Our People

Site Map

Poukani - Original List Of Shareholders. 1882. Deed No 431 | Rangitira Profiles

Our People

Pouakani - Original List Of Shareholders
1882. Deed No 431

Raniera Te Iho
Piripi Te Maari
Raharuhi Tuhokairangi
Tamihana Hiko
Ramari Watarauhi
Paiura Watarauhi
Kirikau Pateriki
Paraone Te Pahoro
Paratene Nuku
Matini Te Aore
Pahoro Te Tio
Hariata Amoake
Komene Piharau
Pare Pateriki
Kingi Puihi
Takana Kingi
Ruka Kingi
Makeri Kingi
Eriatara Kingi
Henare Kingi
Manihera Maaka
Wi Waka Rangiwhakaewa
Keere Maaka
Wirihita Eraihia
Hekiera Te Raro
Marakaia Tawaroa
Heketa Pou
Irihapeti Whakamaire
Taraipine Pou
Hamuera Korou
Karaitiana Korou
Hohapata Te Otawa
Hoani Rangitakaiwaho
Rihari Tohi
Raima Hone
Ihaka Kuaha
Riria Meihana Takihi
Iraia Te Ama
Tutu Te Whaiti
Manihera Ruka
Kapakapa Ruka
Te Kahu Taurae
Te Ruihi Te Miha
Hori Taha
Eraita Te Here
Titaha Rakera
Aperahama Te Okaoka
Ani Hiko
Apikara Pouhiki
Wi Hutana
Roka Ihakara
Hohaia Te Rangi
Apiata Hakiaha
Hohepa Aporo
Hemi Te Miha
Heta Hemi
Te Ngaere Hemi
Hemi Matiaha
Makere Te Waiho
Ketia Ihakara
Rawhakairi Tamihana
Te Kooti Ihakara.
Makere Ruiha
Wharetoitoi Kaka
Heke Ihakara
Iruapa Heke
Pou Manihera
Eruera Manihera
Mangi Potae
Eruera Rangitakaiwaho

71.   Apihai Eruera
72.   Whare Eruera
73.   Pou Eruera
74. Kaparangi Eruera
75. Enoka Hohepa
76.   Tare Ruka Hohepa
77.   Atareta Te Iho
78.   Te Akitu Piripi
79. Nikorima Piripi
80. Hinetauira Hohepa
81.   Rauhina Hohepa
82. Waihopi Ratima
83. Kaunihera Piripi
84.   Ratima Ropiha
85. Hui Te Miha
86. Ruiha Heke
87. Rina Ihaka
88. Eruha Piripi
89. Kahu Piripi
90.   Arapata Piripi
91. Maikara Hohepa
92. Retini Tamihana
93.   Haterei Manihera Rangi
94    Te Whatahoro
95.   Wi Tutere
96.   Ngairo Rakaihikuroa
97. Ihaka Ngahiwi
98. Tare Turi
99. Heni Turi
100. Taituha Waitere
101. Huiwhakaimea Taituha
102. Maraea Toatoa
103. Ani Ratima
104. Pirihira Hare
105. Aporo Hare
106. Hoani Pohotu
107. Harata Mikaera
108. Hohepa Whakaumu
109. Maata Anaru
110. Katerina Te Pare
111. Hoani Paraone Tunuiarangi
112. Hiria Raharuhi
113. Tiri Maika Purakau
114. Pane Maika
115. Puhara Tikawenga
116. Taiawhio Te Tau
117. Pahira Anaru
118. Rora Hori
119. Ngatuere Te Tawhao
120. Mare Hemara
121. Kaara Te Marau
122. Ahitana Matenga
123. Katerina Kingi
124. Ngahui Hemara
125. Ripeka Kaiwharakihi
126. Emeri Ngawhakawa or Nikora
127. Rahapa Te Ihi
128. Heni Marene
129. Ngarongomate Te Iho
130. Te Karo Ihaka
131. Waho Tamihana Hera Rina
132. Hera Rina
133. Hamuera Mahupuku
134. Wiremu Mahupuku
135. Hiko Piata
136. Arihia Ngawhawha
137. Wi Kingi Tutepakihirangi
138. Te Waaka Tahuahi
139. Hema Epanaia

