(Zethalia zelandica).

A small, flattened, solidly-built shell with a radiate pattern of dark reddish-brown. This fish lives at and below low tide on ocean beaches and often occurs in swarming masses. It is particularly abundant on the beaches south of Whangarei Heads.

by Arthur William Baden Powell, Assistant Director, Auckland Institute and Museum.

Whau (Entelia arborescens) is a small tree with darkbrown bark. This is the only species in a genus of Tiliaceae or Linden family, and it is confined to New Zealand. The leaves are large, very broad with a sharp point, roughly serrated at the edges and covered with stellate hairs. Small creamy-white flowers, with numerous stamens, are borne in cymose clusters. The fruit is a globose capsule, brownish-grey in colour, and densely covered with long bristles. It contains large white seeds.

This tree is found mainly in coastal regions but shows great diversity of form and habit. It has been grown as an ornamental tree in large gardens. The wood is very light in weight and was used by the Maoris as floats for their fishing nets.

by Olive Rita Croker, M.A., Botanist, Wellington.

(c. 1130 – c. 1190).

Maori navigator.

Whatonga was born in Hawaiki about 1130 and was the second son of Ruarangi and Rongaueroa. He was thus a grandson of Toi Kai Rakau. While Whatonga was competing in the regatta at Pikopikoiwhiti a sudden storm blew the canoe out to sea; Toi later undertook his famous voyage in search of his missing grandson. In the meantime Whatonga had reached Rangiatea, where he settled for a time. After his return to Hawaiki he fitted out a large canoe, Kurahaupo (“halo around the moon”) and sailed to find his grandfather. At Rarotonga he learned that Toi had gone on to New Zealand. He followed, making landfall at North Cape, and sailed down the west coast to Tongaporutu, in north Taranaki, where he was told that Toi was living on the East Coast. Whatonga sailed north again and found Toi, who had settled at Kaputerangi, near Whakatane.

Because the Bay of Plenty district was becoming overpopulated, Whatonga sailed down the coast and settled for a while at Nukutaurua, on Mahia Peninsula. From there he sent his sons, Tara and Tautoki, to find a more suitable place for permanent settlement. They chose Wellington harbour, where Whatonga joined them. Their first settlement was at Matiu (Somes Island) but the tribe (Ngai Tara) later spread to Miramar Island and Kapiti. According to tribal tradition Whatonga and Tara were buried in a cave, Wharehohu, on Kapiti.

NOTE—There is confusion in some Maori geneologies arising from the fact that two canoes named Kurahaupo sailed from Hawaiki for New Zealand. The first of these, that commanded by Whatonga, reached New Zealand shortly after A.D. 1150. The second, commanded by Taumauri, is associated with the so-called Great Fleet c. 1350.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• The Coming Of the Maori, Buck, P. (1950)
• The Great Harbour of Tara, Adkin, G. L. (1950).

(?–1842).

Ngati Awa chief.

A new biography of Te Wharepouri, Te Kakapi-o-te-rangi appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Te Wharepouri was born in Taranaki, the son of Te Whiti and Hine-te-Uru. He was a grandson of Te Whitikatura by his principal wife, Rongouaroa, and was thus a senior chief of the Ngati Tawhirikura branch of Te Ati Awa, being senior to his cousins Makore Ngatata-i-te-rangi and Te Puni. He was also closely related to Te Whiti, the prophet of Parihaka.

Te Wharepouri fought at Motunui in 1822 and in the defence of Pukerangiora. In 1826 he served with Whatanui's taua against the Ngati Kahungunu. He was one of the Te Ati Awa party when Te Karawa was killed at Putiki pa by the Ngati Ruanui and joined the party of Waikatos under Te Waharoa, Tarapipipi, and Naera, whom Ngatata summoned to avenge this insult.

About 1828 he is said to have swum out to Love's schooner to urge Barrett to settle at Ngamotu pa (New Plymouth). Te Wharepouri is believed to have visited Sydney twice with Love and to have purchased muskets. In 1832 he successfully defended Ngamotu against Te Wherowhero's Waikatos. In the same year he emigrated to the Wellington district and settled at Ngauranga. During the following years Te Wharepouri fought several campaigns against the Ngati Kahungunu, whom the Ngati Awa had displaced, and when peace was restored the former tribe agreed to withdraw into the Wairarapa.

