Do any New Zealanders know the origin of the word 'paheka'?

Question

By origin, I mean the root of the word.

Answer 1

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white settlers or recent settlers used since Treaty of Waitangi

The major population ‘groupings’ are usually labelled as European/Paheka, Maori, Pasifika and Asian

For the effect of the Treaty was to create a Maori protectorate. The frontier was unfixed, because the Crown had the right to pre-emption of lands under aboriginal title. There was no hard and fast frontier, as the House of Commons Select Committee Report on Aboriginal Affairs had proposed in 1837 along the lines of the Appalachian Protectorate of 1763.

So there was a Pakeha New Zealand and a Maori New Zealand. The Treaty of Waitangi did not in reality create "one nation". However through land sales and assimilationist policies, the British fully intended that result. Similarly in Paheka New Zealand, the main settler towns found themselves and their hinterlands institutionalised into self-governing provinces. The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 correspondingly provided for tribal self-government. Legislation was passed in 1858 to establish district courts and grant powers to the councils.

Once established, the New Zealand Government set about converting itself into a classic liberal state. It was doing this long before the "Liberals" came into office. The Waikato War was not just a land-grab but a consolidation by armed force of the protectorate. It only partially succeeded. Legislative machinery progressively worked away at it as the government's writ extended. The process was two-handed. The provinces were abolished, and instead of a poorly articulated confederation of provincial governments about the Central Government, there arose local government.

Answer 2

Pakeha, which is a Maori term for the white inhabitants of New Zealand, was in vogue even prior to 1815. Its original meaning and origin are obscure, but the following are possible origins, the first being the most probable:

From pakepakeha: imaginary beings resembling men.

From pakehakeha: one of the sea gods.

From keha: a flea.

From poaka: a pig.

Its use was in no sense derogatory.