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HISTORY

Kowhaiwhai

"Ko Te Waewae Kapiti 0 Tara Raua Ko Rangitane".
The full name given by the Maori to Kapiti describes
the island as the meeting place of the boundaries of
Tara and Rangitane (the son and grandson of Whatonga).

About 1150 AD Whatonga divided the country by
making a boundary from the southern tip of Kapiti
straight across to the east coast of the North Island.

The land to the south of this line he gave to Tara,
and the land to the north, including Kapiti Island,
he gave to Tautoki, another son. Tautoki’s heir was
Rangitane, father of the great Rangitane people.
They, the Muaupoko, and later the Ngati Kahungunu
were the first known inhabitants of Kapiti.
Life then was peaceful, and parts of the island
had been cleared and cultivated, especially the
flatter areas around Okupe Lagoon and Rangatira


 Rauparaha Chief Capiti Principal Cheif of all New Zealand
In 1822 Te Rauparaha, having traveled south
from Kawhia with his Ngati Toa people, hatched a plot to capture Kapiti and have it as his own base. He . made a great show of preparing to mount an attack on the Muaupoko and Rangitane in the Horowhenua area. When Te Rauparaha left Waikanae with a force. for Horowhenua the defenders on Kapiti relaxed their guard.

 



 

Te Pehi The next day before dawn Te Pehi Kupe,
another Ngati Toa chief, secretly crossed
to Kapiti with his followers and took the
defenders by surprise.
Te Pehi conquered the inhabitants after a
fierce battle with many casualties.






Te Rauparaha then established
Te Rauparaha
himself and his people on Kapiti.
They formed and occupied three large pa:
Wharekohu in south, Rangatira,
and Taepiro between the two,where Te Rauparaha took up residence.
Retaliation against the Ngati Toa was inevitable,
but it took almost two years to gather enough
support for an attack.
By early 1824, however, over 2,000 warriors from all over the lower North Island and parts of the South Island had assembled between Otaki and Waikanae.
The Ngati Toa knew a large invasion force was
assembling, but weeks went by and the expected
attack never came.

Vigilance was relaxed and when the attack did
come the defenders were completely unprepared.
A vast armada of canoes approached Kapiti
overnight and landed at Waiorua at the north
end of the island.

The defenders held up the invasion
while a messenger rushed to Taepiro for help.
The attack had nearly succeeded when
Te Rauparaha arrived with reinforcements.
The invaders were routed

the largest Maori force ever assembled along
this coast was defeated by one of the smallest.

Te Rauparaha was described as fierce and
aggressive towards his enemies,
and intelligent and reasonable in his dealings
with the pakeha.

In 1846, however, because of his warlike activities
he was captured and interned on the order of
Governor Sir George Grey. he
died at Otaki in 1849 soon after his release.
The place where
he was buried has been kept
a close
secret;
it was probably either Otaki or his Beloved Kapiti Island.

Kowhair.gif (10318 bytes)

During the reign of Te Rauparaha,
the whalers arrived and established
themselves on Kapiti and the three
islets where they set up seven whaling stations.
By about 1846 whaling was no longer profitable
and the whalers moved away.
after the death of Te Rauparaha
and the departure of the whalers,
most of the Maori also left the island.
Many of them had relied on trade with
the Pakeha.

During the 1840s the first of three farms
was established on Kapiti at Wharekohu Bay
in the south; where Andrew Brown drained and
cleared 250 hectares of swamp and forest.
The next was at Rangatira, and the third was at
Waiorua in the north. Nearly three- quarters
of Kapiti’s virgin forest was destroyed.
Farming was marginal, no doubt because
of the steep country and problems associated
with transporting stock to and from the mainland.

Many animals were introduced,
including sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, deer,
cats and dogs. The kiore (Polynesian rat)
arrived much earlier,brought by the Maori
from Polynesia where it was an important
food.The Norway rat presumably came
ashore during the whaling era.

In 1892 Australian brush-tailed possums were
brought to Kapiti to establish a fur trade,
the island was being irreversibly altered
Several far-sighted naturalists, seeing
the destruction of New Zealand’s unique
Forests, and realizing the potential of
island sanctuaries, urged the government
to act.

The Kapiti Island Public Reserve
Act was passed in 1897 to establish the
Island as "a preserve for the flora and
fauna of New Zealand". By this time more
than half the island was cleared of bush
and being grazed.

The first full time caretaker was
appointed in 1906, and in 1949 a
regula
tion was passed requiring a permit
for
entry into the reserve.
Most of the island
was gazetted
flora and fauna reserve in
1973,
and this status changed to nature
reserve after the Reserves Act was
passed in 1977.

The reserve was man
aged by the
Department of Lands and
Survey until 1987,
when the Department
of Conservation took
over responsibility.

Efforts to improve the island as a
Habitat for native plants and animals
began soon after it was reserved.
Cats, deer, goats, sheep, cattle, pigs,
and dogs were eradicated from the reserve.

Between February 1980 and November 1986
22,500 possums were removed from Kapiti,
making this the first ever successful possum
eradication programme. Considering the
damage done to the forest in the early days,
Kapiti’s vegetation has made a remarkable
recovery and the island now has a dense
mantle of rapidly regenerating forest.
In 1996, an operation to eradicate rats
was undertaken. Within a few months
lizards and invertebrates were becoming
more conspicuous on the island.

During the early 1900s many birds
and plants were introduced to Kapiti.
One of these, the little spotted kiwi,
is now extinct on the mainland but
is thriving on Kapiti. Little spotted
kiwi have been transferred from Kapiti
to other island sanctuaries in a bid to
establish other Populations.

Since 1981 a series of experimental
tranfers of the endangered saddleback
(tieke) and stichbird (hihi) have been
made to Kapiti.These birds have been
brought from islands from in the
Hauraki Gulf that are free from harmful
introduced mammals Endangered takahe
and kokako have also been introduced to kapiti.
These birds have been introduced for
"insurance" in case any disaster befalls
exsisting populations.

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Last modified: Aug 19, 2000

 

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