Pāora Tūhaere? Pāora Te Putu?

Pāora signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 4 March 1840 at Karaka Bay, Tāmaki (Auckland).

Historian Claudia Orange has suggested that this may have been Pāora Tūhaere, a Ngāti Whātua chief who was born around 1825.

Āpirana Ngata, on the other hand, believed it may have been Pāora Te Putu, a Hauraki chief of Ngāti Tamaterā, Te Patukirikiri and Ngāti Whanaunga. Most of those who signed on 4 March were Hauraki chiefs.

Pāora Te Putu owned three trading ships. He and his people grew crops and sent them to the Auckland market.

In 1852 a group of Ngāti Porou from Harataunga (Kennedy Bay) asked Te Putu for some land in Hauraki: ‘Tētahi wāhi whenua hei tūranga mō ō rātou waewae.’ The request was accompanied by a mere pounamu (greenstone club) named Whaita and other gifts. Te Putu agreed to give the land.

Te Kahukoti sang the following lament for Pāora Te Putu at his uhunga (funeral):

Kaore te po nei te mauru te hau,
Te tahuritanga ake ki te kopaenga whare;
Tahuna mai e tama ki te ahi taraiti;
Ka muri aroha au, te tonga o te ra,
Te rerenga ki te rua, mawai ano e tapapa?
Whakaopeope ai te rere mai o te ao;
Mawai au e kawe nga tumu kei Otaki?
Te kakau tango rua nahau nei e Puke.
Kei te muri koe Pene, nana rawa i tuatahi.
Nana rawa i tuapeka ki te iti i ahau;
He inumanga Rama i haurangi ai au.[1]

Te Putu died on 1 June 1861.

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