Page 21 - J G Book

In 2013 Lance Kenyon and I drove along Taikatu Rd and found the little Maori
cemetery (urupa) but were unable to determine the exact location on the Taikatu pa or
the neighbouring farm which had been leased by James George Kenyon.

The above photographs show the easy, slightly rolling dairy land in the Otakeho area
as it is today.
Titokowaru, the most successful strategist and feared fighting chief of the recent war
in South Taranaki, is supposed to have been born in the district, and used Taikatu pa
as a stronghold at times. The pa also provided support for the passive resistance and
civil disobedience campaign led by Te Whiti and Tohu, at the community of Parihaka,
in response to the South Taranaki land confiscations.
James George and his family had settled in Otakeho only about twenty years after a
large armed force had sacked and destroyed the defenceless community at Parihaka.

“Some of the Maoris were very fine people, but their pigs were allowed to run
wherever they liked, with the result that they would come over to our place and root
up the grass, which meant my brother Harold and I would have to go back and level
back the sods etc….” (John Wilson Kenyon)

Hawera and Normanby Star
4 November 1903
th

John Kenyon
Harold Kenyon

(and Edie Hooper who,
many years later was to
marry John Kenyon.)

In the past, Taranaki
farmers had been
notorious for the poor
school attendance of their
children.

In the early 1900s it was still an issue.

However, despite the loss of their mother, James George made sure that his children
attended school regularly during those difficult years.

4/11/16 graemekenyon@hotmail.com 17