Chief Te Huruhuru (c. 1801-1861) Welcomes Michael Studholme
(1833-1886) Memorial
Memorial at Junction of Gorge Road, Queen Street and Mill Road
It was a cold winter’s day in 1854 when Michael Studholme rode his bullock team and dray across the creek, veering away from the bush and hills beyond, instead directing his helper, Saul Shrives, to set up camp amongst the flax and tussock on land that was to become part of the Studholme run-holding, Te Waimate. Not far away, nestled near the creek, was a kaika (village) where families of a local hapu (Maori
sub-tribe) were living under the chieftainship of Te Huruhuru. Not long after his arrival Waimate’s first European settler paid a visit to the old chief. Te Huruhuru extended a welcome, Michael Studholme offered a gift of fragrant grasses and together they ‘laid down a few wise rules [and] by shake and nod’ an agreement was made.
Te Huruhuru
Arriving from Hawea district in c.1836, Te Huruhuru first settled at Te Puna a Maru, a kaika (village) on the southern bank of the lower Waitaki river. Across the river was an area rich in natural resources. The sea, rivers, streams, the swamplands, and expanses of native forest growing over the hills of the area now known as the Waimate district, provided a bounty of resources to support the daily life of the people belonging to the hapu (sub tribe). At the time of Te Huruhuru’s arrival local Maori were semi nomadic, moving about the takiwa (district) according to the seasonal availability of food and material supplies. One such destination was a birding camp situated under the hills near the edge of the bush by Te Waimatemate (the Waimate stream) and it was here that Te Huruhuru moved and established a permanent kaika in 1853. (situated near the place that today is known as the Maori Cemetery on Point Bush Road)
The settlement was called Tutekawa but was commonly referred to by Maori as Te Kaherehere (the bush). By 1859, as noted by a visiting missionary, there were between 20-30 huts located on this ‘picturesque’ site. Whare (huts) were built from totara slabs hewn from trees cut down in the nearby forest; rooves were made of bark stripped from the same trees. Te Huruhuru’s whare was marked by posts of painted wood.
When Michael Studholme arrived at Waimate from Christchurch in 1854, looking to acquire land for a sheep run, he found Te Huruhuru to be ‘a fine looking man as regards features. He was deeply tattooed with his whole face being covered. He had a broad, highbrow and bright piercing eyes.’ Although now paralysed from the waist down, Michael Studholme noted the chief ‘ruled the Pah and was very clear headed.’ Te Huruhuru allowed the Englishman to settle on land subject to certain conditions and the township of Waimate was later established nearby with this arrangement in place. The peacefully negotiated agreement and mutual respect between Te Huruhuru and Michael Studholme became local legend, and has been much celebrated in the Waimate district.
Te Huruhuru died in 1861 and was buried at Tutekawa. He is remembered in monuments around the Waimate township. For the 50th jubilee of the Waimate borough in 1929, a memorial wharenui (meeting house) was built in Seddon Square incorporating a plaque commemorating Te Huruhuru.
The 80th anniversary of the meeting between Te Huruhuru and Michael Studholme was marked by the erection of the memorial located at the junction of Queen Street and Gorge and Mill Roads. When the foundation stones for this memorial were laid by Michael Studholme’s eldest son (Edgar Channon Studholme) and the great-grandson of Te Huruhuru (Joseph Thomas Te Huruhuru), the mayor, George Dash, said,
‘The column would enshrine the record of two men of whom they might be proud,
and whose characters were such as to inspire others with a desire to emulate wisdom, fortitude and spirit.’
Michael Studholme
Michael Studholme,
Waimate Museum and Archives, P3625
From their home in Cumberland, England, Michael Studholme, along with two brothers, came out to Lyttleton on the Labuan in 1851. Michael had just left school and was only 17. The three brothers had arrived to take up land purchased, site unseen, from the Canterbury Association. However, it was not land but the lure of the Australian goldfields that first captured their attention. The land was sold and they sailed away to seek their fortune in Australia, only to return to Canterbury a year later and begin the serious search for land, eventually establishing themselves as runholders.
‘In July 1854 the first wheel marks known to the Waimate land were cut by the bullock team of 21-year-old Michael Studholme and his companion Saul Shrives. It had taken six weeks for the slow moving team to make the journey south from Christchurch. Unfordable streams and rivers had been encountered and it was often necessary to unload the dray and take the load across piecemeal, then pack it up again.
