‘Hurdles’ of the early days at mission station
Good fences make for good neighbours as the old saying goes.
Some homespun advice that the early missionaries could have taken on board, as fencing was something of an issue in the early days of the Kerikeri Mission Station – a tohu whenua that is now cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
‘‘Farm animals rapidly became a presence at the mission as Church Missionary Society families became established in the area under the watchful eye of rangatira Hongi Hika, who provided chiefly protection for the mission,’’ says Kerikeri Mission Station property lead Liz Bigwood.
‘‘Livestock was central to mission life, primarily as a way of establishing supplies of food and enabling the missionaries to survive, but also for trade. Animals were desirable commodities and for the English missionaries trying to establish themselves in frontier conditions within a culture that was alien to their own, they needed every advantage they could get.’’
As any farmer will tell you, however, livestock can do the darndest things at the most inconvenient times – especially when they happened to slip through the sort of rudimentary fencing that existed in the early years of the mission.
‘‘The original fences were called ‘hurdles’ and were movable. They had sharp stakes at either end with a foot bar for stamping them in – similar to today’s pigtail electric fence standard – and we even have one on display,’’ Bigwood says.
‘‘They would have been tedious indeed to move around to create a pasture large and secure enough to house livestock. In the early days Butler and Kemp both note in their private journals that they have gone into the bush looking for the bulls, cows and calves.’’
An entry in the Store Day Book – a kind of daily record of purchases from the missionary store that were then written up more formally in the actual ledger – hints at a wee bit of tension as a result of wandering stock.
Recorded in Kerikeri Mission and Kororipo Pā – an entwined history by Dr Angela Middleton is an entry from 1822:
‘‘Moca [the rangatira Moka] was paid one felling axe for the damage done to his potatoes by the mission cows,’’ the entry reads. A little further on it is recorded that another rangatira – Rewa – was given a chisel; a ‘‘gift for preventing Moca from shooting the cows’’.
‘‘We’re not sure if the incidents and the day book records are related – though there’s nothing really to suggest they’re not. It would seem that the missionaries – conscious of the damage that their wandering livestock were doing to the vegetable gardens belonging to Māori – were very keen to make amends,’’ Bigwood says.
‘‘Faced with the prospect of Moka expressing his frustration by shooting their precious cattle they would probably have wanted to head that particular problem off at the pass. I’m sure they were very grateful to Rewa for preventing a bovine bloodbath.’’
The presence of the cattle at the mission was the culmination of tremendous effort and risk.
‘‘Getting animals to New Zealand was not easy. As well as surviving a long sea voyage – usually from Australia – the missionaries then had to get them from the ship to shore,’’ Bigwood says.
Founding missionary Rev John Butler recorded in his journal the steps needed to get a load of cattle to their final destination at the
Kerikeri Mission, which at the time was in its infancy.
‘‘Wednesday March 1st, 1820 – Went to ship ‘Dromedary’ to fetch away our cattle. We got them into the punt in safety, and also to
Kedee Kedee after eighteen hours hard pulling; distance twenty miles. We had a heavy sea, and tide against us a great deal of the way.’’
‘‘A punt is little more than a raft with low sides – the fact that they got to land in such conditions with any animals alive let alone the 12 that they had on board – is something of a miracle,’’ Bigwood says.
‘‘Hauling on oars for 18 hours in a small leaky vessel full of animals would have been absolutely exhausting – which shows the importance of the livestock to the missionaries. The consequences of these animals going over the side or not making it to the mission would have been terrible to contemplate.’’
The establishment of these herds were some of the first attempts at systematic animal husbandry in New Zealand.
‘‘Māori had been cultivating food for centuries, and were master fishermen and hunters. What we see in these accounts, however, is the beginnings of western agriculture in this country – with all the implications that had for us as a country,’’ she says.
To learn more about the Kerikeri Mission Station and other historic places around the country cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – and to plan your heritage road trip itinerary – check out visitheritage.co.nz