Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand/Chapter 1
THE GOLDEN COAST.
ITS EARLIEST DAYS—BEFORE THE GOLD.
CHAPTER I.
HE first mention made of the West Coast of the Middle Island of New Zealand was early in the year 1770; when Captain Cook, after reaching the North Island of New Zealand, where he first cast anchor in the Bay of Tauranga on the 8th of October 1769, subsequently followed down the eastern coasts of the Northern and Southern Islands. Without discovering the channel by which the islands are separated, he is reported to have turned the South Cape, and traced the western shores back to Cook Strait, giving his own name to the great mountain visible on the West Coast, and giving the name of Cape Farewell to the north-west extremity of the Middle Island, from whence he took his departure for England on the 31st March 1770. Between 1769 and 1777, Cook visited New Zealand five times. From the time of Cook’s visits, for nearly a hundred years, the history of the West Coast was a blank. It was occupied during that time, as far as can be ascertained, by a limited number of Maoris. In a compendium of official documents relative to Native affairs in the South Island, compiled in 1873 by Mr Alexander Mackay, Native Commissioner, much valuable information has been furnished respecting the doings of the Natives in this part of the country, long before white men trod the soil. From this compilation principally, and from scraps of information given me by the Native Chief Tainui,—or who is better known in recent political history as Ihaia Tainui, late member of the General Assembly for the Southern Maori District,—in leisure moments in the Assembly Library during the Sessions of 1879 and 1880, I am enabled to give a few jottings of what the Coast was before the golden days. The difficulty of obtaining, from any Native in New Zealand, information about the ancestors of other than his own family, has often been remarked, but as Mr Mackay has noted, the account which the members of a tribe are able to give of the early wanderings of their ancestors and of their wars with other tribes, subsequent to their first settlement in New Zealand, is generally fairly within the limits of probability, and may be considered to rest on authority equally worthy of credit as much of the early histories of European nations. The first few Maoris, who are reported in Native traditions to have reached the Middle Island, were the crew of the canoe, Takitumu, or, as it was sometimes called for its fast sailing, Horouta, but there appears to be little or no record of what became of them. A branch of the Ngaitahu from Wanganui, under a chief named Tauirapareko, were the next to cross over from the North Island, a section of whom called Ngatiwairangi, with their chief Twahirikakahu, settled at Arahura, on the West Coast. Next in point of time was a tribe named Pohea, also from Wanganui, who settled at Wakatu, in the neighbourhood of Nelson. The tribe Ngatitumata Kokiri were the next to arrive and spread themselves in small numbers along the coast from Nelson as far as the river Karamea. At a later period, when fighting was going on in the North Island, a division of the Ngaitahu proceeded to Arahura for the purpose of finding some greenstone (pounamu) which was reported to have been discovered there. According to Native tradition, a Chief named Ngahue was the first to discover the greenstone. This Chief, it is said, was driven from Hawaiki, through the jealousy of a woman, and took up his abode at Arahura. When there, he found a block of the greenstone and took it back with him to Hawaiki, where some of his people made axes of the greenstone and constructed two canoes, Te Arawa and Tainui, with which these people came to New Zealand. It is supposed also by the Maoris that a small piece of the same stone was fashioned into an ear-ring and brought back by the crews of Te Arawa and Tainui, the ancestors of Tgatitoa, from whom it has descended as an heirloom through several generations. This ornament was called Kaitangata, and was presented to Sir George Grey in 1853, on the occasion of his departure for England, by Te Rangihaeata, the principal Chief of that tribe, as an assurance of their regard and esteem. A piece of the greenstone is also said to have been taken to Kaiapoi, where the Ngaitahu were much struck with its beauty, and eagerly inquired where it was procured. On being told its locality it was agreed that three of the Ngaitahu should accompany the Ngatiwairenga back to Arahura, where the stone was said to exist in large quantities. The cupidity of the Ngaitahu being excited with the intelligence, a large body of them travelled across the Island to the West Coast, where they speedily overcame the Ngatiwairenga, most of whom were killed, with the exception of a few women and children, who were spared by and embodied into the Ngaitahu tribe. After these events a portion of the Ngaitahu, designated the Poutiui Ngaitahu, to distinguish them from the East Coast branch, settled on the West Coast, where their descendants have ever since resided. The Ngaitahu were not allowed to remain on the West Coast in perfect peace, for they were frequently attacked by other tribes, but they managed to hold their own. The causes of dispute were as to the right of catching weka, kiwi, and kakapo, in the Arahura, Hokitika, Upper Grey, and Buller districts, but their numbers being limited no very serious fights took place between them. The Ngaitahu appear to have been located in various parts of the West Coast for considerably more than a century. One or two serious engagements are reported as having taken place in the northern parts of the coast, and large numbers of the attacking parties were killed, on one occasion at Karamea and once on the Paparolia range, dividing the valleys of the Grey and Buller. At one time Niho and Takarei, with their followers, proceeded down the West Coast as far as the Hokitika River, conquering all the country before them. These two Chiefs, with some of the Ngatitoa, for a considerable time settled down at Mawhera (Greymouth). Finally fearing attack from other tribes, they returned to Massacre Bay with the remnant of their party, and never resumed possession of the West Coast further south than Kaurangi Point, beyond West Wanganui.
