This whole region, like the Kerikeri region, contained very little forest and was comparatively level except in the furtherst part of the interior and on the south side of the river estuary. The large 'neck' of land between the Kerikeri and Waitangi river estuaries was extremely fertile, clear of forest, and was highly suitable for agriculture - in fact, as will be seen this was by far the most extensive single tract of good land on any part of the Bay coast. From Puketona inland narrow stretches of rich alluvial soil, much cultivated by the Maoris of this region, bordered the river on each side. This however, was the only good soil to be found in the Waitangi interior, the rest (approximately half the total surface area of the region) being predominately a poor quality, scrub-covered clay; this clay countryside became very hilly and barren in the far interiior. The country on the south side of the river mouth was equally poor and rugged.
In the second and third decades of the nineteenth century there were several villages situated around the Waitangi river estuary, mainly on the very fertile northern side. There was also at least one good sized village at Te Puke, in the center of the very fertile neck of land between the Waitangi and Kerkeri river estuaries. The inhabitants of this coastal belt of the Waitangi region belonged to two very closely related Ngapuhi sections - the Ngati-kawa and Mataruhuruhu. The principal chief of Ngati-kawa was Te Kemara, who was also a tohunga of some note. Te Kemara's nephew Marupo, was head of Mataruhuruhu section, of which Hepetahi was another leading chief. As well as parts of the coast the Mataruhuruhu also owned most of the Waitangi interior, though their holding in this latter district were separated from their coastal territory by an extensive tract of land around Puketona which was owned by the Ngati-tautahi section of Ngapuhi.
Both Marupo and Hepetahi and their immediate followers spent parts of the year on their interior lands, where there were several villages, and extensive cultivations on the fertile stretches bordering the river, and parts of the year (notably the summer fishing season) on the coast. Te Kemara and the Ngati-kawa lived for most the year in the coastal part of the Waitangi region where extensive fern root digging and agriculture were made possible by the great amount of fertile land, throughout the 1820's and much of the thirties Te Kemara had his village on the north bank of the river estuary; in the late thirties he lived on the south bank where the Kaipatiki river joined the Waitangi estuary. On occasions during the twenties and thirties Te Kemara and some of the Ngati-kawa were to be found living on land they owned in the vicinity of Pakarka in region V. Having sold most of their Waitangi and Pakaraka lands in 1840 Te Kemara and several of the Ngati-kawa went to live in region X with their close political allies, the leading Ngai-te-waka chiefs (of region III and V) who had also moved there from their former homes in that year. It seems probable that another segment of Ngati-kawa formed part of the Ngapuhi which moved from the Taiamai-Pakaraka district of region V in the late 1830's to Oruru and Mongonui in Doubtless Bay. Some of the Mararuhuruhu section may also have been involved in this move to Doubtless Bay since the Mataruhuruhu like the Ngati-kawa, owned and sometimes occupied land in the Pouerua, Pakaraka, Taiamai, arean of region V from where this migration took place. Most of the Mataruhuruhu, however, appear to have remained from 1840 onwards based on their Waitangi interior lands, none of which had been sold, and still make occsasional visits to what was left unsold or their coastal Pouerua lands.
The Ngati-kawa and Mataruhuruhu were closely associated politically, and inter-related, with that part of the Ngati-tautahi section of Ngapuhi which lived around the Puketona district of Waitangi in the 1820's and thirties. Other segments of the Ngati-tautahi live at Kaikohe and Waimate (both in region V) thus closely allying these two districts politically with Waitangi. The great Ngai-te-waka chief Hongi Hika was through his father a member of Ngati-tautahi, doubtless being principal chief of this Ngapuhi section as well as principal chief of Ngai-te-waka; at the very least Hongi would have been principal chief of those Ngati-tautahi who live at Waimate, the Ngai-te-waka headquarters. It is probable that Te Kahakaha, a chief of considerable importance who lived somewhere in the Waitangi interior and was very closely associated with Hongi Hika, was head of the Waitangi segment of the Ngati-tautahi. Another leading chief of the Waitangi Ngati-tautahi was Hone Heke, a cousin of Te Kahakaha and a chief who became on the greatest at the Bay in the early 1840's when he led several Bay hapus in a revolt against the British Government's New Zealand representatives. Heke was exceptionally closely related to the great Hongi Hika: not only was he a Ngati-tautahi kinsman of Hongi's, he was also Hongi's nephew; ten years after Hongi's death Heke Married Hongi's daughter. Heke's first wife had been a daughter of the great Te Pahi of regions I and II.
After having sold most of their Waitangi lands in the late 1830's Te Kahakaha and Heke moved from the Puketona area to Kaikohe, the Ngati-tautahi headquarters. However, at least one hapu of the Waitangi Ngati-tautahi, that led by the young Haratua, continued to occupy land near Puketona from time to time in the 1840's; Haratua, also belonged to Te Kemara's section, the Ngati-kawa, and this capacity owned and frequently occupied land at Pakaraka in region V.
From 1818 a goodly number of Waitangi warriors would have accompanied their chiefs to Hicks Bay where as already mentioned Kaiteke earned his second name. Mahikai stayed at home according to Wiremu Wihongi. He lived at Parakara. His name Mahikai means food producer.
Occasionally one reads of chiefs who chose not to travel with the tribes taua. This was wise as when the warriors returned (if they did not get killed or captured) there was a supply of foods available. Two thousand prisioners are said to have been captured and brought back to the Bay of Islands from the East Cape and large numbers of heads of those killed. The prisoners who survived (some might have been hilled and eaten en route) were distributed amongst the warriors families. Percy Smith mentions the return from Mercury Bay of a war party manned by the people of Waitangi and inland districts. |
