Te Kopara 68
[3] Te Kopara, Number 68, Gisborne, 31 August, 1919.
‘Iti te Kopara, kai takirikiri ana i runga i te Kahikatea.’
Although the Bellbird is small, he plucks at the Kahikatea. [cf Nga Pepeha 908]
TE WHETU-MATA-RAU PA.
By T Wi-Repa, MB, ChB.
Part II
The year of the capture of Te Whetu-mata-rau by the party of Pomare is not known to me. However I do know that it was about the time that the faith arrived here in Aotearoa – soon before or soon after the coming of Marsden. He was the man who first brought the faith to our land. On Christmas Day 1814 he preached his first sermon to Ngapuhi at Oihi although there was no swift end to killing or to cannibalism on the part of the Maori. Therefore I think that it was after 1814 that that war party of Pomare came to Te Whetu-mata-rau. Events later in the story may settle whether it was before or after that year. But that raiding party was certainly in the days of the Pakeha gun.
