East Coast Historical Records (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from East Coast Historical Records In the fourth and fifth decades of the nineteenth century the portion of the coast of New Zealand extending from Hicks Hay to Wairoa in Hawke's Hay, about 140 miles in length, and now comprised in the counties of Waiapu, Cook and Wairoa, was commonly known by the whalers and traders who frequented it as "The East Coast, " and this is the region with which the following reminiscences arc more immediately connected. The district is very hilly, the ranges near the coast varying from 200 or 300 feet to an altitude of over 2000 feet, the highest point in this part of the island being Mount Hikurangi, which reaches nearly 6000ft. The population was to be found generally within a short distance of the coast, though in a few favourable localities it extended as far as 20 or 30 miles inland, the mountainous parts of the interior being altogether without inhabitants, except that there were fortified strongholds, in places difficult of access, to which people might retreat when hard-pressed by an enemy. According to the census of 1911 the native population of this district is 6586, but in the early part of last century there were probably at least four times as many. As an illustration we may note that the number of males above the age of fifteen in the whole of the district is now given as 2567, whereas in 1834 two pas in the Waiapu Valley, Eangitukia and Whaka-whitira, taken together, were said to muster no less than 2560 fighting men. In this, as in other parts of the country, the various tribes were very frequently at war either with one another or with distant tribes, feuds which involved the loss of many lives often deriving their origin from circumstances of the most trivial character. Cannibalism was no infrequent feature of these wars, the victors usually resorting to it as a method of emphasising their revenge. Large numbers, too, of the vanquished were carried off as slaves, many of whom were liable to be killed and eaten by the near relations of any chief of the conquering tribe who might have fallen in battle. Owing to the general feeling of insecurity, the people of each locality lived in or near a pa, fortified with earthworks and stout palisading. It was a comparatively easy matter, therefore, in the early years of the Mission to get together five hundred or a thousand people, whereas now it is rarely possible to assemble more than 40 or 50, unless some special business has brought people together from a distance. There is no obvious connection between the inter-tribal quarrels of the Maori people and the British penal settlements in Australasia, but nevertheless it is a fact that some of the Tasmanian convicts had no unimportant share in the circumstances which led immediately to the raids of the Ngapuhi of the Bay of Islands on the tribes of the East Coast. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.