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Brunner on the Buller - roadside stories

In late 1846, with his Māori guides Kehu and Pikewate, surveyor Thomas Brunner set off on an epic journey down the Buller River and to the West Coast. The group battled hunger, illness, injury and terrible weather, and it was 18 months before Brunner encountered another European.

Transcript

Archival audio: Today in History June 15. Brunner – The Greatest Explorer of All.

Thomas Brunner (actor's voice): This is without exception the very worst country I have seen in New Zealand; not a bird to be heard or seen; and the few fish there are in the river will not bite during rain.

Narrator: The Buller River, named Kawatiri by Māori, which means deep and swift, is the largest river on the West Coast. From its source at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson region, it flows over 170 kilometres to the Tasman Sea near Westport. On the way it crosses two major mountain ranges, forming the upper and lower Buller gorges.

In 1847 surveyor Thomas Brunner explored this river. On an earlier trip he had renamed it the Buller River, after an English politician who was a director of the New Zealand Company.

The company had established a settlement at Nelson, but it was running out of arable flat land. Brunner had heard Māori reports about a huge inland plain south of Nelson, so explored the mountainous area to the south and west. But he found little land for settlement.

In December 1846, though confident that a large inland plain did not exist, Brunner set off. He was accompanied by two Māori guides, Kehu and Pikewate, and their wives. The journey began badly.

Brunner (actor's voice): The women are fighting, with their husbands taking part in the combat. I had much difficulty reconciling them, and persuading them to continue their journey.

Narrator: As they came to the Buller gorges food was scarce and it rained constantly. A diet of fern root caused Brunner ‘excruciating pain’ and his Māori companions fell ill.

Brunner (actor's voice): I am getting so sick of this exploring, the walking and the dietary both being so bad, that were it not for the shame of the thing, I would return.

Narrator: For three months they journeyed down the Buller River; existing on birds and eels. Then, with starvation looming...

Brunner (actor's voice): I was compelled, though very reluctantly, to give my consent to killing my dog, Rover. The flesh of a dog is very palatable, tasting something between mutton and pork.

Narrator: When Brunner’s party finally reached the West Coast they found no sign of Māori who they hoped might supply them with food. So they ate seaweed instead.

They then journeyed south where they finally obtained food from a Māori settlement. Brunner spent the winter with its inhabitants before venturing further south in spring. However, near the Paringa River he injured an ankle.

Brunner (actor's voice): I turned my face homewards, first to rejoin my own natives, and then to endeavour once more to see the face of a white man and to hear my native tongue.

Narrator: A new route up the Grey River valley saw him discover coal, and he enjoyed the scenery.

Brunner (actor's voice): Some of the bends of this river are as beautiful, in my opinion, as nature can possibly make them. I was so pleased with the Grey River that I should not object to visit it again.

Narrator: Further on, Brunner came to the large lake that now bears his name. Then he eventually reached the Buller River. The journey up it once again became a struggle for survival. Then Brunner suffered a stroke.

Brunner (actor's voice): I lost the entire use of my side, and in the morning I could not move.

Narrator: For a week, the faithful Kehu nursed him, the other guide and his wife having abandoned them.

Brunner (actor's voice): Although I could only stand on one leg, I resolved to try and proceed.

Narrator: Five weeks later, Brunner reached the house of a settler.

Brunner (actor's voice): So thank God, I am once more among civilized men.

Narrator: When he reached Motueka, in June 1848, Brunner had been away for 18 months, enduring terrible weather and starvation. Brunner died at Nelson in 1874 aged only 52. His funeral was attended by several hundred people, including a large Maori contingent. His guide Kehu was chief mourner.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

Archival audio sourced from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives, http://www.soundarchives.co.nz/. Sound files may not be reused without permission from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives (Reference number: sa-d-01135-04-s01-s02-pm).

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Missionaries and muskets at Kerikeri - roadside stories

In the 1820s the Kerikeri mission station was under the protection of Hongi Hika and the Ngāpuhi tribe. Hongi had encouraged the establishment of the mission – largely because he wanted access to muskets, which gave Ngāpuhi a great military advantage over other tribes. Today the 1822 mission house is New Zealand’s oldest building.

Transcript

Archival audio: After an introduction, Ernest Kemp talks about Kemp House.

English missionary (actor): This day Shungi and his people with some other tribes arrived here from the fight with the dead bodies of Titi and Arpu. The widow of Titi and other women rushed down upon the beach in a frenzy of rage, and beat into pieces the carved work at the head of the canoes with a pole. Then they got into a canoe and pulled out several prisoners of war into the water and beat them to death.

