Map maker: William Anderson Taylor

William Anderson Taylor (1882 - 1951) was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1882 and emigrated to New Zealand with his parents in 1892. He left school at the age of thirteen to commence a seven-year apprenticeship at the Christchurch Press under the tutelage of his father who was a lithographer and photographer in the newspaper’s illustration department. He subsequently worked as a photographer for several New Zealand newspapers.

Taylor attributed his life-long interest in Māori history and culture to a chance meeting with a Ngāi Tahu boy his own age, Sam Tini, at the small Ngāi Tahu kāinga of Wairewa (Little River) on Banks Peninsula in 1894. He maintained this friendship for the rest of his life and knew Tini’s grandchildren.

Taylor began compiling ‘Māori history notes’ around 1910 – a practice that led to his eventual compilation of over one hundred notebooks and scrapbooks dedicated to historical subjects. He also took thousands of photographs including many of Ngāi Tahu people and places. He had many Ngāi Tahu friends and acquaintances who knew him as Wiremu Teira. 

Taylor's sketch plan showing the tributaries of the Ōtākaro to the west of the city is roughly rendered on tracing paper. It was one of two maps he sent to his friend James Herries Beattie as a visual aid to their ongoing conversation about Christchurch waterways.

'...among the documents down behind a steel grill...'

Taylor may have discussed the place names of Christchurch waterways with his Ngāi Tahu friends and acquaintances but the place names recorded on this sketch plan were almost certainly primarily derived from documentary sources. Taylor worked voluntarily at the Christchurch branch of the Lands and Survey Department in Christchurch from 1936 to 1941 classifying and ordering the records of the Canterbury Provincial Government and the Canterbury Association. In the course of this work he encountered numerous original documents including correspondence, sketches, plans, deeds, and maps dating from the earliest period of colonisation in Canterbury. He studied early survey plans and correspondence from Ngāi Tahu rangatira to determine the allocation of place names and their orthography.

Taylor noted that  the early surveyors in Canterbury including Joseph Thomas, Thomas Cass, Cyrus Davie, and Samuel Hewlings all ensured they had local Māori on their survey gangs without exception. These Ngāi Tahu men acted as guides, waka paddlers - and place name informants. Among the named survey gang chainmen were 'Pairamu' who worked with Edward Jollie on the surveys of Sumner and Christchurch in 1849-50; 'Ehi' and 'Abraham' who worked on the survey of Christchurch by Henry Cridland in April 1852; 'Teroutai' who worked on the survey of the Ihutai Estuary with Charles Torlesse in March 1851; 'Te Aika' who worked with John Cowell Boys on the survey of Christchurch to Double Corner; and 'S. Huru' who worked with Thomas Cass in January 1851.

A distinguishing feature of Taylor's approach to place name research was his knowledge of physical geography gleaned from personal experience in the field. A tramper and cyclist, he was a familiar figure around Christchurch from the 1920s to the 1940s carrying his camera and tripod. He spent years exploring and documenting rivers and their tributaries throughout Canterbury and Otago.

In Christchurch he walked the length of all the tributaries he mapped on his Christchurch waterways sketch plan. He spent much of his life living in Avonside in close proximity to the Ōtākaro which was a favoured subject of his photography. Over many years, he photographed Christchurch waterways at numerous locations.

Christchurch waterways and mahinga kai

The attraction of the Christchurch area to Ngāi Tahu was the interconnected network of wetlands, streams and tributaries which were highly treasured as an invaluable source of mahinga kai (food and resource gathering). 

The Canterbury Purchase of 1848 had devastating consequences for Ngāi Tahu. The Ngāi Tahu rangatira (chiefs) who signed the agreement believed that their mahinga kai would be set apart for them as stated in the Māori text of the purchase deed. However the meaning of the term ‘mahinga kai’ was interpreted differently in the English and Māori versions: Ngāi Tahu interpreted mahinga kai to mean all places from which food and resources were gathered whereas the English translation narrowly defined mahinga kai as 'cultivations'.

Twenty years later, in 1868 the Native Land Court met in Canterbury and specific claims were made by Ngāi Tahu to key locations within Christchurch City including several sites along the Ōtākaro. All of these claims were dismissed by the Crown. In 1880 Aperahama Te Aika and Matene Rehu reasserted their claim to Whakaomariki during the Middle Island Native Land Claims Commission of Inquiry into Ngāi Tahu land grievances.

The documents below are part of the wealth of evidence presented to the commission. The papers exemplify the longstanding assertions by Ngāi Tahu of their rights to access mahinga kai associated with Christchurch waterways.