. And
they replied, we are willing to sell it that it may not be barren; presently our
enemies will come, and our places will be taken from us again”.

“So payment was made; it was not said, let the place be taken,
although the men were few; the Pakeha did not say, let it be taken, but the land
was quietly paid for”.

“Now the Pakeha thoroughly occupied the purchases made with
their money; and the Maoris living in the land of bondage, and those who had
fled, heard that the land had been occupied and they said, Ah! Ah! the land has
revived, let us return to the land. So they returned. Their return was in a
friendly manner. Their thought of the Pakeha was, let us dwell together , let us
work together”.

“The Maoris began to dispute with the Pakeha. When the Governor
saw this he removed the Pakeha to one spot to dwell. Afterwards the Pakeha made
a second payment for the land, and afterwards a third; and then I said, Ah! Ah!
Very great indeed is the goodness of the Pakeha, he has not said that the
payment ceases at the first time”.

“My friends the Pakeha, wholy through you this land and the men
of this land have become independent; do not say that I have seen this your
goodness to day for the first time. I knew it formally, at the coming here of
Governor Grey, I was urgent that the land might be surendered and paid for by
him; that we might live here together, we the Maori and the Pakeha. And my
urgency did not end there but through the days of Governor
Grey……………..”.

This letter was
written by the warrior chief Ihaia Kirikumara and his friend Tamati Tiraura at
Waitara on 15 July 1860 and records that the land in that area was paid for
three times over.

Ross Baker, Research Department, One New Zealand Foundation
Inc.

To be continued.