Pukenga. The second account attributes the tuku to Ngati Pukenga’s support of Ngati Maru in a battle against a northern taua at Port Jackson in 1828. In this affair, Ngati Pukenga assisted Ngati Maru to achieve utu for those killed by Nga Puhi at Te Totara. Ngati Pukenga having successfully ambushed the northern raiders, a Ngati Maru chief, ‘grateful for their help and mindful of the long journey ahead of them said: “kaua e hoki ki Tauranga. Kei Manaia he kainga mo koutou hei noho” [Do not return to Tauranga. At Manaia, there can be a place for you to live.]’¹⁴³

While the majority of Ngati Pukenga accompanied the Hauraki iwi in their return to Hauraki in 1830 (with some returning to Maketu and Tauranga), it was not until some 20 years later (about 1852) that they took up the tuku of the Manaia lands. According to Mikaere and Ashby:

It was Kapakapa of Ngati Maru who called on Ngati Pukenga to take up the tuku and move to Manaia. Taiao was the first of Ngati Pukenga to go there. He was followed by Te Kou O Rehua and many others of Ngati Pukenga. As far as can be determined this occurred sometime around 1852.¹⁴⁴

According to the evidence of Lawson Richards:

Pukenga’s great grandson was Kiorekino. Ngati Kiorekino is the name of my hapu. This hapu is made up of the descendants of Te Kou o Rehua or Rehua. Te Kou received the first tuku of the Manaia lands. He lived and died here. The whakatauki which shows this is ‘Ko Hauturu hei kawhene mo Te Kou’ - that is let Hauturu be the burial place for Te Kou. The Ngati Maru chiefs offered this whakatauki during the discussions about the Manaia lands … Our people have lived in the Manaia Valley since the times of Te Kou.¹⁴⁵

Mikaere and Ashby relate that several disputes arose over the Manaia lands. Two of the Ngati Maru chiefs living at Manaia, Rameka Te Tohirangi (also known as Rameka Te Tapuru) and Te Marau (a nephew of Te Tapuru), gave their interests in the Manaia lands to Te Kou-o-Rehua. The land given to Ngati Pukenga, some 5055 acres, was known as Te Ruahine. It lay on the southern (or western) side of the Manaia River. While Te Tapuru and Rameka had not physically set out the boundary of the land, they had named boundary markers. Some Ngati Maru and Ngati Tamatera argued that only the north-west corner of Te Ruahine had been given to Ngati Pukenga. According to Mikaere and Ashby, the boundaries were named again at a hui ‘in the presence of all the people and the Ngati Maru chiefs’. Te Kou-o-Rehua is said to have tried to return the land to Ngati Maru on his deathbed, but the offer was refused.¹⁴⁶

143. Document I2, p 19

144. Ibid, p 20

145. Document I11, p 2

146. Document I2, pp 22-24