In all, 22 white men and, it is believed, four Maoris lost their lives and others were badly wounded in the Wairau “massacre” of 17 June 1843. The Pakeha victims included Captain Arthur Wakefield Police Magistrate Thompson, and other members of a party of some 50 men who had proceeded from Nelson as far as the Tuamarina Stream to deliver a warrant against the formidable chiefs, Rangihaeata and Te Rauparaha, on a charge of arson, arising from their opposition to New Zealand Company attempts to survey disputed land in the Wairau Valley.

Wakefield's party found about 90 Maoris at the Tuamarina, including perhaps 40 women and children. About half the Maori men were armed with muskets. The chiefs refused to submit and accompany the Police Magistrate on board the Government brig Victoria – they were prepared to accept adjudication of the land dispute but would not be treated like criminals. While Thompson and a few others were conferring with the Maoris, a gun was accidentally fired by one of the untrained labourers who had been added as reinforcements to the magisterial party. An outbreak of firing followed and some were killed on both sides. The settlers began a disorderly retreat, and to prevent further bloodshed Wakefield ordered his men to lay down their arms. Certain of them, however, continued the action as they retreated up the hill from the stream. A parley following the surrender was interrupted by Rangihaeata who demanded vengeance for the death of Te Ronga, his wife, apparently killed by a stray shot. It was the death sentence for Wakefield and those who had joined him in surrender and they were summarily tomahawked. News of the “massacre”, as it was called, gave a shock to the colonists, especially those settled at Nelson and Wellington. Despite the clamour for revenge, the Government refused to take action, though it might well have claimed the Wairau as compensation for the dead, in accordance with the Maori custom of utu. When the new Governor, Captain Robert FitzRoy, visited the Cook Strait settlements in early 1844, he went to Rauparaha's pa at Waikanae, near Kapiti, and gave judgment. To the intense indignation of the colonists, who never forgave him for his “cowardice”, FitzRoy upheld the Maori case and upbraided the Europeans for their imprudent behaviour.

by Judith Sidney Hornabrook, M.A., National Archives, Wellington.

• Marlborough – A Provincial History, McIntosh, A. D. (1940)
• Crown Colony Government in New Zealand, McLintock, A. H. (1958)
• Old Marlborough, Buick, T. L. (1900)
• Nelson Examiner (Supplement), 23 Dec 1843.

During the past decade (1951–61) the region in every respect has displayed a rate of growth below national levels, though in some cases the growth has been substantial enough. The total population of the Wairarapa increased by 17·54 per cent, the increase being registered largely in the urban areas. The increase in sheep shorn, 13·20 per cent, was markedly below the New Zealand level, and that for lambs shorn, 54·53, somewhat below. The total labour force grew at only half the national rate (7·5 per cent), and although the increase in the manufacturing labour force was higher (18·18 per cent) it fell behind the national figure of 24·14 per cent.

The Wairarapa with 34·96 per cent of its labour force in primary industries is a predominantly agricultural region. Consequently, its development is dependent largely upon the intensification of farming. Without a port, and subsidiary to Wellington and Palmerston North, it has few attractions for the industrialist. Without the stimulus of industry its growth is likely to be slower than that of other North Island regions.

by Samuel Harvey Franklin, B.COM.GEOG., M.A.(BIRMINGHAM), Senior Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.

Old Greytown, 1854–1954, Bagnall, A. G. (1953); Masterton's First Hundred Years, Bagnall, A. G. (1954); A History of Carterton, 1857–1957, Bagnall, A. G. (1957); Forest Homes – Scandinavian Settlements in New Zealand, Petersen, G. C. (1956); Proceedings of the Third New Zealand Geography Conference, Palmerston North, 1962, “The Land and the Squatter – Wairarapa 1843–1953”, Hill, R. D.; Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 1 (1960), “The Village and the Bush – the Evolution of the Village Community, Wellington Province, New Zealand”, Franklin, S. H.; New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Vol. 92 (1956), “Farming in the Wairarapa Plain”, Mason, G.; Ib., Vol. 102 (1961), “Wairarapa Inland Hill Country”, Spite, F. G.

