Parihaka
Encyclopedia
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, located between Mount Taranaki
Mount Taranaki
Mount Taranaki, or Mount Egmont, is an active but quiescent stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Although the mountain is more commonly referred to as Taranaki, it has two official names under the alternative names policy of the New Zealand...
and the Tasman Sea
Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, approximately across. It extends 2,800 km from north to south. It is a south-western segment of the South Pacific Ocean. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first recorded European...
. In the 1870s and 1880s the settlement, then reputed to be the largest Māori village in New Zealand, became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to European occupation of confiscated land in the area.
The village was founded in 1867 by Māori prophets Te Whiti o Rongomai
Te Whiti o Rongomai
Te Whiti o Rongomai III was a Māori spiritual leader and founder of the village of Parihaka, in New Zealand's Taranaki region.-Biography:...
and Tohu Kakahi
Tohu Kakahi
Tohu Kakahi was a Māori leader and prophet at Parihaka, who along with Te Whiti o Rongomai organised passive resistance against the occupation of Taranaki in the 1870s in New Zealand....
on land seized by the government during the post-war
New Zealand land wars
The New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand between 1845 and 1872...
land confiscations
New Zealand land confiscations
The New Zealand land confiscations took place during the 1860s to punish the Kingitanga movement for attempting to set up an alternative, Māori, form of government that forbade the selling of land. The confiscation law targeted Kingitanga Māori against whom the government had waged war to restore...
of the 1860s. Recognising the destructive effects of war, Te Whiti and Tohu declared they would use spiritual powers rather than weapons to claim their right to live on land they had occupied for centuries. The population of the village grew to more than 2000, impressing European visitors with its cleanliness and industry, and its extensive cultivations producing cash crops as well as food sufficient to feed its inhabitants.
When an influx of European settler
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s in Taranaki created a demand for farmland that outstripped the availability, the Grey
George Grey
George Grey may refer to:*Sir George Grey, 2nd Baronet , British politician*George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent *Sir George Grey , Governor of Cape Colony, South Australia and New Zealand...
government stepped up efforts to secure title to land it had confiscated but subsequently not taken up for settlement. Māori near Parihaka and the Waimate Plains rejected their payments, however, and the government responded by drawing up plans to take the land by force. In late 1878 the government began surveying the land and offering it for sale. Te Whiti and Tohu responded with a series of non-violent campaigns in which they first ploughed settlers' farmland and later erected fences across roadways to impress upon the government their right to occupy the confiscated land to which they believed they still had rights. The campaigns sparked a series of arrests, resulting in more than 400 Māori being jailed in the South Island, where they remained without trial for as long as 16 months.
As fears grew among white settlers that the resistance campaign was a prelude to renewed armed conflict, the Hall
John Hall (New Zealand)
Sir John Hall was born in Kingston upon Hull, England, and later became the 12th Prime Minister of New Zealand. He was also Mayor of Christchurch.-Migration to New Zealand:...
Government began planning an armed invasion of Parihaka to close it down. Pressured by Native Minister
Minister of Maori Affairs
The Minister of Māori Affairs is the minister of the New Zealand government with broad responsibility for government policy towards Māori, the first inhabitants of New Zealand. The current Minister of Māori Affairs is Dr. Pita Sharples.-Role:...
John Bryce
John Bryce
John Bryce was a New Zealand politician from 1871 to 1891 and Minister of Native Affairs from 1879 to 1884...
, the government finally acted in late October 1881 while the sympathetic Governor was out of the country and stormed the village with almost 1600 troops at dawn on 5 November 1881. Instead of violence, the soldiers were greeted with hundreds of skipping and singing children offering them food. Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested and jailed for 16 months, 1600 Parihaka inhabitants were expelled and dispersed throughout Taranaki without food or shelter and the remaining 600 residents were issued with government passes to control their movement. Soldiers looted and destroyed most of the buildings at Parihaka. Some reserves that had been promised by a commission of inquiry into land confiscations were later seized and sold to cover the cost of crushing the Māori resistance, while others were leased to European settlers, shutting Māori out of involvement in the decisions over land use.
In a major 1996 report, the Waitangi Tribunal
Waitangi Tribunal
The Waitangi Tribunal is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975...
claimed the events at Parihaka provided a graphic display of government antagonism to any show of independence. It noted: "A vibrant and productive Māori community was destroyed and total State control of all matters Māori, with full power over the Māori social order, was sought."
The Parihaka International Peace Festival has been held annually there since 2006.
Settlement
The Parihaka settlement was founded in 1867, the year following the close of the Second Taranaki WarSecond Taranaki War
-Background and causes of the war:The conflict in Taranaki had its roots in the First Taranaki War, which had ended in March 1861 with an uneasy truce. Neither side fulfilled the terms of the truce, leaving many of the issues unresolved...
and two years after almost all Māori land in Taranaki had been confiscated by the Government. The settlement was established by a Māori prophet, chief and veteran of the Taranaki wars
First Taranaki War
The First Taranaki War was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island from March 1860 to March 1861....
, Te Whiti o Rongomai
Te Whiti o Rongomai
Te Whiti o Rongomai III was a Māori spiritual leader and founder of the village of Parihaka, in New Zealand's Taranaki region.-Biography:...