After these wars portions of the Ngati Awa moved to Te Awaiti and to Waikanae. In 1838, because Te Wharepouri feared that this dispersion would weaken the tribe's hold on the Wellington district, he visited Te Awaiti where he tried, unsuccessfully, to induce the hapus to return. Accordingly, when the Tory arrived in 1839 Te Wharepouri was ready to sell large tracts of land to Colonel Wakefield because, as he saw it, the presence of European settlers would ensure that the remaining Te Ati Awa lands in the district would be adequately defended.

Te Wharepouri's last years were burdened by serious illness and he died at Ngauranga on 22 November 1842. On his deathbed he is said to have advised his successor, Te Puni, “Muri nei ki aku taonga Maori ki aku taonga Pakeha”. (“Care for my Maori and European people when I am gone”.) Te Wharepouri was buried at Petone and a cenotaph was erected to his memory on the hill by the side of the Waitohi Stream.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• History of Taranaki, Wells, B. (1878)
• The Great Harbour of Tara, Adkin, G. L. (1959)
• New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, 26 Nov 1842.

Whangaroa (“Long Harbour”), between Mangonui and the Bay of Islands on the eastern coast of North Auckland, is a spacious and perfectly land-locked anchorage and represents a drowned river system, eroded in rocks of two different types. This explains the peculiar features of the harbour. The narrow rock-walled entrance, scarcely a third of a mile across, is cut in hard volcanic breccia, while the upper reaches, over 2 miles in width and surrounded by gently undulating country, have been eroded in soft sedimentary shales and sandstones. This difference of rock texture also explains why waterfalls occur near the harbour entrance while inland the streams enter the harbour by a gentle gradient, why Peach Island of volcanic breccia is lofty and rugged, and neighbouring Jones or Milford Island of sedimentary rock has very gentle slopes, and why the “Mushroom Rocks” of Ranfurly Bay and the adjoining columns, pinnacles, reefs, and caverns are features of the eastern, but not the western parts of the harbour. Two prominent breccia-capped hills, St. Peter and St. Paul, face each other across the water near Whangaroa township. Wide stretches of tide marsh, mangrove swamp, and mudflats occur at the mouths of the Kaeo, Pupuke, and Waihapa Streams, which flow into the head of the harbour and bear witness to the rapid shallowing of the upper reaches.

Whangaroa is full of historical associations. Sea captains visited the harbour as early as 1805. Some of these early ships were the General Wellesley, the Commerce, both in 1806, and the Elizabeth in 1809. In the same year the Boyd was burnt and its crew massacred by the Maoris in consequence of the ill treatment of a chief who had been a member of the crew. Ten years elapsed before seamen ventured into Whangaroa, but in 1819 the Dromedary arrived to load kauri spars. In 1823 the Wesleyan Church established a mission on the Kaeo River, but was obliged to withdraw after a few years owing to the hostility of the Maoris. It was during these years that the famous chief Hongi Hika (c. 1777–1828) ravaged the district. Whangaroa was again shunned until 1840, when the first permanent settlers arrived, among them Shepherd, Snowden, Spikeman, and Hayes. In that year also the Roman Catholic Church established a mission, still in existence, at Waitaruke, near the head of Whangaroa Harbour. With the advent of the immigrant ship Lancashire Witch in 1865, progress commenced in the timber and kaurigum industry. Shipbuilding began in 1872 when Lane and Brown erected yards at Totara North. Milling was carried on by Christie and Wiggins and, later, by the Kauri Timber Co. In the early 1900s Sea Sick Bay, just inside the south head, was used as a whaling base, and 20 years later Ranfurly Bay, just inside the north, served the same purpose. Copper was once mined in the mid-water tributaries of the Pupuke River. Dairying is important, though the local factory has now closed. A little milling is done and some crayfishing. Today Whangaroa is chiefly known as a base for deep-sea game fishing.

by Robert Findlay Hay, M.A., B.E.(MINING), Scientific Officer, New Zealand Geological Survey, Otahuhu.

Whangarei, 130 miles by rail north of Auckland, is the capital of Northland. The town proper is situated on the western bank of the lower reaches of the Hatea River, a tidal tributary at the head of Whangarei Harbour.

