The Tonanau and Te Haramiti, 1831

Early sailing vessels and visitors to Tauranga, Part XVII

In January 1831, a Maori taua utu (blood vengeance expedition) departed the Bay of Islands in a small fleet of waka. The fleet followed in the wake of Tananau (Go Slow), the great 80 foot waka taua of Te Haramiti, a noted northern tohunga. Bound for the Bay of Plenty and Tauranga, the taua hoped to boldly take the resident tribes by surprise and to avenge past losses there. Assembled at the instigation of Te Haramiti, the raiders comprised some 150 warriors, mainly Ngati Kuri from Northland’s East Coast, and Ngapuhi from the Bay itself. Alfred Brown who later became resident missionary at Tauranga, observed the fleet assembling at the Bay. He recorded that Te Haramiti’s Ngati Kuri contingent comprised ‘twenty chiefs, forty slaves, seven canoes and two cannon.’ Frederick Maning, a northern trader Pakeha-Maori described the entire expedition.

A hundred and fifty men were they – the pick and prime of their tribe. All rangatira, all warriors of name, few in numbers but, desperately resolute, they thought it little to defeat the thousand of the south, and take the women and children as prey.

A large Maori waka taua (war canoe) under sail

Though he was old and blind, Te Haramiti was an innovator. The two ship's guns that he transported to Tauranga marked a seminal event in the history of intertribal warfare - New Zealand’s first indigenous, long distance, amphibious artillery campaign. One of the Ngati Kuri purepo (great guns) was a 9-pound carronade, a mobile, medium calibre weapon eagerly sought by New Zealand’s musket chiefs at this time. The other was a great 18-pounder, almost five feet in length and weighing over 1000 pounds, or half an imperial ton. Te Haramiti believed that his great guns would break the deadlock in the intertribal balance of power, as by 1831 the Tauranga tribes, like Ngapuhi in the morth, had become fully armed with flintlock muskets.

Powered by paddles and flax sails (described by European sailors as ‘lug sails’) depending on wind and sea conditions, the pace of the little fleet was set by Te Haramiti’s great waka taua Tonanau, which carried the 18-pound carronade in the hull as ballast. The 9-pounder was carried in the waka of Tiki Whenua, a famous northern fighting man. During the voyage, ‘a huge taniwha’ (monster), possibly an elephant seal, sea lion or orca, attached itself to Tiki Whenua, which was considered a favourable omen. ‘It sported constantly among the canoes, often coming so close to the hero that he was able to pat it approvingly with his paddle, at which the creature seemed much pleased.’

During their dawn raid at the Mercury Islands, the raiders killed more than 100 Ngati Maru, before surprising, killing and enslaving many of the Ngai Te Rangi hapu on Tuhua or Mayor Island. Proceeding to Motiti Island, which had been abandoned by the inhabitants, the northerners hauled up their waka and camped for several days on Horepupo, a low, grassed plateau (long since eroded away), located half way along Motiti Spit.

Motiti Spit at low water, provides access between the main island and the old Matarehua Pa site (Taumaihi Island)

While engaged in plundering, cooking and devouring the crops and pigs of the Motiti Islanders, as well as some of their newly acquired slaves, Te Haramiti’s raiders were surprised, surrounded and attacked. Forewarned of the raider’s presence by the survivors on Tuhua, a large waka fleet transporting some 1,000 allied Bay of Plenty tribesmen, led by Hori Tupaea of Ngai Te Rangi, Te Waharoa of Ngati Haua and Titoko of Te Whakatohea, stormed ashore on Motiti Spit to obtain utu. Despite bringing their two carronades into action and courageously returning musket fire from their exposed position on the plateau, most northerners were systematically shot down, before they were scattered and slaughtered in fierce hand to hand fighting.

Kawiti’s 18-pound carronade, Ruapekapeka Pa, Kawakawa

Mounted and secured either on canoe shaped baulks of timber or on truck carriages on wooden wheels, Te Haramiti’s gunners employed their ships’ carronades as land based, artillery field pieces during the battle on Motiti Spit.

