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NEW ZEALAND WARS
VOLUME II: 1864-72
First published 1923
Reprinted without amendment 1956
THIS VOLUME of the New Zealand Wars History carries on the narrative of the Maori campaigns from the commencement of the Hauhau War in Taranaki in 1864 to the final expeditions against
The description of the Pai-marire, or Hauhau religion, under whose impulse the war against the pakeha was waged with a desperation unknown in the earlier years, contains much that has not previously been recorded. For this and for many other word-of-mouth contributions to a better knowledge of the Maori side of the long racial conflict my thanks go forth to my old warrior friends, both Kawanatanga and Hauhau. Many a day was spent, frequently on the fern-grown site of some fortification or on some battle-ground, in gathering from the veteran bush fighters of two races the stories of the past—stories, in the case of the Maori, often given a high dramatic value by the graphic manner of the narrator. The stirring tales of the past have been drilled into the memory of the native of the old type by unvarying repetition in the tribal home, until every incident of a day's action has been indelibly impressed, to be released like a phonograph record when the time comes. This remark applies in particular to the generation of men now fast passing away; the young Maori's mind has been transformed by books and colleges, and he has lost the marvellous memorizing powers of his forefathers.
For documentary evidence of special value I am indebted to Captain
Death has claimed many of the veterans, pakeha and Maori, who were among my authorities and helpers—chief among them that good soldier Colonel Porter. I regard it as fortunate that so much material enabling us to picture accurately the life and incidents of a vanished day was gathered while there was yet time.
THE DEFEAT OF the Kingite tribes and the settlement of the confiscated lands with large bodies of drilled men assured peace, albeit a sullen one, in the Waikato, but Cameron's successful campaign, 1863–64, by no means secured the general pacification of the Maoris. While British cannon were battering to dust the last defences of the Kingite warriors, a new and infinitely more desperate and formidable plan of campaign was formulating itself in Taranaki. Less than a week after the fall of Orakau the colony was startled by the reports of a new phase of warfare in Taranaki, accompanied by a fanatic ferocity unknown in the previous campaigns. This hardening-up of the Maori fighting-spirit in a kind of holy war imparted to the racial struggle a savagery and a bitter persistence that carried the war up to the young “seventies.” If it developed to the utmost the Maori amor patriae and the peculiar military tactics in which the natives excelled, it produced also a determination on the part of the British colonists to see the fight through in their own way. The beginning of the Hauhau campaign saw the beginning of New Zealand's policy of self-reliance in matters military. After 1865–66 the numerous campaigns and bush operations were conducted by the colonial forces; and, although there were very critical hours when it seemed as if the aid of Imperial troops would again have to be called for the heavily strained resources of the settlements met the demands, with the assistance of those native tribes which for a variety of reasons, political and otherwise—expediently accepted by the pakeha as loyalty to the Queen—decided to throw the weight of their arms against the Hauhaus. It was in fact only the help of these loyalist or Kupapa tribes, under the leadership of colonial officers, that turned the scale and brought lasting peace to the old frontier.
The confiscation of land, the territory of the so-called rebels, was a prime factor in the renewal of the war. The Native Land Settlement Act, framed by the Whitaker-Fox Ministry, and passed by the Legislature in 1863, entrusted enormous powers of
Early Governments imperfectly appreciated the peculiar depth and strength of the Maori's regard for his ancestral land; they could not understand why a race should fight to the death for a country which for the most part lay in a waste condition. Patience, conciliation, and an honest endeavour to understand the native point of view and to remove mutual misunderstandings were counselled by a few, but in truth the interests operating for strong-handed action were all-powerful. The wrong perpetrated at the Waitara should have been righted generously, but nothing was done, apart from the grudging renunciation of the purchase, to compensate hapus that had remained peaceful, and of such complications hostility was the inevitable fruit. Both races were strong and stubborn, and the Maori blood was prone to fire up into savagery at threatened intrusion. The Maori, too, had come to realize that now or never was the time to assert himself to the utmost, and throw off a rule whose character and effects he had not realized to the full when he accepted the British overlordship in 1840. To-day the two races are so indissolubly blended in social intercourse, in national ideals, in a common pride of country, that they can afford to look back without passion on the conflict of race interests in the “sixties,” finding but a pathetic lesson in the spectacle of the two headstrong, independent peoples of our earlier cruder years challenging each other to a death struggle for the prize of the land—in a bounteous country where there was room for twenty times their number. The intense devotion with which the Maori held to his land is difficult, perhaps, for the present generation to realize. Only when one discusses the subject with a native of the olden time, a venerable man or woman who has fought the pakeha and marched chanting around the sacred niu mast, is the power of this land-love made manifest.
