TE KARAUNA HOU: THE SENIOR NGATI RAHIRI RANGATIRA Philip Hart Te Aroha Mining District Working Papers No. 30 Revised on October 16, 2017 Historical Research Unit Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences The University of Waikato Private Bag 3105 Hamilton, New Zealand ISSN: 2463-6266 © 2016 Philip Hart Contact:
[email protected] 1 TE KARAUNA HOU: THE SENIOR NGATI RAHIRI RANGATIRA Abstract: Te Karauna Hou, the principal Ngati Rahiri rangatira living at Te Aroha in 1880, had a distinguished whakapapa linking him to several hapu. Before settling permanently at Te Aroha in the 1870s he lived in several places, especially at Kaitawa, on the southern outskirts of Thames. One of the principal rangatira in Hauraki, he was loyal to the Crown during the Waikato War, and later assisted Pakeha settlement. To emphasize his mana and that of his hapu, he held big festivities at Kaitawa and at Omahu pa at Te Aroha. In 1871, when Ngati Haua won a (temporary) victory in the land court over the ownership of the Aroha Block, Karauna took control of it on behalf of the Marutuahu confederation, and subsequently kept Ngati Haua at bay. For a time he opposed road-making on this block, but later agreed to it, for financial reasons. Like all rangatira, he sought to maximize his ownership of as many blocks of land as possible, sometimes having his lies exposed through his contradicting his earlier evidence. He also denied receiving money for land when his denials were easily disproved. Despite leasing and selling land, selling timber and gum, and opening his land to miners, he often struggled financially.