James Farrow and his Boat, 1829-1838

Tauranga's Early Traders, Part II

‘I came to Tauranga in 1829’, recalled James Farrow, the district’s first permanent Pakeha settler identified by name.¹ Sometimes referred to as Farrar by later missionary arrivals who did not approve of his musket trading, the former merchant seaman with an entrepreneurial flair was born in London in 1800. Farrow originally landed at the Bay of Islands in 1825, with the object of exchanging muskets and gunpowder for cargoes of dressed muka (flax or Phormium tenax) for a Sydney trading house.² As the Tauranga iwi were not yet fully armed with muskets, in January 1829, he voyaged there in own his sailing craft, which appears to have been a schooner rigged ‘boat’, with a quantity of muskets and general ‘trade’.³ On arrival he was ‘claimed’ by the Ngai Te Rangi people at Otumoetai Pa as ‘their’ Pakeha.

A semi-indigenised pre-Treaty Pakeha-Maori

In the interests of protection and profit, Tauranga’s pre-Treaty flax traders like Farrow lived among the different Ngai Te Rangi hapu around the harbour, becoming in due course a semi-indigenised Pakeha-Maori.
Artist unknown ‘A Pakeha Maori’, in Knox, Thomas W; The Boy Travellers in Australasia, Harpur and Brothers, New York, 1889: 203

Alone among Ngai Te Rangi, Farrow was, not unwillingly, assimilated by his tribe as a semi-indigenised Pakeha-Maori or ‘white man gone native’. Known as Hemi (James), he married an unidentified, high-born Ngai Te Rangi woman and became fluent in Maori but, while honouring a range of customs, retained his European dress and basic values. Farrow enhanced the power and mana of the Otumoetai people by fully arming them and, as the intertribal musket warfare swept the Bay of Plenty, ensured their survival as an entity. As with subsequent Tauranga flax trader arrivals who also became semi-indigenised Pakeha-Maori, Farrow lived in a superior house – in his case within Otumoetai Pa, built and decorated inside and out Maori-style by his whanau and hapu – accommodation befitting his value and status as a valued Pakeha rangatira or white chief and a conduit to European muskets, munitions and general trade goods.⁴ 

Arthur Thomson, a British military surgeon and historian who encountered many former trader Pakeha-Maori during his North Island travels (which included Tauranga) during the 1850s, said of first arrivals like Farrow:

[E]very inducement was held out to white men to settle in the country; houses were built for them, land was given them, they were allowed to select wives from among the daughters of the chiefs and were not required to hew wood or draw water. In return for these royal privileges Pakeha Maoris were required to barter pigs, potatoes, and flax, for guns, blankets, tobacco and other articles.⁵                                                                                         

The house of a rangatira at Otumoetai Pa

Taylor, Richard, ‘Chief’s house, Otumoetai Pa, March 1839’. Richard Taylor’s Sketchbook, Auckland War Memorial Museum, Tamaki Paenga Hira. Ref: MS-302. PD-1961-14-p167-1

In 1829 Farrow, who found the Tauranga flax trade commercially viable, was joined by his brother Daniel. Both were associated with Otumoetai Pa until the 1860s, but little is known about Daniel who, while assisting his brother, lived in his shadow. The harbour offered sheltered anchorages where vessels could be easily unloaded and loaded. Ngai Te Rangi’s leading rangatira at Otumoetai offered protection from hostile tribesmen and guaranteed regular and substantial cargoes of dressed flax. Smaller vessels arriving from the Bay of Islands were loaded directly while beached on the sands below Otumoetai Pa at low tide, where Farrow later had a jetty constructed. Any larger Australia-bound vessels anchored in the Otumoetai channel or at Waikorere (Pilot Bay), where they were loaded from waka.

