TE HEUHEU II, or MANANUI (1780-1846) was one of the most celebrated chiefs in New Zealand when British sovereignty was proclaimed. The son of Herea Tukino and Rangiaho (of Ngati-Maniapoto), he was descended from Ngatoro-i-Rangi, the priest of the Arawa canoe who discovered the central mountains in the North Island. Through his mother he derived great mana from Ngati-Maniapoto and Waikato. He received the name of Te Heuheu in the manner described (see supra). Called back from a war expedition at Poutu to the deathbed of Taipahau (a great tohunga of Te Heuheu's own sub-tribe), he received through the rite of ngautaringa all the sacred wisdom and supernatural powers. He was thereafter called 'Mananui.' Te Heuheu had outstanding success in war and great influence in council. As a warrior he made several expeditions with the central tribes against the people of Heretaunga, especially Ngati-Kahungunu, and he assisted in repeated endeavours to instal the Ngati-Raukawa in the Hawkes Bay district. On one of these expeditions (in 1820) while he was besieging Roto-a-Tara (near Pukehou) a detachment went off to Waimarama, where they lost Te Heuheu's brother Manuwhiri, the Taupo chief Tawake, and Peehi Turoa's brother Rangimarama. As he raised the siege Ngati-Kahungunu taunted Mananui with his grey hairs. Two years later he returned with a stronger taua and reduced the pa with great slaughter. About 1828, he returned with a very strong taua of Ngati-Tuwharetoa, Waikato, Ngati-Raukawa, Ngati-Maru and Arawa, and besieged Ngati-Kahungunu and the Ngapuhi chief Te Wera at Mahia peninsula. On the way there, while passing Wairoa, his section of the army defeated an enemy force, capturing the chief Te Reketua-te-Rangi and his daughter, whom he released and eventually befriended. An avenging taua of Ngati-Kahungunu and their allies two years later invaded Taupo and overwhelmed a pa at Omakukura. They had intended going on against Waikato, but Te Heuheu made peace on behalf of Ngati-Tuwharetoa and Waikato and persuaded them not to go farther.

In 1825 Te Heuheu accompanied Ahi Karamu on the heke of Ngati-Raukawa to Kapiti. Te Rauparaha tried to persuade him to join his federation, but his objection to the Ngati-Maru prevented him doing so. In 1832, with their Whanganui allies, the Ngati-Tuwharetoa under Te Heuheu attacked the heke Tama te Uaua at the passage of the Whanganui river, but was repulsed with loss, including his brother Te Popo and the Taupo chief Tutawa. In 1834, in response to an appeal from Te Rauparaha for help in quelling the disputes of the tribes who were now located in the south, Te Heuheu led a taua of 800. After stubborn fighting, in which his brother Te Papaka was killed, the Ngati-Awa were defeated at Pakatutu and peace was concluded at Haowhenua, the vanquished tribe agreeing to stay south of Waikanae.

Te Heuheu on this occasion marched as far as Port Nicholson. He resented the efforts made by the missions to Christianise his people, but befriended them for the advantage he would receive in attracting trade. To Selwyn, who visited him in 1843, he complained that no missionary had been sent to him, but said that he would take his time to decide upon the acceptance of Christianity, or which creed he would choose. In 1840 Iwikau, while at Bay of Islands, signed the Treaty of Waitangi and received red blankets and other gifts distributed by Captain Hobson. When Pirikawau and a government commissioner called on him Te Heuheu warmly repudiated the act of his brother, and insisted on the return of the blankets. He received Edward Jerningham Wakefield (in 1842) with cordiality and dignity, but suspecting that he wished to buy land, declared firmly that he had sold neither his land nor his authority, and warned the pakeha to remain along the seaboard and not to invade the interior of the country. In common with other visitors Wakefield found Te Heuheu a dignified and commanding personality. Sir William Martin described him as 'a grand old heathen chief, a man of huge size and weight; a regular aristocrat.' Richard Taylor considered him the perfect picture of a savage chief. Angas, who was in Taupo in 1844, pictures him in the same light-imposing and dignified, a fine old man, generous and hospitable. D. McLean, too, was impressed by his intellectual powers.

Herea had lived in a palisaded pa at Waitahanui. When Te Heuheu became chief he abandoned this pa and took up his abode at the village of Te Rapa, near Tokaanu. In 1842 his elder son, who had been living with the Ngapuhi chief Tamati Waka Nene in the North (and had assumed the name Te Waka) returned to his home accompanied by a strong deputation of northern tribesmen and the gift of a horse. In Jan 1844 Te Heuheu led a strong war party to exact utu from Ngati-Rauru and Ngati-Ruanui. While he was encamped at Whanganui Bishop Selwyn and Major Richmond arrived in H.M.S. Hazard and by the combined efforts of the missionaries he was persuaded to return to Taupo. Te Heuheu was a great tohunga and a capable military tactician. Sagacious and eloquent in council, his mana was greatly enhanced by his relationship with Waikato and Ngati-Maniapoto.

He met his death tragically in a landslide which enveloped his village on 7 May 1846, burying himself and his wives, Te Waka and 54 others. A younger brother, Tokena te Kereihi, escaped, and the heir presumptive, Pataatai, was absent with his mother's people. Owing to tribal objections to the proposal to bury the remains of the chief on the mountain, Tongariro, they were interred close to the scene of the tragedy, but were removed secretly to Tongariro in 1850. Sixty years later they were again exhumed and interred in the mausoleum at the village of Waihi, close to Te Rapa.

Amongst the chiefs of Ngati-Tuwharetoa was a proverb, which originated with Potatau te Wherowhero in the fifties: "Ko Tongariro te maunga. Ko Taupo te moana. Ko Te Heuheu te tangata." (Tongariro is the mountain; Taupo is the sea; Te Heuheu is the man.) Owing to the inexperience of his son Pataatai, Mananui was succeeded by Iwikau, his brother.

Personal information from Sir Apirana Ngata, J. H. Grace, R. H. Ward, Russell Duncan and Judge F. O. V. Acheson; Bidwill; Cooper; Selwyn, Annals; E. J. Wakefield, Adventure; Crawford; R. Taylor; Thomson; Buller; Tucker; Angas (p); Cowan; Carleton.

Reference: Volume 1, page 209

🌳 Further sources