Taranaki
Where the wars of the 1860s began at Waitara, and where Parihaka's campaign of non-violent resistance was broken by invasion in 1881. The mountain has been at the centre of both.
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6 events in Taranaki between 1834 and 1881
The Harriet affair
A trading ship wrecked near Cape Egmont and its survivors were attacked. The rescue that followed brought British soldiers into combat in New Zealand for the first time.
Te Namu, ŌpunakeThe Waitara purchase is disputed
Governor Gore Browne accepted a junior chief’s offer to sell land at Waitara against the opposition of the senior rangatira living on it, Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke.
WaitaraFirst Taranaki War
British artillery opened on Te Kohia pā, beginning a year of fighting over the Waitara purchase that ended in an inconclusive truce.
Te Kohia pā, WaitaraPai Mārire spreads
Te Ua Haumēne’s faith, an independent Māori Christianity born in war-torn Taranaki, spread across the North Island and was met with force by the Crown.
TaranakiTītokowaru’s campaign
Riwha Tītokowaru won a run of victories with a much smaller force and drove the colonial army back towards Whanganui, then in February 1869 his army fell apart at Taurangaika before the colonial assault.
South TaranakiThe invasion of Parihaka
Te pāhuatanga o Parihaka
Some 1,600 troops marched on a village that met them with singing children and offered bread. Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested, much of the village destroyed, and no one resisted.
ParihakaMeanwhile, nationally
11 events that reached Taranaki along with most of the country. They still shade the map and sit on the timeline above, but they are not Taranaki’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 Constitution Act
Representative government arrived, divided into six provinces — and the property franchise excluded almost all Māori, who held land communally.
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.
The provinces are abolished
The nine provincial governments were abolished, leaving central government as the single legislative authority, with new counties in rural areas while towns carried on unchanged.
First refrigerated cargo sails for London
The Dunedin left Port Chalmers with 4,000–5,000 frozen carcasses (sources differ) and reached London 98 days later with the cargo sound. Te Ara notes the voyage is seen as a watershed in New Zealand’s economic development.
Port ChalmersTohunga 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.
New Zealand enters the First World War
About 100,000 served overseas from a population of just over a million. Around 18,000 died and there were some 41,000 instances of wounding or illness; no other British dominion lost a higher share of its military-age men.
New Zealand declares war on Germany
‘Where she goes, we go’ — 140,000 served overseas and nearly 12,000 died, from a population of 1.6 million.
Britain joins the EEC
Britain had been New Zealand’s great market for lamb, butter and cheese since the first frozen-meat shipment in 1882. Now that market began to close.
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.