The New Zealand Festival

Lithographed by Day and Haghe. Published by Samuel Augustus Tegg, Hobart.

This magnificent panorama shows the arrival of Governor Fitzroy’s party at the Māori Feast held at Remuera (Mount Hobson) during the week of 11 May 1844. They were greeted with a haka performed by 1,600 Māori. The hosts were Waikato tribes keen to impress Pākehā officials with the mana of the chief Te Wherowhero, who was later to become the first Māori king. In turn Governor Fitzroy used the occasion to communicate a more conciliatory attitude towards Māori issues than had been adopted during the recent past.

About 4,000 Māori were present, their number said to have caused some uneasiness among the settlers. To provide for tangata whenua and their guests, a shed 400 yards long was erected. Provisions comprised 11,000 baskets of potatoes, 9,000 dried sharks, 100 pigs and large quantities of tea, flour, rice, tobacco and sugar.