Nga Tohu

In 1840 more than 500 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. Ngā Tohu, when complete, will contain a biographical sketch of each signatory.

Signing

SignatureSheetSigned asProbable nameTribeHapūSigning Occasion
128Sheet 1 — The Waitangi SheetTahuaTahua Wiremu HopihonaNgāpuhi?Te Popoto? Mangungu 12 February 1840

Tahua Wiremu Hopihona (William Hobson) signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 12 February 1840 at Mangungu, Hokianga.

He fought on the side of the government during the Northern War of 1845–46.

In 1853, Wiremu Hopihana and other important Ngāpuhi chiefs wrote to Governor George Grey to farewell him. Three years later he was one of the Hokianga chiefs who wrote to Governor Thomas Gore Browne. They recalled an 1831 letter sent by northern chiefs to King William IV of England requesting his protection, and the Treaty of Waitangi, noting that they were committed to peace.

Hopihona was described as a ‘chief of high rank, and one of the few remaining of the old warriors’. A peacemaker between Māori and Pākehā, he was ‘of generous and noble disposition.’ [1]

Hopihona was believed to be around 70 years of age when he died in 1876.

[1] Thames Advertiser, 14 December 1876, p. 3, http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=THA18761214.2.9

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Anonymous

Posted: 13 May 2020

this man wiremu tahua hopihana shot heke in the thigh. despite that, after ruapekapeka both heke and wiremu were on good enough terms to hold negotiations with each other in order to come to a conclusion with the kawana. interestingly, wi repa while being interrupted by a misisonary during a skirmish told him to make leave and let them 'takaro' a little

Anonymous

Posted: 21 Apr 2020

he shot heke in the thigh the later on towards the end of the northern wars tried to convince heke to meet the governer to make peace to which heke refused

Anonymous

Posted: 20 Mar 2020

wi hopihana tahua was the ariki of te ngahengahe sub tribe

Anonymous

Posted: 19 Mar 2020

haki mamene, jack marmon wrote it was wi hopihana who shot heke through the thigh during the te ahuahu engagement