Te Kopi and Palliser Bay (Continued)

Compiled By Joe Howells & Mate Higginson 

John Wade played a part in our first “constitutional crisis”. In early 1840 he chartered the ship “Integrity” to bring a shipload of merchandise over from Tasmania, attracted by news of the New Zealand Company settlement led by William Wakefield. Wade soon fell out with the Integrity’s Captain Pearson and had him arrested and charged by the New Zealand Company’s Settlors’ Council. But Captain Pearson managed to get away, and along with another disgruntled NZ Company colonist sailed north in April 1840 to Russell. 

There the pair got the newly installed Governor Hobson so excited about the “Republic” being set up in Wellington that he sent 50 troops and 5 policemen headed by his right-hand man, Commander Willoughby Shortland, to sort them all out. When they arrived in Port Nicholson, the puzzled colonists welcomed them ashore and then had a big party. But Shortland soon caused rancor amongst the colonists by arbitrarily “dissolving” their Settlors’ Council!

The whaling station at Te Kopi was the first European business in the Wairarapa, established in March 1842. It was not a major success, only ever catching a few whales. But for a time, Te Kopi functioned as a major hub of activity and was regarded as the “port” for the Wairarapa’s early settlors. The settlors started farming here in May 1844 on land leased from the local Māori near what was to become Martinborough. Te Kopi in those early days had a chapel, a school, a store, a post office, and a Cemetery or Urupa. A number of small boats were based there shuttling cargo back and forth to Wellington and up and down the Ruamāhanga river. It was a busy little place.

Given the whaling at Te Kopi was not paying off John Wade decided to launch a flax harvesting venture in late 1843. This also did not go well, with the boat capsizing while entering the Ruamāhanga river mouth and drowning ten of its occupants. Luckily for Wade his other business enterprises went rather better, including the whaling station at Kaikoura and his subdivision of “Wadestown” in Wellington. In 1849 Wade sold up and moved his family to California where he built on his early history of litigation by becoming a successful lawyer. He died there in 1885.

“Nick the Greek” (Nicolas Carey) ran a shipping business based at Te Kopi from about 1844 into the 1850’s, ferrying supplies from Wellington to the early European settlers’ stations, and shipping back their wool, flax, and other produce. His ship the “Young Greek” along with “Nick the Greek” vanished mysteriously at sea in 1859.

Two young British whalers also play an important part in the colonial Wairarapa story. John Milsom Jury (1816-1902) met his wife Te Aitu-O-Te-Rangi (1820-1854) while whaling at Kapiti Island. Te Aitu who was originally from Jury Island near Martinborough. The pair apparently journeyed through the Wairarapa Valley perhaps as early as 1840, making John one of the first Pakeha to enter the valley. The couple returned with Ngāti Kahungunu to Te Kopi in 1841 and were based there for a time. John Stanton (Joe) Workman (1818-1904) met and married Kokoroiti Rewhanga (1820–1883) also while whaling on Kapiti Island. Kokoroiti was originally from Te Kopi and of Ngāti Hinewaka descent. John Jury and Joe Workman with their families worked together on the Te Kopi Whaling and shipping enterprises in the 1840’s and went on to found well known and large Wairarapa families.

As the main road down the valley from present day Martinborough was formed it was called “Te Kopi Road” finally reaching Te Kopi in 1930! By then of course the usefulness of the little port was well over. The massive earthquake on the west Wairarapa Faultline of January 1855 and the resulting multiple tsunamis over 10 meters high which swept the Palliser Bay coastline had all but destroyed the little port. The peninsula which made the sheltered harbour is now an offshore reef. And of course, the improved road and rail links meant the danger of delivery by sea and river could then be avoided.