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From issue: May 2000

Ko Te Whare Mihinare o Puari

The Maori Anglican Church at Puari

by Jenny Murray

At Koukourarata / Port Levy is the site of what was probably the first Anglican Church in Canterbury

The recent registration of the site of the whare karakia (church) at the kainga of Puari at Port Levy on Banks Peninsula, by the Historic Places Trust, is one of the first registrations in Canterbury under the new regional structure of the Trust. The registration, sought by the
Runanga o Koukourarata, marks a site of significance to the local hapu. The commemorative rock and accompanying information board will promote a wider understanding of the region's Maori past.

An old photo which shows the church at Puari standing close to the sea. The site is not far from the present jetty and runanga hall. Photo: Canterbury Museum

Koukourarata, or Port Levy, is a peaceful, scenic bay on the northern side of Banks Peninsula. Koukourarata is now the name of one of the bay's kainga, but is also applied to the long thin harbour with its small, tree-covered island, Horomaka, from which the rest of the Peninsula is said to have been peopled. The bay became the home of Ngai Tuhaitara, Ngati Huikai and Ngai Tutelmarewa.

Port Levy peaked in historic importance in the 1830s and 1840s. As well as attracting a cosmopolitan population of whalers, Koukourarata became the base for Ngai Tahu in those decades. "The Pa we were approaching was called Puari, and it was the largest I had seen on the island; and the numerous and extensive cultivations skirting the wood declared them to be the work of a considerable population," wrote Edward Shortland in his journal when he visited Port Levy in the company of Bishop Selwyn early in February 1844. Little is now visible of the once populous Puari Pa.

Mrs Matapi Briggs was one of those responsible for having the site of the church marked. Her hand rests on the rock she chose for the memorial. Photo: Ash Spice

In the 1840s a whare karakia, constructed of wood or raupo, was built by the Maori Anglican congregation at Puari. This was replaced in 1865 by a more solid structure, which survived until 1947 or 1948. For just over 100 years, a place of worship stood on the site. The original building is believed to have been the earliest Anglican church in what was to become Canterbury, the most Anglican of New Zealand settlements. The claim of this site to be that of the earliest whare karakia of the Church of England in the region is worth emphasising. It is important also as one of the few sites to be identified from the period of Koukourarata's ascendancy in the history of Maori and Pakeha in the region.

Ngai Tahu had been scattered in the 1830s by raids led by Te Rauparaha, after being weakened through internal feuding. Regrouping took place on Banks Peninsula, where visiting whaling ships gave opportunities for trade and employment. Whalers wintered over at Port Levy, and a few Pakeha began living on shore with their Maori wives. Numbers fluctuated, but records support figures of around 150 to 218 for the Maori population in the mid-nineteenth century.

After 1850, and the founding of the Canterbury Settlement, many Ngai Tahu returned to Kaiapoi and other districts, but Koukourarata continued to be a centre of Maori population for many years. There was a great deal of coming and going, often by sea. In due course, canoes and whaleboats; were succeeded by a launch service.

With changing economic and social patterns, particularly after the 1940s, the population declined. There are now few permanent residents. Access is by steep winding roads. As the road enters the settlement, it passes a cairn commemorating the arrival of Christianity in the region in 1840. A kilometre or so further on are the Tutehuarewa Meeting House (built in 1925) and marae, the centre of present day hapu activities. Nearby, at Port Levy jetty, the road ends. Beyond that, on a grassy, open area gently sloping to the sea, is where the church once stood.

The present runanga hall at Puari is near the base of the jetty, a short distance from the site of the church. Photo: Ash Spice

In 1994, Matiti Payne of Ngai Tutehuarewa began to work towards gaining wider recognition for the site of the church. Matiu, then at secondary school, prepared background research, gathered support for the project from his community, and approached the Historic Places Trust. Following the initiative from Matiu and with the advice and encouragement of Mrs Matapi Briggs, a long-standing member of the local runanga, more specialised research has been done by Chris Jacomb, Archaeologist at the Canterbury Museum, and Jenny Murray, for the Historic Places Trust's Canterbury Branch Committee.

It is difficult to date the first whare karakia precisely, but it is likely to have been built in 1844. When Bishop Selwyn visited Puari in February of that year, there were church teachers, an Anglican congregation and regular worship already established. Christianity had been brought to Banks Peninsula by Maori teachers in 1839 or 1840.

Selwyn is believed to have chosen the site of the church. Though Walter Mantell did not distinguish the whare karakia from the seventy or so thatched whare at Port Levy noted in an 1849 letter, a map of the reserve of the same year, drawn by Octavius Carrington, clearly shows that the church was larger than the buildings around it.