During the final melee, some Bay of Plenty warriors found Te Haramiti seated in the stern of Tonanau chanting karakia to give his warriors courage. They beat him to death with his fists, rather than shed his sacred blood. Determined not to be taken alive and enslaved and/or eaten, the heroic northern warrior Tiki Whenua, in the most spectacular battlefield suicide of the Musket Wars, placed his chest to the muzzle of the 9-pounder and ignited it with a fire stick. ‘Tiki Whenua good night!’ said one trader Pakeha-Maori who retold the story. Again, in one of great last stands of the intertribal Musket Wars, the rangatira Pako from Cape Reinga, armed only with his mere pounamu, fought on alone armed and surrounded. Despite wounds inflicted by musket balls and impeded by three spears, tipped with barbed heads, hanging from his body, Pako felled every Bay of Plenty opponent who engaged him with traditional rakau-Maori weapons of stone, bone and wood. Pako, was finally felled by a musket ball fired at close range.

Pako, the heroic rangatira from Cape Reinga

Pako, the rangatira from Cape Reinga is remembered by the descendants of both sides to this day, for his heroic last stand during the battle on Motiti Spit in 1831. During the battle, the 9-pound carronade and Tiki Whenua’s waka were claimed by warriors of Maungatapu Pa at Tauranga who were first to place their hands upon them. This artillery piece was subsequently fired on their marae to enhance the speeches of their victorious rangatira and to give the inhabitants a taste of the action. Titoko and Te Whakatohea took the 18-pounder and the waka Tonanau as battle trophies back to Opotiki. This was also tika or correct according to customary law, as they had overrun the gunners and were first to lay hands on both gun and waka.

In June 1831, the missionary leader Henry Williams watched the Ngapuhi chief Wharepoaka and 30 picked warriors from his Hikutu hapu board his sailing cutter which carried a bow mounted carronade. Their destination was Tauranga and their objective according to Williams, was ‘to endeavour to surprise some canoes off that harbour’, and avenge the defeat of Te Haramiti's expedition earlier that year. Two weeks later, Henry’s brother William, watched the return of Wharepoaka’s gunboat, noting ‘Their intention was to fight, but they were overawed by the enemy’s numbers.’

Meanwhile, at Opotiki, the 18-pound carronade was named Te Haramiti by Te Whakatohea after its original owner. This great gun continued to be fired on ceremonial occasions on their marae into the 1880s. Te Haramiti’s great waka Tonanau and Te Haramiti the carronade were seen lying alongside the Opotiki wharf in the vicinity of the yacht club building during the early 1900s, after which all recorded sightings cease.

Sources
Bentley, Trevor, Tribal Guns and Tribal Gunners: The Story of Maori Artillery in 19th Century New Zealand, Wilsonscott, Christchurch, 2013.
Grant-Taylor, Thomas L. and Foster Bernard, ‘Motiti Island’, Encyclopaedia of New Zealand –Te Ara, A. H. McLintock (ed.), 1966, https://teara.govt.nz › motiti-island
Walker, Ranganui, Opotiki-Mai-Tawhiti: Capital of Te Whakatohea, Penguin, Auckland, 2007.
Poverty Bay Herald, 27 August 1907: 4.
Maihi, Wiremu, ‘A Book Describing The Murder Of Hunga: The History of the Wars Carried Out Between the Tribes of Rotorua and Waikato, Jennifer Curnow (trans.), in Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 99, 1990.
Maning, Frederick, Old New Zealand: A Tale of the Good Old Times by a Pakeha Maori, Creighton and Scales, Dunedin, 1863.
Brown, Alfred, 6 March, 1831, cited in Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 13, 1904.
Williams, Henry, The Early Journals of Henry Williams, 1826-1840, L. M. Rogers (comp.), Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1961.
Williams, W. and J; The Turanga Journals, 1840-1850, Frances Porter (ed.), Price Milburn, Wellington, 1974.

Illustrations
Sporing, Herman Diedrich, ‘New Zealand war canoe. From a Collection of Drawings made in the countries visited by Captain Cook’, Ms 23920f.48, British Museum. London, U. K. Photographic reproduction by Szilas, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Motiti Island and Spit showing Matarehua Pa, Bay of Plenty, Image courtesy of Sunchaser Avocados, www.sunchaser.co.nz
Kawiti’s 18 pound carronade, Ruapekapeka Pa, Northland. Image courtesy of New Zealand Department of Conservation, Te Ruapekapeka, The Battle of Ruapekapeka, https://www.ruapekapeka.co.nz
Sainson, Louis, Auguste, ‘Portraits of Maori from Cape Reinga and Whangarei Districts’, 1827, C-010-025. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.