Masterton acts as the regional centre of the Wairarapa, containing many branches of Government Departments, some educational institutions, and a growing share of industry which, however, is more concerned with supplying regional rather than national markets, textiles and food products being the exception. As a centre for commerce it has to compete with Wellington and Palmerston North which serves much of the northern Wairarapa. With the opening of the Rimutaka Tunnel, 1955, the rail journey to Wellington has been shortened and the Rimutaka Road has been considerably widened and improved. During the period 1911–51, urban development was concentrated in Masterton and Martinborough and, to a lesser extent, in Carterton and Pahiatua, whereas Greytown's growth was relatively slow, whilst Eketahuna registered a small decline. During the last decade, however, Featherston, Carterton, and Martinborough have grown appreciably. The county population has generally shown a decline continuing, in some cases, into the last decade.

It is tempting to attribute to climatic causes the pattern of pre-European vegetation, but this is surely superficial, for no allowance is made for the effect of Maori occupance upon vegetation, or for the complexities involved in demonstrating the relationship of climatic change and vegetation. The southern Wairarapa is, however, unquestionably drier than the northern part. This is due in a considerable part to the rain-shadow effect produced by the Tararua Range, which attains its greatest altitude to the east (Hector, 5,016 ft) and north-west (Mitre, 5,154 ft) of Masterton, but which in the northern Wairarapa descends to a low saddle so that the effect is less pronounced. The range forms the western limit of the whole region and is paralleled by a broad “vale” extending from Palliser Bay in the south to the Manawatu River in the North. The vale is claimed by two river systems, that of the southward-flowing Ruamahanga and its tributaries and that of the north-flowing Mangatainoka and Mangaone. The watershed between the two systems is never very high (c. 1,300 ft), but it separates two distinct morphological districts, thus once more emphasising the contrasts between the northern and southern parts of the Wairarapa.

In its western part the southern Wairarapa is morphologically a faulted depression which has been filled in by the alluvial fans and deposits of the Ruamahanga, Waingawa, Waiohine, and Tauherenikau, to form a plain. The fans often appear as flat, even stretches of country with hardly discernible changes in level, but when viewed, for instance, from Bidwills Ridge, the gradual rise of the fans towards the western foothills is quite clear. The western and wetter parts of the plain where, in addition, the holdings are smaller in size, contain most of the dairying units. At Greytown the presence of extremely favourable river silts has aided the establishment of small-fruit growing, but over most of the area fat-lamb farming predominates. In the east a wide belt of hill country is taken up with store sheep and cattle, though the upper slopes of the Aorangi Mountains (3,226 ft) remain in bush. Some parts have experienced marked soil erosion with a consequent aggrading of the rivers. The hill country as a whole is isolated, unfrequented, and lightly populated. The difficulties presented to the farmers by isolation, steep terrain, erosion, and reversion of pasture are reflected in the relatively small increase in the number of sheep shorn between 1951–52 and 1959–60 in Featherston County, 7·78 per cent, compared with Masterton and Wairarapa South Counties, 42·44 per cent and 1717 per cent respectively.

In the northern part of the Wairarapa the “vale” does not present the aspect of a level even plain. It consists of a series of flat-bottomed river valleys separated by broad interfluves, a pattern which is striking to anyone who travels eastwards from Pahiatua. Dairying is the predominant activity, with factories located at such places as Nireaha, Ballance, and Mangatainoka. Immediately east of Pahiatua or Eketahuna one again enters the hill country which attains its maximum elevation in the Puketoi Range (2,000 ft), whose summit remains partly covered in bush. It is impossible in a few words to present intelligibly the topography of the hill country. While the terrain is never so broken as to be a real hindrance to movement, it was sufficiently steep when covered with bush and so distant from the major traffic lines as to render settlement difficult, even in the latter part of the last century. Consequently, small settlements like Pongaroa and Makuri were not founded until the late 1890s. Store-sheep farming now prevails. Over much of the area there is a need for closer fencing, more discing, and greater control of second growth. Relatively poor roads, though admittedly undergoing some improvement during the last decade, raise the cost of fertilisers and materials considerably. Isolation is a feature of the district, and its consequences are difficult to ignore and costly to overcome. The population of Akitio County, which is probably the one most representative of this eastern hill country, totalled 1,421 in 1911, and 1,189 in 1961. In the period 1951–52 to 1959–60 the number of sheep shorn increased by 12·24 per cent, compared to the 13·20 per cent more for the whole region, and the percentage increase of lambs shorn was only 12·17, compared with the regional average of 54·53 per cent.