Narrator: During the 1820s, members of the Church Missionary Society regularly witnessed gruesome scenes at Kerikeri as returning warriors from the Ngāpuhi tribe handed over captives to the widows of their comrades slain in battle. The missionaries could only look on as these women took revenge on the prisoners, who then became a part of the cannibal feasts that followed.

The missionaries did not understand that the Ngāpuhi custom of eating slain enemies restored the mana, or prestige, of the warriors killed in battle. Defenceless in an unfamiliar landscape, the missionaries were entirely dependent on the protection of Hongi Hika and his Ngāpuhi tribe.

The Church Missonary Society’s interest in the area followed a visit to Sydney in 1814 by Hongi Hika, who wanted to encourage a mission in his tribal area. Ngāpuhi cared little for Christianity, but Hongi Hika understood that a mission would attract traders and allow his tribe to acquire muskets, which were the key to Ngāpuhi’s remarkable military successes in the 1820s.

In 1814, a mission, led by the Reverend Samuel Marsden, was established at Rangihoua Bay, near the mouth of the Kerikeri Inlet. Despite [the original Rangihoua mission] being a total failure, Marsden tried again in 1820. This time he located the mission station beside Kororipo Pā, a fortified village at the head of the Kerikeri Inlet. It was the centre of Ngāpuhi’s extensive empire and where Hongi Hika based his war canoes.

Muskets gave Ngāpuhi a great military advantage, and Hongi Hika successfully used them to invade the Bay of Plenty and Waikato. Hongi Hika was wounded in 1827 at the battle of Mangamuka.* He died from his wounds the following year.

While Ngāpuhi extended its tribal empire, the Church Missionary Society consolidated its foothold at Kerikeri. In 1822, an English-style mission house was built for John Butler, the first missionary. Butler did not have the opportunity to enjoy his new dwelling for long, as a dispute with Marsden led to his dismissal a year later.

A succession of missionaries then occupied the house until James Kemp took up residence in 1832. By then Hongi Hika had died, European diseases had decimated Ngāpuhi, and Kerikeri had lost its strategic importance. The mission house was lived in by Kemp and his descendants until 1974, when it was donated to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

Kemp House, as it is known today, is the country’s oldest building, and is little changed from its 1822 structure.

Nearby stands the stone store. It was built in 1832 by an ex-convict stonemason and intended as a storehouse. However, by the time it was completed, Kerikeri’s strategic importance had diminished, so it was unnecessary. It has since been used as a library, ammunition magazine, kauri gum trading post and general store. The New Zealand Historic Places Trust purchased it in 1974.

A nearby path leads to the remains of Kororipo Pā, where some of the old earthworks are still evident. On the [opposite] riverbank is a reconstruction of a Māori village.

*The audio suggests that Hongi Hika was wearing his chain mail suit at the battle of Mangamuka, but this is not correct. This is an error which came to light after the video was made. Other corrections and clarifications to the text have been made inside square brackets.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

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Waitangi, home of the Treaty - roadside stories

The Treaty of Waitangi, considered to be New Zealand’s founding document, was signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 by Māori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown. However, within five years Māori were at war with the British over land loss and infringements of the Treaty. Since the 1970s the Waitangi Tribunal has investigated breaches of the Treaty.

Transcript

Archival audio: Waitangi Celebration 1940 RNZ Sound archives.

Actor’s voice: Her Majesty the Queen asks you to sign this treaty. I ask you for this publicly; I do not go from one chief to another. You yourselves have often asked the King of England to extend his protection unto you. Her Majesty now offers you that protection in this treaty.

Narrator: The Treaty of Waitangi, signed at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands on the 6th of February 1840, is considered New Zealand’s founding document.

At the time, there were about 100,000 Māori living in New Zealand, and only 2000 Europeans, or Pākehā. The Europeans felt it was necessary to have a formal acceptance of their settlement. Māori were interested in having European setters because they provided trading opportunities. On the 5th of February 1840, the day before the Treaty was signed, Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson explained the purpose of a proposed agreement between the British government and Māori to a large gathering of chiefs assembled at Waitangi.

The meeting took place in front of the house of the British Resident, James Busby. [This would become known as the Treaty House.] Chiefs from a number of northern tribes had come to Waitangi by canoe and assembled on a clearing near the Resident’s house. The newly appointed governor, Captain William Hobson, had arrived a week earlier from Sydney. Anglican, Catholic and Wesleyan missionaries also attended, with the Reverend Henry Williams, who spoke Māori, interpreting the speeches of the governor and the chiefs.

