Writing compendium of Wi Tako Ngatata

This brass-inlaid rosewood writing slope was presented Wi Tako Ngatata M.L.C on his appointment to the Legislative Council (L.C.) in 1872. Wi Tako's appointment, together with Mokena Kohere of Ngati Porou, was the first appointment of Maori to the L.C., New Zealand's Upper House when it operated under a bicameral two-house parliament before it was abolished in 1951.

Wi Tako was one of the great statesmen of his generation and played a vital, but precariously balanced, role mediating between the Colonial administration and disaffected Maori during the early settler period and the fallout following the Treaty of Waitangi, mostly over land purchases and disputes. Wi Tako's intervention, together with that of other moderate tribal leaders, kept the greater Wellington region neutral and free from much of conflict that disrupted Taranaki and the Waikato.

Dr. Isaac Featherston, politician, Superintendent for Wellington, and New Zealand Cross recipient, was quoted as saying of Wi Tako that he was the cleverest man in the Colony, black or white!