, as a means to end the slaughter of his own people and colonial soldiers, but without surrendering his land. Rather than build a bush fortress, he proposed establishing an open village where his people could defend themselves with spiritual powers. The pā
Pa
-Places:* Pâ, a town in Burkina Faso* Pâ Department, a department in Burkina Faso* PA postcode area, in Scotland* Province of Palermo, Italy* Palo Alto, California* Panama, ISO country code** .pa, the country code top level domain for Panama...
was set in sight of Mt Taranaki and the sea, in a clearing ringed by low hills and beside a stream known as Waitotoroa (water of long blood). He was joined by a fellow chief, Tohu Kakahi
Tohu Kakahi
Tohu Kakahi was a Māori leader and prophet at Parihaka, who along with Te Whiti o Rongomai organised passive resistance against the occupation of Taranaki in the 1870s in New Zealand....
and a close kinsman, Te Whetu. Later that year King Tāwhiao
Tawhiao
Tāwhiao I, Māori King , was leader of the Waikato tribes, the second Māori King and a religious visionary. He was a member of the Ngāti Mahuta iwi of Waikato....
sent 12 "apostles" to live at Parihaka to strengthen the bonds between the Waikato
Waikato
The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...
and Taranaki Māori who were opposed to further land sales to the government or white settlers. Within a year the settlement had grown to house more than 100 large thatched whares (houses) around two marae
Marae
A marae malae , malae , is a communal or sacred place which serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies...
and by 1871 the population was reported to be 300. Taranaki's Medical Officer visited in 1871 and reported food in abundance, good cookhouses and an absence of disease. It was the cleanest, best-kept pā he had ever visited and its inhabitants "the finest race of men I have ever seen in New Zealand". Large meetings were held monthly, where Te Whiti warned of increasing levels of bribery and corruption to coerce Māori to sell their land, yet European visitors continued to be welcomed with dignity, courtesy and hospitality.
By the end of the 1870s it had a population of about 1500 and was being described as the most populous and prosperous Māori settlement in the country. It had its own police force, bakery and bank, used advanced agricultural machinery, and organised large teams who worked the coast and bush to harvest enough seafood and game to feed the thousands who came to the meetings. When journalists visited Parihaka in October 1881, a month before the brutal government raid that destroyed it, they found "square miles of potato, melon and cabbage fields around Parihaka; they stretched on every side, and acres and acres of the land show the results of great industry and care". The village was described as "an enormous native town of quiet and imposing character" with "regular streets of houses".
Land pressures
Ngati Ruanui
Ngāti Ruanui is a Māori iwi traditionally based in the Taranaki region of New Zealand. In the 2006 census, 7,035 people claimed affiliation to the iwi. However, most members now live outside the traditional areas of the iwi.-Early history:...
chief, Riwha Titokowaru
Titokowaru
Riwha Titokowaru became a Māori leader in the Taranaki region and one of the most successful opponents of British colonisation anywhere....
, launched a series of effective raids on settlers and government troops in an effort to block the occupation of Māori land. Te Whiti remained neutral during the nine-month-long war
Titokowaru's War
-Cause and background of the war:The immediate cause of the war was the confiscation of vast areas of Māori land in Taranaki by the Government under the powers of the punitive New Zealand Settlements Act 1863...
, neither helping nor hindering Titokowaru. When the war ended with Titokowaru's withdrawal in March 1869, Te Whiti declared the year to be te tau o te takahanga, "the year of the trampling underfoot", during which kings, queens, governors and governments would be trampled by Parihaka. He told a meeting there would be a new era of "fighting peace" with no surrender of land and no loss of independence. He also declared that because they had remained independent during the recent war, the confiscation of their land for being "rebellious British subjects" was unjust, illegal and void. Te Whiti's announcement at the meeting was reported to Premier Edward Stafford
Edward Stafford (politician)
Sir Edward Stafford, KCMG served as the third Premier of New Zealand on three occasions in the mid 19th century. His total time in office is the longest of any leader without a political party. He is described as pragmatic, logical, and clear-sighted.-Early life and career:Edward William Stafford...
by Taranaki Land Purchase Officer Robert Reid Parris, who described him as "this young chief whose influence was strong in the province and with Tawhiao".
In 1872 the Government acknowledged that although all Māori land in Taranaki had been confiscated, most of it had effectively fallen back into Māori ownership because so little had been settled by Europeans. As a result, the Government began "buying" back the land, including reserves and land given as compensation for wrongful confiscation. The sales were transacted as deeds of cession, often accompanied by bribes, malpractice and cheating by land agents.
As Te Whiti continued to reject the overtures and bribery of land buyers, however, European anger towards Parihaka grew, fuelling calls for his "dangerous" movement to be suppressed. Newspapers and government agents that had earlier praised him as peaceful and amiable began describing him as a "fanatic" who gave "rambling", "unintelligible" and "blasphemous" speeches, producing a "baneful influence".
By the mid-1870s, Taranaki was enjoying a rapid growth in immigration, with the founding of Inglewood
Inglewood, New Zealand
Inglewood is a town in the Taranaki Region of New Zealand's North Island. The population was 3,090 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 144 from 2001. Inglewood lies 200m above sea level....
and other farming towns, the creation of inland roads as far south as Stratford
Stratford, New Zealand
Stratford is the only town in the central Taranaki district of Stratford District, New Zealand. It lies beneath the eastern slopes of Mount Taranaki/Egmont, approximately half-way between New Plymouth and Hawera, near the geographic centre of the Taranaki region. The town has a population of...
and a rail link from New Plymouth to Waitara. In mid-1878, as the provincial government pressured the Government for more land, Colonial Treasurer John Ballance
John Ballance
John Ballance served as the 14th Premier of New Zealand at the end of the 19th century, and was the founder of the Liberal Party .-Early life:...