The land—always the land, from the days of Wakefield onward—that was the putake o te riri, the grand root of all trouble. But when the white fire of a fanatic religion fused the people in a federation of hate against the pakeha all problems merged into one, that of race-mastery. So, when Pai-marire captured the impressionable and essentially religious Maori nature it spread like a fire in dry fern, and we find tribes who had no grievance whatever against the white man united in casting off semi-civilization, and throwing themselves into the battle for Maori independence.
The Pai-marire or Hauhau religious cult, which welded so many tribes in a bond of passionate hate against the pakeha, was partly a reaction from the teachings of the Christian missionaries, and partly a recrudescence of the long-discredited but unextinguished influence of the Maori tohunga or priest. It was a blend of the ancient faith in spells and incantations and magic ceremonies with smatterings of English knowledge and English phrases and perverted fragments of church services. Ridiculous as they were when analysed, the sum of the teachings had a most powerful effect upon the impressionable Maori. Pai-marire appeared just at the hour when the hostile tribes, embittered by heavy losses in men and property, were in a mood to welcome a new battle-cry and new hope of turning the tide of war against the pakeha. By its appeal to the imagination and the strong religious sentiment of the Maori it took the place
tohunga Maori, schooled in the ancient religion, were the first to accept Pai-marire; they were astute enough to recognize that by adopting it they would secure the ancient ascendancy of their class over the people which the Rongo-Pai had impaired though not destroyed. These priests became so many Mad Mullahs advocating the doctrine of fire and tomahawk so strangely at variance with the title of the religion. No Mohammedan leader preaching a jehad against the infidels was more fiercely passionate in his denunciation of the aliens than were the chief apostles of Hauhauism; and no fighting race was ever more receptive to the gospel of a crusade than the tribes from coast to coast of the Island when Kereopa brandished the smoke-dried head of a slain white soldier before his excited congregations and initiated them in the ceremonies of the niu. The old fanatic fire has burned to ashes, but the haunting, heart-stirring chants remain; and many there remain, too, of the disciples who marched round the sacred mast painted red for war, intoning the song of pakeha's bullets, the sign of the upraised hand, the ringa-tu, palm outwards, on a level with the head, as if in the act of warding off the enemy's projectiles. So persists the fanatic sign of old, long after the fiery faith that inspired it has gone.
The Pai-marire faith had its origin in the half-crazed brain of a Maori of the Taranaki Tribe named anahera, or angels, from
pakeha. atua Maori of old there were substituted troops of angels, headed by Gabriel, and these supernatural visitants were to give the faithful the gift of tongues, and confer upon them many strange and wonderful powers. Anahera hau,” or “wind angels,” one of the curious phrases originating with niu. “Hau,” “hauhau,” or “whakahau,” is also a battle-cry meaning “Strike! Attack!”
