Hohepa Otene (& Joseph Orton) 1808 – 1874

Sometimes they were the surnames of some notable Methodist leader on the other side of the world, but mostly it was someone with whom the candidate for baptism could more immediately identify. One example of this was the name given to a rangatira at the heads of the Manukau Harbour – named for John Bumby, who lost his life in a boating accident on the Hauraki. This man became known as Pumipi. It is hard to avoid the impression that such actions were, to a degree, designed to commend the missionary in the eyes of his superiors in London.

It is exactly 150 years since the death of Hohepe te Otene Pura, born at Rotopipiwai, on the Hokianga, about 1790. His kin were leaders on the northern shores of that harbour, which during the 1830s was the scene of a good deal of unrest arising, naturally enough, from the increasing presence of European settlers and by the consequent disruption of both traditional living patterns and the presence of firearms. Titaha Whito and his wife Moeawa Titahi were of Te Uri Mahoe, a subtribe of Ngāpuhi. As an aside it is significant that the husband was a nephew of the great Hongi. What was going on across the other side of Tai Tokerau could not but affect the Hokianga people. When the Wesleyan Mission was established at Mangungu around 1830 it found itself inevitably caught up in various struggles to re-establish some kind of equilibrium.

The missionaries who came and went during that period all recognised the necessity of developing consistent relationships with their neighbours. The son of Titaha and Moeawa was to become known, as the result of his baptism, as Hohepa Otene Pura – though only the Otene name was generally used. He had been born into a family with chieftainly influence in the Mangamuka Valley. He was nearly 40 when the Mission opened, and he became involved in its works within a couple of years. Having himself been converted in about 1835 he then became most active in the conversion of his own people on the northern side of the harbour. He was a signatory to Te Tiriti at Waitangi, but not when Hobson moved to Mangungu to gain more allies. It was at Waitangi that he signed himself Hohepa Otene Pura. By 1845 he had moved further north to the site of the original Wesleyan Mission at Kaeo, and there he remained for a decade or so until he was appointed Native Assistant Minister at Mangatawhiri in the northern Waikato from 1857 - 1864. It would be interesting to know why the Mission’s leaders chose a man of such mana to occupy this already troubled area; was it to offer a role in its pacification? The outbreak of Land Wars was signalled in 1863 by British troops crossing the Mangatawhiri Stream, declared sometime before by Kingitanga to be their autaki (boundary). By now Hohepa Otene was in his ‘advanced years’ and he moved north to Matauri Bay, where he died in late March 1874. He returned home to Mangamuka to be buried.

A word also needs to be said about Joseph Rennard Orton, the English Wesleyan missionary. Born in Hull in 1795, he entered the Methodist ministry in 1826 and was immediately sent to Jamaicia. There he was actively engaged in the anti-slavery movement, was wrongfully imprisoned, and because of his incarceration his health was permanently undermined. On his release he returned to England, but was then sent to Australia in 1831 to be the District Chairman. He resided in both Sydney and then Hobart and is remembered for his strong leadership among the scattered Wesleyans. While living in Hobart he visited Aotearoa in 1833 for ten weeks, and later for several months in 1839, waiting to find a ship that would take him to Tonga. Eventually his health gave out and he died on his way home in 1842. A biographer described him as both ‘saintly’ and ‘gallant’ – high praise even for those days.