advocated the survey and sale by force of the Waimate Plains of South Taranaki. Cabinet members expected to raise ₤500,000 for government coffers from the sale. In June Premier Sir George Grey
George Grey
George Grey may refer to:*Sir George Grey, 2nd Baronet , British politician*George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent *Sir George Grey , Governor of Cape Colony, South Australia and New Zealand...
and Native Minister John Sheehan held a big meeting at Waitara
Waitara, New Zealand
Waitara is the name of a town and a river in the northern part of the Taranaki Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Waitara is located just off State Highway 3, 15 km northeast of New Plymouth....
to dispense "gifts" including tinned fruits and jam, alcohol, clothing and perfume to Taranaki chiefs willing to sell. Neither Te Whiti nor Tawhiao attended, so Sheehan visited Parihaka and then the Waimate Plains, where he appeared to have persuaded Titokowaru to permit land to be surveyed on the proviso that burial places, cultivations and fishing grounds would be respected and that fenced reserves would be created.
Māori unease mounted as the surveying progressed, with little sign of the promised reserves. In February 1879 surveyors began cutting lines through cultivations and fences and trampling cash crops and also ran a road into Titokowaru's own settlement. Māori retaliated by uprooting kilometres of survey pegs. Sheehan rode to Parihaka to berate Te Whiti, then reported to Cabinet that land could be taken only by force. Tohu responded by evicting the surveyors and their equipment. Two days later the Government advertised for sale the first 6400 hectares, although it soon retracted its plans. Still, however, the Government refused to confirm its promise of reserves.
Monthly meetings at Parihaka attracted Māori from all over New Zealand and let was set aside for each tribe to have its own marae, meeting house and cluster of whares throughout the village. As the population grew, so did the industriousness, with cultivations over a wider area and more than 100 bullocks, 10 horses and 44 carts in use.
First resistance: The Ploughmen
On 26 May 1879 those bullocks and horses began to be put to use ploughing long furrows through the grassland of white settler farmers – first at OakuraOakura
Oakura is a small township in Taranaki, in the western North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 45, 15 kilometres south-west of New Plymouth. Okato is 12 km further south-west. The Oakura River flows past the town and into the North Taranaki Bight...
and later throughout Taranaki, from Hawera
Hawera
Hawera is the second-largest town in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island, with a population of . It is near the coast of the South Taranaki Bight, 75 kilometres south of New Plymouth on State Highway 3 and 20 minutes' drive from Mount Taranaki/Egmont.It is also on State Highway 45,...
in the south to Pukearuhe in the north. Most of the land had earlier been confiscated from Māori. At a farm at Oakura
Oakura
Oakura is a small township in Taranaki, in the western North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 45, 15 kilometres south-west of New Plymouth. Okato is 12 km further south-west. The Oakura River flows past the town and into the North Taranaki Bight...
, ploughmen worked for three days from dawn until dusk, ploughing eight hectares. The Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson
Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead
Hercules George Robert Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead, GCMG, PC was a British colonial administrator who became the 5th Governor of Hong Kong...
, made a special visit to watch the ploughmen at work and "almost exploded with indignation" at the sight. Te Whiti insisted the ploughing was directed not against the settlers, but to force a declaration of policy from the Government, but farmers were incensed, threatening to shoot the ploughmen and their horses if they did not desist. Magistrates in Patea
Patea
Patea is the third-largest town in South Taranaki, New Zealand. It is on the western bank of the Patea River, 61 kilometres north-west of Wanganui on State Highway 3. Hawera is 27 km to the north-west, and Waverley 17 km to the east. The Patea River flows through the town from the...
County advised Grey that Māori had 10 days to stop "molesting property" or they would be "shot down", while MP Major Harry Atkinson
Harry Atkinson
Henry Albert "Harry" Atkinson served as the tenth Premier of New Zealand on four separate occasions in the late 19th century, and was Colonial Treasurer for a total of ten years...
encouraged farms to enrol as specials and begin drilling. He promised to upgrade their rifles and was reported in the Taranaki Herald
Taranaki Herald
The Taranaki Herald was an afternoon daily newspaper, published in New Plymouth, New Zealand. It began publishing as a four-page tabloid on August 4, 1852 and until it ceased publication in 1989 was the oldest daily newspaper in the country....
as saying "he hoped if war did come, the natives would be exterminated". At Hawera a group of 100 armed vigilantes confronted ploughmen, but were talked out of violence by those they had come to threaten.
On 29 June the armed constabulary began arresting the ploughmen. Large squads pounced on the ploughing parties, who offered no resistance. Dozens a day were arrested, but their places were immediately taken by others who had travelled from as far away as Waikanae
Waikanae
Waikanae is a small town on New Zealand's Kapiti Coast. The name is a Māori word meaning "The waters of the yellow eyed mullet". Another settlement called Waikanae Beach exists near Gisborne on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand....
. Te Whiti directed that those of the greatest mana
Mana
Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....
, or prestige, should be the first to put their hands to the ploughshares, so among the first arrested were the prominent figures Titokowaru
Titokowaru
Riwha Titokowaru became a Māori leader in the Taranaki region and one of the most successful opponents of British colonisation anywhere....
, Te Iki and Matakatea. As Taranaki jails became full, ploughmen were sent to the Mt Cook barracks in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
. By August 200 prisoners had been taken. By then, however, the protest action seemed to be having some success, with Sheehan, the Native Minister, telling Parliament on 23 July: "I was not aware ...what the exact position of those lands on the west coast was. It has only been made clear to us by the interruption of the surveys. It turns out that from the White Cliffs to Waitotara
Waitotara
Waitotara is a town in South Taranaki, New Zealand. Waverley is 10 km to the north-west, and Wanganui is 34 km to the south-east. State Highway 3 passes through it. The Waitotara River flows past the east side of the town....
the whole country is strewn with unfulfilled promises." A former Native Minister, Dr Daniel Pollen, also warned of the consequences of firmer government action against the Parihaka ploughmen: "I warn my honourable friend that there are behind Te Whiti not two hundred men, but a great many times two hundred men." All the prisons of New Zealand would not be big enough to hold them, he warned.