This niu was the central symbol of worship under tohunga in his mystic arts of divination, particularly before a battle. niu was a tall pole or flagmast, round which the faithful were to march in procession chanting their hymns. The first niu erected in Taranaki is said to have been part of one of the masts of the steamer “Lord Worsley,” wrecked near Cape Egmont in 1862. Crossed with a yard, rigged with stays and halliards, and adorned with flags of curious design, it was the first visible emblem of the fantastic religion. niu under the direction of niu stood in nearly every large village from Taranaki to the Bay of Plenty (excepting the Arawa country), and from the north of the Wellington district to the Waikato frontier. Some of these masts of worship were of great size, and very decorative they were when the war-flags of many colours and many devices were displayed upon them from truck to yardarm, while below the earnest worshippers marched around the sacred pole. A remarkably lofty niu was that which stood at Whakamara, in the Ngati-Ruanui and Pakakohi country, inland from Patea; it was 70 feet or 80 feet in height, and was crossed with three yards; the blocks through which the flag-halliards were rove had been taken from a vessel wrecked on the coast. This niu was destroyed by the Government forces under Colonel Whitmore in 1869. Another celebrated niu stood on the village square at Taiporohenui, the headquarters of rupe, or dove. Carved knobs sometimes decorated the ends of the yard or the crosstrees; one of these knobs was called Rura and the other Riki, the names of two of niu there were carved rupe at some of the yardarms, from which also dangled ropes for the convenience of the spirits in descending on the people.
Some of the ancestral beliefs were mingled with atua, or guardian diety, was the owl, or ruru, a bird which is regarded with veneration by the Taranaki Maoris; they say it is a god and has a hundred eyes. Sometimes, the old natives say, when ruru would appear and fly about him or perch near him: this the prophet would regard as a warning to return to his home. pakeha-Maori, related to me that when pa, on the Tangahoe River, early in 1866, a ruru flew from the forest at dusk and perched on the ridge-pole of the house in the front of which the prophet was sitting. pa was stormed and taken by the British troops under General Chute. Such incidents went to confirm the popular belief in the Pai-marire high priest's great personal mana and his supernatural attributes.
The peculiar appeal of Pai-marire to the popular imagination made I t a most powerful instrument for Maori nationalist propaganda. With the assumption of supernatural virtues by the priests was blended a kind of mesmeric influence over the devotees which made them oblivious to danger and swept them into desperate efforts to regain the ancient supremacy of the race. pakeha's bullets could be averted by certain magic spells. Thus the faithful marched to battle chanting their hymns and holding the right hand up on a level with the face, palm toward the enemy, while they cried in quick sharp tones, “Hapa, hapa! Pai-marire, hau!” “Hapa” means to pass over or ward off; the act and the formula were supposed to avert the bullets from the true believer. In exactly the same spirit the Arabs of the Sudan charged upon the British squares, and the wild tribes of the north-west frontier of India came rushing down against rifle and machine-gun. Even repeated defeats and the deaths of their first war-prophets did not demolish the faith in the incantations and the magic sign of the upraised hand; and not only were the
This belief in the efficacy of spells of securing protection from the enemy's weapons has been a feature of many a racial war or crusade. Among the North American Indians and the Mohammedan peoples of Africa and Asia there have been many instances of the same fanatic faith. “The Suffi and Hadda Mullahs exerted the whole of their influence upon their credulous followers. The former appealed to the hopes of future happiness. Every Ghazi who fell fighting should sit above the Caaba at the very footstool of the throne, and in that exalted situation and august presence should be solaced for his sufferings by the charms of a double allowance of celestial beauty. Mullah Hadda used even more concrete inducements. The muzzles of the guns should be stopped for those who charged home. No bullets should harm them. They should be invulnerable. They should not go to Paradise yet: they should continue to live honoured and respected on earth.”—“The Story of the Malakand Field Force” ( Also see note on the North American Indian Messianic craze in 1890, at the end of this chapter.huna, the purpose of which was to conceal them from their pursuers. No cover was supposed to be necessary: the huna was sufficient, they believed; it raised a friendly mist which befogged the foe. We read of very much the same kind of supernatural mist in the “Iliad.”
