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
104Sheet 8 — The Cook Strait (Henry Williams) SheetTe PatukakarikiWiremu Te Patu-kākārikiTe Āti Awa, Ngāti Toa?Ngāti Tuaho, Ngāti Tihina?Waikanae 16 May 1840

Wiremu Te Patu-kākāriki signed the Cook Strait (Henry Williams) sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi on 16 May 1840 at Waikanae. He was a rangatira (chief) from Ngāti Tuaho of Te Āti Awa, and perhaps Ngāti Tihina and Ngāti Toa. He was the son of Karewa, and his brother was Ruatokaaruku. 

Te Patu-kākāriki opposed the sale of the Waitara Block. The government denied his right to any of the land and refused to investigate the issue. In 1859, at a meeting in Waitoki, Te Patu-kākāriki stood and told Governor Gore Browne:

Waitara shall not be yielded to you. It will not be good that you should take the pillow from under my head, because my pillow is a pillow that belonged to my ancestors. [1]

At this meeting Te Teira offered to exchange his lands outside the Waitara Block for the lands of others inside it that he was selling; this offer was refused. 

When Te Patu-kākāriki’s portion of the land at Waitara was surveyed in February 1860, his wife and two daughters were there to interrupt this work. They did not use force, but hugged the surveyors and told them not to survey that land.

In 1861, Te Patu-kākāriki signed a declaration of peace with the governor. By 1863, however, he was planning to attack Te Teira at Waitara. 


[1] ‘D. — Statement respecting the Procedings at Waitara, by Tipene Ngaruna, The Second Year of One of England’s Little Wars, Octavius Hadfield, 1861, pp. 50-1

 


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