On 10 August leading pro-government chiefs issued a proclamation to all tribes of New Zealand calling on the government to halt surveys of disputed lands and on Māori to end their action in claiming those lands. The proclamation also proposed testing the legality of the confiscations in the Supreme Court. Te Whiti agreed to a truce and by the end of the month the ploughing ended.
Imprisonment
The new law provided that the detainees were to be brought to trial within 30 days of the opening of the next session of parliament. The government invoked two further postponements and in January 1880 moved all the prisoners to the South Island, incarcerating them in jails in Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, Hokitika, Lyttelton
Lyttelton, New Zealand
Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand....
and Ripapa Island
Ripapa Island
Ripapa Island, just off the shore of Lyttelton Harbour has played many roles in the history of New Zealand. The island initially played a key role in an internal struggle for the south island Ngāi Tahu tribe in the early 19th Century...
in Canterbury. The move prompted Hone Tawhai, the member for Northern Maori
Maori seats
In New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially also called Māori seats, are a special category of electorate that gives reserved positions to representatives of Māori in the New Zealand Parliament...
, to remark: "I cannot help thinking that they must have been taken there in order that they might be got rid of, and that they might perish there."
Many of the prisoners had already been in jail for 13 months when, in July 1880, the next Native Minister, John Bryce
John Bryce
John Bryce was a New Zealand politician from 1871 to 1891 and Minister of Native Affairs from 1879 to 1884...
, introduced a Bill designed to postpone their trial indefinitely. Bryce, who prided himself on plain talk, told Parliament it was "a farce to talk of trying these prisoners for the offences for which they were charged ... if they had been convicted in all probability they would not have got more than 24 hours' imprisonment. In the Bill we drop that provision in regard to the trial altogether." The new legislation declared that all those in jail were now deemed to have been lawfully arrested and to be in lawful custody and decreed that "no Court, Judge, Justices of the Peace or other person shall during the continuance of this Act discharge, bail or liberate the said Natives".
Sheehan, meanwhile, claimed Te Whiti's people were wavering and would soon break up, while Bryce declared the end game was within sight: "I fully expect, in the course of next summer, to see hundreds of settlers on these plains."
West Coast Commission
In December 1879 the Government had announced plans for a commission of inquiry, to be conducted by three government appointees and known as the West Coast Commission, which would examine grievances over West Coast land confiscations and allegations of broken promises. The Government had appointed former premier Sir William FoxWilliam Fox (New Zealand)
Sir William Fox, KCMG was the second Premier of New Zealand on four occasions in the 19th century, while New Zealand was still a colony. He was known for his eventual support of Māori land rights, his contributions to the education system , and his work to increase New Zealand's autonomy from...
as its chairman, as well as pastoralist and former cabinet minister Sir Francis Dillon Bell
Dillon Bell
Sir Francis Dillon Bell KCMG CB MLC was a New Zealand politician of the late 19th century. He served as New Zealand's third Minister of Finance , and later as its third Speaker of the House...
and Tawhai, who resigned before hearings began. Tawhai claimed his fellow commissioners were not impartial and had been the "very men who had created the trouble on the West Coast" (Fox and Bell had both been Native Minister), but he may also have been stung by Te Whiti's description of the commission as "two pākehā
Pakeha
Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
and a dog". Fox and Bell had been both closely involved with the New Zealand Company
New Zealand Company
The New Zealand Company originated in London in 1837 as the New Zealand Association with the aim of promoting the "systematic" colonisation of New Zealand. The association, and later the company, intended to follow the colonising principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of...
, both owned vast areas of land and supported confiscation.
Hearings began at Oeo, South Taranaki, in February 1880, but were immediately boycotted by Te Whiti's followers when the commission declined an invitation to travel to Parihaka to hold discussions. Historian Dick Scott has claimed Fox, who had already expressed in writing his wish that the Waimate Plains be sold and settled, was appointed chairman of the commission on the proviso that he support the government's land policies in the area and secure central Taranaki for white settlement. Correspondence to Premier John Hall shows that Fox thought it futile to give a hearing to "every Native who thinks he has a grievance" and was keen to ensure commission hearings did not delay road-building works in the Waimate Plains that could be carried out in summer.
In the meantime, however, Fox insisted that no survey of land around Parihaka take place until the commission had made a report. Bryce agreed that central Taranaki would not be entered, apart from the completion of necessary road repairs. In April, however, he directed that 550 armed soldiers – mostly unemployed men newly recruited with the promise of free land – would begin "repairing" a new road that would lead directly to Parihaka. His force marched from Oeo to set up camp near Parihaka. A stockade and camp were established at Rahotu
Rahotu
Rahotu is a community in the west of Taranaki, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 45, 16 kilometres north of Opunake and 11 km south of Warea.The population was 249 in the 2006 Census, a decrease of 48 from 2001....