After Hobson had spoken, Williams read out the text of the Treaty in Māori. Then the chiefs rose one by one to offer their responses. That evening they retired to nearby Te Tii Marae on the banks of the Waitangi River to continue discussing the document. The next day, the chiefs reassembled in front of the [Treaty] house and 45 of them signed the Treaty. Some chose not to.

In essence, the Treaty formally extended British rule over New Zealand and required Māori recognition of the Governor’s authority. In return, the British government guaranteed Māori their lands, forests and fisheries, and gave them the legal rights of British subjects. It also stipulated that only the Crown could buy Māori land.

However, within five years, Māori and the British government were at war in northern New Zealand over the ongoing loss of Māori land and resources.

To some, the Treaty seemed to be simply a device to help spread European settlement. Others argued it was a sincere attempt to create a society that protected Māori interests as well as the Crown’s. But by the end of the 19th century, Māori had been told by the Chief Justice that the Treaty was ‘a nullity’ with no standing in law.

Waitangi, where the Treaty negotiations took place, was also ignored. The [Treaty] house lay in disrepair and the Treaty itself was so neglected that parts of it were eaten by rats.

But in 1932, the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, bought the land at Waitangi and gifted it to the nation, as well as organising the restoration of the [Treaty] house. This prompted the construction of a beautiful Māori meeting house nearby. Its carvings represented many of the country’s tribes and commemorated the Treaty’s centenary in 1940. A large waka, or canoe, was also built.

While the centenary was a great occasion, the Treaty itself continued to be largely ignored. Not until 1975, when the Waitangi Tribunal was established to investigate grievances, did the Treaty begin to be taken seriously. Since then, it has helped determine government policy and is recognised in the law courts.

At Waitangi today, the Treaty house and the flagstaff stand on extensive manicured lawns. The grounds also include the centennial meeting house and the great waka, which is housed close to the beach where the chiefs landed in 1840.

The Treaty grounds are now visited by around 180,000 people a year. On Waitangi Day itself, the 6th of February, large numbers attend the celebrations.

Since this video was made, errors have been brought to our attention. Corrections to the transcript are indicated by the use of square brackets.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

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Russell - roadside stories

Today a picturesque tourist town, Russell was once a lawless settlement. Then called Kororāreka, it was the site of the flagpole famously cut down four times by Ngāpuhi chief Hōne Heke, sparking the Northern War of the mid-1840s.

Transcript

Victorian voice: There are many spirit shops, and the whole population is addicted to drunkenness and all kinds of vice. As Kororāreka is the capital, a person would be inclined to form his opinion of the New Zealanders from what he here saw. This little village is the very stronghold of vice; although many tribes, in other parts, have embraced Christianity, here the greater part remains in Heathenism.

Narrator: In the 1830s, the town of Russell, which was known as Kororāreka until the 1840s, was a lawless town where drinking, brawling, and prostitution were rife. The town was called ‘the hellhole of the Pacific’. Whaling ships from around the world would stop at Kororāreka to resupply, and for their crews to have some rest and recreation.

By the 1830s, Kororāreka had become the biggest whaling port in the southern hemisphere. Up to 30 ships, many of them American or French, were anchored there with up to 1000 men ashore. Kororāreka was one of the first points of contact between Europeans and Māori – a meeting of cultures that shocked many observers.

Victorian voice: The town is a Gomorrah, the scourge of the Pacific, and should be struck down by the ravages of disease for its depravity.

Narrator: Whalers, seafarers and merchants mixed with adventurers, deserters and escaped convicts from Australia. Prostitution was one of the town’s main industries, and sexual favours were used by Māori in the purchase of many things, including muskets. Three-week marriages were commonly negotiated, and many local Māori women bore the tattoos of their temporary lovers.

Victorian voice: 30 to 35 whaling ships would come in for three weeks to the Bay and 400 to 500 sailors would require as many women. These young ladies go off to the ships, and three weeks on board are spent much to their satisfaction, as they get from the sailors a musket, blankets, and gowns.

Narrator: There were various Christian missionaries in the area. Most were Protestant, but in 1839 some French Catholics, led by Bishop Pompallier, established their headquarters in Kororāreka. They built a two-storied printery and produced thousands of copies of Catholic books, mostly in Māori. The Catholic missionaries left in the 1850s but Pompallier House remains today.

After the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the country’s capital shifted to Auckland. This, along with a number of new levies imposed by the colonial government, caused resentment amongst local Māori. Hōne Heke, the first chief to sign the Treaty, was dismayed to see Māori losing their land and natural resources.

