Te Pahu
Te Pahu is a rural community in the Waipa District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, located just north of Cambridge across State Highway 1.
Te Pahu (tee-pa-hoo-ee)
It is located north of Pirongia and south of Ngāhinapōuri just off State Highway 39.
Karamu Walkway runs along the Kapamahunga Range to the north of the village. It is part of Te Araroa long-distance walkway.[3]
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
The first recorded settlers of the area are descendants of the Tainui waka, led by Māhanga, who established Purakau Pā at the junction of the Kaniwhaniwha stream and the Waipā River and settled the lower valley in the late sixteenth century.[4] Māhanga's son Tonganui suffered a major defeat to Kawhia Māori. The tribe suffered a major defeat to Europeans during the Invasion of the Waikato; their land was confiscated and they were forced to relocate to the north.[5]
In 1879 peace negotiations Prime Minister Grey said Harapepe was excluded from the proposal to return Waikato lands to King Tāwhiao, even though former Minister of Native Affairs, Donald McLean, had included it in his offer of terms. A Waitangi Tribunal report says, "This was, it seems, the first official public admission that not all Crown lands were to be made available to return to the Kīngitanga. In particular, the Grey Government planned to exclude the blocks that McLean had repurchased specifically to include them in the package of lands ringfenced for return, which were mostly in the Harapepe district around Pirongia. But Grey did say that some Harapepe lands would be set aside as an endowment for a school at which Kīngitanga children could be educated."[6]
European settlement[edit]
The first European settler in the area was John Vittoria Cowell, a Kawhia trader,[7] who was given about 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) by Ngāti Apakura in October 1839.[8] He was the son of John Cowell, a lay missionary, who came to work with Samuel Marsden.[9] After the 1864 invasion, John Cowell lost all his lands under the Confiscation Act and died in poverty.[10] His Homewood house, on Rosborough Road,[11] to the south of Te Pahu, may date from 1841 and be the oldest surviving building in Waikato.[12]
During the war the area was settled by British militia, who were banned from leaving the area but often too poor to buy crops to continue living there. Many lots were abandoned; settlers who continued living there constantly feared attack from local Māori and often sought shelter in a blockhouse. A local industry of flax milling, and mixed cow and pig farming.[5]