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[Read before the Auckland Institute, 4th October, 1897.]
The district generally known as the Urewera country, but officially as Tuhoe Land, extends north and south from Ruatoki, on the Lower Whakatane, to Lake Waikaremoana, and east and west from the head of the Waioeka River to the Whirinaki River and a line running a few miles from the right bank of the Rangitaiki River. It includes the watershed of the Upper Whakatane, with a portion of those of the Upper Waimana, Ruakituri, and Waiau Rivers, as also the right-bank watershed of Whirinaki. The district is rugged and mountainous, the valleys being narrow, and containing little flat land, while the quality of the soil is but second rate. Nearly the whole of this area is covered with forest, which is generally of a light nature, but mixed with rimu, kahikatea, and matai. The higher ranges are covered with forests of tawai, tawari, and tawhero, the tawai predominating; while on the left bank of the Whirinaki, and tributaries thereof, are fine patches of totara.
This district is inhabited by the Tuhoe or Urewera Tribe of Maoris, who are descendants of Ngapotiki, the ancient tribe which occupied this region for centuries before the arrival of the later migration of Maoris from Hawaiki by the historic fleet some eighteen or twenty generations ago. These ancient people of New Zealand were undoubtedly Polynesians—in fact, Maori—being but a prior migration from northern isles; and, without doubt, voyages were made to New Zealand from the Pacific isles between the time of the arrival of the “Aratauwhaiti” canoe, bringing over the ancestor of the Tini-o-toi, and the coming of “Mataatua,” from the crew of which vessel the Tuhoe obtained their strain of modern Hawaikian blood. Among such voyagers were Maku, Kupe, Ngahue, Paoa of Horouta, Taukata of Nga Tai-a-kupe, and Hape of Te Hapuoneone.
An ancient tradition states that the ancestors of the original people came to New Zealand in the “Aratauwhaiti” canoe, about thirty-five generations ago, from a land called Mataora. The principal man of this vessel was Tiwakawaka (see below, Gen. No. 1). His father, Papa-titi-rau-maewa, was another of the crew. After the ancient war between the offspring of Rangi and Papa the kumara was brought into the world by Pani-tinaku; she was the mother of the kumara. Pani married a brother of Whanui, who procured from Rehua
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a piece of kumara, or seed thereof, and caused Pani to give birth to the kumara. As the valuable possession came forth to the world she repeated the karakia, commencing “Pani, Pani heke,” &c. Her children ate a portion of the kumara, and when they learnt the origin of it they were much dismayed, and said, “We have eaten the parapara of our mother.” So alarmed were they that they left their home and scattered to all parts of the world, some of them coming to New Zealand, where they settled in a lone land, and became the origin of many ancient tribes, such as Te Tini-o-toi, Te Kawerau, Tuoi, Te Marangaranga, Tini-o-awa, Te Makahua, Tini-o-taunga, Kotore-o-hua, and others. These were some of the tribes found here by the crews of the historic fleet “Mataatua,” “Te Arawa,” &c. (The origin of the kumara, as above described, was preserved by tradition, though the tuber itself appears to have been unknown in New Zealand before the time of Toi-kai-rakau. When Whanui is seen flashing above the sea-horizon in the direction of the fatherland, then the tohunga pronounces the kumara as ready to be dug. So was this land settled by the children of Pani.)
The Tini-o-awa were a division of the ancient people. A section of this tribe, known as Ngapotiki, held Tuhoe Land, or the greater part thereof. Ngapotiki were divided into hapus, as follows: Te Kotore held the Pukareao Valley; their lands are now owned by Ngai-tawhaki. Te Hokowhitu-pakira-a-romairira occupied Ruatoki; the famous ancestor, Rangi-monoa, was of this hapu. Ngati-ha held the valley of the Upper Whakatane and the head of the Waiau River. Ngati-rakei dwelt in Te Wai-iti Valley; Ngapotiki proper at Maungapohatu; Tuahau at Manana-a-tiuhi; and Tu-mata-rakau on the Lower Waikare. The Valley of Whirinaki was held by Te Marangaranga, and that of Waimana by the ancient tribes of Maruiwi, Maru, and Tama. The first and last of these three were branches of Te Hapu-oneone, who would appear to have sprung from a different migration to that of the tribes which claim descent from and relationship with Toi, the wood-eater. The Hapu-oneone are the descendants of Hape, who flourished about twenty-five generations ago; but if he came from Hawaiki, as some claim, the name of his vessel has been lost. The Tribe of Maru held lands on the northern side of Maungapohatu, and that of Potiki occupied those to the south.
Ngapotiki are descended from Te Maunga and Hine-pukohu-rangi, from whose son, Potiki, the tribal name comes. He lived about sixteen or seventeen generations back (see below, Gen. No. 2). The Tuhoe people are also descended from the “Mataatua” migration—that is, from Toroa. The tribal name of Tuhoe comes from Tuhoe-potiki, third in descent from
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Toroa; and that of Te Urewera from Mura-kareke, son of Tuhoe (see Gen. No. 3). The descendants of Toroa first left the coast lands and settled among Ngapotiki in the time of Karetehe, four generations from Toroa. Karetehe settled at Ruatoki with Rangi-monoa, who gave land to the newcomers. The mixed descendants of Toroa gained certain victories over Ngapotiki, but it is not the case that the inhabitants of Tuhoe Land were ever conquered by the Mataatua migrants or their descendants. The concrete truth is that Tuhoe are Ngapotiki, and should be called by that name. It is, of course, a fact that the Mataatua tribes intermarried with Ngapotiki to a considerable extent, but for all that Tuhoe are mainly aboriginal in blood to this day, and speak far more of their aboriginal ancestors than of those of Mataatua, though alive to the fact of the superior mana of the later Maori.