How tensions explodedand peacerestored

OTAGO historianIan Church explainedthe background to the situation, puttingthe letterintocontext.

Becauseofthe increasing threattothe settlement, the schooner Joseph Weller,withthe eldestbrother aboard,sailedto Sydneyfor help. It wasjoined bythe Lucy Ann,captained byWilliamAnglem, which carried acoupleofinvoluntary passengers,minor chiefs, whom hehad enticedonboard to serve ashostagesfor good behaviour while theshipwas away.

The ruse worked,although whentheydiscoveredthe loss oftheir chiefs, theMāori had threatenedmurder.

The Joseph Weller wasreturned toŌtākou armedwithcannon and atruce was declared,though Taiaroa’s peaceful aboutface probably hadmoretodowith the news that twowarships, the HMS Alligator andthe Isabella, werebombardingthe Taranaki coast,seeking revengefor the plunder of the Harriet,awhaling shipwrecked off Cape Egmont and themassacreofits crew

Like Cornish ship wreckers ofold,the Māorihad had thesameconceptofmuru (plunder), said Mr Church

‘‘Up untilthe Alligator went over andbombarded Taranaki, theMāori plundered anyship that landed up onthe coastand to hellwiththe crew.Theship owners of NewSouth Wales in Sydney gotsickofitand petitioned theGovernorofNew SouthWales to do something about it

‘‘Although therewereafew eyebrows raised in England about oneofHM'sships beingusedtobombardpoor defencelessMāori;it's afactthat no othershipafterthattime waseverplundered on theNew Zealandcoast,withthe exception of aFrenchwhaler,ransacked in theChathams.’’

The Harriet incidentisdescribed in HeartlandofAotea,ahistory of Māoriand European in South Taranaki,beforethe Taranaki wars,written by Mr Church

After making it to shore safely after thevesselfoundered,the ship’s companywhichincluded theco-owner John Guard, hiswifeBetty andtwo young children, wasattackedby200 Māori. During thefighting severalpeopleonbothsides were killed John Guardmanaged to bribe hisway outwithabarrelofgun powder,eventuallysailedto Cloudy Bay, wherehemet up with Joseph Weller andaccompanied him to Sydney to petition the Governor for armedassistance Meanwhile, Mrs Guardand herchildren were captured and imprisoned in variousSouth Taranaki pa.Mrs Guardhad been woundedand some of theMāori had lickedthe blood from her wounds andwhenitceasedto flow, attemptedtocut herthroat with apiece of iron.She then had to watchwhile herbrotherand otherdeadsailors were cutup andeaten.

Aransom wasdemanded for Mrs Guardand herdaughter, buttheyfled when troops were landed at Te Namu.Her baby son waslater rescuedbyanold Māori chief,who wasthenshotinthe ensuingfracas

By thelate1830s racial tensions had easedand Ōtākou wasa thriving community of well over 100, includingwomen and children anda school

Many of themen also intermarried with thelocal Kāi Tahu.Edwardtooktwo Māori wives, Paparu andNikuru, the latter thedaughterofChief Taiaroa, andhad adaughterby each

An essaybyDunedin historian PeterEntwisle, in Advance Guard,records theWellers’ store as having been atradingpost, notonlyfor Otago,but forthe wholeofthe SouthIsland.

The whalepopulation appeared to have dropped sharply at thebeginningofthe 1840s, as whalingdeclined, but aman namedLanglands describing thearealater,wrote of:‘‘Quite alarge settlementofwhites comprisingarunholder (who occupied Kelvin Grovedairy