, a redoubt and blockhouse at Pungarehu
Pungarehu
Pungarehu is a small town located on Surf Highway 45 in Taranaki, New Zealand. Pungarehu is the home of the Cape Lighthouse, situated at Taranaki's westernmost point. The town centre is located almost 5 km from the coast line....
and an armed camp at Waikino to the north. The land around Parihaka began to be surveyed and work began, from both northern and southern approaches, on a coast road between New Plymouth
New Plymouth
New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki Region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after Plymouth, Devon, England, from where the first English settlers migrated....
and Hawera
Hawera
Hawera is the second-largest town in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island, with a population of . It is near the coast of the South Taranaki Bight, 75 kilometres south of New Plymouth on State Highway 3 and 20 minutes' drive from Mount Taranaki/Egmont.It is also on State Highway 45,...
. Apart from offering food to the soldiers, Māori continued their daily life as if the surveyors did not exist. In its 1996 report on Taranaki land confiscations, the Waitangi Tribunal
Waitangi Tribunal
The Waitangi Tribunal is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975...
noted that Bryce was a Taranaki war veteran who "clearly retained his relish of warfare ... on his own admission, he had always desired a march on Parihaka in order to destroy it." The tribunal claimed his later actions were "so provocative that, in our view, he was also endeavouring to recreate hostilities."
In an interim report released in April, Fox and Bell acknowledged the puzzle of why the land had been confiscated when its owners had never taken up arms against the government, but recommended all the open country in the Parihaka block – 15000 acres (60.7 km²) along the coast – be taken by the government. The commission expressed confidence that Māori would agree to settlement if adequate reserves were made, despite never having spoken to leading Māori in the area to gain their view.
Further resistance: The Fencers
In June 1880 the road reached Parihaka and on Bryce's instruction, the Armed Constabulary broke fences around the large Parihaka cultivations, exposing their cash crops to wandering stock.The New Zealand HeraldThe New Zealand Herald
- External links :* * *...
reported the next Māori tactic as surveying began there: "Our position is a very unhappy one. We assign reserves for natives ... indicate (sites for) European settlement. The natives reply by building houses, fencing, planting and occupying our camping grounds." As soldiers and surveyors cut down fences and marked out road lines across fields of crops, Māori just as quickly rebuilt the fences across the roads. When soldiers pulled them down, Māori put them back up again, refusing to answer questions about who was directing them. When Te Whetu threatened in July 1880 to cut down telegraph poles, he was arrested with eight other men and taken to New Plymouth. For the Government, it was the beginning of a new campaign in which fencers were arrested, often being dragged off by force as they continued work on building fences. According to the Waitangi Tribunal, the arrests were invalid: the land was not Crown land and therefore it was the army, not Māori, who were trespassing. Nor were the actions of the Māori fencers a criminal activity. Yet the number of arrests grew daily and Māori began to travel from other parts of the country, including Waikato
Waikato
The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...
and Wairarapa
Wairarapa
Wairarapa is a geographical region of New Zealand. It occupies the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service towns, with Masterton being the largest...
, to provide more manpower. In one incident 300 fencers arrived at the roadline near Pungarehu, dug up the road, sowed it in wheat and constructed a fence, with a newspaper reporting: "They looked like an immense swarm of bees or an army of locusts, moving with a steady and uninterrupted movement across the face of the earth. As each portion was finished they set up a shout and a song of derision."
The Government responded with another Maori Prisoners' Detention Act, and then, in September, an even harsher West Coast Settlement (North Island) Act, which widened the powers of arrest and provided for two years' jail with hard labour – with the offender released only if he paid a surety nominated by the court. Arrests could be made for anyone even suspected of "endangering the peace" by digging, ploughing or disturbing the surface of the land, or erecting or dismantling a fence. Grey applauded the law, which "amounted to a general warrant for the apprehension of all persons ... for offences which were not named at all – in fact they might be arrested for no offence."
By September the adult male ranks at Parihaka were so depleted, the constabulary were manhandling young boys and old men, whose fences were often only symbolic, consisting of sticks and branches. But for Grey, it was a step too far and Native Minister Bryce was ordered to stop taking prisoners. The cost of the operation had grown too much: while the land being taken was estimated at £750,000, the costs of the operation in South Taranaki had already exceeded £1 million. The bloody clashes between armed soldiers and unarmed Māori building fences on their own land, as well as the increasing numbers of deaths in custody in the freezing South Island jails, were already attracting the attention of the British House of Commons and newspapers in Europe. In New Zealand, however, the plight of more than 400 political prisoners – equally divided between ploughmen and fencers – attracted scant press coverage. Only when about 100 prisoners were finally released from South Island jails in November 1880 did newspapers begin to report on the deaths in jail, the terms of solitary confinement and tales of gross overcrowding in cells. Reporters noted that some prisoners at Lyttelton
Lyttelton, New Zealand
Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand....
jail were terminally ill, while others were "in a very critical state and scarcely able to walk".
Bryce unsuccessfully sought to impose conditions on the men as they were released, including their acceptance of reserves. The remaining 300 prisoners were released in the first six months of 1881. As they returned to Taranaki they learned that the Government had decided to survey and sell four-fifths of the Waimate Plains and 31000 acres (125.5 km²), or more than half, of the 56000 acres (226.6 km²) Parihaka block. Parihaka, in fact, was to be carved into three sections, with the seaward and inland on the village marked for pākeha settlement and the Māori left with a strip in between. Bryce vowed that "English homesteads would be established at the very doors of (Te Whiti's) house". In January 1881 Bryce resigned as Native Minister, angry at the lack of government support for his plans to invade Parihaka and close the settlement.
