Plummers Point is a narrow peninsula of land that is located centrally on the western shores of Tauranga Harbour on the Te Puna Estuary between Omokoroa and Te Puna (see Figure 1). It looks north easterly towards Matakana and Motuhoa Islands and the entrance to Tauranga Harbour, and is at the mouth of the Te Puna River, where a tidal estuary is formed. It is located on an estuary that today is a quiet semi-residential enclave with a shoreline fringed with willow trees, a jetty, boat-ramp, and camping ground. Historically peninsulas on this part of the harbour have been places to ford between the points of land Plummers Point was an invaluable communication link between settlements at Omokoroa and Te Puna (see Figure 2). It was also the site of a deep water wharf and road link during the early part of this century. Similarly, for pre-European Maori the area was significant as a place to ford the point over to Omokoroa as well as being a valuable kai moana resource, with its shellfish beds near the shoreline and sheltered fishing grounds in the estuary. Today it is still considered wahi tapu by local Maori with its urupa, pa and kainga sites.
There are at least three important pa sites on the point of land between Te Puna and Omokoroa (see Figure 1). At the northern point were two pa, called Ongarahu and Huharua which, according to one source, were linked by an underground tunnel.1 These pa were the site of important battles, and consequently there were many burial grounds in the area. Huharua has also been identified by D. Borell as the home of Pirirakau after Ngati Ranginui were defeated at Mauao by Ngaiterangi.2 Further down the Te Puna estuary there is another point of land which was Te Hopuni pa.
In the nineteenth century the name ‘Huharua’ seems to have been used to refer to the whole point of land, rather than the specific pa site. References made to the ‘Huharua reserve’ probably do not mean Huharua pa, as the reserves made for Maori in this area were actually limited to three small areas of land south of Huharua itself. This report looks at the Crown acquisition of the area now known as Plummers Point, and the allocation of reserves there for certain Maori. Details are given of the subsequent alienation of those reserves, and then some examples are given that illustrate Maori concerns about the management of wahi tapu at Huharua.
1.2 RAUPATU AND THE CREATION OF RESERVES
Legal title to land at Plummers Point derives from the confiscation of the Tauranga district in 1865, and the subsequent purchase of the Katikati and Te Puna blocks by Crown agents. It is not the intention of this report to provide an historical account of the circumstances surrounding the purchase, and readers requiring further detail should consult reports which have been prepared for the Wai 215 inquiry, such as Evelyn Stokes, Te Raupatu O Tauranga Moana: The Confiscation of Tauranga
1 Personal communication, Patrick Nicholas, 24 September 1996
2 Tauranga Historical Society, ‘Report on Pa Sites Between Pahoia and the Waimapu Stream’, 1969, Tauranga Public Library, Konae Maori, Archaeology