The southern Wairarapa was one of the earliest settled parts of the North Island, owing to the fact that much of it was without bush, or covered in light bush and scrub, at the time of European settlement during the 1840s. Some of the first travellers in the district described it, perhaps misleadingly, as a grassy open plain; but whatever the precise vegetational character of the region, it was sufficiently open to permit swift and easy penetration by the graziers. Consequently, large areas of the plain and of the eastern coastal districts were subdivided into relatively large stations, many of which have remained, in name at least, until the present day. On the western edge of the plain, at the foot of and parallel with the Rimutaka Range, lay an extent of bush country which was exploited by the settlement associations that were responsible for the establishment of the boroughs of Featherston, Greytown, Carterton, and Masterton. Despite the barrier to communications presented by the Rimutaka Range, a road link with Wellington was established by 1859, and Masterton was joined to the port by rail before 1885. Many of the sheep stations maintained communications by coastal shipping, Whareama, Castlepoint, and Akitio being three of the principal loading points. A road between Castlepoint and Masterton was formed by 1880–81. Thus, despite the isolation of the eastern hill country, the swampy nature of the lower Wairarapa, and the difficulties of communication with Wellington, the rural population had reached by the census of 1886 a total figure of 7,930.

A completely contrasting situation existed to the north of Masterton, in the northern Wairarapa or Forty Mile Bush, where the dense bush cover had so restrained settlement that the total rural population at the 1886 census numbered approximately 1,650. The commencement of the clearing of the bush is usually dated by the settlement at Mauriceville in 1873, but the settlement of the Forty Mile Bush was not completed until the turn of the century when the railway line from Wellington to the southern Wairarapa was linked with the Hawke's Bay line at the Manawatu Gorge. The bush was settled largely by men with limited capital, members of settlement associations, often Government sponsored. Consequently, the distinction between the northern and southern parts of the Wairarapa arising out of the differing vegetational character was emphasised further by social and economic factors. Even to the present decade the southern Wairarapa has managed to identify itself socially with the early period of the run holders, whereas the northern Wairarapa has never lost the anonymous character of its early settlement. Many of the original run names are preserved, White Rock (1844), Waitaranga (1846), Flat Point (c. 1851), as are the names of the early run holders, Bidwill, Gillies, McMaster, Riddiford, and Tiffen. Apart from the four towns of Masterton, Carterton, Greytown, and Featherston, all named after men prominent in the affairs and politics of the Wellington Province (Martinborough, c. 1879, is a later foundation), there are few other nucleated settlements. In the Forty Mile Bush villages are numerous, but only the name Ballance (Prime Minister, 1891–93) gives any indication of the period of settlement. All the villages were laid out on a rectangular pattern, the land subdivided into units of 40 acres or less, the farms lying adjacent to the small commercial and artisan centre. Very little of the original property or village pattern persists. The properties have been enlarged to 100 or more acres in the western dairying areas, or to 1,000 acres in the eastern store-sheep hill country which was quite unsuited to the preservation of the small scale farming. The Alfredton area provides an excellent example. Some villages have retained a few services, a shop, school, church, and dairy factory – Mauriceville, Nireaha, and Mangatainoka. The majority of villages now give little indication that once they contained 200 or 300 persons. Mauriceville West is perhaps the most moving case; the remainder are no more than place names.

The Wairarapa is located on the eastern side of the southern part of the North Island, bounded on the west by the Tararua Range and on the east by the Pacific Ocean. Some 40 miles wide, the region extends over a distance of 80 miles from Palliser Bay in the south to the Manawatu Gorge in the north. Included within these limits are the counties of Pahiatua, Akitio, Eketahuna, Mauriceville, Castlepoint, Masterton, Wairarapa South, and Featherston, which, with their boroughs and cities, form the basic units for the presentation of statistics. The figures for Castlepoint County, which is now part of Masterton County, are not shown separately in the statistical table, having in every case been included within the Masterton County totals. Masterton (population 15,128, 1961) is the principal town of the region which in 1961 had a total population of 43,141 (1·78 per cent of the national total), 5·38 per cent of which were classified as Maoris.

