Keepa Te Wharau: a Ngati Rahiri rangatira

Abstract

Keepa Te Wharau’s whakapapa linked him, unusually, to both Ngati Maru and Ngati Haua. Through these connections he was associated with the Te Aroha district from an early age, visiting it on several occasions and even cultivating there, briefly. When the block was before the land court he gave evidence – though his evidence in a later succession case was clearly wrong, deliberately so. Having interests in several blocks of land, he falsely claimed not to have received money for the Aroha Block, using the excuse of drunkenness, for which he was before the court on several occasions. He would sell land, as would his children, to meet living expenses. He invested in two goldfields, Thames and Te Aroha, very modestly. A leading rangatira, he was notable for his loyalty to the Crown.