The sell-off of central Taranaki continued, however, and in June 1881, with most of the Waimate Plains auctioned off, the Commissioner of Crown Lands sold 753 acres (3 km²) of the Parihaka block for just over £2.10.0 an acre. Despite the sale, Māori at Parihaka continued to clear, fence and cultivate the land, regardless of whether it had been surveyed and sold. By September newspapers were reporting that a scare campaign was being created, suggesting Te Whiti was fortifying Parihaka and preparing to invade New Plymouth, while the Taranaki Herald reported that the settlement was "in a horribly filthy state" and its inhabitants "in a deplorable condition" – a stark contrast to the situation a Wellington doctor discovered when he visited, writing that the place was "singularly clean ... regularly swept ... drainage is excellent".
Invasion
William Rolleston
William Rolleston was a New Zealand politician, public administrator, educationalist and Canterbury provincial superintendent.-Early life:...
, visited Parihaka on 8 October, three weeks after securing a £100,000 vote to renew the war against Taranaki Māori, urging Te Whiti to submit to the Government's wishes. If he refused and war ensued, Rolleston explained, "the blame will not rest with me and the government. It will rest with you."
The British Government, already uneasy about growing racial tensions in New Zealand, had in late 1880 dispatched a new governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, to review matters and report to them. Gordon was more sympathetic to the Māori and had already been dismissed as a "gospel-grinding nigger lover" by retired Native Land Court judge Frederick Maning and a man of "wild democratic theories" by Premier Hall. In mid-September Gordon sailed for Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, leaving Chief Justice Sir James Prendergast
James Prendergast (judge)
Sir James Prendergast GCMG was the third Chief Justice of New Zealand. Prendergast was the first Chief Justice to be appointed on the advice of a responsible New Zealand government, but is chiefly noted for his far-reaching decision in Wi Parata v The Bishop of Wellington in which he described the...
as acting Governor. In his absence Hall's ministry completed its plans to invade Parihaka. When news of this reached Gordon, he terminated his Fiji visit and hurried back to New Zealand. At 8pm on 19 October, two hours before the Governor returned to Wellington, however, Hall convened an emergency meeting of his Executive Council
Executive Council of New Zealand
The Executive Council of New Zealand is the body which legally serves the functions of the Cabinet. It has a function similar to that served by the Privy Council in the United Kingdom...
and Prendergast issued a proclamation berating Te Whiti and his people for their "threatening attitude" and giving them 14 days to accept the dismemberment of their land and leave Parihaka or suffer "the great evil which must fall on them". On the same night Rolleston stood aside as Minister for Native Affairs and Bryce was sworn back into office. He left for Taranaki at 4am the next day and an officer took the proclamation to Parihaka on 22 October. Gordon could not rescind the decision: the proclamation had been published the night of his return in a special issue of the government Gazette
The New Zealand Gazette
The New Zealand Gazette - Te Kahiti o Aotearoa is the official newspaper of the Government of New Zealand. It is published every Thursday, and a Customs Edition is published each Tuesday. Special editions are published twice a year to cover the New Year Honours and Queen's Birthday Honours....
and he was obliged to comply with the advice of his ministers or resign.
Tensions climbed among Europeans in Taranaki. Although it had been more than 12 years since the last military action against Māori in Taranaki, and despite the lack of any threat of violence by the inhabitants of Parihaka, Major Charles Stapp, commander of the Taranaki Volunteers, declared that every man in the province between 17 and 55 years was now on active service in the militia. A government Gazette announcement called up 33 units of volunteers from Nelson to Thames
Thames, New Zealand
Thames is a town at the southwestern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. It is located on the Firth of Thames close to the mouth of the Waihou River. The town is the seat of the Thames-Coromandel District Council....
. At the end of October the forces – 1074 Armed Constabulary, almost 1000 volunteers from around New Zealand and up to 600 Taranaki volunteers, together outnumbering Parihaka adult males by four to one – gathered near Parihaka, the volunteers at Rahotu
Rahotu
Rahotu is a community in the west of Taranaki, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 45, 16 kilometres north of Opunake and 11 km south of Warea.The population was 249 in the 2006 Census, a decrease of 48 from 2001....
and the Armed Constabulary at Pungarehu, and began drills and target practice. Bryce rode in their midst daily.
On 1 November Te Whiti prepared his people with a speech in which he warned: "The ark by which we are to be saved today is stout-heartedness, and flight is death ... There is nothing about fighting today, but the glorification of God and peace on the land ... Let us wait for the end; there is nothing else for us. Let us abide calmly upon the land." He warned against armed defence: "If any man thinks of his gun or his horse and goes to fetch it, he will die by it."
Shortly after 5am on 5 November, long columns emerged from the two main camps to converge on Parihaka, encircling the village. Each man carried two days' rations, the troops were equipped with artillery and a six-pound Armstrong gun
Armstrong Gun
The term Armstrong Gun was primarily used to describe the unique design of the rifled breech-loading field and heavy guns designed by Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England from 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich...
was mounted on a nearby hill and trained on Parihaka. At 7am a forward unit advanced on the main entrance to the village to find their path blocked by 200 young children, standing in lines. Behind them were groups of older girls skipping in unison. Colonel William Bazire Messenger, who had been called from his Pungarehu farm to command a detachment of 120 Armed Constabulary for the invasion, later recalled:
When the advance party reached the marae
Marae
A marae malae , malae , is a communal or sacred place which serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies...
at the centre of the village, they found 2500 Māori sitting together. They had been waiting since midnight. At 8am Bryce, who had ordered a press blackout and banned reporters from the scene, arrived, riding on a white charger. Two hours later he demanded a reply to the proclamation of 19 October. When his demand was met with silence, he ordered the Riot Act
Riot Act
The Riot Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that authorised local authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled, and thus have to disperse or face punitive action...
to be read, warning that "persons unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together, to the disturbance of the publick peace" had one hour to disperse or receive a jail sentence of hard labour for life. Before the hour was up, a bugle was sounded and troops stormed the village.