Hoani Paraone Tunuiarangi1843/44-1933
Hapu: Ngati Rakairangi, Ngati Kahukuranui, Ngati Hinewaka, Ngai Tukoko, Ngati Kiharahui, Ngai Tahu

Tunuiarangi was born at Whakatomotomo, near Pirinoa. He was raised in the Anglican Church. He was able to read and write from a young age in English and Maori. As a young man he is said to have acted as guide and interpreter to early Pakeha authorities. He guided J. G. Holdsworth to the summit of what is now known as Mount Holdsworth.

He lived at the mouth of Lake Onoke for much of his early life but by 1880 he had moved to Hinana near Gladstone, where he was appointed an assessor of the Native Land Court. Like most of his contemporaries Tunuiarangi spent much time in the Land Court in the 1880s and 1890s presenting his own claims and those of his people.

He was listed among the owners of Wairarapa Moana in 1883 and gave evidence to the commission of inquiry concerning them in 1891. In January 1896 Tamahau Mahupuku and Tunuiarangi obtained an agreement with the Government stipulating that in return for the lakes Maori owners would be compensated with a sum of money and the opportunity to select suitable lands elsewhere

Tunuiarangi was a representative of Wairarapa Maori at the preliminary session of the Kotahitanga movement in the Bay of Islands in 1892; he supported the use of the Treaty of Waitangi to protect Maori and to regulate future relations between Maori and the Crown. He was a member of the Maori parliament for Wairarapa and a minister in the Kotahitanga Government from 1892.

On 22 April 1897 he was appointed to the rank of captain in a contingent of the Volunteer Force, temporarily attached to the Heretaunga Mounted Rifle Volunteers, to accompany Premier Richard Seddon to Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee celebration. He trained a group of eighteen Maori soldiers as a guard of honour and sailed with them to London. The contingent participated in the various official parades marking Jubilee Day on 22 June 1897.

On 2 July the colonial troops were reviewed by Queen Victoria and Captain Tunuiarangi was presented to her. He was given a jubilee medal and a ceremonial sword inscribed for the occasion. He was later transferred to the Wairarapa Mounted Rifle Volunteers at Papawai.

Tunuiarangi , Wi Pere and Tamahau Mahupuku met James Carroll in Wellington in before the London voyage and had suggested that a Maori loyal address be prepared which should include a petition that the remaining estimated five million acres of Maori land be reserved in perpetuity. The petition and address was prepared at Papawai.

This document signed by Tunuiarangi and seventeen others was presented by British MP John M. Denny to Joseph Chamberlain, secretary of state for the colonies and Tunuiarangi was called to the British Parliament and invited to explain his concerns. Although he was informed that the British Government had no power to intervene, he explained that the New Zealand Government would listen if Britain made representations on behalf of the Queen.

Tunuiarangi published his petitions in the London newspapers and distributed copies in New Zealand to increase the pressure on New Zealand. The embarrassment Tunuiarangi caused the Government had its effect; his petition contributed towards Seddon’s 1898 Native Lands Settlement and Administration Bill, which eventually became the Maori Lands Administration Act 1900.

Although he remained an Anglican, Tunuiarangi was increasingly influenced by the prophecies of Paora Potangaroa. Amongst other things Potangaroa had predicted the establishment of a new Maori church; in 1912 Tunuiarangi proclaimed this church, which embraced all Christian sects, to be Te Hahi o te Ruri Tuawhitu o Ihowa (also called the Church of the Seven Rules of Jehovah).

From 1904 to 1906 he was one of five members of the Scenery Preservation Commission. During this period four of his papers were published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society, with translations by S. Percy Smith, a co-commissioner who had encouraged him to become a writer of Maori lore and history. The manuscripts of these and other writings are preserved in various libraries. In July 1907 he was chairman of the Tane-nui-a-rangi committee, which worked to preserve and approve books on Maori customs.

