Advent of The European

Captain Cook sailed along this coast on 1st/2nd November, 1769, naming Cape Runaway, White Island and Mount Edgecumbe as he did so. He commented in his journal on the dense population of the coastal area. One can visualise it today. The chain of earthworks along the entire escarpment from Ōhiwa Harbour in the west to Opape in the east gives evidence of occupation by large numbers. The earliest white arrivals told of the large fishing camps at Paerata; a net 1.5 km in length was used by Māori at Tirohanga and would supply the requirements of a tribe for a year at one haul.

Missionaries from Tauranga made an abortive attempt to reach Ōpōtiki in 1828. They were dissuaded when, on landing at Ōhiwa, they walked into the carnage of a just-concluded battle between Ngati Awa of Whakatāne and Whakatōhea. Rev. John A. Wilson of the Church Missionary Society arrived at the end of December, 1839, and is recorded as the first white man in Ōpōtiki, then called Pakowhai. His mission was established on the hill above the present golf clubhouse, the Roman Catholics followed two months later in March, 1840.

In May of the same year, seven Ōpōtiki chiefs became signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi, a copy having been brought here for that purpose by the Governor’s agent, James W. Fedarb. Crosses appear against the names of the chiefs; namely Tautora, Rangimatanuku and Rangihaerepo. In a notation at the foot of the Treaty, Fedarb states: “The Chiefs of Opotiki expressed a wish to have it signified who were Pikipos (i.e. Roman Catholics) and who were not, which I did by placing a crucifix preceding the names of those who were, at which they seemed perfectly satisfied.” Aporotanga, one of the chiefs, was subsequently killed at Matata in 1864 by Te Arawa.

From 1840 to the 1860’s missionary activity was pursued on a somewhat precarious basis. Although there is little known of their activities, the traders and whalers were becoming active on the coast during this era also. Te Kaha and Waihau Bay in particular, eventually became bases for whaling.

But it took the hostilities of the 1860s to initiate Pakeha settlement on a significant scale.

Conflict of Race

It was almost inevitable that the pressures of Pakeha settlement should be resisted to the stage of open warfare. In Ōpōtiki the flame was ignited in March 1865, when the missionary Volkner was killed. Despite warnings to stay in Auckland, he insisted on returning to his church of Hiona – still standing in Ōpōtiki’s main street, now known as Hiona St Stephen – when the local Māori became influenced and inflamed by the religious and political doctrine of Hauhauism. Because of his reports on the movement of the Hauhau emissaries, Volkner was regarded as a Government spy and paid the penalty.

His death induced the Government to send a punitive expedition to Ōpōtiki in September 1865, and from the time of its landing there was a continuing campaign waged throughout the surrounding country. The campaign increased in intensity when Te Kooti escaped from the Chatham Islands in 1868, and his association with this area continued off and on until his final surrender at Waiōtahe in 1889.

Major engagements were fought on the sandhills at the entrance to Ōpōtiki harbour; on the western side of the Waioeka Straight where one of the few cavalry charges of the New Zealand wars occurred at the mouth of the Waioeka Gorge; and at Maraetai in the gorge itself. This latter place is now known as Oponae and across the river is the site of Te Kooti’s base which was captured by the Government forces with severe casualties being inflicted on the defenders. A large church, just completed by Te Kooti, was razed, a number of prisoners were shot on the side of the riverbed and Te Kooti made one of his numerous escapes to fight again.

The decline of Whakatōhea as a tribe of influence could be said to have started when they were decimated by the Ngapuhi and Ngati-Maru muskets in the 1820s. The confiscation of their land 40 years later was a bitter blow.

While all this military activity was going on, a township was beginning to grow adjacent to the wharf, then near the present monument. A military garrison inevitably led to the establishment of commercial activity and thus Ōpōtiki had its business origins.

Following the end of hostilities, the original inhabitants had their coastal lands confiscated as punishment for their support for the rebellion.

However, after years of negotiation and a successful petition and compensation for the confiscation of their lands a Whakatōhea tribal Trust Board was established. The Whakatōhea Trust Board administration offices and board room are situated on St John St at the junction with Elliott Street. Today, Whakatōhea manage their highly productive dairy farms, are actively involved in education and training to create employment and are major stakeholders in the proposed off-shore mussel farm. From their operations the Whakatōhea Board make annual grants of a percentage of net income for education, employment, pensioner flats, cultural and community development for their beneficiaries and the district.