Nga Tohu

In 1840 more than 500 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. Ngā Tohu, when complete, will contain a biographical sketch of each signatory.


Signing

SignatureSheetSigned asProbable nameTribeHapūSigning Occasion
33Sheet 3 — The Waikato-Manukau SheetWiremu NgawaroWiremu NgāwaroWaikato, Te Wai-o-HuaNgāti Te AtaManukau Harbour 26 April 1840

Wiremu Ngāwaro signed the Waikato-Manukau sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi on 26 April 1840 at Manukau Harbour. He was a rangatira (chief) of Ngāti Te Ata of Waikato.

Ngāwaro was involved in a number of land sales in the 1830s, including several at Waimate in the Bay of Islands. In January 1835 he was involved in the sale of the Angaiho block to missionary Richard Davis. Signing as William Ngawaro, he and Puhi sold the 7-acre (2.8-ha) Pātūtahi block in October 1837, also to Davis, for five blankets and five pounds of tobacco. [1] In the following year, Ngāwaro (as Wiremu Hoeta ko Ngawaro) sold more land at Waimate to missionary George Clarke for £30, 10 blankets, two adzes, two plane irons and two gowns. Also in 1838, he was one of 11 to sell the Ōrua block in the Manukau district to Reverend Robert Maunsell and James Hamlin, who were acting for the Anglican Church Missionary Society. The price was 60 blankets, 12 axes, 11 pairs of trousers, nine shirts, 10 razors, six shaving boxes, six scissors, 10 knives, 10 handkerchiefs, 10 spades, 11 iron pots, 20 combs, 400 pipes, 10 adzes, three locks, 10 plane irons, eight files, 160 pounds of tobacco and 20 pounds of soap.


[1] No. IX. — Patutahi Block (Kaihu), Waimate, Bay of Islands, Maori Deeds of Old Private Land Purchases in New Zealand, From the Year 1815 to 1840, with Pre-Emptive and Other Claims


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