Tuamarina Monument

Image Credit: Tua Marina River, scene of the Wairau Massacre, Blenheim, by Burton Brothers studio. Te Papa

At Tuamarina (10 km north of Blenheim on SH 1) there is a memorial stone to 22 Europeans killed during conflict over land on June 17, 1843. John Blenkinsopp, captain of a whaling ship, tricked the Maori chief Te Rauparaha. He persuaded him to sign an agreement for what the chief thought were rights to timber and water in exchange for a canon.

The deed in reality, however, granted Blenkinsopp rights to thousands of hectares of land on the Wairau Plains. His widow sold the deed to Colonel William Wakefield after her husband’s death. Te Rauparaha ripped up the agreement when he discovered the fraud.

Despite warnings from the Maori chiefs, settlers from Nelson began surveying the land. The conflictcame to a head at Tuamarina when magistrates attempted to arrest Te Rauparaha. After a shot was fired, both sides began firing and 22 settlers and 6 Maori were killed. In 1844 Governor Fitzroy judged the European settlers had ‘...violated the rules of the law of England... and the principles of justice.’
The Wairau incident is regarded as the first skirmish of the New Zealand Wars.

Tuamarina Cemetery On the hill; travelling towards Picton turn right off SH 1, then left. Under a tree to one side of the cemetery, a white, pyramid-shaped memorial names the settlers who died, including Wakefield’s brother. Alongside the memorial is a canon, presumably the one given to Te Rauparaha by Blenkinsopp.