1843 - Dieffenbach, Ernest. Travels in New Zealand [Vol.I] [Capper reprint, 1974] - Part I. - Cook's Straits - Chapter XI

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CHAPTER XI.

The natives inhabiting both shores of Cook's Straits were at the time of my arrival placed in a position which could not fail to awaken my deepest interest. Although their number is not large, taking them as a whole, yet they live so much dispersed in small tribes that they occupy a long coast-line. For the last fifteen or twenty years they have associated with Europeans, who have lived amongst them as traders or as whalers; and they were annually visited by many whaling-vessels. Mutual advantage, and the connection of almost all these Europeans with native women, from which connection a healthy and fine-looking half-caste race has sprung up (about 160 in number), kept the white men and natives in harmony with each other, and has cemented their union. Thus we find Europeans arrayed against Europeans in the combats of the different tribes amongst whom they lived, or emigrating with them to another locality, or following the hazardous chase of the whale with a crew of natives. When dead they were bewailed as brothers by these sons of nature, and a painted canoe erected as an ornament

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NATIVES INHABITING

over their graves. Many runaway convicts from New South Wales and Australia were amongst these irregular settlers, many of whom were men of desperate character. The society was a curious motley of men of all nations and colours, who had lived an adventurous life from their childhood; yet, with all these elements of vice among them, the natives had preserved many of their good qualities; and the colonists of the Company found them better prepared to acknowledge a more regulated state of society, and to acquiesce in present sacrifices with a view to their future benefit, than was the case with the natives in the more northern parts of the island, although missionaries had lived among them during a long period. None of these missionaries have paid Cook's Straits more than a passing visit, yet many of the natives were initiated into the tenets of Christianity, and could read and write, having learned these arts from mutual instruction. The zeal of these new proselytes went so far as often to cause me annoyance.

Many changes have taken place amongst the inhabitants of Cook's Straits during the last thirty years. Several tribes have disappeared, or have emigrated to more distant places, in consequence of war. The natives who inhabited Cook's Straits at the time when the country was visited by Captain Cook and Forster have been replaced by tribes coming from the western coast and the interior of the northern island: war, or the desire to be connected

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COOK'S STRAITS.

with Europeans has produced this result. The tribes of the Rangitane and Nga-hei-tao, --in Queen Charlotte's Sound, have gone to the eastern coast of the middle island: some are held in slavery by the Nga-te-awa. The Nga-te-Kahohunu, in Tory Channel, and at Port Nicholson, have likewise given way to the Nga-te-awa, and live now on the eastern coast of the northern island, around Hawke's Bay. Two tribes of the Nga-te-awa, the Nga-te-motunga and Nga-te-toma, emigrated in a European vessel to the Chatham Islands. The Nga-te-raukaua, a central tribe of the northern island, were driven from their native district, near the sources of the Waikato River, and settled in Otaki, near the River Manawatu, enclosed on both sides by hostile tribes. All yielded to their common enemy, the Waikato. The latter have expelled almost all the inhabitants from the finest district in Cook's Straits, Taranaki, without occupying it themselves. It was not the desire of new dwelling-places which tempted them to this warfare, as they themselves possess one of the most productive parts of the island; they received the impulse from the chiefs of the Bay of Islands, who, being provided with fire-arms, had beaten them in several engagements.

It must not, however, be imagined that there is no relationship, no intercourse between these different tribes: they are all more or less mixed, although feuds still exist between the Nga-te-raukaua and the Nga-te-awa at Waikanahi, and between

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the natives of the interior of Taupo and a branch of the natives of Wanganui. It is, however, probable that the great influx of Europeans into Cook's Straits, and the spreading of Christianity, will ere long terminate all these hostilities, and that their long-sustained quarrels will give way to a peaceful possession of their property, and to those blessings of security which can only be enjoyed in a well-organized state of society.

I subjoin a census of the tribes in Cook's Straits, indicating the larger families to which they respectively belong.

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COOK'S STRAITS.

TABLE showing the Names of the Native Tribes on both sides of Cook's Straits, with an approximation to the Number of Souls in each.

Name of the Place.

Name of the Tribes.

To what Family they belong.

Number.

Remarks.

Port Nicholson Oario.... Pitone... Nauranga.. Kai-ware-ware. Pipitea... Wahi-pirau. Waiwata... Taranaki... Parurua and the Island of Mana... Kapiti.... Waikanahi... Otaki and River Manawatu.. Rangitiki River Wanganui River Waitotara.. Wenuakura.. Patea.... Waimate... Puketapu.. Orangituapeki... Otumatua... Nga-motu SHORES OF THE MIDDLE ISLAND Massacre Bay.. Wanganui.. Blind Bay... Rangitoto, or D'Urville's Island Admiralty Islands.. Heoiri River Queen Charl. Sound.. Anaho.. Moioio.. Te-awa-iti.. Hokokuri.. Cloudy Bay..

Puketapu.. Nga-motu.. Nga-te-toma.. Puke-tapu.. Nga-te motunga Nga-te-rua-nui Nga-te-toa Nga-te awa.. Nga-te-raukaua.. Nga-te-apa.. Patutokoto.. Nga-te rua-kua.. Nga-te-rua-nui.. Nga-te-rua-nui.. Taranaki.. Nga-motu.. 1 Nga-te-toa.. Puke-tapu.. Nga-te-toma.. Nga-te-toa.. Nga-te-toa.. Manakuri.. Rangitane... Puke-tapu.. Nga-te-toa.. Nga-motu.. Nga-te-toma.. Nga-te-toa..

Nga-te-awa.. Nga-te-rua-nui.. Nga-te awa.. Nga-te-awa.. Nga-te-awa Nga-te-raukaua.. Nga-te-apa.. Nga-te-tahi.. Nga-te-rua-nui.. Nga-te-rua-nui.. Nga-te-rua-nui.. Nga-te-awa.. SHORES OF THE MIDDLE ISLAND Nga-te-awa.. Nga-te-awa.. Nga-te-awa. Rangitane.. Nga te-awa.. Total of the Population

800 120 200 700 GOO 60 900 900 400 250 ND. 400 GO 250 60 150 60 120 400 6490

The Nga-te-rua-nui are closely related to the Nga-te-awa, but are regarded by them almost as a dependent tribes. The Nga-te-raukaua are in hostilities with the Nga te-awa in Waikanahi. Slaves to the Nga-te awa, but undisturbed. This tribe is a mixed one; the Patu-tokoto being related to the Nga-te-pehi, one of the Taupo tribes, and the Nga-te-rua-kua to the Nga-te-awa tribes. Allied to the Nga-te-rua-kua and Nga-te-awa. These natives are at war with the Taupo tribes. SHORES OF THE MIDDLE ISLAND The Rangitane are slaves of the Nga-te-toa, and are the remnant of the former possessors of a great part of Cook's Straits.

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