In July 1844, he cut down the flagpole he had originally gifted to the British, which stood on a hill above the town. The flagpole was re-erected the following year, only to be cut down three more times. Governor Fitzroy responded by sending troops to Kororāreka and offering a reward for Heke’s capture.

In March 1845, Hōne Heke attacked the town with 600 men. The attackers withdrew after one day’s fighting, in which 20 of the 250 defenders were killed. A powder keg exploded as they left Kororāreka, destroying much of the old town. This proved to be the first confrontation in what became the Northern War, which ended with no clear winner after two years* of intermittent fighting.

Today, Russell is a tourist town. At the northern end of the beachfront is the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, New Zealand’s first licensed bar. Russell’s Christ Church, built in 1836, survived the sacking of Kororāreka in 1845, and still stands today. A variety of cruises and tours leave from Russell, which is the base for many of the big-game fishing charter boats.

* The Northern War actually lasted for 10 months, from March 1845 until January 1846.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

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The dangers of coal - roadside stories

West Coast coal has been mined since the 1860s, and coal became an important source of energy in the late 19th century. But coal mining is back-breaking work that can also be dangerous – 65 men died in the 1896 Brunner mine explosion, New Zealand’s worst industrial disaster. In 2010, 29 workers died after an explosion at the Pike River coal mine.

Transcript

Archival audio: Coal miners describing their craft

Thomas Brunner (actor’s voice): The coal is hard and brittle, very bright and sparkling, burns freely and is free from smell.

Narrator: The West Coast region contains large amounts of high-quality coal, which is in demand in international markets. There are 13 coalfields on the coast. Two major coalfields near the Grey River are Paparoa and Brunner, containing seams up to 20 metres thick.

Thomas Brunner found coal in 1847 while exploring the Grey River. By 1864, mining had begun and a town sprang up around the mine. Other mines opened nearby and the lower Grey became a place of bustling activity. By 1888 the Brunner field was producing a third of New Zealand’s coal.

Actor’s voice:
They work in the heat and the coal black dust
Sticks to the skin like a burned pie crust
We curse each day that the miner must
Go down in the Brunner mine.

Narrator: During the second half of the 19th century, coal formed the backbone of the West Coast’s economy. Coal heated homes throughout New Zealand and helped the development of coal-fired railways that opened up the country.

But coal mining was back-breaking and dangerous work. The technique depended entirely on muscle power. Miners chopped out coal with picks and then shovelled it into waiting carts.

Actor’s voice:
The miner’s breath comes short and hot
He uses all the breath he’s got
Whether it’s good for his lungs or not
Down in the Brunner mine.

Narrator: Seams of coal were mined using the ‘bord and pillar’ method. Sections were extracted leaving a pillar to hold up the roof, then the pillar was attacked as the miners retreated towards the entrance.

There were three main causes of accidents in coal mines: rock falls, explosions, and coal tubs knocking men over. Some miners also died from lung disease.

The Brunner mine explosion in 1896 was New Zealand’s worst industrial disaster. At 9.30 on the morning of the 26th of March, an explosion was heard. Two men went underground to investigate and were later found unconscious. From about 11 o’clock rescuers began bringing out bodies. Many rescuers also suffered from the noxious gases. The final death toll was 65.

The official enquiry said that the cause was the detonating of a charge in a part of the mine where no one should have been working. However, some experienced miners claimed that firedamp – methane gas produced by coal – had accumulated and had not been cleared due to an ineffective ventilation system.

Though there have been a number of mining tragedies in New Zealand, most mine fatalities have been single deaths. Of the 141 men killed in coal mines between 1900 and 1914, over two-thirds were from individual accidents.

But even though mine safety improved during the twentieth century, mining tragedies still occur. In January 1967, an explosion at the state-owned Strongman mine killed 19 men. Four bodies had to be left in the sealed-up section of the mine because of the danger of further explosions.

On the 19th of November 2010 there was a large explosion from methane gases at the Pike River mine in the Grey Valley. Two men escaped from the mine. Five days later, while a rescue team waited for the conditions to improve, there was a second explosion, and it was confirmed that the 29 men still in the mine were dead. Their bodies remain there.

Actor’s voice:
A sound that’ll creep through the miner’s soul
Is the shake and rattle and down she’ll roll
A hundred feet of rubble and coal
Down in the Brunner mine.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

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Ruapekapeka - roadside stories

During the Northern War of the mid-1840s Ngāpuhi leader Te Ruki Kawiti built a complex defensive pā at Ruapekapeka, with underground shelters protected by fortifications. After a heavy bombardment by British artillery, Kawiti and his men abandoned the pā in January 1846. Its remains can still be seen today.

