History of the Otago Region
The Takitimu, legendarily associated with the discredited theory of a great fleet dated to 1350 AD, made its landfall in the Bay of Plenty and then sailed down the coast of both islands, even as far as the Waiau River in Southland, leaving settlers at suitable districts.
Stack, one of those who developed this now contested conception, portrayed the Waitaha occupation of Te Waipounamu as covering a century, from 1477 to 1577,[12] a calculation based on the assumption of twenty years to a generation.
[14] A more credible explanation might be that, on the arrival of the first Waitaha wave in the south, they found it an abundant land and, under such favourable conditions, their numbers greatly increased.
These latter probably preserved moa-flesh in fat, wrapped up in bands of kelp, fastened with tōtara-bark strips and bartered it for such northern products as flax mats, huia feathers and kūmara.
[2] Probably both these alternatives apply though it seems more likely that, as its numbers diminished and the attacks of its foes proceeded with unabated vigour, the moa became restricted to the fastnesses of Central Otago, especially to the area between Lake Wakatipu and the Lammerlaw Range.
[8] Summing up the warfare in Otago, Beattie states that of the twenty-five battles which took place south of Temuka, five were family affairs in which Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu fought among themselves.
According to Beattie, defeated in one battle after another, the dwindling band of Kāti Māmoe retreated in various directions, some to the western bank of the Waiau River, where they took refuge in caves, some to the far reaches of Te Anau and Manapouri, and some even to the cold shelters of the fiords.
[24] These early contacts left a number of Pākehā (non-Māori people) living in the south: James Caddell an English boy-sealer captured from the Sydney Cove in 1810; three Lascars (Indian seamen), survivors of the deserting six from the Matilda, one of them called by Māori "Te Anu".
[26] Māori/Pākehā relations – peaceful from the time of Cook's visit and through the first sealing boom from 1792 to 1797 – soured with the theft of a red shirt, a knife and other articles by a chief Te Wahia from the Sydney Cove on the Otago Harbour late in 1810 – and by his killing by an angered sealer.
[27] Edwardson, sent from Sydney in the Mermaid to investigate the prospects for a flax-industry, explained Māori truculence in terms of their "vindictive", "crafty" and "lying" character which, he opined, made them "sensitive to the slightest offence".
On one occasion he went to gather some vegetables which grew wild: Boultbee did not understand the "strange custom of tabooing", but he recognised that "any willful breach of it considered a serious matter, & in severe cases punishable by death".
Karetai functioned as the local chief, but Taiaroa, who had close kinship ties with the Canterbury Ngāi Tahu, had been given land on the western side of the harbour where he established a small settlement.
Fearful of being met by taunts and jeers on returning home, they killed a kinsman of Taununu, a powerful rangatira from Kaikōura who had settled near his kin at Kaiapoi and controlled Rapaki, a large pa in Lyttelton harbour.
A strong relieving force of Otago warriors, led by Taiaroa, marched hurriedly into the beleaguered pa, slipped past Te Rauparaha and entered it by night.
After a long defence in which he played a leading part, Taiaroa, seeing the hopelessness of the position, escaped with his men to Otago harbour, now the tribal stronghold of Kāi Tahu, to prepare a counter-stroke.
After a short rest to recuperate, they pushed on along the old Māori track that ran over the low hills west of Gore and, soon after crossing the Mataura River, the party reached Tuturau and sacked the village.
In January 1838, Tūhawaiki and Taiaroa made a sudden march to Queen Charlotte Sound, and in December of the following year, led another war-party in sixteen sealing and four whaling boats, but Te Rauparaha, still smarting from his former humiliations, never again faced the southern warriors.
Born at Taununu, at the mouth of the Matua-a (or Clutha), around 1805 as a nephew of Te Whakataupuka, Tuhawaiki had direct descent from Hautapu-nui-o-tu and from Honekai; he also had an impeccable Ngati Mamoe lineage and close kin-ties with such prominent Pākehā as James Cadell and John Kelly.
In any case he travelled to Waikouaiti to hear Watkin's first sermon, asked for a missionary to be sent to Ruapuke, and extended a warm and hospitable welcome to visiting clergy.
Bibles, or a few pages from any book, represented a new magic which Māori believed could protect its owner from death in battle, bestow eternal life, ward off sickness, and thus complement the power of traditional karakia (or incantations).
His robes and vestments attracted much favourable comment, the pomp of Catholic ritual and liturgy impressed, and some Māori told Watkin to his face that they regretted his 'plain dress and equally plain mode of conducting religious worship'.
Hence by February 1840, every acre in Otago and Murihiku, as indeed in the entire South Island, had apparently been alienated by the Māori to hopeful speculators who gambled on receiving from the Crown some title commensurate with the expenses they alleged had been incurred.
The highly questionable nature of these transactions became more evident after Captain William Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands on 29 January 1840 to win from the Māori allegiance to the British Crown.
The claim cited three main areas where the crown had failed to fulfill its obligations, building schools and hospitals, setting aside 10% of the land as reserve and providing access to food gathering resources.
A painter recently arrived from England, Samuel Shaw, took up the cause of the workers and after convening a public meeting and a petition to William Fox, eight hours was resolved as an acceptable workday.
[43]: 37 It has been said that artisans and labourers who arrived in Otago as immigrants would have expected to leave class differences in Britain, but by the 1880s industrial disputes across the country were creating a common identity for workers.
[43] By the 1980s Dunedin was becoming an industrial, urbanised community, and in line with what was happening elsewhere in New Zealand, both skilled and unskilled workers were forming unions and the town had a Trades and Labour Council which was active in advocating for improved working conditions.
[44] In 1887 Samuel Lister a settler from Scotland who was a printer and engraver, established the Otago Workman, a weekly newspaper, [which he said] "would fearlessly take up the cause of the industrial classes, and advocate the rights of labour as against the selfish greed, and tyranny of unscrupulous capital", leading historian Erik Olssen to conclude that the paper "played a major role in shaping a sense of working-class identity...[and Lister]...helped shape the political platform and strategy of the fast-multiplying trade unions.
Although the strike was not successful, Olssen held that the expression of solidarity demonstrated "the speed with which an industrial working class [had] emerged", creating an event that would have been impossible five years previously.
The influx of engineers with technological knowledge, people with skill in urban planning and those with medical expertise, was a major factor in contributing to the intervention of the national Government in local politics and some changes made at this level brought about improvement in fire-fighting services, public transport and the rationalisation of independent boroughs.