For the last 30 miles Studholme and Shrives had followed no track as they made their way through tussock, flax, swamp and creek. The scene that met them was very different to the Waimate district as it is today. Acres of virgin forest and a wilderness of flax, rushes, scrub and bog swamp stretched out before them. When the two men rounded the point of the Waimate Bush they breathed a sigh of relief.’
They set up camp not far from the Waimate stream. Nearby was the kaika/pah of Te Huruhuru.
The day after his arrival Michael Studholme went to see Te Huruhuru. The chief was already aware of the young Brit’s presence. With the aid of a Maori interpreter Michael Studholme made an agreement with Te Huruhuru to observe the boundary and not to interfere with any of the rights of the Chief’s people.
Details of the meeting are not known except for those recounted several years later in the poetry and prose penned by Effie Studholme, Michael’s wife.
After his meeting with Te Huruhuru, Michael Studholme immediately went to work on the land. He built himself a slab hut from totara and Saul Shrives thatched the roof. (The hut became known as “The Cuddy”. Family descendants have continued to maintain this first home which remains on the Studholme property to this day.)
from The Epic of the Pioneer
(Te Huruhuru has sent someone as an interpreter to collect
Michael Studholme for their meeting on 18th July 1854)
“ …Listen to me-
When the old chieftain speaks, you silent be-
Let him first have his say, and then do you
Speak to him as a friend, as he to you,
Not as a Master who comes here to take
Possession of his land – or you will make
An enemy so hard that you will rue
The day you settled here. He knows that you
Have brought the land, but he is old and ill,
And cannot bear that aught should cross his will.”
“Yes, yes,”the Master said, “Have you no fear
“’Tis he shall speak. I quietly will hear.”
Reaching the Pah, they made their way along
A narrow track that led the huts among.
To where, up on the highest terrace stood
The chieftain’s marked by posts of painted wood.
Within the doorway, on a flaxen mat –
Helpless to move, old Huru-huru sat –
Or rather lay. For little power had he
Save in his arms. Yet was there majesty
Upon his brow, and from his eye still bright,
A keen glance shot showing an inner light
And fullest comprehension. Then he spoke
And the interpreter the silence broke –
To tell the Master that his chieftain gave
To him a welcome. Then the Master laid
Upon his hand a gift of fragrant weed –
And so began their friendship.
Many a deed of kindness in the few short years,
(Before that rugged spirit passed to the far shore
Whence all must go) between these two was done.
For on that day, they, sitting in the sun,
Laid down a few wise rules. By shake and nod
The Master signed agreement. Near him stood,
The head men of the Pah, well pleased to see
The old chief and the stranger thus agree. …
E.M.L. Studholme, 1905
Cuddy house at Te Waimate, Waimate Museum and Archives N437
Ceremony of laying of foundation stone of the 80th anniversary memorial of first white settler in Waimate at the corner of Gorge Road and Queen Street.
L-R. J Huruhuru, Miss Studholme, E C Studholme, Miss Huruhuru. J Huruhuru was the grandson of Chief Te Huruhuru and E C Studholme the eldest son of Michael Studholme.
Miss Huruhuru, daughter of J Huruhuru presented to Mr. Studholme a mallet made from a totara beam of the old Waimate Knox Church, this having come from a tree which stood near the spot where Michael Studholme and Chief Huruhuru first met.
Miss Studholme presented a similar mallet to Mr. Te Huruhuru.
Bullock and cart carting flax, Waimate Railway Station building in background
Waimate Museum & Archives P64
Te Urupa o Te Huruhuru, 1935 Maori Cemetery, Point Bush Road
Waimate Museum and Archives,P1131
References:
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-AclEarl.html ref:
Acland, L.G.D., The Early Canterbury Runs: Containing the First, Second and Third (new) Series, Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1946, Christchurch
Waimate Centennial 1854-1954 booklet: Waimate Daily Advertiser, 1954.
The Book of Waimate, a Glossary of Past Events: Edited by His Worship the Mayor George Dash in the Jubilee Year, 1929 Printed by Waimate Advertiser
Waimate Verse, Waimate Publishing Company, 1935
Waimate Museum and Archives (photographs and research material)
K. Beker (photographs and research material)