Puke-Tapu Pa and the epidemics named Te Rewharewha and Te Ariki.

More than one reference has been already made to the sacred character of the old pa, named Puke-tapu (or sacred hill), situated on the coast five and a-half miles north of New Plymouth, just to the north of the Bell Block. It held this character from very ancient days, because in its neighbourhood was a renowned burial ground where the chiefs of many parts found a final resting place, and, moreover, it is said to have been one of the earliest settlements on this coast. At the present time much of the old pa has been blown away by the winds, and parts are covered by sands from the beach, which is immediately below it. The old palisading of the pa could be seen as page 269late as the early fifties, but there is scarcely a vestige left of any occupation beyond the shell heaps, now to be seen, that formed the refuse places of the pa.

The place has been depopulated on several occasions. The first time was about the year 1790-95, when that scourge known as Te Rewharewha—an epidemic of some kind—caused the death of most of the inhabitants. This scourge was not confined to this place for it ran very generally through the North Island, and, according to the accounts of the old Maoris, it carried off many thousands of people. Here, at Puke-tapu, it was contagious. It is said that if one affected person touched another the disease was communicated, and the victims died within a few days. It raged with such violence at Puke-tapu that there were barely enough people left alive to bury the dead, and that it was only by abandoning the pa that any of its inhabitants were saved alive.^*

The above, however, was not the only occasion on which these people suffered very heavily from a similar cause, as did those of the surrounding districts. This was the epidemic known as Te Ariki, which spread through the country from Coromandel in 1820, and which has already been described. Puke-tapu suffered with the other pas of the neighbourhood.