Chapter 9 No.9

The Wars of Tamaki

It is hard to ascertain the actual causes and the chronological sequence of the wars which followed the arrival of the fleet, and only an outline is attempted here.

MAKI'S INVASION FROM WAIKATO

This chief, Maki, came from Ngati-Awa of Taranaki. Coming northward with his people he seemed to have gradually worked his way via Kawhia and Waikato to Tamaki, capturing the Rarotonga (Mount Smart) pa, where for a time he dwelt. Here he was visited by the chiefs of Kaipara, descendants of Titahi. They requested his assistance in warfare against the Kawerau, an ancient aboriginal people, who had become intermixed with the Tini-o-Toi. Responding to this invitation, and reinforced by a large section of Tamaki people, he invaded Kaipara with great success, attacking ultimately, like Strongbow of old, the people whom he had come to assist. He then turned his attention to the Waitakerei and Mahurangi districts, with like results, and extended his doings to the outlying islands-Tiritiri, Kawau and Waiheke, finishing up at Maraetai. Afterwards he departed as he came, returning, it is said, to the southern districts of Taranaki.

KAWHARU'S INVASION FROM KAIPARA

This affair resulted from some tribal differences in the Waitakerei-Kaipara borderland, about 1680. Kawharu (who was a chief connected with the Northern Ngati-Whatua) attacked the tribes in those districts, driving all before him. He assaulted also many of the Tamaki villages, continuing his campaign until he reached as far as the Paparoa headland, east of Howick. Capturing and destroying the pa there, he returned to Kaipara.

Interior of a Maori Pa, about the year 1840

After a painting shown at the Colonial Indian Exhibition, London

WARS WITH HAURAKI GULF TRIBES

To the south-east were the powerful Hauraki coastal tribes, who, like those of Tamaki, had gone through much the same history. Also descended from the Patu-paiarehe, they had gradually incorporated their pedigrees with those of the Tainui, Arawa and other people. The earliest warfare on record of Tamaki with these people originated (so says the legend) when the Tamaki tribes slew the pet seal belonging to the Hauraki people. Strange to say, this animal (named "Ureia") was on a visit to Manukau Harbour, at the invitation of the Tamaki people, and there it met its untimely end. Surely the most unusual of Maori casus belli. Maru-tuahu, as the tribes of the Hauraki district were called, then invaded Tamaki. They attacked among other places the Maunga-whau (Mount Eden) pa. After various other successes they returned homewards.

THE MURDER OF KAHURAUTAO

Subsequent to this affair was the warfare resulting from the murder of Kahurautao, his son Kiwi, and other Maru-tuahu chiefs. These people were returning from Waikato by canoe via Manukau and Tamaki. They had visited the Tamaki chiefs at Mount Eden and other places, and on their return to their canoes at the Tamaki River they were waylaid and murdered near where St. John's College now stands, hence the name of that place, "Paru-tahi"-killed together. The Maru-tuahu tribes, under Kahu's son Rau-tao, thereupon invaded Tamaki. They attacked with success the riverside pas at Tamaki, also those at Mount Eden, One Tree Hill and Orakei. Crossing to Takapuna, they scoured along the coast as far as Mahurangi. Apparently all those people, being Ngai-Tai, were of one tribal identity. This was not the last time these coastal tribes suffered in this way.

KAPETAWA'S INVASION

Thereafter occurred the affair of Kapetawa. When a mere lad, this chief, while on a visit from Waiheke to his sister, who had married Taramokomoko, a chieftain of Kohimarama, got into several scrapes, as boys were much the same then as ever, but when he, as the ringleader with kindred spirits, plundered the kumara store of his brother-in-law, he got into disfavour with Taramokomoko, who marooned him on the Bean Rock off the shore. Being rescued by his sister, he returned home, where he grew to manhood among his own people, the Ngati-Paoa, at Waiheke. He then organised a war party to avenge the long-remembered insult. Surprising the pas at Kohimarama, Orakei, etc., he crossed to Takapuna, destroying several villages there and along the outer coast, where the erring brother-in-law, the cause of all this trouble, was caught and killed at Raho-para-a pa on the northern headland of the Wairau Creek (Milford).