James Farrow’s years in pre-Treaty Tauranga were adventurous ones. In November 1830, the former privateer and whaler Phillip Tapsell sailed for Maketu, where he established himself as flax trader for the Arawa iwi. Farrow agreed to work as Tapsell’s Tauranga flax agent, a role with many attendant risks. Soon after, when Farrow voyaged to Maketu and uploaded a fresh cargo of trade goods, he and Tapsell retired to the latter’s house for refreshments. Seeing the opportunity, the Arawa rangatira Haupapa and his warriors seized the cargo and carried it off into the bush. Tapsell at once sent for Haupapa, who entered the house with young chief named Pipi. While Farrow blocked the door with his body, Tapsell placed a loaded musket to the head of Haupapa, who, calling out, ‘gave the necessary orders, and the goods were all restored’.⁶

During the early 1830s, James Farrow, while only in his 20s, exchanged muskets, powder, lead, tomahawk heads, rum and blankets with Ngai Te Rangi for huge quantities of dressed flax, pork and potatoes, which were shipped to New South Wales on vessels contracted by Tapsell’s employer, the Sydney merchant house Jones and Walker. The Tauranga flax trade initially proved profitable for all parties. By December 1830 for instance, the British Admiralty in London was purchasing cargoes for Royal Navy lines and rigging at £43 per ton. ⁷

Farrow’s cargoes were often loaded aboard vessels beached at low tide near Otumoetai Pa.

Ilene Stichbury, Unloading on the shore, Auckland. 1920s, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, The Ilene and Laurence Dakin Bequest, Accession no. 1990/30/2

On another occasion, when Hakairo, another Arawa rangatira, invited Tapsell to establish a flax trade to Rotorua, he sent Farrow, his most trusted agent, with a quantity of trade goods pikaued or backpacked by a long line of Maori porters. After Farrow had purchased ‘80 or 90’ baskets of flax, he sent a message to Maketu informing Tapsell that Hakairo’s people had stopped scraping flax ‘and had begun to look upon the goods sent there as their own, which they could take when they pleased’.⁸ On Tapsell’s instructions, Farrow, his Maori wife and an American Negro assistant ‘very cleverly’ packed the remaining trade goods within the baskets of of flax they had purchased (average weight, 60 pounds apiece) which were then pikaued back to Maketu. The trio were fortunate, as Cabbage, a former Tauranga flax trader who later attempted a similar stratagem at Rotorua, was found out and killed. Hakairo vowed vengeance for the ‘theft’, but nothing came of the affair.⁹

Between 1830 and 1833, Farrow also traded with the rangatira Te Waharoa and his Ngati Haua iwi at Matamata Pa. Although the trade was intermittent, when it did occur, it involved large quantities of flax. Ships’ cargoes up to 70 tons in weight were distributed in back packs, borne by long lines of women and slaves by way of the Wairere track, over the Kaimai Range and down to Tauranga. The cargoes were shipped directly to Walker and Jones in Sydney by large vessels anchoring at the Te Puna (Wairoa) River mouth.¹⁰ Farrow recalled:

 

I had been in the habit of supplying Te Waharoa with guns and power among(?) other things… I used to go to Matamata. The N[gati] haua were supplying me with flax. They carried the flax from Matamata to Tauranga. They were cutting flax about Matamata, at Paparahi, and on the Waihou River at Waiharakeke (the main canoe landing on the Waihou River for parties of Maori visiting or attacking Matamata Pa]. Maori set great value on guns in former times. They would work day and night to get them.¹¹

Farrow’s stock in trade included cast off military flintlock “Brown Bess’ muskets

Flintlock musket, Tower Armouries, circa 1800, London, DM000109 Gift of the Wellington City Council, National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa

By 1832, Farrow had been joined by several competing flax traders at Otumoetai and in 1833, Tapsell appointed the former ship’s mate Edward Clementson as his flax agent at Matatmata Pa. Thereafter, Farrow increasingly used his ‘boat’ to collect dressed flax from tribes around the Bay of Plenty.¹² In 1836 he was trading with Arawa at Maketu Pa, when it was stormed with great slaughter by Ngati Haua under Te Waharoa. Rescued by Ngai Te Rangi warriors who had joined the besiegers, Farrow emerged unscathed, but without his ‘trade’.¹³ Matamata’s Edward Clementson featured in another of Farrow’s adventures - a near drowning when his whale boat was swamped in heavy seas off Matata around 1838. Phillip Tapsell described the incident in his reminiscences.

