The Brothers of Wehi Pokai

1.  Aperahama Pokai Te Iwinui   

Aperahama was the elder of the two brothers of Wehi.  He was probably born about 1810 at the Urikaraka pa named Kakaramea which was situated on the banks of the Hikutaia Stream, a tributary of the Waihou River, about mid-way between Thames and Paeroa.
		
His name is the Maori form of Abraham, indicating that he had been so named when baptised.  There is a record of his baptism being solemnized at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in the County of Eden, New Zealand on 31 December 1854, in his full name as given above.  His abode is given as East Huruhi (at the northeastern end of Man-O War Bay, Waiheke Island) and this location was given by about twelve others who were also baptised on that day.  These included his brother Hori Rakena Pokai, his wife Arapera Rangipaeroa, also known as Te Rihi, and their daughter, Hihipera.¹
  	
Aperahama was one of the leading chiefs who took part in the incident known as ‘The Invasion of Auckland’ on 17 April 1851.   This was a raid by warriors from Ngãti Pãoa, Ngãti Mãru and Ngãti Whanaunga to seek redress for an affront suffered by Te Hoera, a leading Ngati Pãoa man, at the hands of a native policeman in the town.   Between two hundred and fifty and three hundred men paddled from Pokorokoro (later renamed Miranda), Whakatiwai and Waiheke to Mechanics Bay where they were met by Governor Grey and ordered to leave or be fired upon. They left peacefully.  Aperahama captained the canoe from Pokorokoro².

After the death of his father, Hori Pokai Te Ruinga, and his half brother Kahukoti, who both died in 1860, Aperahama became the leading chief of Ngãti Pãoa.  He may have been second to Te Rauroha had the latter not died about 25 years earlier.  Since the return of the tribes from Waikato after the Musket Wars Te Urikaraka had occupied Waiheke Island, Te Ruinga’s family living at Man-O-War Bay where a large block of land was sold to Thomas Maxwell in 1838.  Aperahama was apparently living at East Huruhi in November 1863 since a report in The New Zealander of 26 November of that year recounts a conversation between him and Mr. McDonnell of the Defence Force about events in the Waikato Land Wars.  Many Ngãti Pãoa (but not all), supported their Waikato relatives in this war which proved disastrous to the tribe as it resulted in the Crown confiscating much of its tribal lands in mainland Hauraki.  Robert McLeod, his Waiheke neighbour, said that Aperahama did not initially take part in the Land Wars but did so later.  His participation was probably after the occupation of Pokorokoro by British forces, following bombardment by the ship Miranda.  He admitted to the Maori Land Court shortly before his death ‘I joined Tawhiao (King Potatau II) because I was opposed to (land) sales.’

When the Maori Land Court declared Te Huruhi (at the western end of Waiheke) a Native Reserve in April 1869 in was vested in five persons and registered in the names of 65 tenants in common.  A conspicuous and express omission from the title was the name of Aperahama Pokai, on account of his having joined the forces of King Potatau II in the Waikato War.³

After the Land Wars Aperahama lived back at Hikutaia were he earned a living digging kauri gum there and also at Whangamata.  In 1872 he gave evidence at the hearing of the Maori Land Court into the Whangamata - Hikutaia Title Investigation brought by Ngãti Pu.  He told
the court that he resided at Waipuroro, Hikutaia and that although he belonged to Ngati Pãoa

1.   The baptisms, performed by Rev. J Wilson, are recorded in Register 1055 of the church and are held by Anglican Archives, Auckland.
2.   This incident is reported in many places, including the newspapers of the day, the two books by Paul Monin,  Auckland the Lively    Capital by Una Platts, and a manuscript held by the Auckland Museum.
3.   Maori Land Court Hauraki Minute Book 44, page 111.

he was desceded from Whenua and connected to Ngãti Pu through Hikurangi (his grandmother on his mother’s side).  For information about the Ngãti Pu Iwi refer to Appendix 20. 
 
