Title / Name
Battle of Taumatawiwi.

Brief Description

1. Typed pages of a talk given by Maurice FitzGerald in 1953, to the Tauranga Historical Society.
   He mentioned that he asked C W Vennell to check his draft and was given some minor corrections.
   "They were the result of research done after [the book] 'Such Things Were' was published and he goes on to say that much of it comes from 'ploughing through 600 odd pages of evidence given in the Aroha case'. Vennell now fixes the date of the battle of Taumatawiwi as December 1830. He corrects the previous assertion (which he took from Cowan) that, after Te Tiki, Tamihana retired to Peria (his pa near Matamata). 'He returned there eventually', Vennell says, 'but for some months he was trekking about from place to place, short of food and in a bad way generally.' Vennell also records that 'Tamihana spent a lot of time at Tauranga at different times, first as a convert of Brown's and teacher and intermediary in the fighting between his father's tribe (Ngatihaua) and Rotorua (in which Tauranga were, I think unwilling allies)' - - 'Tamihana spent his years at Tauranga in the middle [eighteen] fifties returning to Peria to set up the Maori King in 1857', says Vennell.
   A further note about the elder Waharoa is to the effect that 'he used to spend a certain amount of time at Tauranga and had lands, or claimed them, at Te Puna and Omakaroa. Actually he took ill at the latter place', continued Vennell, 'and was carried (over the Wairere track) back to Matamata where he died.' Coming from such a reliable source (as it undoubtedly does) the foregoing information (which has probably not been previously published) should be placed on record."
2. Sketch map of the Battle area.

   Archive Number
   A468

   Primary Maker
   Maurice FitzGerald

   Date
   1953

   Period Covered
   1830s – 50s

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