Lake Wairarapa lies at the southern end of the Wairarapa Plains, which are formed in the fault angle of the West Wairarapa Fault. It has an area of 31 square miles and is fed by the large Ruamahanga (1,300 square miles) drainage and Tauherenikau (catchment, 80 square miles) Rivers. The lake is very shallow, probably not more than 10 ft deep, with gently sloping margins. The shore is ill defined, with many areas of swamp and partly isolated lakelets, particularly round its south-eastern margin. Its entire drainage flows through the Lower Ruamahanga River to Lake Onoke, which is a bar-dammed lagoon on the shore of Palliser Bay.

Lake Wairarapa was formed by alluviation across an extensive arm of the sea following the rise of sea level after the melting of the glaciers of the last Ice Age some 5,000–10,000 years ago.

Lake Wairarapa is known for its excellent duck shooting, providing ideal conditions for ducks in its shallow waters and swampy margins. Some yachting is also done. The lake provides an enormous ponding area for flood waters. The highest flood recorded reached 10 ft above normal lake level in 1880.

The generally accepted meaning of Wairarapa is “glistening waters”, though its origin is obscure. It is said that when Hau, a legendary traveller, saw the beautiful lake and valley, his eyes glistened with delight.

by Thomas Ludovic Grant-Taylor, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

Waipukurau is situated close to the south bank of the Tukituki River on The Takapau (Ruataniwha) Plain. The town occupies alluvial flats and the surrounding country is gently undulating. The main Napier-Woodville highway and the railway pass through the town. By road Waipukurau is 52 miles north-east of Woodville (51 miles by rail), 33 miles south-west of Hastings (31 miles by rail), and 46 miles south-west of Napier (44 miles by rail). Waipawa is 5 miles north-east by road or rail.

The main farming activity of the district is sheep raising. Sawmilling is carried on near Takapau (13 miles south-west). Lime is quarried at Hatuma (4 miles south-west), at Maharakeke (5 miles south-west) and near Porangahau (30 miles south-east). Bentonite is quarried at Porangahau. Waipukurau is the commercial and market centre for the southern part of the Takapau Plain and surrounding hill country. Town industrial activities include the manufacture of joinery and furniture and cement products; sawmilling; and general engineering. There is a large stock saleyards at the town.

Waipukurau in pre-colonisation times lay close to an ancient Maori trail between Manawatu Gorge and Hawke's Bay. A Maori settlement occupied the approximate site of the present town. Bishop G. A. Selwyn and Chief Justice Sir William Martin passed through the district in November 1842 en route to Ahuriri (now Napier). European settlement in the district commenced when the first sheep were brought in from the Wairarapa for Captain J. H. Northwood by F. J. Tiffen and E. Davis. They arrived at Pourerere (about 27 miles south-east) on 30 January 1849. Sir Donald McLean and a large party arrived at Waipukurau Maori village on 11 December 1850 with the object of negotiating Crown purchases of land in Hawke's Bay. The sale of a part of the Waipukurau Block by Te Hapuku and others was made on 4 November 1851. A later purchase brought the area of the block to 279,000 acres. H. R. Russell, who took up a considerable area of land within the Waipukurau Block, decided in the late 1850s to establish a private township on the site of Waipukurau to a plan of his own devising. In 1860 the town of Waipukurau was laid out and provision made for future amenities. Communication with Napier was improved during the late 1850s and, in 1867, a regular coach service began. During April 1874 the Napier-Wellington road via Manawatu Gorge had been completed and, soon afterwards, a regular coach service was being maintained throughout. Railway construction began at Napier in 1872. By September 1886 the line reached Waipukurau. In March 1887 the gap between Woodville and Palmerston North was closed and through communication with Wellington was achieved. In 1897 the line to Wellington via the Wairarapa was opened. Waipukurau was constituted a borough in 1912. The name means literally “waters of the pukurau” (a kind of fungus). Apparently pukurau grew abundantly beside the Tukituki or some nearby lesser stream.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 2,525; 1956 census, 2,886; 1961 census, 3,250.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

