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Battle of Puketakeure

The Puketakauere battle of 1860 began much earlier on. In 1854 a rift arose between the land selling and land holding groups of the Te Ati Awa tribe when a member of the tribe, Rawiri and some of his followers offered to sell tribal land near Waitara. Rawiri was subsequently shot dead by the landholding group (supported by Wiremu Kingi – also known as Te Rangitake).

Then in March 1859 Governor Browne implemented a change in policy. On his visit to New Plymouth, Governor Browne announced to a Maori meeting that he wouldn’t permit violence within the limits of European settlement nor would he permit any interference in land sales by anyone who couldn’t lay claim to the land. This denied the tribe’s Chief, who acted as trustee for tribal land to veto land sales by an individual.

This left an opportunity open for Te Teira (a minor chief of Wiremu Kingi’s hapu of Ati Awa). He offered to sell the Governor a section of the Waitara block. Governor Browne consulted his advi...

Posted by: Melissa T. Littlefield

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