Maungatapu

 

Welcome Bay, Tauranga. Postcard published by F. Duncan & Co, Auckland
Collection of Justine Neal

Today Maungatapu is a quiet and pleasant suburb of Tauranga but just 194 years ago life on the peninsula was somewhat different.

September 7th 1834: missionaries A.N.Brown and William Williams visit the Maungatapu chief Nuku as part of their search for a site for the building of a new mission station. Nuku warned them not to settle at Te Papa as the iwi there was a dishonest one and would rob them of all their goods.

January 27th 1837: Maungatapu Pa attacked by an Arawa taua.

October 13th 1838: Waikato taua arrive at Maungatapu on their way to Maketu.

February 14th 1840: Arawa taua journeyed in their waka to Maungatapu. They opened fire on the Pa but no one was injured.
February 26th: another attack on the Maungatapu Pa. Three men on each side were wounded.

Maungatapu, Tauranga, Watercolour by John Kinder, 1863
Collection of Auckland Art Gallery, Ref 1937/15/45

September 18th–19th 1840: at Maungatapu, after 10 years of war, peace was made and a huge feast was given by the Maungatapu iwi.

June 1841: 114 baskets of potatoes were brought by the iwi to Te Papa in payment for Testaments.

February 14th 1849: a party from Maungatapu travelled to Te Papa to borrow pit saws so they could start erecting a chapel. Maungatapu was covered with scrub and ti tree not suitable for building and Rev Brown soon received a complaint from Otumoetai that a sacred tree belonging to them was being removed. Brown sorted the problem out and work was able to continue.

March 20th 1850: the posts for the new chapel were being set out.

Reference 

A Centennial History of Tauranga, by W.H. Gifford and H. Bradney Williams, publ. by AH & AW Reed, 1940