Richard Todd

"The Murder of Surveyor Richard Todd: In late 1870, the peace of Alexandra was shattered by the news that the government surveyor, Richard Todd, had been murdered at his camp about two miles west of the settlement. Todd was a well-known identity whose home was at Raglan. When plans were being made to establish garrison settlements to protect the confiscation line, he acted as an adviser to Colonel Haultain on the location of settlements at Cambridge and Maungatautari. He was an Ensign in the 2nd Waikato Militia and was listed as a Government Surveyor. It was in this capacity that he accompanied the Hon T. Russell, Minister for Colonial Defence, when he and General Galloway inspected the redoubts and settlement at Alexandra in July 1864. Todd surveyed a road line from Alexandra to Raglan via Harapepe, the present day Limeworks Loop Road, Fillery Road and the Waitetuna valley. For the settlers of Alexandra and Harapepe this gave promise of direct access to the port of Raglan and less-expensive transport to and from Auckland. However, governments of the day were unwilling to support its development and continued to favour the more difficult Old Mountain Road route between Raglan and Hamilton where the Waikato Militia Headquarters was located. In November 1864, when Todd was surveying the route from Harapepe, his survey party was threatened by Maori who fired a shot at his camp, but then “skedaddled” (as a newspaper put it) when a detachment of the 40th Regiment went to their aid. Precisely what triggered this incident is not clear, but as James Cowan later noted, there were two sets of men who were hated most by the Maori residents of the Rohe Potae: surveyors who were frequently the prelude to land alienation, and gold prospectors who had begun to take an interest in the land beyond the confiscation boundary. Not only was Todd a surveyor, but during the road survey he was reported to have found rocks bearing traces of gold. Todd’s murder occurred on 28 November 1870 when he, and his surveying partner Edward Frissell were contracted to survey and cut boundary lines around 350 acres awarded to Hone Te One and Ngati Hikairo by the Native Land Court, within the confiscated territory, but adjacent to the boundary. According to other members of his survey party, Todd was warned to discontinue the survey but laughed off the threat by Kingites, saying that it was all nonsense. It was later suggested that the Kīngitanga objection to the survey stemmed from the fact that the land was to be given to Hone Te One who had been ejected by the Kīngitanga from the Aotea area of the King Country in 1867. Another contemporary explanation was that whilst surveying, Todd had crossed the Aukati into Kingite territory. Nevertheless, as Todd and his workers were having breakfast on the fateful morning, three armed Maori appeared from the bush and several shots were fired. The first shot killed Todd, and a half-cast chainman named Nopera (Noble) was seriously wounded in an arm and thigh. The other members of the survey party scattered, but were not pursued. Only Todd’s theodolite and a small leather bag, containing his papers were taken. Frissell’s survey party, four miles away, remained unharmed The event had all the characteristics of a ritual killing, although at Alexandra, and elsewhere in the district, it was initially feared that it might signal an uprising by the Kingites, all of whom were regarded at that time as ‘Hauhaus’. Todd’s body was recovered and brought to Alexandra where Dr Waddington, as Coroner, conducted an inquest where the jury returned a verdict of ‘Wilful murder against [by] a native or natives unknown’. The injured Nopera who, with assistance, had walked out, eventually recovered at Alexandra hospital, despite initial fears for his life. Many years later, James Cowan, who had interviewed people living in the Kawhia region of the Rohe Potae at the time of the incident, named Nukuwhenua as Todd’s murderer and said that the shooting party withdrew to the safe retreat of the densely-forested Hauturu Range south of Kawhia where, protected by the refusal of the Kīngitanga to cooperate with the Government until their confiscated lands were returned, he went free for all his days."

Source: Pirongia Heritage & Information Centre (2012, November). The Murder of Surveyor Richard Todd (No. 30, p. 2). https://pirongiaheritage.org.nz/newsletters/pdf/Newsletter_30.pdf