Waipoua Kauri Forest is a name known throughout New Zealand and to some extent overseas because it is the only sizable remnant and reserve of kauri that once covered an area, in remote times, of about 3,000,000 acres, mostly in North Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula. It was only after a protracted controversy and petition to Parliament that it was in 1952 proclaimed a reserve – the Waipoua Forest Sanctuary of 22,500 acres – under the New Zealand Forest Act of 1949. Some of the first expeditions made to New Zealand towards the end of the eighteenth century were for the purpose of seeking kauri spars; such was the value of the timber. From then onwards, the felling of kauri continued uninterrupted until only remnants of the great forests remained – hence the public agitation to have the best of these remnants, the Waipoua, reserved.

An area of 35,000 acres at Waipoua was acquired by the Crown in 1874 from two Maori chieftains for the sum of £2,200. In 1885 the area was gazetted a State forest under a Forests Act passed in that year. When a State Forest Service was set up in 1920, plans formulated for the Waipoua Forest were for permanent kauri management. It was also to be used as a centre for investigation and experiment. Unfortunately, the creation of a sanctuary of 22,500 acres of forest left only a small part of the kauri stands available for management. The object of the sanctuary is to preserve the indigenous flora and fuana in their natural state, and to provide opportunities for scientific and like purposes. Waipoua contains extensive stands of kauri and is famous for having one of the largest remaining kauri trees – Tanemahutu.

There is also a small but beautiful reserve of kauri trees at Trounson Park, Aronga, near Dargaville.

by Alec Lindsay Poole, M.SC., B.FOR.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director-General of Forests, Wellington.

Waipawa is situated on the northern bank of the Waipawa River, a tributary of the Tukituki River, and on the south-eastern fringe of the Takapau (Ruataniwha) Plain. The northern and western parts of the town are hilly but the remainder, including the business area, is located on flat land. The Woodville-Napier railway, and the main highway, pass through Waipawa. By road Waipukurau is 5 miles south-west; Hastings, the nearest city, is 26 miles north-east; and Napier, the nearest main port, is 39 miles north-east.

The main rural activity of the district is sheep farming. Cattle raising is also important and there is some market gardening. Waipawa is chiefly a servicing and distributing centre. Industrial activities include sawmilling and joinery; general engineering, including the manufacture of farm machinery; wool and hide processing; and the manufacture of concrete products and lime making.

The site of Waipawa is close to a ford where the ancient Maori trail between Manawatu Gorge and Hawke's Bay crossed the Waipawa River. The first recorded European visitors to the locality were Bishop George Augustus Selwyn and Chief Justice Sir William Martin, who camped overnight on a bank of the Waipawa on 13 November 1842, before continuing to Ahuriri (Napier) with a Maori party. In February 1845 the Rev William Colenso, travelling from the north with Maoris, passed near Waipawa on his first unsuccessful attempt to cross the Ruahine Range. In December 1850 Sir Donald McLean was instructed by Governor Sir George Grey to negotiate for the purchase of Hawke's Bay Maori lands. The sale of Te Hapuku's Waipukurau block, which contained the future town of Waipawa, was completed on 4 November 1851. In the same year F. S. Abbot applied for land and named his run “Abbotsford”. Abbot later sold the run but retained several hundred acres for a town to be called Abbotsford. The sale of sections commenced in 1860 and the town soon became known as Waipawa. During 1866 the settlers were threatened by Te Kooti's supporters and a stockade was built near Ruataniwha, 5 miles west. Although garrisoned for several months, it was used for a refuge on one occasion only. Local Maoris met a Hauhau war party upstream from the stockade and, after a show of force to impress the enemy, the latter withdrew.

Punt and canoe river transport played a part in the early years but by 1867 a coach track to Napier was in existence. The route between Napier and Woodville was surveyed by Karl Herman Weber in 1870 and subsequently a proper road was formed. In 1872 railway construction began at Napier and by 1876 had reached Waipawa. In 1891 the line linked with Palmerston North and Wellington, and in 1897 with Wellington via the Wairarapa. Waipawa was made a town district in 1884 and in 1908 was constituted a borough.

The meaning of the name is obscure.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,415; 1956 census, 1,607; 1961 census, 1,712.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.