Russell Stone is an Emeritus Professor in History of the University of Auckland.

He has for some years been regarded the leading historian of 19th century Auckland.

He has written at least nine books on the period, chapters for books edited by others, and a number of articles.

In “From Tamaki-Makaurau to Auckland” (2001) Auckland University Press, he sets out what is by far the most complete history of the Tamaki region so far written covering the period until Governor Hobson moved his capital to Tamaki in February 1841.

The book draws on many sources, not only the work of historians, ethnologists, archaeologists, early Pakeha missioners such as Samuel Marsden, 19th century British Government papers before the Treaty, Pakeha explorers such as Durmont D’Urville and the accounts of the first Pakeha visitors to the shores of the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours.

More importantly, it uses available recorded sources for the voices of Maori mainly the Minutes of the Native Land Court hearings of the 1860’s, especially the evidence of the older Maori witnesses who were mature men before Pakeha first saw the waters of the Waitemata in 1820.

Tamaki is fortunate because we have direct written records of the accounts of Ngati Whatua and other Maori who were adult, not only before the Treaty, but before Pakeha had a presence here.

The book covers ancient times, including traditions of the Tainui, Arawa, Aotea and Maataatua canoes and their descendants, who came, stayed for a while, and then moved on to their final destinations, but leaving part of themselves remaining in Tamaki by people absorbed by the local peoples and/or otherwise leaving their mark.

Stone then deals with the period from 1600 to 1800. For the first century and a half of that time the dominant iwi in the central Tamaki Isthmus was Waiohua.

While there were various raids, battles and campaigns from and against Hauraki tribes originating in the Firth of Thames and Ngati Whatua from the Kaipara, where some battles were won and some were lost, the end result was that until the mid 1700’s ahi kaa was maintained by Waiohua.

No invasion of the isthmus by others until the mid 18th century lead to permanent occupation and actual takeover of the land.

That changed in the mid 1700’s.

At that time there was an attack lead by Kiwi Tamaki, then paramount leader of Waiohua, upon Te Taou at an uhunga near Helensville where leading Te Taou were killed.

Retribution by Te Taou and other Ngati Whatua, followed by outright invasion and annexation was the result.

Kiwi Tamaki died at a heavy Waiohua defeat by Big Muddy Creek in West Auckland.

The Waiohua settlements on the Waitemata and Maungakiekie were taken and as a final blow the Mangere paa was taken by Te Taou led by Tuperiri and the inhabitants likewise killed, driven off or enslaved.

Waiohua was therefore finished as a political entity in the Tamaki Isthmus.

Over time, by inter-marriage with Waiohua bloodlines, Te Taou resurrected the names of Nga Oho and Te Uringutu and those three hapu lived in Tamaki under the chieftainship of Tuperiri.

Ngati Whatua manawhenua in the Tamaki Isthmus is therefore based both on raupatu through Te Taou and long ancestry mainly through Nga Oho and Te Uringutu.

Therefore we see the basis upon which Apihai Te Kawau then paramount chief of Ngati Whatua in Tamaki, in 1868 successfully claimed for Ngati Whatua the seven hundred acre Orakei Block which was the only remaining Maori land left on the Tamaki Isthmus.

As the Native Land Court Minutes show, Apihai began his evidence by saying he was of Te Taou, Nga Oho and Te Uringutu and as Stone points out, when pressed as to which tribe he claimed through, Apihai said “I claim equally through all”.

Stone then moves to the position at the turn of the 18th century to the 19th.

For the first twenty years of the 19th century Tamaki was in relative peace, with Ngati Whatua occupying the Tamaki Isthmus except for substantial Ngati Paoa settlements along the Tamaki River to the Panmure Basin, with Akitai neighbours in South Mangere, Ngati Te Ata on the southern shores of the Manukau Harbour and Kawerau a Maki on the West Coast beaches leading up into the Waitakere Ranges.

There was co-operation between groups associated with the use of fishing grounds on both the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours.

That peace was shattered by the Musket Wars which were initiated by the musket armed Ngapuhi led by Hongi Hika.

Tribes such as Ngati Whatua and Ngati Paoa had virtually no muskets.

In late 1821 Hongi Hika arrived in Tamaki with 2000 men and 1000 muskets.

Apihai and the main body of his warriors were still away on an expedition known as Amiowhenua.