The whare karakia at Puari was one of at least eighty Maori church buildings traced in the South Island by the late Wesley Chambers. Most of these he termed 11 vernacular", that is built in the Maori style. These impermanent structures of wood or raupo were in some cases replaced by weatherboard churches with iron roofs, of which a few still stand. Although Selwyn and later Pakeha churchmen took services in Mihinare (Anglican) whare karakia, these early buildings were not officially consecrated. Nor did the land on which they were built become the property of the local diocese. There were earlier Maori churches in the South Island than the one at Puari, at Nelson and Port Underwood, and also in Otago. No evidence of any earlier Anglican whare karakia in the Canterbury area has been found.

A Methodist whare karakia at Port Levy appears on the 1849 Carrington map. To commemorate this and an early Maori Christian teacher, Tawao, the Methodist Church erected a cairn at Port Levy in 1950. No documentary history for the Methodist church has been found other than the mark on the 1849 map. It may not have survived very long.

A more substantial church was built on the site of the Anglican whare karakia in the 1860s. This second building was the first of several Maori weatherboard churches built in the region in the 1860s and 1870s. These were often used by both Anglican and Methodist Maori congregations, following an agreement made in 1860 between Bishop Harper and the Rev. James Buller. In spite of the early strength of Methodism, Koukourarata had become predominantly Anglican by 1857.

Preparation began for the building in 1859. James Stack, Canterbury's Anglican Maori Missioner from 1859 to 1888, recorded that church members who owned forest trees promised timber. This was cut into boards by skilled sawyers, Maori from the North Island who had stayed on after working for the Canterbury Association. After the timber was ready the project was held up by lack of money.

According to Stack, writing many years later, one hundred pounds was raised by selling firewood in Lyttelton. In 1863, when the congregation wrote to the Provincial Council for assistance, the sum they had collected was fifty pounds, to which was added a subsidy of fifty pounds. The General Government had already responded to a request from the Port Levy congregation with a grant of twenty pounds.

By April 1865 there was a "very satisfactory church" at Port Levy. This report is, so far, the earliest record that the work had been completed. Photographs taken in the 1920s and 1930s show it to have been a very plain structure, with a small belfry, a Gothic door, flanked by two rectangular latticed windows, and a larger window at the sanctuary.

There was a period of neglect from the late 1860s, when the teachings of the prophet Te Maiharoa were influential at Port Levy. The connection with the Church of England was restored during 1876, and the building was repaired. In 1877, Bishop Harper attended the re-opening of the church. The church porch was decorated with evergreens, the houses with flags and "the whole population, dressed in their best, attended the service". Most of the time local Maori lay readers were responsible for the church services, with occasional visits from clergy. In the nineteenth century, these included a Methodist, the Rev. Wirernu Te Koti te Raton, an Anglican, the Rev. Teoti Pita Mutu, and also Pakeha churchmen, notably James Stack.

The Anglican church at Puari stood as a mark of Maori presence in what rapidly became a predominantly European province. In the mid-nineteenth century Ngai Tahu lived in settled communities, built a number of churches and adapted to the changing world of colonial New Zealand. This important transition period is poorly understood in Canterbury. The Ngai Tahu claim to the Waitangi Tribunal drew attention to aspects of Maori history directly relevant to their claim. But these did not include the reception of Christianity in the South Island and the way in which the church became part of the fabric of Maori life. An integral part of Maori history in Canterbury has remained overlooked.

The church was supported by its congregation until the 1920s. A photograph of 1929 shows the Rev. F.H. Bennett, who was to become the first Bishop of Aotearoa, visiting the church.

The church at Port Levy shortly before its destruction by fire. Photo by WA. Taylor; print from the collection of the late Wes Chambers

The attraction of the Ratana movement in the economically uncertain years of the later 1920s, followed by a loss of population from the area, caused the congregation to dwindle. The building was subject to vandalism and, after a fire in 1947 or 1948, was demolished.

There is now a movement back to Port Levy. Members of the Runanga o Koukourarata have undertaken recording and celebrating the site of the church for the sake of their mokopuna as well as for visitors. In mid December 1999, the church reserve at Puari was the scene of the ecumenical Maori Christmas service which has been held annually for twenty years at various places in the district.

A commemorative stone with a brass tablet and a wooden cross to mark the site of the historic whare karakia were dedicated. The cross was carved from local totara by Richard Coop, a member of a family which has long farmed in Port Levy. Much credit for working on the project over a number of years goes to Matiu Payne, now in Otago. Mrs Matapi Briggs, who was a child at Port Levy, had the perseverance to see the project through.

The Rev. Maurice Gray taking part in the dedication of the memorial which now stands on the site of the church at Port Levy. Photo: Christchurch Press

The Canterbury Branch Committee of the Historic Places Trust has helped the runanga by erecting an information board. More remains to be done. It is not just a question of establishing the significance of the church buildings at Puari in the history of Maori life in Canterbury. The site needs attention. There is little more than an outline of the foundations visible on the grassy area by the shore. This is where visitors to Port Levy often park their cars, and a recently constructed public toilet is nearby. Plans are being made to set the site apart and protect it.

Jenny Murray is an historian member of the Canterbury Branch Committee of the Historic Places Trust.