After the death of the Tainui leader Mahuta in 1912, Tunuiarangi was one of several chiefs who spoke at the tangihanga, urging the King movement to adopt the title of ariki for Mahuta’s successor. During the First World War Tunuiarangi was associated with the East Coast’s war effort to establish a Maori soldiers’ fund and in 1919 he was a guest-of-honour at a hui in Gisborne to welcome back the Maori members of the New Zealand contingent.

He lived in Carterton from about 1912 where he also led the building of the Nukutaimemeha Wharenui (now located at Cole Street in Masterton). He died there on 29 March 1933. He was buried at Hinana. Tunuiarangi was recognised as one of the most influential leaders of Wairarapa and New Zealand society of his time.

Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury
1841–1923
Hapu: Ngati Muretu, Ngati Moe

Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury was born on 4 February 1841 at Rakaukaka, Poverty Bay. He was the eldest son of Te Aitu-o-te-rangi and her husband, John Milsome Jury, who was working as a carpenter for the missionary, William Williams. In March, 1842, Hoani and his parents moved back to the Wairarapa with Tu-te-pakihi-rangi and the Wairarapa people who had sought sanctuary at Nukutaurua, on the Mahia peninsula during the inter-tribal musket wars.

Te Whatahoro grew up at Te Waka-a-paua, on the Ruamahanga River, some three miles north-east of Martinborough. There he learnt of the customs of his mother’s hapu Ngati Moe. He was taught about traditional fishing places on the shores of Lake Wairarapa, and the boundaries and special places of the region.

He was taught to read and write by his father, who later sent him to be tutored by a Mr Crawford (Te Kerewhata). Te Aitu did not agree to the arrangement and after a month one of his mother’s relatives fetched him back. His further education was at mission schools and, according to family tradition, was paid for by Governor George Grey.

Te Whatahoro became a prolific writer on Maori traditions and customs, acting as a recorder on behalf of his iwi. He began this work in the late 1850s when a large gathering of our tipuna came together to discuss land and political questions. It was suggested that the tohunga present should explain some of our customs and korero to the assembled people. The tohunga consented to teach: Te Matorohanga was the presiding tohunga.

These lectures were written down by Te Whatahoro and Aporo Te Kumeroa. At Papawai, near Greytown, in 1865, Te Whatahoro recorded traditions given by Te Matorohanga, with Paratene Te Okawhare and Nepia Pohuhu assisting. He continued to make a record of information from the teachings of Nepia Pohuhu and Te Matorohanga until their deaths in the 1880s.

From about 1870 to 1877 Te Whatahoro lived at Putiki, Wanganui, where he was at various times a recorder and an interpreter. In 1868 he was acting as an advocate in the Native Land Court. His official duties took him to Horowhenua, Wellington, Wairarapa, Hastings, Gisborne and Tolaga Bay as well as other parts of the North Island.

From 1878 to the mid 1880s he was in Gisborne and the Tolaga Bay area. He moved to Wanganui about 1902 and later farmed at Ohotu, south of Taihape, until about 1909. While living at Wanganui, he continued his interest in tribal traditions and copied Ngati Tuwharetoa manuscripts and information from Te Umukura and Whaiti-nga-rere-waka. For over forty years he also returned often to Papawai.

On 26 June 1900 he was baptised into the Morman church and at the same time confirmed, at the Papawai branch of the church. From 1886 to 1888 he was one of those who assisted Morman elders in translating the Book of Morman into Maori.

In June 1892 he was elected chairman of the Kotahitanga Parliament held at Waipatu, near Hastings.

Hoani Te Whatahoro was also a member of the Tane-nui-a-rangi committee, to which the most learned men of Ngati Kahungunu belonged. In February 1899, at Papawai, Tamahau Mahupuku made a plea for the recording of Maori learning from elders with great knowledge. He suggested setting up groups to encourage this, and an appeal was made for old manuscript books.