The approaches to the harbour afford some of the most spectacular scenery to be found in New Zealand. To the north, Bream Head at the harbour entrance forms high bush-clad peaks rising sheer from sea level to almost 1,400 ft. From a distance these peaks present a jagged toothlike outline etched in the sky and in many ways resemble the battle-scarred remnants of some mediaeval castle. Off shore, in Bream Bay, there are little clusters of islands known as the Hen and Chickens. To the south, the dunecovered shore line sweeps away to Waipu Cove and Bream Tail, some 12 to 15 miles distant.

In the sheltered waters of the harbour proper the enclosing hills are more subdued, and upon their surfaces are patterned the pleasant and prosperous farms for which the Whangarei district is noted. Major industries within the harbour confines include the well known cement works at Portland and an oil refinery which has been sited at Marsden Point. The cement works originally started on Limestone Island in 1885 and were subsequently removed to Portland, where they have been in continuous operation since 1916. The New Zealand Refining Co.'s project at Marsden Point was completed in 1964 and ultimately will supply approximately 90 per cent of New Zealand's market requirements. Near Kamo, 4 miles north of Whangarei, coal was mined almost continuously from 1876 until 1955 when flooding caused the last operating mine to be abandoned. Up to 1955 some 2 million tons of subbituminous coal have been extracted, and it is estimated that possibly a few million tons still remain in reserve. Other local industries include boat-building, a brickworks, dairy factories, abattoirs, agricultural-lime works, numerous light-engineering shops, and a recently established glass works.

by Barry Clayton Waterhouse, New Zealand Geological Survey, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Otahuhu, Auckland.

Whangarei is situated on the inner reaches of Whangarei Harbour on the banks of the Hatea (or Whangarei) River and is bordered by hills on the east and west. The suburbs are Jamestown, Whau Valley, Mairtown, Kensington, Riverside, Woodhill, Horahora, Okara, and Morningside. The railway line from Auckland to Kaikohe passes through Whangarei. By road it is 108 miles north of Auckland (130 miles by rail), 39 miles north-east of Dargaville, and 54 miles south-east of Kaikohe. Port Whangarei, 2 ½ miles distant, is the ninth busiest port in New Zealand and handled 378,594 tons of shipping cargo in 1962. A new wharf has been completed and land is being reclaimed. Imports include bulk petrol, coal, and manures. Cement, butter, and fertilisers are exported to other ports in New Zealand. The airport is at Onerahi, 6 miles south.

Rural activities in the district include citrus fruitgrowing, dairying, and sheep and cattle farming. The district was long famous for kauri timber and kauri gum, but this has been worked out. There are three sawmills in the city and the State has a plantation at Glenbervie, 5 miles north. Coal deposits are at Hikurangi (11 miles north) and Kamo (4 miles north). Off the entrance to Whangarei Harbour are deep-sea fishing grounds. Whangarei is the regional centre for the Northland Peninsula and is a distributing and transport centre for smaller towns in the region. Its secondary industries include sawmilling, a dairy factory, an aerated-water factory, brewing, clothing and textile industries, brick works, fertiliser works, and a new glass factory. At Portland (6 miles south) cement is produced, while at Marsden Point (18 miles south-east) a large oil refinery has been established.

Whangarei's first European resident was William Carruth, who left Scotland for New South Wales in 1835 and sailed from Sydney for the Bay of Islands in March 1839. There he hired a 6-ton trading boat, together with its Pakeha-Maori owner and a small crew, sailed down the coast on a voyage of discovery, put in at Whangaruru and Tutukaka, rounded the Whangarei Heads, and landed at the mouth of the Hatea River. The Whangarei Maoris (living in a pa on the rise where the Presbyterian Church now stands) were gratified at the prospect of acquiring a Pakeha of their own and sold Carruth a block of land. For some months he was Whangarei's solitary white man, but in 1840 he was joined by two of his brothers, who were accompanied by a married couple they had brought from Scotland, together with a recruit from Wellington. Henry Walton was probably the next European to settle in the neighbourhood. He married a chieftainess, a relative of the great chief Tirarau, whose dowry comprised a considerable area of land. For about a quarter of a century Walton controlled a flourishing farm and was a large employer of labour. One of his enterprises was the making of a road from Maungatapere to Whangarei in order to obtain water carriage for his produce. The second family to settle within the area was the household of Gilbert Mair. He moved to Whangarei in 1842 after living nearly 20 years at the Bay of Islands. His block of land, situated to the east of the Carruth property, is known as Mairtown.