He [Farrow], his wife and [Edward] Clementson, with a young man named Jenkins, set out in a whaleboat for Matata, with a view of meeting Mr. White there [a trader and ship builder], and when off the latter place, were overtaken in a gale of wind. It would have been easy for them to have run under the lee of Whale Island [Moutohora], where they would have had smooth water, and there to have waited till the storm subsided; but their young companion, being inexperienced and very confident, was strongly desirous that they should at once land at Matata, which he was of opinion they could easily do.

Yielding to this opinion, they pulled for the mainland, on approaching which, they found a very heavy surf breaking on the bar. Appearances were so threatening that, when near the entrance of the river, they lay on their oars to deliberate on the best course to pursue. They consulted so long that, before they were aware, the boat drifted into the breakers, and was capsized. Jenkins, not being able to swim, went down like a shot. Clementson was a good swimmer, but so encumbered with heavy boots, and buttoned up to the throat in a pea jacket, that, after a few strokes, he sank also, not to rise again. Farrow, though, also a good swimmer, would have given in from fatigue, but for his wife, who swam by his side, encouraging him continually with the assurance that the people were coming down to the beach, till he reached the shore in safety.¹⁴

A Pakeha trader bargaining with Maori for pigs and baskets of dressed flax and/or potatoes

Williams, John, Maori bargaining with a Pakeha, A-079-017 National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.

As the demand for muskets and Tauranga’s flax export trade declined, James Farrow prospered from the booming provisions trade in salted pork, potatoes, maize and wheat, which were sold directly to visiting vessels. Having acquired a degree of respectability as ‘an old hand’ or pioneer, he joined the Te Papa missionaries and fellow Tauranga traders in signing James Busby’s 1837 petition to the Colonial Office requesting protection from lawless Europeans.¹⁵

Farrow’s loyalty and service were recognised by Ngai Te Rangi on 10 January 1838. The leading rangatira Tupaea, Tangimoana and Te Omanu, permitted Farrow to purchase half an acre of land for his trading store at the western end of Otumoetai Pa, close to the foreshore. This acquisition was the earliest authenticated land purchase in the Bay of Plenty for which a Crown Grant was later issued.¹⁶ Unfortunately for posterity, no known image of James Farrow exists, but as we shall see, he also continued to play an important role in Tauranga events in the post-Treaty era.

Endnotes

¹ Matheson, A.H; ‘Otumoetai Pa and the Early Times in Tauranga’, in Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society (Inc.), Vol. 52 December 1974: OT 14.2

² James Farrow (c.1800 - 1880) - Genealogy - Genihttps://www.geni.com › people › James-Farrow. See also New Zealand, pre-1846, Person Page 567 - Early NZ History, http://www.nzearlyhistory.com › Avery, Max, Maritime Tauranga, 1826-1970, Max Colwill Avery, Tauranga, 2013: 7.

³ Daily Southern Cross, 15 September 1869: 6.

⁴ Bentley, Trevor, Pakeha-Maori: The Extraordinary Story of the Europeans Who Lived as Maori In Early New Zealand, Penguin, Auckland, 1999: 142-164.

⁵ Thomson, Arthur. The Story of New Zealand, Vol. 1, John Murray, London, 1859: 300.

⁶ Daily Southern Cross, 15 September 1869: 6.7

⁷ Cited in Wigglesworth, Roger, The New Zealand Timber and Flax Trade, 1769-1840, PhD in History, Massey University, 1981: 82.

⁸ Daily Southern Cross, 4 August 1869: 6.

⁹ Ibid. 

