Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland
Purchased John Leech Gallery, 2005

In May 1844, Auckland was home to one of the largest Maori feasts ever recorded. Organised by Waikato Iwi some 4,000 guests assembled between Mt Hobson (Remuwera) and Mt St John (Titikopuke) for the Maori feast. For a week they dined on 9,000 sharks, 100 pigs and 11,000 baskets of potatoes. They also consumed large amounts of tea, tobacco and sugar. When Governor Fitzroy arrived on the first morning of the feast he witnessed two groups of 800 Maori warriors perform a thunderous haka before charging at each other in a mock battle armed with guns and tomahawks. The entire event was a spectacular display of Maori power and strength.

There was a good deal of uneasiness prevailed in Auckland over the assembly of such a vast number of natives, but the feast passed without disturbance of any sort, a conspicuous feature in connection with it being the regular observance of religious services by the assembled natives. New Zealand Herald