Transcript

Hōne Heke (actor’s voice): Uncle, you are foolish to remain in this pā to be pounded by cannonballs. Let us leave it. Let the government soldiers have it and we will retire into the forest and draw them after us, where they cannot bring the big guns. The soldiers cannot fight amongst the supplejack. They will be as easily killed amongst the canes as if they were wood pigeons.

Narrator: In January 1846, the famous Ngāpuhi chief, Hōne Heke, persuaded his uncle, Te Ruki Kawiti, to abandon the pā, or fortified settlement, at Ruapekapeka, which means ‘The bat’s nest’ in Māori. Their escape frustrated Governor Grey, who hoped for a decisive victory to end the Northern War with local Māori.

Today, the remains of Kawiti’s complex hilltop fortress can still be seen 14 kilometres southeast of the small Northland town of Kawakawa.

Ruapekapeka, with its intricate series of underground shelters, which were linked by tunnels and encircled by fortifications, demonstrates the sophistication of Māori military techniques.

Following the signing of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, tension grew between Māori and the colonial settlers, especially in Northland. Māori became frustrated by the loss of their land, resources and autonomy.

During 1844 and 1845, Ngāpuhi chief Hōne Heke, the first Māori chief to sign the Treaty, cut down the flagpole flying the British flag at Kororāreka, now known as Russell, four times. This sparked a conflict known as the Northern War. Heke and his uncle Kawiti inflicted a severe defeat on the British at Ōhaeawai. Colonial troops attempted to storm the pā, but were caught between two encircling palisades and suffered severe casualties.

For five months after Ōhaeawai, there was no fighting, and British settlers became increasingly anxious.

Victorian voice: The former halo of European superiority is completely dispelled.

Narrator: Kawiti prepared for the government’s inevitable revenge by building a major defensive pā at Ruapekapeka. If Governor Grey wanted to fight, his troops would have to transport their supplies, including heavy artillery, over 20 kilometres inland from the Bay of Islands.

It took three weeks for the Imperial troops to crawl through the rugged bush, with their heavy artillery in tow. Once in position at Ruapekapeka, the British continually bombarded the Māori fortifications for two weeks.

Despite being outnumbered about three to one, Ruapekapeka’s defenders suffered few casualties. They were able to maintain their fortifications, mainly because the government artillery fired only one shell at a time. This enabled Kawiti and his men to make repairs.

When a breach in the fortifications was finally made, Imperial troops wanted to storm the pā. But Governor Grey remembered Ōhaeawai and ordered his men to stay put. In the meantime, Heke urged his uncle to abandon the pā.

The following day, the pā appeared to be empty. Government troops entered the pā and found a small rearguard force, including Kawiti. After a brief skirmish, they too disappeared into the surrounding forest.

The casualty count suggests that neither side won. Nevertheless, Governor Grey claimed a brilliant success.

Victorian voice: The Māori rebels, beaten and dispersed, have met with other Māori chiefs, with the intention of making their complete submission to the Government. They have been so severely punished, it is not the intention of the government to take any further proceedings against them.

Narrator: In reality, the defenders simply chose to abandon Ruapekapeka after having enticed the Imperial troops into a massive military campaign to take a hilltop of no strategic value in the middle of nowhere.

Victorian voice: Eleven-hundred men were occupied in advancing 15 miles and in getting possession of a pah from which the enemy escaped at the last moment, and escaped with the satisfaction to him of a drawn battle. The question is, was it worthwhile to go through all that laborious march to obtain such a result.

Victorian newspaper voice: It is as great a folly to say Kawiti is defeated as to say that the British were at Waterloo.

Narrator: Soon afterwards, Grey and Kawiti agreed not to continue fighting. However, as conflict broke out in other parts of the country, Māori employed similar guerrilla tactics to those used so successfully by Kawiti.

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Pahīatua's 'Little Poland' - roadside stories

Dubbed 'Little Poland', a camp outside Pahīatua was home to over 700 Polish children displaced by the Second World War. The young refugees, mostly orphans who had survived the harsh conditions of camps in Siberia, arrived in 1944. Although it was expected that they would later return to Poland, most stayed on and made new lives in New Zealand.

Transcript

Archival audio: Extract from interview with former residents of the Polish refugee camp at Pahīatua.

