Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

In 1843 a party of 23 Māori with 25 Moriori slaves sailed in the brig "Hannah" to the Auckland Islands (called Maungahuka by the Māori). Took potatoes and seed with them.

Their diet described. Mussels, only 2 kinds of fish, the young of seabirds. Could only find one part of the island suitable for growing potatoes. Ate a plant with a leaf like a turnip as a vegetable. As flax, they used a stout leaved plant growing there, there being no New Zealand flax natural to the island.

Names of those left on the island are given. After 2 years Enderby whaling party arrived and occupied the island with them. A dispute between the Māori described. Māori stayed till Enderby settlement broke up at end of 1852. Some went to Stewart Island. In 1856, the remainder were fetched back to the Chathams (their friends had chartered a brig at a cost of 100 tons of potatoes).

Some different versions are given in the footnotes: A footnote confirms the date of the settlement. Gives an account of a sealing party working in the Auckland Is. who encountered the Māori in November 1843. The Māori were eating a supply of potatoes left on Enderby Island in Port Ross.

The settlement was visited by the Governor Enderby in 1849. The Māori "possessed many hogs and had enclosed and cultivated a considerable quantity of land." Another informant, who talked directly to the Māori chief Matioro on his arrival in Stewart Island, said they could get nothing to eat but seals flesh; had tried to grow potatoes, but failed; nothing would grow. Which is why they left.

Mrs Maurice Topi, of Ruapuke Island, obtained information from Rita Paewhenua (Ngātiawa and Ngāti Kahungunu) whose father was one of the chiefs engaged in war on the Chatham islands when Matioro left "The Māoris went to the Auckland islands in the schooner Hannah of Sydney an English vessel. There were from forty to fifty of them and they landed at Port Ross two or three years before Governor Enderby. They lived on fish etc. and tried to grow potatoes but they would not grow well; they also introduced some flax plants from the Chatham Islands, which are said to be growing there now..."