These cruel and worse than useless conflicts between the Natives appear to have died out after 1834-35, when Mission stations were formed at Otaki, Wanganui, and other places adjacent to Cook Strait. The Missionary influence soon extended itself to the West Coast, and the Natives here, as elsewhere, tuned their attention to more peaceful pursuits. For some time after this, and as late as 1850-51, the existence of a wild tribe was reported at Bligh Sound. The following information, concerning the Ngatimamoe, is copied from the New Zealand Pilot, from notes made by Captain Stokes, of H.M.S. Acheron, while engaged surveying the West Coast of the Middle Island in the years above mentioned:—“The Acheron’s party, while examining a river at the head of Bligh Sound, came on the fresh footmarks of some natives who were heard making their escape through the thick underwood; these people, as far as could be learned, belonged to a small isolated and almost unknown tribe, rarely seen even by their own countrymen, by whom they were called wild men of the mountains.” This discovery, Mr Mackay tells us, led to the revival of the old idea respecting an aboriginal race, but there is no room for speculation, he says, as to the origin of those people, as the Natives of the South described them as belonging to a tribe called Ngatimamoe, formerly one of the most numerous of the aboriginal tribes inhabiting the Middle Island, but from the incessant wars waged against them by the Ngaitahu, they had become so reduced in number, that the remnant had withdrawn to the mountains, west of Lakes Hawea and Wanaka, from which they could not be driven. It is also stated that smoke from the fires of this wild tribe had often been seen by the Natives living north of Milford Haven. And Mr Mackay also remarks that “it seems clear, from the various statements received concerning the existence of the Ngatimamoe on the West Coast, that a number of these fugitives did occupy the mountainous country in the south-west district of Otago, to a comparatively recent date. The exploration, however, to which the country has been subjected during the last few years by parties of diggers prospecting for gold, forbids any reasonable hope that any of this tribe still exist.”
In August 1853, Sir George Grey, who was then Governor of the Colony, determined to conclude the purchase from the Natives, subject to certain reservations, of their interest in all the lands held by them on the northern and western portions of the Middle Island. Assisted by Commissioner M‘Lean he entered into arrangements with this object. Just as these arrangements were initiated, Sir George Grey left for England, and Mr M‘Lean subsequently carried them into effect. In November 1854, Mr Brunner, Government surveyor, and Mr Jenkins, Native interpreter at Nelson, were despatched to mark off the boundaries of such reserves as would be required for the resident natives. This was found to be a more difficult task than was at first imagined, owing to the jealousy evinced on the part of some of the Natives. After repeated interruptions a final settlement was effected in March 1856. The terms of the agreement were the payment of £5000 and a large number of reserves, but before the purchase was concluded the amount was increased by £2000. The documents in connection with this purchase were comprised in thirteen deeds, and the negotiation was one of great difficulty. This purchase did not include all the Native lands in the Middle Island. One or two claims had still to be settled. Amongst these was the purchase of the Arahura district, on the West Coast, which was left to be concluded by Mr James Mackay (junior). It was ultimately settled in May 1860 by a payment of £300 and a reserve of 10,224 acres, of which 6724 were set apart for individual occupation, and 3500 to produce a fund for eleemosynary purposes in connection with the Natives, under the provisions of “The Native Reserves Act, 1856.” Other lands in the same district have since been brought under the aforesaid Act, some of which have become very valuable in consequence of the discovery of gold on the West Coast in 1865, which caused a demand for land for building and agricultural occupation, and the Native Trust is now deriving an annual revenue of between £3000 and £4000, from land that less than twenty years ago was but a useless wilderness.
In concluding this brief and necessarily incomplete chapter on the earliest days of this Coast, I may note the great changes which have taken place in the condition of the Native race now resident in these districts. The Maori population, at the present time, on the West Coast number only between fifty and sixty.
As a rule they are all comfortably settled on their reserves. At the Arahura they have established a settlement, with a school, where the Native children are taught the rudiments of the English language. Many of them have provided themselves with horses, drays, and buggies, and have well built and equally well furnished houses. They are quiet, sober, and peaceable, though apathetic and improvident, apparently caring for nothing beyond the present.
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