The political value of such faith was enormous. Pai-marire attracted even many of those who had no faith in pakeha. Spreading out fanwise from the foot of Taranaki Mountain to the heart of the Island, to the north and to the south and to the eastern seaboard, it united in a common body of hostility to the Government all those tribes who had grievances against the British. It was fortunate for the European population that no military genius showed himself in the early stages of Pai-marire, and that no Maori statesman with a brain like
Several times a day the Hauhaus in every settlement gathered at the foot of the niu pole of worship and marched in procession round and round the mast, chanting in chorus the Pai-marire incantations taught by the prophet. Many of these chants, sounding very musical as they rang through the forest that walled in the rebel villages, were simply meaningless strings of English words rounded into the softer Maori; others were either transliterations or mispronunciations of parts of the Church of England
pakeha sailor.
ldquo;Porini, hoia!” (“Fall in, soldiers!”) was the call when the Pai-marire prophet marched to the niu and took his stand at its foot, within a kind of altar-rail painted blood-red. The people fell in, in military order, and round and round the sacred mast they went, and as they marched they recited in a high chant this curious medley, believing it a most potent incantation given to the sons of men by the angels:—
Kira, wana, tu, tiri, wha—Teihana!Rewa, piki rewa, rongo rewa, tone, piki tone—Teihana!Rori, piki rori, rongo rori, puihi, piki puihi—Teihana!Rongo puihi, rongo tone, hira, piki hira, rongo hira—Teihana!Mauteni, piki mauteni, rongo mauteni, piki niu, rongo niu—Teihana!Nota, no te pihi, no te hihi, noriti mino, noriti, koroni—Teihana!Hai, kamu, te ti, oro te mene, rauna te niu—Teihana!Hema, rura wini, tu mate wini, kamu te ti—Teihana!niu—Attention!
Then the measure of the incantation changed and took a less staccato and more musical note. “E te Matua, pai-marire” (“O Father, good and gracious”) the leader began, and all the people responded, “Rire, rire, hau!” Then they chanted in a wild cadence, sometimes falling softly away, then rising and swelling into a volume that throbbed with a fervour intense, the ritual of “Waiata mo te ata,” or “Morning Song,” beginning with this karakia—
To mai Niu kororia, mai merire!To mai Niu kororia, mai merire!To mai Niu kororia, mai merire!To rire, rire!
The words “mai merire” were a transliteration of the Latin “miserere mei” in the Roman Catholic prayers. Another burst of “Morning Song” followed:—
Atua pai-marire,Atua pai-marire,Atua pai-marire,Rire, rire!Atua Tamaiti, pai-marire,Atua Tamaiti, pai-marire,Atua Tamaiti, pai-marire,Rire, rire!Atua Wairua-Tapu, pai-merire,Atua Wairua-Tapu, pai-merire,Atua Wairua-Tapu, pai-merire,Rire, rire!
This chant, rhythmic and haunting in its frequent repetitions, was inspired by the Church of England prayer-book. It called upon God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost to “have mercy upon us—mercy, mercy.”
In the evening assemblies in the meeting-house there was much chanting of hymns and prayers. This was one of the evening hymns:—
To tangikere Pata, mai merire,To tangikere Pata, mai merire,To tangikere Pata, mai merire.To tangikere Titekoti, mai merire,To tangikere Titekoti, mai merire,To tangikere Titekoti, mai merire.To tangikere Orikoti, mai merire,To tangikere Orikoti, mai merire,To tangikere Orikoti, mai merire.To rire, rire!
Translated, and avoiding the repetitions of the Maori, these lines were—
A maorified version of the Benediction was chanted with one voice, all the people holding up the right hand on a level with the head as they intoned in solemn music these words:—
Kororia me te Pata,Ranei tu,Ranei to,Riiko—e!Te wai te pikine,Huoro PataHema ta piWai wi rau te,Rire, rire, hau![“Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning and ever shall be, world without end”—and, instead of “Amen,” “
Rire, rire, hau!”]
