Rangatira Honoured Correctly After More than 100 Years

The esteem in which the rangatira (chief) Te Hapuku is held has been restored, after his great-grandson alerted Hastings District Council that the street named in his honour was spelt incorrectly.

Since 1900 the street, in Frimley, has been named Hapuka, not Hapuku.

Late last year kaumatua Jerry Hapuku raised with council that Hapuka Street was supposed to be Hapuku Street in recognition of his great grandfather, Te Hapuku Te Ika-Nui-o-Te-Moana.

During the early 1900s Frimley was within the jurisdiction of the Hawke’s Bay County Council and remained so until 1957 when a boundary change brought it into the jurisdiction of the Hastings City Council.

Mayor Lawrence Yule, who welcomed attendees today, says council officers searched through agendas and minutes from the time, street maps and reports for evidence of the original naming.

Survey plans creating the subdivision in which the incorrectly spelt Hapuka Street is situated were created in 1916–1917. However, the original plans appear to have been destroyed in the fire after the 1931 earthquake.

Replacement plans were submitted to Land Information New Zealand by surveyor Guy Rochfort in 1932 and show the spelling of the street name as “Hapuka” Street.

“The records threw no light on the correct spelling of the name but the oral tradition from Mr Hapuku provided the missing evidence. In May this council decided to officially change the name from Hapuka to Hapuku Street,” Mayor Yule says.

“Considering the standing Chief Te Hapuku had in the community, his signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the fact that the name Ika-Nui from the nearby Ikanui Road is also contained within Chief Te Hapuku’s title, it makes sense that Hapuka Street was named after Chief Te Hapuku Te Ika-Nui-o-Te-Moana.”

Today Mr Hapuku blessed the new street sign in the presence of 40 family, friends and officials from council.

Kaumatua Jerry Hapuku says “When something like this happens in Maoridom we say ‘Harikoa te ngakau’ which means ‘My heart is humbled by this’ and that is how I feel today.”

Te Hapuku te Ika-Nui-o-te-Moana was one of the main chiefs in the Heretaunga Plains, who facilitated settlement of the Heretaunga Plains before he left the District after the battle of Pakiaka, in Clive. He was also a farmer and assessor for the Native Land Court. He died in 1878.