Ngawaka Taurua

Ngawaka Taurua (died 28 April 1888) was leader of Ngāti Hine, a sub-tribe (hapū) of Ngāti Ruanui, a New Zealand Māori tribe (iwi) in the area south of Mount Taranaki.^[1]

Taurua taught at Pātea under the Wesleyan catechist William Hough in the 1840s. He would later petition the Wesleyan Church for a minister, and was ultimately responsible for the erection of three churches: Tūtahi, south of Whenuakura, in 1883; Te Takerei-o-Aotea, at Manutahi, in 1888; and Te Kapenga, at Hukatere, in 1889.^[1]

In the 1886 by-election in the Western Maori electorate, Taurua came last out of five candidates.^[2][3]

Taurua died 28 April 1888 and was buried at Hukatere.^[1]