Bryce then ordered the arrest of Te Whiti, Tohu and Hiroki, a murderer who had sought refuge at Parihaka.He had killed Mr McLean ,a surveyor at Moumahaki. As Te Whiti walked through his people, he told them: "We look for peace and we find war." At the marae the crowd remained sitting quietly until evening, when they moved to their houses.
Two days later constabulary officers, still on edge because of rumours that Titokowaru had summoned armed 500 reinforcements, began ransacking houses in the village in search of weapons. They turned up 200 guns, mostly fowling pieces. Colonel Messenger told Cowan there was "a good deal of looting – in fact robbery" of greenstone and other treasures and claims were later made that women were also raped. Bryce ordered members of all tribes who had migrated to Parihaka to return to their previous homes. When none moved, they were warned the Armstrong gun on Fort Rolleston, the hill overlooking the village, would be fired at them. The threat was not carried out, but soldiers amused themselves by aiming their rifles at the crowd.
The next day the constabulary began raiding other central Taranaki Māori settlements in search of arms, and within days the raids, accompanied by destruction and looting, had spread to Waitara. On 11 November, 26 Whanganui
Whanganui
Various places in New Zealand are called Whanganui:*Whanganui, a city at the mouth of the Whanganui River, also often spelled "Wanganui", Manawatu-Wanganui Region*Whanganui District, Manawatu-Wanganui Region*Whanganui Island, Waikato Region...
Māori were arrested and Bryce, frustrated in his attempt to identify those from outside central Taranaki, telegraphed Hall to advise he intended destroying every whare in the village. He told Hall: "Consider, here are 2000 people sitting still, absolutely declining to give me any indication of where they belong to; they will sit still where they are and do nothing else."
Each day brought dozens of arrests, and from 15 November officers began destroying whare that were either empty or housing only women, assuming they were the homes of the evicted Wanganui men. When still Wanganui women could not be conclusively identified, a Māori informer was brought in to identify them. North Taranaki Māori, including children, were then separated – "like drafting sheep," one newspaper reported – and then marched under guard to Waitara. To starve out the remainder, soldiers destroyed all surrounding crops, wiping out 45 acres (182,108.7 m²) of potatoes, taro and tobacco, then began repeating the measure across the countryside. By 18 November as many as 400 a day were being evicted and by the 20th 1443 had been ejected. Te Whiti's meeting house was destroyed and its smashed timbers scattered across the marae in an attempt to desecrate the ground.
On 22 November the last group of 150 prisoners were marched out, bringing to a total of 1600 people ejected. Six hundred were issued with official passes and allowed to remain. Those without a pass were prohibited from entry. Further public meetings were banned. Scott noted:
By December it was reported that many dispersed Māori faced starvation. Bryce offered them work, but it was the ultimate humiliation – roadmaking and fencing for the subdivision of their land. The government then decreed that 5000 acres (20.2 km²) of land set aside as Parihaka reserves would be withheld as "an indemnity for the loss sustained by the government in suppressing the ... Parihaka sedition". As with the land confiscations of the mid-1860s, Māori were effectively forced to pay the government for the cost of the military invasion of their land.
Trial of Te Whiti, Tohu and Titokowaru
Te Whiti and Tohu appeared, calm and stately, before a magistrate and eight justices of the peaceJustice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
in the New Plymouth courtroom on 12 November 1881. Te Whiti was described in court as "a wicked, malicious, seditious and evil-disposed person" who had sought "to prevent by force and arms the execution of the laws of the realm". At the close of his four-day trial the prophet declared: "It is not my wish that evil should come to the two races. My wish is for the whole of us to live peaceably and happy on the land." The magistrate committed both men to jail in New Plymouth until further notice. Six months later they were moved to the South Island, where they were frequently taken from jail to be escorted around the factories, churches and public buildings.
Titokowaru, who had been put in solitary confinement at the Pungarehu constabulary camp, went on a brief hunger strike in protest at his treatment. On 25 November he was charged with threatening to burn a hotel at Manaia in October and using insulting language to troops at Parihaka in November. Three weeks later, while still in jail, a third charge of being unlawfully obstructive – for sitting on the marae at Parihaka – was laid against him. When he appeared before a Supreme Court judge six months later, the prosecutor dropped the charges and Titokowaru was released.
Two weeks later the government introduced new legislation, the West Coast Peace Preservation Bill, which decreed that Te Whiti and Tohu were not to be tried, but would be jailed indefinitely. If released, they could be rearrested without charge at any time. Bryce explained that the law was necessary to protect the people of Taranaki and because he feared the two chiefs might be acquitted by a jury or, if they were convicted, receive a lenient sentence. Still in jail at the time, however, Te Whiti was visited by one of Bryce's staff, who told him that if he agreed to cease assembling his people he could return to Taranaki, where he would receive a government income and land for himself. Te Whiti refused. The offer was repeated, and rejected, two weeks later. The prisoners were transferred to Nelson, where they received a third offer in August. They were finally released in March 1883 and returned to Parihaka, still under threat of arrest under the powers of the West Coast Peace Preservation Act, renewed in August 1883. His remaining land was still shrinking: on 1 January 1883 the reserves granted to Māori by the West Coast Commission were vested in the Public Trust
Public trustee
The public trustee is an office established pursuant to national statute, to act as a trustee, usually where a sum is required to be deposited as security by legislation, where courts remove another trustee, or for estates where either no executor is named by will or the testator elects to name...
for 30-year lease to European settlers at market rental, prompting Te Whiti to refuse to sign documents and refuse to collect the rental income of £7000 a year.