The Tane-nui-a-rangi committee met from 1905-1910 to consider the books which they had gathered. Once a manuscript was approved by the committee each page was stamped with the committee’s seal. Some were given to the Dominion Museum where they were copied but many of the original manuscripts have vanished.

In February 1907 Hoani Te Whatahoro was elected a corresponding member of the Polynesian Society; he retained this membership until his death. Elsdon Best, T W Downes, S Percy Smith and John White all wrote articles which were based on the information supplied by Te Whatahoro but made little or no acknowledgement of this.

One of the more important of these articles is Downes’s history of the Ngati Kahungunu published in sections of the Journal of the Polynesian Society between 1914 and 1916. Percy Smith, president of the Polynesian Society, used other writings of Te Whatahoro. He translated and published a cut-down version of these materials, under the title The lore of the whare wananga, the teachings of Te Matorohanga and Nepia Pohuhu that had been written down by Te Whatahoro forty-eight years earlier.

Te Whatahoro had seven wives and fifteen children. He died on 26 September 1923, at the Greytown home of his eldest daughter, Te Aitu-o-te-rangi. He is buried in the Papawai cemetery. A man of great knowledge, he is said to have completed six of the seven grades of the whare wananga. He is represented in the painted panels of the porch of the meeting house, Hikurangi, at Papawai.

Piripi Te Maari o te Rangi
1837 – 1895
Hapu: Ngati Tukoko, Rakaiwhakairi, Ngati Rakairangi, Ngati Manuhiri, Ngati Hinewaka, Ngati Hineraumoa.

Piripi Te Maari-o-te-rangi was born in Waimarama in the 1830s during the time that many Wairarapa tipuna sought sanctuary amongst our northern Kahungunu kin from the invasion led by Te Ati Awa and others. He became one of the most prominent defenders of the rights of the Wairarapa people to their lands and lakes, from the 1860s to his death in 1895. He is a descendant of the rangatira of the hapu of Lake Onoke, south of Wairarapa Moana.

In the 1840-50s Piripi Te Maari’s family began to return to Wairarapa. He joined them in the early 1850s, by which time he was married to Meri Te Haeata and had at least one child. While he was away, he had been educated at the school of the Anglican missionary William Williams at Waerenga-a-hika, near Gisborne. This education equipped him for his future activities as the ‘man of affairs’ for his people.

His reputation was enhanced by his success as a farmer. He leased land from his relatives and ran sheep and cattle. He operated on such a large scale that he needed to employ pakeha workers. However he was consistently concerned that Maori landowners should lose none of their rights. This concern led him into the great battle of his life, the struggle to prevent settler encroachment on the rights and lands of the owners of the two Wairarapa lakes.

The lands bordering on the lakes had been purchased for the Government by chief land purchase commissioner, Donald McLean, in 1853. The deeds of sale were not clear about the precise boundaries of the blocks purchased by McLean but he had given a verbal agreement that the lakes themselves should stay in Maori hands, together with the low-lying swampy areas, below the high-water flood line. He had agreed, too, that any settler who opened the shingle bar dividing the lower lake from the sea would be fined 50 pounds.

The two lakes were very important as a source of food. In southerly storms the shingle bar at the seaward end of the lower lake would build up to form a dam; brackish water would spread inland and the eels in the lake would be brought towards the sea and could be caught in huge numbers against the bar. In good years twenty tons of eels could be taken and dried. Dried eels were exchanged with other tribes for the preserved birds and seafood; this exchange system extended as far as Wairoa and Gisborne.

By the 1860s pakeha pastoralists were enviously eyeing the flood plain of fine silt building up on the borders of the lake, and in some cases, using it without permission. But the floods which brought the harvest of eels hampered the pakeha farmers. By the end of the 1860s they were seeking the power to open the shingle bar without the agreement of the owners of the lakes.