Polish refugee (actor’s voice): On the 31^st of October 1944, we sailed into Wellington Harbour and saw all the small houses on the slopes. They looked like little doll’s houses. Like all the other Polish refugee children, I was very excited. Prime Minister Peter Fraser, who had invited us to New Zealand, came aboard the ship. There were speeches and we were given sweets by kind ladies, and then we were taken in the train to our camp at Pahīatua.

Narrator: The quiet country town of Pahīatua in the northern Wairarapa seems an unlikely place to find a reminder of the horrors of the Second World War. A white sculpture on its outskirts marks the site of ‘Little Poland’, where Polish children and their adult caregivers found much-needed rest and recovery during the latter part of the war.

The memorial on the site of the former Polish Children’s Camp was erected by the Polish community in appreciation of the shelter given by the people of New Zealand to the Polish children.

In 1940, after the German invasion of Poland, the Soviet Union expelled large numbers of Poles from their homeland to Siberia.

Polish refugee: We were always cold and hungry. There were bugs and lice everywhere, and many people died of starvation and disease.

Narrator: The deported Poles were expected to die there, but Hitler’s surprise attack in 1941 against his former ally, the Soviet Union, forced Stalin to release the Polish prisoners. Unable to return to Poland where war was raging, they instead formed a Polish army in the Soviet Union.

When the Polish army was needed in the Middle East over 40,000 Polish civilians travelled with it to Iran and Iraq, including many orphans.

A number of countries offered the Poles shelter, including New Zealand, thanks to the efforts of Countess Maria Wodzicka (“Wodjeeska”), the wife of the Polish Consul in Wellington, and the New Zealand Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, and his wife.

By the time over 700 Polish children arrived in Wellington in 1944, most were orphans. Many had seen their parents and siblings die in Soviet camps where starvation, hard labour, disease and the freezing cold took a terrible toll.

The children and their 102 guardians arrived in Wellington on the first of November aboard an American battleship. They were taken to the Pahīatua camp where conditions proved to be infinitely better than the camps in Siberia.

Polish refugee: In Pahīatua we got into a routine where we knew we were going to get three square meals a day and anything we wanted. We then started really recuperating.

Narrator: The camp closed in 1952. The children had been taught in Polish during their stay, in the expectation that they would return to Poland after the war. But Poland’s post-war communist regime, and the dominance of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, made that prospect unattractive to many Polish refugees. As a result, most stayed in New Zealand, where some were joined by relatives.

While in the camp, the children had worshipped at a grotto shrine they made with rocks from the Mangatainoka River. But by the early 1970s this had deteriorated. A Polish Children’s Memorial Committee called for designs for a new public monument and accepted one proposed by the Wellington sculptor, Tanya Ashken.

The monument, which incorporates stones from the original grotto in its base, was built by members of the Polish community in the 1970s. Its simple abstract shape, suggestive of a protective embrace, recalls the shelter the children found in Pahīatua and the contribution they went on to make to New Zealand as adults.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

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Subdividing Cheviot Hills - roadside stories

The vast Cheviot Hills farm, with its grand mansion and exotic gardens, was once one of Canterbury’s largest properties. After owner William ‘Ready Money’ Robinson died in 1889, his daughters sold the estate to the government, and it was divided into 54 small farms and the town of Cheviot.

Transcript

Archival audio: Dramatised parliamentary debate about the break-up of Cheviot station from ‘We Reap … They Harvest’, by John McKenzie.

Corrections to the transcript are marked by square brackets.

Narrator: The town of Cheviot was once part of an enormous farm known as Cheviot Hills – one of Canterbury’s largest properties. It was owned by William Robinson. He was locally known as ‘Ready Money’ Robinson because he had a habit of paying for his swift and lavish purchases of land, stock, and buildings with cash. Horses he owned won the Canterbury Derby three times during the 1880s. But being very wealthy in an economically depressed country did not always make him popular.

Born in England, William Robinson immigrated to Australia in 1839, where he made his fortune as a stock dealer. In 1856, he moved to North Canterbury. Robinson soon became one of the district’s largest landowners, with a 90,000-acre property at Cheviot.

His farm, known as Cheviot Hills, occupied land between the [Waiau] and Hurunui Rivers. It was named after the range of hills on the border between Scotland and England. Robinson’s grand English-style estate had a huge 40-room mansion that looked out over a pastoral landscape. Large, ornate gardens flanked the house, behind which he planted an extensive forest of exotic trees.