The remaining Ngati Whatua had sufficient warning to flee to places in the Waitakere Ranges.

Ngati Paoa stood their ground, relying on their fortifications at Mokoia and Mauinaina on the Tamaki River. Those paa were utterly annihilated and destroyed, the inhabitants killed or enslaved and Hongi returned victorious back to Northland.

On Apihai’s return he kept the hapu on the move to keep out of harms way until later in 1822 when Ngati Whatua returned to their settlements on the Tamaki Isthmus and remained there until the summer of 1825-1826.

At the end of 1825 Ngati Whatua of Kaipara called upon their Tamaki cousins for help for an impending battle against Ngapuhi who were advancing against them.

The contingent from Tamaki did not reach the battleground of Te Ika-a-Ranganui (by Kaiwaka) in time to be cut down by the Ngapuhi muskets like the rest of Ngati Whatua, but the Kaipara Ngati Whatua suffered a most grievous defeat.

Apihai took it that his hapu were next in line and he moved his people north to Matakana, then west to Whenuapai, then east to the Firth of Thames and then ultimately south to the Waikato, successfully seeking to evade for his hapu the fate suffered by others.

It took until the mid-1830’s for something approaching equality of armaments between Ngapuhi and other iwi, and for that and other reasons the full fury of the Musket Wars then subsided.

It was not until 1835 that Ngati Whatua came back to live on the Tamaki Isthmus, re-establishing settlements on the Manukau Harbour, first at Karangahape (Cornwallis), then Green Bay, then Mangere/Onehunga and by 1837 the Waitemata Harbour at Horotiu (Queen Street) and Okahu/Orakei and by 1839 Okahu/Whakatakata (Orakei Basin), Pourewa (Meadowbank) and Wairiki (eastern side of the University/Stanley Street), usually first by cultivation, then residence.

Stone also refers to where Ngati Paoa and other of the Marutuahu tribes were living.

Like Ngati Whatua during the Musket Wars they spent time in refuge in the Waikato. Between 1836 and 1840 Ngati Paoa were at Orere in the Firth of Thames where overtures of reconciliation occurred between Ngati Paoa and Ngati Whatua which were ultimately realized in 1841-1842.

Also, in repayment of the hospitality shown in their nine years of trial (1826 to 1835) Ngati Whatua transferred land in the Tamaki Isthmus to Waikato, first (in 1837) in modern Hillsborough, then a small block not far from Orakei, then and last (and after the Treaty) a transfer of a triangle of land in part of modern Epsom.

Stone suggests an additional motivation for the transfers beyond repayment of that hospitality, was to secure a Waikato presence and therefore support as a continued deterrent to Ngapuhi.

Stone then briefly turns to the arrival in the last part of the 1830’s of traders and would-be speculators in land, including William White the ex-Wesleyan Superintendent who had been dismissed by the Church but retained clerical garb and influence among Maori in the north including Ngati Whatua; Lieutenant William Cornwallis Symonds; and the “New Zealand Waitemata and Manukau Land Company” incorporated in September 1840.

He then looks at Governor Hobson and his agents’ investigations of a site for a potential new New Zealand capital, which the Governor ultimately determined he wished to be at Tamaki, and the work of George Clark who had been appointed by Hobson to secure land on the Tamaki Isthmus from Ngati Whatua.

Ngati Whatua agreed to transfer a triangular block with Maungawhau (Mount Eden) as its apex ranging along the shores of the Waitemata from Cox’s Bay to the West and what later became a disputed boundary in Parnell to the east.

That was the first block transferred to the Crown in Tamaki and formed the foundation of what was to become the City of Auckland.

The book then continues to describe the officials in the colonial administration, their arrival in Auckland and the opening transactions.

The last passages in the book before the Afterword, have the September 1841 auction to settlers and speculators of the first of the allotments from this block by the colonial administration.

This book is rewarding and essential reading for anyone who wishes to learn something of the history of Tamaki prior to Pakeha settlement.

It provides a single account covering a period which is not completely dealt with in other works.

While the research and scholarship employed is very readily evident (as you can see from the references, footnotes and bibliography) the book is a remarkably easy read.

The book is not only highly worthwhile, but it is written clearly in an engaging and entertaining style.

Get it out of the library, or buy it.

You may buy this book online from here