Two or three uneasy years followed Mair's arrival, for there were rumblings of discontent among the northern Maoris. Following the attack on Kororareka in 1845, it was reported that a taua was about to come down from the Bay to plunder and maybe kill. The settlers fled to Auckland. Eventually the Government invited them to present claims for their losses, but they did not receive any compensation. During the next few years they began to drift back, but for 10 years or so Whangarei and its surroundings made slow progress. A few new settlers arrived and farms were improved. Maoris and settlers from outlying places came into Whangarei with packhorses or bullock drays loaded with potatoes, kumeras, pigs, flax, timber, and kauri gum, to be loaded into cutters for the growing Auckland trade. One of the first sawmills in New Zealand, worked by water power, was erected at Ngunguru in 1840. In the early 1850s kauri gum, obtained from the many gumfields in the neighbourhood, came to be an important factor in the prosperity of the settlement. The Nova Scotian settlement of the earlier fifties added considerably to the population of the district, for though its main centre was Waipu there were outlying settlements as near to Whangarei as the Heads in one direction and Kaurihohore in another. In the sixties Robert Howie established a shipbuilding yard on the shores of Whangarei Harbour and turned out several fast-sailing coasters. Sir George Grey turned the first sod of the Whangarei to Kamo railway in 1879.

For many years the town's progress was retarded by the primitive means of road transport and inadequate steamer facilities. The Northland Main Trunk railway from Auckland to the Bay of Islands was completed in 1923. Whangarei became a borough in November 1896. “Whangarei” has several meanings. “Whanga” means “laying in wait” and “rei” means “charge”. It appears that the name was derived from the northern tribes laying in wait for the invading southern tribes. Another common interpretation is “waiting in anticipation”, or “steady – charge”, a command given in battle.

Whangarei reached city status in 1964.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 15,431; 1956 census, 18,369; 1961 census, 21,790. S.B.

Situated some 30 miles north of Auckland by road is one of the most popular holiday resorts in the Auckland Province. This marine playground (Whangaparaoa translated from the Maori means: whanga, bay; paraoa, whale) is populated largely by retired Aucklanders and “weekenders” who may swell the numbers to many thousands in the holiday season.

Situated on the east coast, the promontory is dog leg in shape, extends seawards for some 10 miles, and varies in width from half to 1 ½ miles. It is composed predominantly of interbedded marine sandstones, siltstones, and volcanic grits of Miocene age (12–25 million years ago) that in places form sheer cliffs up to 100 ft high. Rocky reefs and wave-cut platforms fringe the peninsula and extend seawards to sheer edges that fall away to deep water (minimum 7 fathoms). The numerous sandy beaches are invariably backed by dune sands and beach ridges for a short distance inland. Swampy depressions were once formed inland of these sands, but these areas, particularly at the more popular resorts, have been drained and made into ideal “bach” sites that are close to the beaches and sheltered by the surrounding hills. Among the more popular beaches are Big Manly, Stanmore Bay, and Red Beach on the north side, and Little Manly and Arkles Bay on the south side of the peninsula. All areas are easily accessible by sealed or metalled roads, except in the extreme easternmost area, which is a military reserve and prohibited to the public.

The native bush, mainly broadleaf and pohutukawa was once ubiquitous, but is now preserved only as small copses in valley bottoms or on the flanks of steeper slopes. In the west, on the southern side of the peninsula, pinus radiata has been planted, mainly as a means to combat erosion but also with a view to future milling.

by Barry Clayton Waterhouse, New Zealand Geological Survey, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Otahuhu, Auckland.

During 1963 the International Whaling Commission prohibited humpback catching throughout the Southern Hemisphere for an indefinite period. At the close of the 1962 season, whaling at the Whangaparapara Harbour station, Great Barrier Island, came to an end. In January 1965 it was announced that the Tory Channel whaling station would also close down, because catches had been steadily declining. For a number of seasons the company had been running at a loss, in spite of a Government guarantee of £45 per ton for whale oil. This decision probably marks the end of the long and sometimes desultory era of shore-based whaling in New Zealand.

by William Henry Dawbin, M.SC., Senior Lecturer, Department of Zoology, University of Sydney.