In 1871, Cheviot Hills attracted attention throughout Canterbury when Robinson’s butler, Simon Cedeno, was charged with murdering one of his housemaids. Cedeno was a black man, which added to the scandal. Cedeno alleged that Robinson had taunted him about his racial origins and he would have killed the landowner at the time of the murder, had he been present. Cedeno was found guilty by the jury after just ten minutes consideration. Sentenced to death, he became just the second person to be executed in Canterbury.

While many people admired Robinson for turning Cheviot Hills into an excellent farm, his large estate did not impress the Liberal government of the 1890s. In their view, the rise of a landed rural gentry denied less affluent settlers the opportunity to establish small farms.

When ‘Ready Money’ Robinson died in 1889, his estate passed to his five daughters. Four years later they sold it to the Liberal government, which promptly subdivided it into 54 small farms and the township today known as Cheviot.

This was a landmark event in the breaking up of large estates. In the 1890s, the purchase of large pastoral runs by the Liberal government allowed people of modest means to get into farming. The government gained enormous popularity as a result. During this period, over a million acres of land was acquired and turned into 7000 small farms throughout the country.

Cheviot was originally named McKenzie, to commemorate the Minister of Lands in the Liberal government who led the campaign to break up large estates. The street names in Cheviot commemorate other Liberal politicians

Today, ‘Ready Money’ Robinson’s mansion is no more. Burnt down in 1936, all that remains of the great residence today is a complex of concrete foundations. A cricket pavilion has been built on the site and games are occasionally played on what was once the lawn in front of Cheviot House. Inside the pavilion, a detailed history of the house and its owner is recorded on a series of panels.

But perhaps ‘Ready Money’ Robinson’s most enduring legacy is the extensive forest of deciduous trees that he planted behind his house. The foliage is particularly colourful in autumn and in spring, jonquils and daffodils carpet the countryside around the old homestead site. To get there, you turn off the main highway beside the bridge over the [Jed] River, immediately south of Cheviot township. From here it is only a short distance to the forest.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

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Rescue at Delaware Bay - roadside stories

In 1863 Hūria Mātenga became a national heroine after she swam into treacherous seas to save those on board the Delaware, wrecked off the coast of Nelson. All but one of the crew were rescued, and Hūria and her four Māori companions were rewarded by the government. Nearby Cable Bay is where New Zealand’s first telegraph cable came ashore.

Transcript

Narrator: Just north-east of Wakapuaka, near Nelson, is a short road which leads to two bays – Cable Bay and Delaware Bay. Cable Bay was where a telegraph cable was hauled ashore in 1876 to connect New Zealand with the rest of the world. The other end of the cable was near Sydney, and from there telegraphic messages could be sent overland to Darwin, then eventually to London. For the first time, New Zealanders could hear news within a day of world events happening. However, it was not cheap to send a telegram to England – $100 in today’s money.

Delaware Bay is named after the American-built sailing ship Delaware, which sailed from Nelson bound for Napier in September 1863. The ship ran into foul weather which was, according to the captain, ‘as thick as a hedge’.

Early in the morning, the Delaware was driven on to rocks about 100 m from shore. The mate agreed to swim a line to shore, but was injured as he dived into the turbulent sea. He was hauled back on ship and left on his bunk for dead. Then five local Māori appeared on a beach at the foot of the cliffs.

One of them was a handsome woman known as Hūria Mātenga, or Julia Martin. The stranded seafarers threw a line and three of the Māori, including Hūria, swam into the stormy sea to recover it. One by one, the eight surviving crew and one passenger hauled themselves to shore.

Captain of the Delaware (actor’s voice): But for the bold and unwearied exertions of the Maoris I do not believe one man would have been saved from the wreck.

Narrator: As the captain, the last to leave, reached the shore, the frayed rope chafed on the rocks, broke and disappeared into the sea.

The mate had who been left on his bunk was seen on the rigging making frantic signals. But nothing could be done and eventually a large wave swept him away.

Hūria Mātenga, her husband Hemi, and their three companions were not forgotten. At a time when tensions between Māori and Europeans were high, their act was seen as heroic and humane. The Nelson community expressed their gratitude in a ceremony in the Town Hall.

Newspaper report (actor’s voice): Saturday last was the day appointed for presenting to the five natives resident at Wakapuaka pah [pā], who rendered such valuable assistance to the shipwrecked crew of the brigantine Delaware, the money granted by the General Government (from a fund set apart for native purposes), and the watches and chain purchased with the amount raised by public subscription in Nelson.

Narrator: Each of the Maori rescuers was presented with a watch and chain. Hūria, her husband, and his brother were given £50 each. Hūria was singled out for particular praise.