The words in a Maori dress were simply “pidgin,” imitating the sounds of the English. An aged half-caste woman who saw much of Hauhauism in the “sixties” says that it was a long time after she first heard the “Kororia,” as it was termed, before she discovered what it meant. “The Hauhaus used to come to me,” she narrates, “and say, ‘Our gods taught us this; it is English and you ought to know it.’ The people believed that when they had learned all these incantations well their gods Rura and Riki would give them power to walk upon the water and perform many other miracles”.
Goodness and mercy were the distinguishing attributes of the Hauhau faith, if one judged it by the hymns and prayers; but these chants all formed part of a scheme designed to exalt the Maori and obtain for him spiritual and material advantage over the hated white man, and the “good and peaceful” refrains soon became war-cries in the most desperate racial struggle yet waged in the Island.
Curious stories are told of the hypnotic power which the chants of tohunga Maori, exercised over many of the people. A half-caste member of the Ngati-Rangiwewehi section of the Arawa Tribe (the woman already mentioned) described some of the scenes which she witnessed when the niu of Pai-marire stood at Puhirua, on the north-west side of Lake Rotorua, 1865–67. Ngati-Rangiwewehi and one or two allied hapus were the only people of the Arawa who accepted the Hauhau faith; they were predisposed towards it because of their heavy losses in 1864 in the rifle-pits of Te Ranga. Moreover, the prophet Kereopa was a member of the tribe. The prophet of the niu at Puhirua in 1865 was a tohunga named Tiu Tamehana, and when he led his disciples in the rites they seemed perfectly oblivious to all outside things. Said Heni te Kiri-karamu, narrating the strange scenes in Puhirua,—
“I never would have anything to do with Pai-marire myself, but my mother, two of my young daughters, and my brother Neri were living with the Hauhaus at Puhirua, and they became converts. The Pai-marire believers seemed to be possessed of a spirit; they would keep on circling round and round the This niu pole perhaps for an hour, half-dazed, holding their hands aloft, repeating their prayers in a sing-song chant. Their bare legs and arms might be covered with namu (sandflies), but they apparently did not feel their bites. My mother and brother went circling about the niu in procession with the rest. As I sat on the marae watching the Ngati-Rangiwewehi go round the niu I particularly admired one young chief woman named Hikairo. She was dressed only in a beautiful korowai, a white cloak of fine dressed flax. It was fastened over her right shoulder, leaving that arm free, and reached to below her knees, and her bare firmly shaped arm was upraised in the gesture of the Hapa Pai-marire as she marched with dignified step round the flagpole. She, like the others, was perfectly fascinated by the Hauhau service. When my brother met me on my visits to the village he would greet me in strange words and repeat his Hauhau charms; he explained that he was trying their effect on me and endeavouring to turn me to the new faith. But I told him that I could not place my faith in the Hauhau religion, and he agreed at last that the spells would have no power over one who was so firm an unbeliever.”niu at Puhirua, and one which was erected at Te Kiri-o-Tautini, three miles inland to the north-west, were the only Pai-marire poles of worship set up by the Arawa. The deserted hill pa Puhirua is a beautiful spot overlooking the northern and north-west shore of Rotorua Lake, between Awahou and Hamurana (Te Puna-i-Hangarua); the site of the old headquarters of Ngati-Rangiwewehi is now a burial-ground. Te Kiri-o-Tautini was the centre of a collection of small settlements for food cultivation on the southern edge of the great forest which extended northward to the Tauranga district.
