IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS
Waata Pihikete Kukutai's father was also named Kukutai. His
mother was Oeroa, and he was married twice, to Rangi-Herarunga and
to Rangihaia.
Kukutai converted to Christianity in 1839 and took the name
Waata (Walter). Later he also used the name Pihikete which is a
transliteration of 'biscuit'. In December 1866 he wrote to Bishop
Selwyn stating that in depression after the death of his wife he
had taken poison and would shortly die. He was removed to Waiuku,
where he died on 8 January 1867, at the estimated age of 45.1 A Waiuku correspondent gives
this tragic but poignant account of his death:
Doubtless ere this the melancholy intelligence of the death of
Waata Kukutai chief and native assessor of the Ngati Tipa has
reached you. He has for some considerable time been in failing
health, induced: partly by the loss of his wife and some other near
relatives of his tribe; during the past fortnight Dr Gray of
Waiuku, has been in frequent attendance upon him. Dr Hovell, of
Howick, has also seen him, and advised his removal to a more
healthy locality as the place he was lying, an island in the
Waikato opposite Purapura, being low and swampy was not by any
means calculated to improve the health of any person suffering as
he was, under tubercular and ulcerous affections. On Sunday last,
the 6th it was determined to remove him and bring him to Waiuku.
According on the 7th, he was met, after crossing the river, by both
the medical officers mentioned above, who were provided with
stimulants and cordials of every description, to revive and assist
him during the journey. After leaving the Awaroa, he was conveyed
to a cottage belonging to Mr Wilson Smyth, which had been obtained
for him, and it was hoped by his friends that this removal to a
position of high and healthy would tend, at any rate to prolong his
days. But all these precautions came too late. On Tuesday morning
the medical gentleman pronounced him sinking, and although during
the whole day they paid him the most assiduous attention and nursed
him with the utmost care he gradually became weaker and weaker and
expired.2
NM
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