Nga Tohu

In 1840 more than 500 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. Ngā Tohu, when complete, will contain a biographical sketch of each signatory.


Signing

SignatureSheetSigned asProbable nameTribeHapūSigning Occasion
7Sheet 2 — The Manukau-Kāwhia SheetHaupokiaHaupōkia Te PakaruNgāti Maniapoto, Ngāti ApakuraNgāti UrunumiaKāwhia 21 May 1840

Haupōkia Te Pakaru (also known as Te Haupōkia and Nuitone Haupōkia Te Pakaru) signed the Manukau-Kāwhia sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi on 21 May 1840 at Kāwhia. Te Haupōkia signed the Treaty twice, also signing the Waikato–Manukau sheet.

In 1835 Haupokia built a mission house in Waiharakeke and the Kāwhia mission continued under his support. James Wallis, the Wesleyan (Methodist) missionary in Kāwhia who witnessed the treaty signings, baptised Haupōkia under the name Robert Newton in the same year. Haupōkia had a son who drowned when the waka (canoe) he was in overturned.

Haupōkia was involved in a number of land sales. In 1834 he signed an agreement with Reverend William White to sell Ahuahu to the Wesleyan mission. In return he received 14 axes, four iron pots, four blankets, 50 pipes and 18 pounds of tobacco. In 1836 Haupōkia sold the Puketutu block to William Johnstone for one coat, one handkerchief, four duck frocks (a type of shirt), four trousers, four shirts, four axes, two razors, two knives, 25 pipes and 20 pounds of tobacco. In 1839 he and Te Raku sold the Tauranga block in the Kāwhia district to John Whiteley, the other Wesleyan missionary who witnessed the signing of the treaty in Kāwhia, for £1 in cash, tobacco and a variety of household goods and tobacco. Also in 1839, Haupōkia sold the Kaipaku, Witianga and Puketoa land parcels to William Johnstone. In January 1840 Haupōkia was one of 24 who sold 21 parcels of land adjoining Puketutu to Johnstone. Finally, in February 1840, 10 rangatira (chiefs), including Haupōkia, sold another 12 parcels of land adjoining Puketutu to Johnstone.

In the 1850s Tāmihana te Rauparaha offered the kingship of the Kīngitanga movement to Haupōkia, but he refused. Haupōkia was still living in 1876, as a letter he wrote to Eparaima Puihi on 20 June survives.


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