Initial contact of course commenced with the establishment in 1828 of Dicky Barrett and Jackie Love’s trading station at Ngāmotu. Right from the start the relationship between the Europeans and tangata whenua was regarded as being mutually beneficial. Leanne Bouton put it this way:

In exchange for their skills as traders and whalers, they [the Europeans] had been given use rights to portions of tribal land and resources and provided with wifes. They were also expected to follow iwi customs and to defend the community.

Boulton 2004: 54

When Barrett and Love settled at Ngāmotu. ‘… they had a raupo potaka [storehouse] buillt 100 feet long with calico-covered doorways and compartments on each side like horse stalls, and a succession of fire holes for their European employees’ (Bently, 2007:149).

Taranaki iwi were not alone in pursuing trading relationships with Europeans. The first shore-based whaling station in New Zealand was estalished in 1827 at Preservation Inlet, Forveaux Strait. Within a few years there were 12 between Preservation Inlet and Banks Peninsula, hunting black and right whales as they migrated along the coast (ibid:207). Other successful traders in the 1830’s were located at Hokianga, Poverty Bay and the Waikato.

During the 1830s hapū of Te Ātiawa had formed a successful economic partnership with Dicky Barrett and his crew, importing and exporting a range of western goods.

Right from early on in the development of New Plymouth settlement, Ngāmotu hapū utilised their land to grow produce, selling and exporting that produce as well as exchanging goods with other hapū and iwi, thereby participating in the emergent capitalist economy of the settlers while maintaining their mana in the traditional Māori world.

By 1853 then hapū economy had received over 2800 pounds in trading revenue and were expecting to earn about 5,000 pounds in 1854. That was all the more impressive given that the Government has acquired all of the land between Paritutu and Bell Block, leaving the hapū only with native reserve land to live on (Bolton, p112-113).

In 1855, John Morgan imported a four-horse wheat threshing machine which he sold to local hapū/iwi from Huirangi – an indication of how willing Te Āti Awa were to obtain machinery to assist and advance their agricultural pursuits. John also noted that Te Āti Awa collectively managed to establish a thriving economy based primarily on selling food to the settlers in New Plymouth. It appears that John was relatively well known among local Te Āti Awa circles.

Andrew Morgan, April 2024