Bibliography

All New Zealand general histories, most provincial or district histories, and many biographies include some mention of whaling and whalers. There is, however, no single work dealing with all the phases of whaling in New Zealand, and it is necessary to use contemporary newspaper reports and unpublished sources, such as port shipping lists, Customs returns, consular and Government records, and the logs and diaries of whalers, to fill in many details. The following list names some of the books which provide further information on various phases of New Zealand whaling:

• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• Murihiku, McNab, R. (1909)
• Old Whaling Days, McNab, R. (1913)
• The Piraki Log, or the Diary of Captain Hempleman, Anson, A. A. (ed.) (1911)
• The Cruise of the Cachelot, Bullen, Frank T. (1898)
• Whaleman Adventures, Dakin, W. J. (1938)
• The Whaling Journal of Captain W. B. Rhodes, 1836–38, Straubel, C. R. (ed.) (1934)
• Adventure in New Zealand, Wakefield, E. J. (1908).

The foundations of the earliest modern-type factory for processing humpback whales were laid at Whangamumu, near the Bay of Islands, by H. F. Cook in 1890. At first the Cook family caught whales by a method which has no exact parallel elsewhere. Cook's group used massive steel nets spread across a narrow channel not far from their station, and with open longboats they drove the whales towards the nets which the animals struck and carried away, wrapped partly around the body. While the humpbacks were thus impeded, longboats could approach more closely for hand harpooning. By these methods catches of 10 or a dozen humpbacks per year were made. In 1910 Cook purchased a Norwegian-type steam chaser with a heavy explosive harpoon gun, and it is from this date that the modern industry in New Zealand can be dated. With the new catcher his annual take rose to an average of 70 per year until the station ceased operations in 1931, after Cook's death.

At about the time that the Whangamumu station became mechanised, there was a world-wide extension of the Norwegian whaling industry following on their greatly increased operations after Svend Foyn had developed the combination of steam chaser and heavy explosive harpoon in 1867. The first southern operations began at South Georgia in 1905, but ships converted as factories for processing whales worked along the coast lines of many of the Southern Hemisphere areas. Their first trial activities along the New Zealand coasts were in 1912 when the factory ship St. George, with a fleet of six chasers, started work off the northern part of New Zealand and continued south to Stewart Island. Their total catch, however, was little more than 200 whales (mainly humpbacks), which would have been insufficient to pay expenses for the venture if it had not been for the fortunate chance discovery of a large piece of the then highly valuable ambergris in the stomach of a sperm whale caught near the Solander Islands. Although there were many inquiries by other Norwegian companies, no further development of a modern-type pelagic industry along the New Zealand coast occurred.

In Tory Channel, at the site of one of New Zealand's earliest shore stations, there were several parties who had been engaged on a small scale using rowing boats into the twentieth century, and some of these in 1907 extended their activities to Campbell Island where they engaged in shepherding and shearing the semi-wild sheep, varied by catching right whales during the winter months. Their catches were of the order of 10 to 12 per year, but the significance of this venture for New Zealand was the development of an explosive-type spear. The whalershepherds used hollow pipes containing plugs of gelignite fired by detonator after they had plunged the sharpened pipe into a whale.

This technique was improved by J. A. Perano, who commenced whaling, with launches approximately 30 ft in length, in Tory Channel in 1911. The launches gave considerably greater speed and a light explosive harpoon was used to fasten quickly to the whale, to facilitate the action of the gelignite pipe. These advances raised the catches in Cook Strait where the return averaged approximately 50 humpbacks per year over the next two decades. Improvements to the factory brought about more complete oil extraction and fuller utilisation of the whale carcass, while in recent years a large deep-freeze plant has allowed much fuller use of whale meat. With improved lookout and catching boats the catch has exceeded 200 in some post-war years. The catches, however, dropped sharply in 1961 and still further in 1962.

Not far from the site of the Cook Station at Whangamumu, Great Barrier Island, whaling with a modern factory and chasers commenced in 1957, but persisted for only two years due to disappointing returns. Another company resumed operations at the same factory in 1960, but after one successful season it had very poor catches in 1961 and 1962. The recent drop at both shore stations in New Zealand, together with a decline in catches from East Australia, Norfolk Island, and the Antarctic, shows that the combined efforts of these operations have now overtaxed the humpback stock.