The Bay of Plenty (Fedarb) treaty sheet was signed by seven Whakatōhea rangatira (chiefs) at Ōpōtiki on 27 and 28 May 1840. Six signed on the 27th and Whākia did so on the 28th. [1]
The trader James W. Fedarb, the trading master of the schooner Mercury, was responsible for taking this treaty sheet around the Bay of Plenty and held the signing at Ōpōtiki. Papahia and Wiremu Maihi (Ngakuku) [2] witnessed the signatures. [3]
A cross was drawn next to the names of the Catholic rangatira Rangimātānuku, Rangihaerepō and Tauātoro. Fedarb wrote on the sheet:
The chiefs at Opotiki expressed a wish to have it signified who were Pikopos (i.e. Roman Catholics) and who were not, which I did by placing a crucifix † preceding the names of those who are, as above, and at which they seemed perfectly satisfied. [4]
The following month they would welcome Bishop Pompallier to Ōpōtiki. He celebrated the first Catholic mass in Ōpōtiki in a small raupō (reed or bulrush) church. [5]
The signatories were Tauātoro [6], Takahi [7], Āporotanga, Rangimātānuku, Rangihaerepō, Ake and Whākia.
[1] Ranginui Walker, Opotiki-Mai-Taiwhiti: capital of Whakatohea, Penguin, Auckland, 2007, p. 59
[2] Ngakuku was also known as Wiremu Maihi (William Marsh), Opotiki Town Centre Historic Heritage Study, p. 9; Ngakuku: missionary in Mataatua (Anglican Church)
[3] T. Lindsay Buick, The Treaty of Waitangi: or, how New Zealand became a British colony, Mackay, Wellington, 1914, p. 210; Claudia Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi, Allen & Unwin, Port Nicholson Press with assistance from the Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1987, p. 77
[4] Buick,Treaty of Waitangi, p. 213
[5] Walker, Opotiki, p. 51
[6] According to Walker, Opotiki, p. 59
[7] Takahi = Te Takahi Ao, according to a submission from Te whanau a Mokomoko to the Māori Affairs Select Committee on the Mokomoko (Restoration of Character, Mana, and Reputation) Bill 2013