¹⁰ Tapsell, P. ‘Reminiscences, 1777? – 1873’, -1/2005486, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. Early Tauranga – Toanga Tu / Heritage Bay of Plenty, https://www.taongatauranga.net › early-tauranga

¹¹ Māori Land Court Minute Book (No. 3, p. 336, transcribed by Stephanie Smith), Cited in Debbie McCauley, Author, James Farrow (c. 1800-1880) - https://debbiemccauleyauthor.wordpress.com 

¹² Ibid.

¹³ Matheson, Vol. 52, 1974: OT 12.

¹⁴ Daily Southern Cross, 15 September 1869: 6.

¹⁵ Hinds, Samuel, The Latest Official Documents Relating to New Zealand, With Introduction and Observations, John W. Parker, London, 1838: 44.

¹⁶ Early Tauranga, https://www.taongatauranga.net › early-tauranga

The Voyage of the Venus Pirates, 1806-1807

Early Sailing Vessels and Visitors to Tauranga, Part VIII
The Voyage of the Venus Pirates, 1806-1807

Looking out to sea, most Tauranga residents can identify Taumaihi Island. Situated close to the southern end of Motiti or Flat Island, it is accessible at low tide with permission, via a narrow spit of packed stone and sand. During the first two decades of the 19th century, Motiti was intensely cultivated and supported a large Maori population. Taumaihi Island which had been scarped over the centuries into an impregnable refuge pa known as Matarehua, was in 1806 controlled by the Ngaiterangi rangatira Hukere. The arrival of the Venus, a small, innocuous brigantine (two masted vessel), off Motiti and Taumaihi in 1806 set in motion events that led to the destruction of Matarehua Pa, the death of Hukere and many of the Motiti people.

An early 19th century brigantine

Built in Calcutta, the 45 ton Venus arrived in Sydney on 8th May 1805 with a cargo of tea, rice and jute sacks. Purchased by the Sydney merchants Campbell and Co., the vessel made two sealing voyages to the islands of the Antipodes and Bass Strait. On the 16th June 1806, after transporting a cargo of provisions and rum for the military at Port Dalrymple, Tasmania, the convict crew of 14, seized the Venus and sailed away with the cargo. Despite having little knowledge of navigation, the Venus’s pilot successfully crossed the Tasman, before making landfall among the Te Aupouri people at North Cape. There, the convicts seized and carried off two high born Aupouri women as sex slaves.

The Venus next called at the Bay of Islands where two of the crew and two convict female passengers were marooned ashore, and two Ngapuhi wahine rangatira (chieftainesses) were kidnapped. One of these women was the sister of Te Morenga, who was one of the most powerful chiefs at the Bay. The other was related to Hongi Hika who later achieved fame as the greatest Musket Wars general and conqueror of tribes. Calling at Whangarei, two further high born women were kidnapped, one of them being Tawaputa, the niece of Te Morenga. Entering the Hauraki Gulf, the Venus visited Thames where it was boarded by the leading Ngati Paoa rangatira Te Haupa and his daughter. Noticing that the sails were billowing and that the Venus was underway Te Haupa leapt overboard, but his daughter was carried off by the pirates.

After rounding Cape Brett, the Venus was sailed into the Bay of Plenty. It is not known if the vessel entered Tauranga Harbour, but at Motiti Island, some 10 miles to the north-east, the convicts sold Te Morenga’s niece Tawaputa. Purchased by Hukere in exchange for parawai (superior cloaks), she was kept as his slave wife at Matarehua Pa. In due course, Te Waru, Ngaiterangi’s leading chief came into dispute with Hukere over Tawaputa. Taken across to Tauranga, she was killed either by Te Waru or at his direction at his pa on Mount Maunganui and her body was cooked and eaten.

