Bay of Plenty
Te Moana-a-Toi
Landing place of several founding waka, and later a frontier of the New Zealand Wars from Gate Pā through to the Tauranga confiscations. Volcanic country that has shaped both its soils and its disasters.
Loading the map…
8 events in Bay of Plenty between 1858 and 1988
Pōtatau Te Wherowhero becomes the first Māori King
Te Kīngitanga
Iwi across the central North Island raised a king to hold land, halt sales and deal with the Crown as an equal. The Kīngitanga continues today.
NgāruawāhiaInvasion of the Waikato
Te riri ki Waikato
British and colonial troops crossed the Mangatāwhiri to break the Kīngitanga — the key conflict of the New Zealand Wars, with 12,000 imperial and 4,000 colonial troops eventually available.
MangatāwhiriGate Pā — Pukehinahina
The heaviest bombardment of the New Zealand Wars failed to break the pā, and the assault that followed was routed by defenders firing from concealed trenches.
Pukehinahina, TaurangaTe Kooti escapes from Rēkohu
Deported without trial, Te Kooti seized a schooner and brought nearly 300 prisoners home from Rēkohu. Colonial and Māori forces pursued him for almost four years and never caught him.
Gisborne and Te UreweraMount Tarawera erupts
The mountain split along 17 kilometres, buried the villages of Te Wairoa, Te Ariki and Moura, and destroyed the Pink and White Terraces.
Mount TaraweraThe Waihi strike
Six months of confrontation at the goldmine ended when police and strikebreakers stormed the miners’ hall and Frederick Evans was fatally injured.
WaihiThe raid on Maungapōhatu
An armed police expedition marched into the Tūhoe prophet Rua Kēnana’s community at Maungapōhatu in Te Urewera to arrest him. Two men were shot dead, including Rua’s son.
MaungapōhatuCyclone Bola
Over 900 millimetres of rain fell on the East Coast in three days, stripping hillsides and cutting the region off. At least three people died.
GisborneMeanwhile, nationally
12 events that reached Bay of Plenty along with most of the country. They still shade the map and sit on the timeline above, but they are not Bay of Plenty’s own history.
The Musket Wars
Musket-armed war parties reshaped the map of Māori New Zealand. Perhaps 20,000 died and whole districts changed hands before the fighting burned out around 1840.
New Zealand Settlements Act — raupatu
Te raupatu whenua
The Crown confiscated land from iwi it deemed to be in rebellion (Te Ara estimates 1–1.3 million hectares), including land of neutral tribes and of some that had fought on its side.
The Native Land Court is established
The court converted customary communal title into individual titles that could be sold, and became the main means by which most remaining Māori land passed out of Māori ownership.
Tohunga Suppression Act
An Act making it an offence to practise as a tohunga, aimed at healers who claimed supernatural powers and at prophets such as Rua Kēnana.
The influenza pandemic
About 9,000 people died in two months — roughly half as many as died in four years of war. Māori died at more than eight times the Pākehā rate.
The 28th (Māori) Battalion
Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū
A volunteer battalion organised by tribal area fought in Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy. Its casualty rate was almost 50% above the average for New Zealand infantry battalions.
Māori War Effort Organisation
Over 300 tribal committees took on Māori recruiting, war work and local food production; Māori felt that for the first time they bore real responsibility for their own affairs.
The great Māori urban migration
Māori went from 26 percent urban in 1945 to nearly 80 percent by 1986 — a migration Te Ara says has been described as the most rapid movement of any population.
The 1953–54 royal tour
Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit New Zealand. Perhaps three in four New Zealanders saw her in person.
Waitangi Tribunal jurisdiction backdated to 1840
The Tribunal could now investigate Crown breaches all the way back to 1840, and the number of claims rose hugely.
Te reo Māori becomes an official language
Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori
Te reo Māori gained official status and the right to be spoken in court, fifteen years after the language petition and following a Waitangi Tribunal finding that it was a taonga.
The Sealord fisheries settlement
The Crown funded a Māori half-share in Sealord and allocated quota, settling commercial fisheries claims nationally in one deal.