This is equal to about $1 million in modern terms indicating that Te Whiti put high value on the concept of mana whenua rather than being interested in the economic value of the land.
Campaign renewed
Armed constabulary remained stationed at Parihaka, enforcing the pass laws and the ban on public meetings, yet rebuilding began. In August 1884 Te Whiti and Tohu began a new campaign to publicise the loss of their land, embarking on large protest marches across Taranaki, as far south as Patea and north to White Cliffs. In July 1886 the campaign changed direction as Māori began entering pākeha farms to occupy the land and erect thatched huts. Titokowaru and eight other Māori were arrested and on 20 July armed constables launched a dawn raid on Parihaka to arrest Te Whiti. Ten weeks later they faced a Supreme Court trial in Wellington. Te Whiti was jailed for three months and fined £100 for being an accessory to forcible entry, riot and malicious injury to property; the others were jailed for a month and fined £20. In late 1889 Te Whiti was arrested again over a disputed £203 debt and sentenced to three months' hard labour.Parihaka restored
In 1889 work began on a meeting house and Te Raukura, a large Victorian mansion containing dining rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, a bakery and council chambers for Te Whiti and his runanga (council). In 1895 Parihaka received a state visit by the Minister for Labour, William Pember ReevesWilliam Pember Reeves
The Hon. William Pember Reeves was a New Zealand statesman, historian and poet, who promoted social reform.-Biography:...
and, two months later, Premier Richard Seddon
Richard Seddon
Richard John Seddon , sometimes known as King Dick, is to date the longest serving Prime Minister of New Zealand. He is regarded by some, including historian Keith Sinclair, as one of New Zealand's greatest political leaders....
, who engaged in a tense exchange with Te Whiti over past injustices. Seddon, speaking to Patea settlers days later, boasted over the increased rate of land acquisition by the Government and told them Parihaka had encouraged Māori to lead "lazy and dissolute" lives. He vowed that the state would destroy "this communism that now existed among them".
Tohu died on 4 February 1907 and Te Whiti died nine months later, on 18 November.
Their followers have continued to observe monthly dusk-to-dusk Te Whiti and Tohu days at Parihaka ever since. That for Te Whiti is held in the meeting houses Te Niho o te Ati Awa and Te Paepae, and for Tohu in Te Rangi Kāpuia. Although nominally on the 17th and 18th of each month, they are actually held on the 18th and 19th. (One reason offered for this is to compensate for the day lost during the Battle of Jericho.) In the same way, the anniversary of the sacking, 5 November, is observed on 6 November.
Te Raukura was destroyed by fire in 1960. Only its foundations remain.
Redress
Several Taranaki tribes were affected by the Parihaka incident. Between 2001 and 2006, the New Zealand government provided redress and a formal apology to four of those tribes, Ngati Ruanui, Ngati Tama, Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi and Ngati Mutunga, for a range of historical issues including Parihaka. Tens of millions of New Zealand dollars were provided as redress to the tribes in recognition of their losses at Parihaka and the confiscations. Most of the confiscated land is now privately owned, and worth considerably more.Although there were more violent incidents during the New Zealand land wars
New Zealand land wars
The New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand between 1845 and 1872...
, the memory of Parihaka is still invoked as a symbol of colonial aggression against the Māori People, having a similar resonance in New Zealand to the Wounded Knee Massacre
Wounded Knee Massacre
The Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Later references
The story of Parihaka lay largely forgotten by non-Māori New Zealanders, until the publication of "The Parihaka Story" by Dick Scott in 1954. It was revised and enlarged as "Ask That Mountain" in 1975.A sardonic "song-play" about Māori land issues including Parihaka, "Songs for the Judges" with words by Mervyn Thompson
Mervyn Thompson
Mervyn Garfield Thompson was a prominent New Zealand playwright and theatre director. He was one of the founders of Court Theatre in Christchurch, an artistic director of Downstage Theatre in Wellington and Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury. His theatrical writing championed the...
and music by William Dart was performed in Auckland in February 1980 and toured in 1981. Two of the songs, "Gather up the Earth" and "On that Day" are based on sayings of Te Whiti
Te Whiti o Rongomai
Te Whiti o Rongomai III was a Māori spiritual leader and founder of the village of Parihaka, in New Zealand's Taranaki region.-Biography:...
. It was issued as an LP (SLD-69) by Kiwi/Pacific Records in 1982.
A play about Parihaka by Harry Dansey
Harry Dansey
Harry Delamere Barter Dansey MBE was a prominent New Zealand Māori journalist, cartoonist, writer, broadcaster, local-body politician, and race relations conciliator.-Early life:...
called "Te Raukura" was first performed in Auckland and then, in a cut-down version for school-age performers, in the Hutt Valley and at Parihaka in 1981.
In 1989 musicians Tim Finn
Tim Finn
Brian Timothy "Tim" Finn, OBE is a New Zealand singer and musician. Finn is most known for his music with New Zealand 1970s and 1980s rock group Split Enz, and later for his solo work, a temporary membership in his brother Neil's band Crowded House and his joint efforts with Neil Finn as the Finn...
and Herbs
Herbs (band)
Herbs are a New Zealand reggae vocal group formed in 1979 once described as "New Zealand's most soulful, heartfelt and consistent contemporary musical voice". It has been said their debut EP Whats' Be Happen? "set a standard for Pacific reggae which has arguably never been surpassed".-History:Herbs...
released the song Parihaka about the incident.