Motiti Spit at low tide with Taumaihi Island (Matarehua Pa) in the distance

Responding to rumours about the fate of his abducted niece and sister, Te Morenga sent spies disguised as traders to the Bay of Plenty and East Coast. They reported that some of the women abducted by the Venus convicts had been sold, and later killed and eaten at Tauranga, and at Maraenui Pa, the Te Whanau-a-Apanui fortress located at the mouth of the Motu River in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Others, including Te Morenga’s sister, they stated, had suffered the same fate at Kawakawa Bay (Hicks Bay) near East Cape in the rohe of the Ngati Porou iwi. It was to be 12 years however, before Te Morenga and Hongi Hika accumulated sufficient muskets to ensure victory over the offending iwi and to exact the utu that custom demanded.
In January 1818, Te Morenga led a fleet of waka taua (war canoes) south to Motiti, where Taumaihi Island and the Pa of Matarehua was besieged by land and sea. Armed only with rakau-Maori weapons of stone, bone and wood, the Ngaiterangi defenders eventually succumbed to the firepower of the northern musketeers. The pa was stormed with great slaughter, but Te Waru escaped to Tauranga. Hukere was killed and several hundred survivors including his wife were taken back to the Bay of Islands as slaves. Matarehua Pa was never reoccupied by Ngaiterangi.

In January 1820, Te Morenga led an expedition against Te Waru at Tauranga and during two battles, many Ngaiterangi were killed by gunfire. With honour satisfied and peace arranged, Te Morenga returned to the Bay of Islands, taking with him with all Te Waru's canoes, 200 prisoners of war, and the toi moko (cured tattooed heads) of several chiefs.

Te Morenga’s moko kanohi (face tattoo)

Eight years after the kidnapping of niece and sister by the Venus pirates, Te Morenga sketched this image of his own ta moko for John Nicholas who was assistant to the leading missionary Samuel Marsden.

What became of the Venus is uncertain. A brig which may well have been the Venus was reported to have been in distress off the Northland coast in May 1808. Te Pahi, a Ngapuhi rangatira was reported to have hanged the pirates when the vessel returned to the Bay of Islands. Maori elsewhere in New Zealand claimed to have captured a vessel about this time. The crew were killed, eaten and the ship burned on the beach to obtain the metal nails.

Regardless, one convict pirate proved a great survivor. John Redmonds, a black veteran whaling sailor who piloted the Venus down the North Island’s east coast, was found living as a Pakeha-Maori at Mercer on the Waikato River during the 1860s and has left descendants. His ‘Wanted’ description posted by the Sydney authorities in 1806 read: ‘broad nosed, thick lips, stout made, wears hair tied, and with holes in his ears, being accustomed to wear large ear-rings’, suggesting a pirate out of a story of the Spanish Main. The actions of Redmonds and his fellow pirates however, cannot be romanticized. Their abduction, enslavement and sale of seven northern wahine rangatira, set in train a cycle of utu that escalated into New Zealand’s longest, and bloodiest conflict – the intertribal Musket Wars (1818-1839).

Sources

Bentley, Trevor, Pakeha Maori: The Exraordinary Story of the Europeans Who Lived as Maori in Early New Zealand, Penguin, Auckland, 1999.
Crosby, R. D; The Musket Wars: A History of Inter-Iwi conflict, 1806-45, Reed, Auckland, 1999.
Foster, Bernard, ‘Te Morenga’, An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. A. H. Mclintock (ed.), 1966, Te Ara – the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/te-morenga
Marsden, Samuel, The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden, 1765-1838, J. Elder (ed.), Coulls, Somerville Wilkie and A. H./ Reed, Dunedin, 1932.
Nicholas, J. L; Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, Vol. I, James Black, London, 1817.
Smith, S, P; Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century, Whitcombe and Tombs, Christchurch, 1910.
Vennell, C. W; The Brown Frontier: New Zealand, 1806-1877, A. H. and A. W. Reed, Wellington, 1967.

Illustrations

Robinson, John and George Francis Dow, The Sailing Ships of New England, 1607-1907, Marine Research Society, Salem Mass, 1922, plate no. 89.
Motiti Spit at low tide with Taumaihi Island (Matarehua Pa) in the distance. Author’s collection.                   
Te Morenga, self portrait in Nicholas, John, Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, Performed in the Years 1814 and 1815, James Black, London, 1817: 216. enzb.auckland.ac.nz