He said that Te Haupa and that all of Urikaraka had earlier lived at Kakaramea pa at Hikutaia, that his grandfather, Pokai, had lived there and that his father, Hori Pokai Te Ruinga, was born there, and that Te Haupa had a peach tree named Rangipiti (after a niece) grown from a stone given him by “the Pakeha who first discovered this island” (the Maori name he gave to this pakeha is difficult to decipher but can only be Captain Cook who is known to have investigated the Waihou River during his visit in 1769).  He also said that he had been to the south just before the death of Governor Hobson where he had gone to get a wife, that he had recently lived at Ohinemuri from where he and Ngatai (his cousin) had been ejected and before that at Taupo (i.e. near Kawakawa Bay), Waiheke, Pakihi (McCallums Island) and Ponui Island. And he added that he had assisted Mr. Mackay in negotiating with Ngãti Pu for permission for the telegraph line to pass through their land near Hikutaia.¹

Aperahama was a signatory to many land sales.  The first two of these were on Waiheke Island in conjunction with his father:
Omaru Block, sold to the Crown on 18 May 1851 (signing as Ne te Hiwinui te Rangi - before he was baptised)
Omaru & Opopo Block, sold to the Crown on 12 Mar. 1857 (signing as Te Aperahama Pokai Hiwinui)

Following the establishment of the Maori Land Court in 1865 Aperahama gave evidence in many title investigations.  These ranged from the Rotopiro Block, west of Kawakawa Bay (where the hapu had a flour mill on the Rotopiro Stream), down the coast to Waitakaruru, and Mangatangi, across the Hauraki Plains to Whangamata, Katikati and Piako and also some of the Gulf Islands.  Initially, when the Crown granted title to Maori land, it could be registered in no more than ten names and where Aperahama Pokai and his party’s claims were successful his name often appears as the first name listed, probably because of his mana.  In many but not all of these earlier claims his brother Hori Rakina was also named but later claims more frequently included his cousins Ngatai and Ngakete. 

Aperahama thus became a part owner of many blocks of land, a number of which were sold immediately title was granted.  Some of these sales were needed in order to recover the costs of title investigations, (and the losses on the building of the flour mill) but others were reputably made in order to finance his expensive life style.  This made him unpopular with his hapu and is indeed paradoxical in view of his earlier support for King Tawhio.

In December 1891 the Waitakaruru Hot Springs and Coalfield Syndicate held a tour of inspection.  They were met by Aperahama who led the party to the outbreaks of coal and the site of the hot springs.  A deed of lease for 21 years of some 1,390 acres of land which included the coal outcrops and hot springs was signed by his people.²

In his later years Aperahama was well known for his liking of the rum bottle.  When he died on 4 August 1898, aged about 80, a huge tangi was held near Miranda. It was attended by hundreds and lasted for more than two weeks.³

Aperahama and Arapera left no descendants, there being no male heirs, and of their three daughters, two predeceased him and the third, Hihipera, had no children.⁴ Having no descendants may explain his extravagant lifestyle.

1.   Maori Land Court Hauraki Minute Book 8, pages 132 to 139.
2.   Auckland Star, 15 December, 1891
3.   New Zealand Herald, 17 August 1898.
4.   Maori Land Court Hauraki Minute Book 42 page 148
2.  Hori Rakena Pokai  (aka Hori Rakena)

Hori is assumed to be the younger brother to Aperahama since he appears to have occupied a lower position in his hapu and was probably also born at Kakaramea pa.  He was baptised on 31 December 1854 along with his brother Aperahama and others of Urikaraka, when they were living at East Huruhi.  He quite probably also took part in the ‘Battle of Auckland’ in 1851 with Aperahama and his hapu.
		
