Potatau Street Potatau is the family name of a dynasty of Maori kings

The Potatau came to the fore as royalty in 1858. Potatau Te Wherowhero, the first Maori King was was born about 1800, the son of a famous warrior, Te Rauangaanga who waged many campaigns against the Ngati Toa tribes in Taranaki until the European missionary effort influenced the warlike chiefs to desist hostilities and they became more inclined towards peace. Although Te Wherowhero attended church services regularly, he refused to be baptised.

Potatau cut an impressive figure and was probably the most famous warrior of his day. He was over six feet tall and apparently Te Wherowhero means red man because he was the first among his people to wear a scarlet blanket. Potatau means ‘he that counts by night’, the name given to him when his wife, for whom his love was so great that he sat sleepless for many nights as she lay dying. Te Wherowhero died on 25 June 1860. Many tribes gathered to pay tribute to the great warrior chief and he was succeeded as king by his senior wife’s son, Tawhiao Tukaroto Matutaera Potatau Te Wherowhero.

First named Tawhiao, he was brought up by his maternal grandparents and his reign lasted for 34 years right through the most turbulent era of Maori-Pakeha relations. He was a Christian and bible student as well as being very familiar with the Tainui priesthood’s ancient rites. Later he was baptised by an Anglican missionary and named Matutaera or Methuselah. During his adolescence his father had encouraged him to be a man of peace and in later years his sayings were regarded as prophetic. The main problems that Maori had to contend with after signing the treaty were the accumulation of land by the settler population and the social mayhem caused by European contact. The wars of the 1860s in Taranaki and the Waikato, and the government's confiscation of Maori land saw Potatau and his people landless and forced to retreat into King Country.

When British forces invaded the Waikato on the pretence that the Maori tribes were intending to attack Auckland, Tawhiao, as he was now called, and his people lost more than a million acres to the settlers. He was a strong advocate of guerilla warfare but his warriors insisted on retreating into fortresses which were overwhelmed by the British. If his tactics had been adopted the Waikato campaign would have been more problematic for the British. Tawhiao then moved deep into the King Country where he ran a prosperous pa until peace was made in 1881.

The third Maori King, Mahuta Tawhiao Potatau Te Wherowhero was Tawhiao's second son but elected to the office of king by the Kauhanganui or King Parliament that was set up by Tawhiao to complement the Colonial legislative council but was denied by Auckland authorities. The parliament's members consisted of tribally appointed delegates who advised the king on policy and was used by him to communicate with his subjects. It remains in existence today. Mahuta did a deal with Seddon which enabled him to accept a seat on the Legislative Council. This was in exchange for opening up one million acres for settlement on a leasehold basis. He later decided not to remain on the council in order to maintain the King Movement’s independence. He died in 1912.

Te Rata Mahuta Potatau Te Wherowhero, the eldest of Mahuta’s five sons was the fourth Maori King. He travelled to England and was granted an audience with King George V when he presented yet another petition asking for the restoration of confiscated land but the British government reiterated that Maori must look to the New Zealand government for the redress of grievances. Te Rata fell ill during the failed expedition but it confirmed his status as the first Maori King to be received by a reigning British monarch. He died in October 1935. The following Maori Queen Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu was a descendant of Te Rata as is the present Maori King.

David Batten runs a Facebook page - Arch Hill Matters and tells us that about 1935 Potatau Street was known as Codrington Street. He doesn't know why it was changed except that soon after Codrington Crescent appeared as a street name in Mission Bay. (DEIRDRE ROELANTS)