Karaka Kereru Tarawhiti

Mr. Karaka Kereru Tarawhiti, Native Assessor, Huntly, was born Feb 13th 1844 the first born son at Rakaumangamanga, in the Waikato. His father, the Rev. Heta Tarawhiti, who was related to King Tawhiao, was overseer of the Native school at Taupiri, where one Rev. B. V. Ashwell, a clergyman of the Church of England, was in charge. When only about three years of age K. K. Tarawhiti attended the school with his father, and continued in attendance till 1862, when it broke up. In 1859, Mr. Heta Tarawhiti went to St. Stephen's, Parnell, Auckland, to train for the ministry of the Church of England, and was in due course admitted to orders by Bishop Selwyn. When Mr. Ashwell returned to Auckland in 1862, the Rev. H. Tarawhiti took charge of the mission station at Taupiri. During the Maori war of 1863 the Imperial troops under General Cameron passed through Taupiri, to Ngaruawahia, and the war steamers “Pioneer” and “Avon,” under Commodore Sir William Wiseman, were stationed at Taupiri for a time. On one occasion, about December, 1863, young Tarawhiti and William Turner, a Pirongia half-caste, who acted as interpreter to the Commodore, rode a whole night from Taupiri to Te Rore with horses—supplied without pay by the Rev. H. Tarawhiti—for Sir William Wiseman's use in connection with the war at Te Awamutu, Rangiaohia, Hairini, and Orakau, whither the Commodore had gone with his force in the steamer “Avon.” Then from February to May, 1864, Mr. K. K. Tarawhiti and other natives, with Tewheoro, were engaged in transporting supplies for the troops from Whatawhata to Te Rore, and in bringing down the prisoners in canoes, as the Waipa river was unnavigable by the war steamers during those months. Mr. Tarawhiti was one of those who brought Colonel Nixon from Te Rore to Maungatawhiri, in a canoe, when that gallant officer received his death wound at Rangiaohia on the 23rd of February, 1864. When the war was over in 1864–65, Mr. Tarawhiti accompanied the Rev. B. V. Ashwell, when the latter officially visited the various military camps in the Waikato, and was subsequently a member of a survey party in 1868. He was storekeeping and farming from 1870 to 1873; was native policeman in 1879–80 for Taupiri, Huntly, and Rangiriri, and afterwards became a member of the Native Committee for Waikato and the King Country under the Act of 1883. In 1885 Mr. Tarawhiti was appointed to a Native Assessorship for the Native Land Court of New Zealand under the Acts of 1880, 1886, and 1894, and also for the Stipendiary Magistrate's Court of the Waikato, under the Acts of 1852 and 1862; and he still (August, 1901) fulfils the duties of the dual position.

Karaka was also accredited for establishing Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga there is another section on this site called Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga that gives a more elaborate explaination about Karaka and his life.

Pai Marire!