Hori first makes his appearance in official documents in 1857 when, along with his brother Aperahama, he was a signatory to the sale of the Omaru and Opopo Block on Waiheke Island to the Crown (it is of interest to note that the other signatories were Arapera Rangipaeroa, the wife of Aperahama, Katerina Mere, the wife of Kahukoti, Pita Pouaka and Mata Hori Raukaraka).  Hori was also a signatory to the final sale by Ngãti Pãoa of 10,900 acres on Waiheke Island to the Crown on 12 June 1858 (signing as Hori Rakena).  And, along with Aperahama, he was also a signatory to the granting of cutting rights to the Whangamata Part No. 3 Block (signing this time as Hori Rakena Pokai and as a member of the Ngãti Pu Iwi).
	
After the sale to the Crown of their land on Waiheke Island, and of the Rotopiro Block, where they lived for a short time, Hori and his whanau relocated to Pokorokoro (later renamed Miranda) where there was a substantial village of peaceful mainly Urikaraka people.

Then came the Waikato Land Wars.  On 9 July 1863 Governor Grey ordered all Maori south of Auckland and north of the Mangatawhiri Stream to take an Oath of Allegiance or leave.  Hori, along with Ngakete, Ngatai and Hohepa Te Ruinga, all of Pokororo did so and surrendered their weapons.  In Hori’s case this was a long-handled tomahawk.¹  Fighting commenced in earnest only three days later when Gov. Grey’s troops crossed the Mangatawhiri Stream on July 12 1863.  Then on 3 November 1863, wishing to establish a line of supply from the Hauraki Gulf through the Mangatawhiri valley to the Waikato River, Pokorokoro was bombarded by the gunship Miranda forcing the residents to retreat into the swampy lands of Waitakaruru.  There is no record of Hori having taken part in the Land Wars, but following the destruction of his village he may well have done so.  Under the New Zealand Settlements Act of December 1863, despite their limited involvement in the war, about 200,000 acres of land belonging to the Hauraki tribes was confiscated, most of it from Ngãti Pãoa.  Some of this land was later returned to the Iwi and Hori became the sole owner of the site of the former Esk Redoubt, an area of 300 acres, which he sold in 1868.  He also became part owner of the Wharekawa 1 Block of 6,430 acres north of Pokorokoro as well as  numerous other blocks of land.
	
After the war the two brothers seem to have gone their separate ways.  Hori appears to have moved back to the Hikutaia area. In 1870, when the NZ Government proposed to erect a telegraph line between the Thames side of the Coromandel Peninsular and the Whangamata side, Hori was one of those who took part in the discussions with the local Ngãti Pu.²  However, in 1872 he found himself in court charged with stealing the pigs he had gifted to the Hau Hau natives who had just completed their work on the line.³

	
1.  The N.Z. Gazette, June 1 1864
2.   Hauraki Contested 1769 – 1875, Paul Monin 2006.
3.   The Evening Post, 21 March 1872.
Records of the Maori Land Court show that Hori Pokai of Ngãti Pãoa married Mere te Takupu and there were three children, Te Amokura, Te Puhipuhi Pokai of Hikutaia and Moetinohu Pokai of Pareganga.¹  However, G.T. Wilkinson, 1894 - 1966, a Land Purchase Officer for the Crown who later became a Judge of the Maori Land Court, published a whakapapa showing that Hori Pokai married Eruiti Pokai and had three children, Rihi Pokai, Rangatia Pokai and Pupuhi Pokai.² Perhaps he married twice.

Hori died in 1891 and his succession order states that he left two grand children the offspring of his daughter Te Rihitoto Pokai viz. Rangiata Pokai F14 and Te Pupuhi Pokai F12.³  

Note:  There has been some confusion as to whether Hori was the subject of the many paintings of Hori Pokai by C.F. Goldie.  We now know that this is not possible. The finding of Hori Rakina Pokai’s succession order has shown that died before Goldie began to paint portraits of Maori (the actual subject was named Hori Pokai of Ngati Maru who lived in Thames).

1.   Hauraki Minute Book 57, page 129 dated 27 Sept. 1907
2.   MS 613, Auckland Museum Library.
3.   Hauraki Minute Book 45, page 122.