Chair of Committee (actor’s voice): The satisfaction of having done a good action is a higher reward than any mere pecuniary recompense; and, while you live, it must always give you much happiness to reflect that you have been the means of saving human life. It must also give you pleasure to know that your heroism is acknowledged by others, not only here, but in far-off places; and it is our pride that Nelson possesses a woman capable of showing such bravery.

Julia, your name and your deed will find a place in local history. Your brave act is one of which a Queen might be proud; and we present you with a watch, whereon your children, and their successors, may read with pleasure an inscription which testifies [to] the esteem in which you are held by the settlers of Nelson.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

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Trouble at Tuamarina - roadside stories

Today a sleepy settlement between Picton and Blenheim, Tuamarina was the site of bloody conflict in June 1843. The New Zealand Company believed they had bought the Wairau Plains – but Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha considered that the area had not been purchased. He evicted surveyors from the Wairau, and when a party of settlers arrived to arrest him, conflict broke out.

Transcript

Narrator: Tuamarina is a small and peaceful settlement between Picton and Blenheim. But, in 1843, it was the explosive flashpoint of two colliding cultures.

In the late 1830s, much of the upper South Island belonged to the Ngāti Toa tribe. Two of its chiefs, Te Rauparaha and his nephew Te Rangihaeata, had forcibly acquired the land from other iwi during the 1830s in a series of armed raids.

One of the European settlers in the area was a whaling captain called John Blenkinsopp. He negotiated with Ngāti Toa to take wood and water from Cloudy Bay in return for a ship’s cannon. But the deed that Blenkinsopp drew up, and that the chiefs signed, sold 26,500 acres of the Wairau Plains to Blenkinsopp. This duplicitous document, which the chiefs didn’t understand, would soon cause great harm.

Though Ngāti Toa had sold large areas of land to the European settlers, especially in Wellington and Nelson, they had carefully retained other areas, including the Wairau Plains.

Settlers were flooding into Nelson, and they were desperate for more land. The New Zealand Company’s Nelson agent, Arthur Wakefield, tried to invoke Blenkinsopp’s deed. The Company had purchased it in 1839 and believed it gave them ownership of the Wairau Plains. Wakefield sent a surveyor, J.W. Barnicoat, to survey the area.

When Ngāti Toa heard of this, Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata asked the Native Land Commissioner in Wellington to intervene. But when he failed treat the matter with any urgency, the two chiefs and a large party travelled to the Wairau. There they evicted Barnicoat and his chainman and burnt down their crude hut.

This incensed Nelson’s settlers. So Arthur Wakefield and a local magistrate, H.A. Thompson, as well as a motley band of 50 settlers proceeded to the Wairau Plains; confident that a show of force would deter Ngāti Toa.

The two groups met at Tuamarina, on the edge of the plains. In a tense encounter, Thompson tried to arrest Te Rauparaha. At the same time, one of the nervous Nelson settlers fired a shot that killed Te Rongo, the wife of Te Rangihaeata. In the fight that followed, nine settlers and seven Māori were killed. Twenty-seven of the settlers managed to flee, but Thompson, Wakefield and 11 others surrendered.

Te Rauparaha was willing to spare the men but Te Rangihaeata claimed the right of utu, or revenge, for the death of his wife. All the Europeans were bludgeoned to death, mostly by Te Rangihaeata. The survivors made their way back to Nelson.

The European settlers in Wellington and Nelson became extremely nervous about what might follow, as a local newspaper noted.

Actor’s voice: We cannot but view with deep regret, the futile attempt made to arrest a powerful chief without a sufficient force. That a party of persons, unaccustomed to warfare, should suffer defeat, was no more than might be expected. But the effect will not end there. Blood has been shed on both sides, and we fear a spirit of hostility has been raised in the minds of the Natives which will be difficult to eradicate.

Narrator: The Ngāti Toa party returned home expecting reprisals, but Governor Shortland made no effort to punish the tribe. While this infuriated many settlers, Shortland lacked sufficient troops to be confident of winning against Ngāti Toa.

Despite this setback, the settlers got the Wairau three years later in 1846. The new Governor, Grey, seized Te Rauparaha and held him for almost two years as a prisoner without trial. Then he pursued Te Rangihaeata, who was forced to retreat to the Manawatū. As a condition of Te Rauparaha’s release, Ngāti Toa had to sell the Wairau.

Today Blenkinsopp’s cannon sits in pride of place outside the Marlborough District Council office in Blenheim, and at Tuamarina, a monument to the surveyor Barnicoat commemorates the role of surveyors.

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