TE RAUPARAHA, TAMIHANA or KATU (1819-76), a Ngati-Toa chief, was the younger son of Te Rauparaha (q.v.) and his Ngati Tuhourangi wife Akau, and was born at Turangarua pa, Pukerua, during the migration.

A young man of singular strength of character and steadfastness of purpose, Katu was early impressed with the benefits of Christianity by meeting Marahau (q.v.), a native who had studied in the mission school at Paihia. Determined to adopt Christianity, he and Matene te Whiwhi (q.v.) studied with Marahau and then decided to ask for a missionary for their people. With this object they wished in 1839 to go to Bay of Islands, but the older chiefs, fearing reprisals by their ancient enemies, refused permission. Katu and Te Whiwhi then smuggled themselves on board a whaler. Arrived at the Bay, they found to their mortification that the Church Missionary Society had just ordered the concentration of its efforts in the northern part of New Zealand. Their persistent appeal, however, so impressed Octavius Hadfield (q.v.), a young catechist, that he volunteered for the dangerous service, and in Nov 1839 he was installed by the Rev Henry Williams at the new station at Waikanae. At his baptism by Selwyn in 1843 Katu took the name of Tamihana (Thomson). He and Matene zealously studied the Gospel and became the first native apostles to the South Island. At Hadfield's suggestion they went there in a small open boat, in which they sailed 1,000 miles round the coasts.

In 1844 Tamihana accompanied the Bishop in his visitation of the South Island in Tuhawaiki's schooner Perseverance. Selwyn found him "good-hearted and earnest, not very adroit in controversy, and sometimes a little overbearing." He received some education at St John's College, Auckland. Tall, handsome, active, and mentally alert, Tamihana dressed well, and strove in every way to show his people an example of civilised life. He formed a club the members of which engaged themselves to live in English houses, with rooms and chimneys, and to wear European clothing. He was ordained as a clergyman, and when his father returned from his exile in Jan 1848 Tamihana met him dressed in clerical garb. In 1848 he and other chiefs gave a considerable area of land as an endowment for the education of children of the Ngati-Toa, Ngati-Awa and Ngati-Raukawa people. In 1849 he was appointed a native assessor. In 1852 Tamihana visited England with Bishop Williams, was presented to Her Majesty and raised money for a college at Porirua. While there he conceived the idea of a single king for the native race in New Zealand and he so strongly imbued Matene te Whiwhi with it that in the following year (1853) the latter made his first attempt to unite the Maori tribes. Tamihana proposed to call the King singi ki: a title which he had noticed in his reading of Robertson's History of America. On returning to New Zealand he became a successful sheepowner. In 1869 he visited the South Island with Governor Bowen, Wi Tako, and Mete Kingi in H.M.S. Challenger. His wife, Ruth, died on 10 Jul 1870, and Tamihana on 22 Oct 1876.

Buick, Old New Zealander; Selwyn, Annals; Carleton; Travers; Godley, Letters; Bevan (p); H. F. McKillop.

Reference: Volume 2, page 103

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