The great Ngatimaniopoto [sic] chief, "Wahanui" family and friends at his house, Alexandra

item details

NameThe great Ngatimaniopoto [sic] chief, "Wahanui" family and friends at his house, Alexandra

ProductionBurton Brothers; photographer; 07 June 1885; New Zealand
Alfred Burton; photographer; 07 June 1885; New Zealand

Classificationgelatin dry plate negatives, black-and-white negatives, group portraits

Materialssilver, photographic gelatin, sheet glass, photographic plates

Materials Summarygelatin glass negative

Techniquesblack-and-white photography

Registration NumberC.010002

Credit linePurchased 1943

Overview

Group of people sitting on the side of the porch of a weatherboard house at Pirongia (Alexandra).

This extract originally appeared in New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2025) on page 128.

Wahanui Huatare, seated in the centre of this photo, was a prominent Ngāti Maniapoto chief who fought against the government and British forces when they invaded the Waikato in 1863–64. After the war ended, he became a principal adviser to the Māori King, Tāwhiao. He was opposed to selling land, but he and fellow Ngāti Maniapoto leader Rewi Maniapoto realised the inevitability of their King Country territory being opened to settlement. Their policy of controlled sale safeguarded their farming endeavours and enabled them to retain their mana as much as was practicable. In 1883, the pair agreed to allow surveying for a railway line through the region, enabling Alfred Burton to accompany Rochfort’s survey party up the Whanganui River and into the King Country in 1885. He took this photograph of Huatare and his whānau at the end of his journey, near Te Awamutu.