D'Arcy McPherson, a local Pākehā historian of Parapara, Golden Bay talks about the Māori history of the area.
Tape 1:
The Harvey family were the first European settlers in the area, and they found large numbers of Māori artefacts and old muskets when they first ploughed the land. These had been left on the battlefield - the final stand being made at the base of the Sandspit - Triangle Valley.
He talks about raids by Ngāti Toa from Farewell Spit down the West Coast to Hokitika, wiping out several kainga. He talks about raiding in the Golden Bay area, and also in Nelson and as far away as Kaikoura and Kaiapoi. He discusses Te Rauparaha's raid on Kaiapoi and Banks Peninsula, taking the chief Tamahairanui and his wife and daughter back to Kapiti. At Cape Campbell the chief and his wife put his daughter out to swim to shore, but she drowned. The chief and his wife were then tortured to death at Waikanae.
Tuhawaiki, the chief of Otago and Southland and brother to the dead wife of Tamahairanui, and he sent a war party north to battle Te Rauparaha, including his brother Topi. He says Tuhawaiki was known as "Bloody Jack" because of his frequent use of the English swear-word.
McPherson tells the story of how they hunted Te Rauparaha at Lake Grasmere, where he went to catch ducks. A dog barked and gave them away but they attacked and nearly captured Te Rauparaha, catching his cloak which is still held by Tuhawaiki's descendants. They chased him into Cloudy Bay. The North Island canoes were lighter and faster, while the Southern were made of heavier timber, and when they collided near Lake Grassmere the Southern ones came off better.
McPherson then tells a story about the whaling station and Captain Fyffe at Kaikoura. He tells further stories about raids by Te Puoho [Te Puoho ki Te Rangi] throughout the South Island with Paremata [Paremata Te Wahapiro] until he was finally captured and killed by Tuhawaiki's party in 1836. Te Puoho's head was brought back to his senior wife living at Parapara. He had given instructions before his death for a meeting house to be built at Parapara. After his death, many adzes that were to have been used for the house, were broken as a mark of respect. He says these adzes were found buried on the beachfront on Mr Turnbull's property "some years ago." A second tangi was held for Te Puoho in Taranaki where he was highly respected.
He then talks about Te Koihua of Te Āti Awa, [Wiremu Kingi Te Koihua] who had headquarters at Pakawau, near what is now called 'King Billy Creek', which was his European nickname. He had taken some slaves from the Motupipi area and those people planned a reprisal raid but people from Collingwood and Parapara said they didn't want to take part.
After he died, he was buried at the base of Farewell Spit so as not to offend the Motupipi people.
Another local Māori leader named Marino [Tāmati Pirimona Marino] came from Ngāti Rārua, and came originally from Taranaki as a junior chief. He was one of the first Māori to get an English sea captain's ticket and traded up to Onehunga from Golden Bay. MacPherson believes he died in Nelson, and is buried in the Collingwood cemetery.
McPherson says many Māori left Golden Bay in the 1860s to fight with North Island iwi during the New Zealand Wars. He says he can't prove it, but he believes the earliest Europeans in the Bay were intrigued to find very few Māori men in the area, but this was because many had gone South and been killed there.
He talks about bodies in naval uniforms unearthed at Motupipi when he was a boy. He says Mr Gerald Page would also know this story. His father told him bodies would be uncovered if the beach eroded near Paton's Rock - but this was the wrong location. In 1825 Scandinavians were trading for flax and several boats were overturned and men drowned.
Māori interpreters with them said local Māori didn't want bodies buried near their pipi beds, so they were taken further round the bay and buried near a Māori cemetery. Two survivors, ships' boys, came back and worked on the goldfields in the 1850s and 1860s. His grandfather went with them down the coast to try and find where the burials had taken place, they thought it was near Paton's Rocks but they were actually buried near the Motupipi River outlet.
Tape 2. (begins 00:32:30)
Continuation - the bodies were buried near the golf course. When found, some were in uniforms,. They were the Scandinavians, the first Europeans buried in Golden Bay.
McPherson tells a story about a man named Puriri who lived in the 1920s. His forefinger was cut off while helping cut wood. He put the finger in his trouser pocket and went to the doctor's surgery. The doctor refused to reattach it, so he bought some safety pins and sat outside the doctors and pinned it back on and it survived. He would always greet Dr Woodward for years afterwards by pointing to the finger.
He then tells another story about a policeman who raided local hotels.