In 1868, Piripi Te Maari, with Raniera Te Iho-o-te-rangi and others, asked the Government to honour the arrangements made with McLean. For a time things went amicably. Sums of 40 pounds were paid for permission to open the bar but Piripi and others did not give permission during the height of the eel season, between January and March.

But this did not satisfy the settlers, who put pressure on the Government to purchase the lakes and so bring to an end the annual flooding of their properties. In 1872 a meeting of Ngati Rakaiwhakairi was called at Te Waitapu, near Tuhitarata, in response to approaches made by a local settler, Richard Barton. The meeting decided against selling the lakes, a position maintained by Piripi for the rest of his life. However, in 1876, a deal was concluded where a small minority of owners signed away their fishing rights to the lower lake- Te Maari rejected this arrangement.

By this time, Piripi Te Maari was a prominent leader. He was chairman of a committee opposed to any further sale of Wairarapa lands, a committee probably of the runanga of Wairarapa, founded in 1859. By the 1880s he was regarded as the leader in all matters to do with the lakes. He was a member of the committee of twelve appointed at Papawai in 1883 to investigate all grievances between Maori and pakeha in Wairarapa. He made numerous appearances in the Native Land Court on his own behalf and on behalf of others, often as a trustee for minors.

Through the 1880s the battle over the lakes continued. Piripi Te Maari applied to the Native Land Court in 1881 to hear the claims of the non-sellers of Lake Wairarapa. After the first hearing, in 1882, he sought to get the Government’s case dismissed, on the grounds that it was based on the purchase of only seventeen persons’ interests. This tactic was successful. A second hearing, in 1883, registered Piripi Te Maari, Raniera Te Iho and one-hundred-and-thirty-seven others as owners of the two lakes. This was a significant victory.

By 1886 Piripi Te Maari was ready to come to a compromise. At a meeting at Papawai attended by the Native minister, John Bryce, the owners of the lakes agreed to let the bar be opened at the end of April. Later that year Piripi offered to give up two months of the fishing season – April and May. This was a major concession. With Wi Hutana, he met the new Native minister, John Ballance, on 12 November 1886, representing the committee of owners.

But the prospects of an agreed solution were shattered by the Ruamahanga River Board. The board declared Lake Wairarapa to be a public drain and asked the Government to support it in its effort to open the lakes. (The property of its chairman, Peter Hume, was most affected by flooding.) In 1888 the board, to test the right it claimed, sent thirty-three men, accompanied by two constables, to work with spades to open the bar. Piripi Te Maari arrived with his followers and after a tense discussion put his protest into a statement which was signed as ‘received’ by the board’s representative.

Piripi Te Maari then petitioned the Government to inquire into the situation. The 1891 commission of inquiry into the Wairarapa claims returned an ambiguous report. It stated that the flood line was the boundary of Crown purchases at least in the Turanganui block, that Maori ownership of the lakes included the shingle spit and that endangering the fishing rights of the owners was contrary to the Treaty of Waitangi. But it added that the lake owners were not justified in allowing the land sold by them to be flooded.

In 1892 the Ruamahanga River Board tried to force a channel. Its men were resisted by one hundred Maori and their solicitors. A police inspector watched and advised each group in turn. But the owners were threatened with prosecution for obstruction and let the board’s workers do their job.

Piripi Te Maari did not give up. He took a case to the Court of Appeal, only to have it dismissed. He organised a further petition, and gave notice that he intended to seek a ruling from the Privy Council. Another petition, in 1895, to the Native Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, secured a favourable decision, that the owners of the lakes had been wronged and should be compensated.

This was the only victory Piripi Te Maari lived to witness. On 26 August 1895 he died at Greytown and was buried at Waimarama; he was survived by five of his eight children. In the following year Tamahau Mahupuku arranged a settlement by which the lake owners received compensation in the form of two thousand pounds and the promise of ‘ample reserves’. But it was not until 1915 that two-hundred-and-thirty Wairarapa people were given 30,486 acres in the Pouakani block at Mangakino, in Waikato.