Kōrero: Cultural go-betweens

Pupils and teachers assemble outside their boarding school at the Waikato mission station headed by Benjamin Ashwell. He was known to his Māori followers as Te Ahiwera ('the warm fire'), which is also a transliteration of his surname. Ashwell was one of the first Europeans in the Taupiri area when he set up this school in 1843. He mediated in tribal disputes and taught both academic and practical subjects until the Waikato war of 1863 forced him to leave. This engraving is based on the 1859 photograph, but was produced some years later for a book.