A singular night seance in the communal meeting-house at Puhirua was described to the writer by the venerable Heni:—
“One night,” she said, “the people tried to put the spirits on me—that is, to influence the Pai-marire gods to gain me as a convert. The spirits, or nga wini as they called them [winds, the hau of the Maori], were supposed to dwell in the niu, but they could be invoked in the wharepuni at night. On this occasion a stranger named Nohoroa te Koki was in the village, and as he was not a believer in the Hauhau religion up to that time it was determined to convert him, and at the same time to make a final effort to turn me to Pai-marire. We were told to stand up, and then the people began their prayers and recited karakia after karakia in chorus to try and draw the wini down upon us, to
tohunga powers. After a while I began to laugh, and this annoyed the people, who earnestly told me I was very wrong to laugh when they were calling down the spirits. Nohoroa laughed, too, at first; but presently he became still and attentive. Then, as the chants went on, becoming more and more earnest and intense, he began to tremble and shiver, and went into a kind of trance or fit. He opened his mouth and commenced to recite the usual pidgin-English incantations, ‘Piki mauteni, rongo mauteni,’ and so on. He was a convert at last. The people were greatly gratified at what they imagined was the miraculous work of the spirits. But they never won me over.”
The devotees of Pai-marire professed to regard the Jews as co-religionists; they considered that under niu sometimes styled themselves “Tiu,” or “Jew” one of these was Tiu Tamehana, mentioned by Heni te Kiri-karamu.
Sometimes renegade white men joined with the Maoris in the ceremonies round the niu. One of these runaways from civilization who had “taken to the blanket” was niu chanting
Heni te Kiri-karamu relates that one day she was astonished to see a white man, a shaggy-haired fellow with tattered clothes, emerge from the bush at Te Kiri-o-Tautini (on the edge of the forest three miles from Puhirua, on Lake Rotorua) and walk up to the niu which stood on the marae. Walking round it with his right hand raised, he began to chant the Pai-marire service. The people watched the strange pakeha in astonishment; then several joined him at the niu. It was in self-protection that this
niu immediately he entered the village; he knew that by doing so he would assure his safety. He was a deserter from the colonial forces at Tauranga, and had already lived a bush life with the Piri-Rakau and Ngati-Raukawa Tribes for some months (1865–66).
One of the first worship-poles set up by Taiporohenui is a name of great niu at Taiporohenui, near Hawera, the principal gathering-place of Ngati-Ruanui in the first Hauhau campaign. In front of the great meeting-house the sacred mast was planted, a totara pine flagstaff 50 feet in height, with a yard about 14 feet long; the mast was stayed like a ship's. The war-flags of the Hauhaus were flown from the staff, and the people daily marched around its foot in their Pai-marire procession, intoning the chants their prophets had taught them. It was the old Maori custom, when the centre-pole of a large meeting-house, or the first large palisade post of a fort, was set in position, to place a piece of greenstone, often in the form of an ornament such as an eardrop or a carved tiki, at its foot. Similarly, at the foot of the niu at Taiporohenui a large piece of unworked greenstone was planted, as the whatu or luck-stone of the sacred pole.mana among the Taranaki tribes. It is a very ancient Hawaikian name. A great Polynesian temple in Tahiti, one of the father-lands of the Maori people, was called Taiporohenui. The original Taranaki meeting-house of the name stood at Manawapou, but in the first Hauhau campaign an even larger house of assembly was built near Hawera; the present native village of Taiporohenui is on its site. whare as the largest building of Maori construction he had ever seen. It was constructed of hewn totara timber, with raupo-reed walls and nikau-thatch roof. The house was about 120 feet in length, a size so exceptional that the ridge-pole was supported by four poutoko-manawa, or pillars, instead of one or two, as in the ordinary meeting-house. At night five fires burned in the stone fireplaces down its long central aisle. The interior of the house was lined with ornamental tukutuku work of kakaho reeds and thin laths fastened with kiekie fibre. At the foot of the first house-pillar was buried a large uncut piece of greenstone, and another block of greenstone was placed at the foot of the niu.
It was an ancient Maori custom to place a human head beneath the central pillar of a scared house. As recently as 1873 there was a recrudescence of the belief in this custom. Mr. taingakawa, or ceremonial opening of a new Hauhau praying-house, at Tokangamutu.
The entrance of the Pai-marire party into active hostilities in Taranaki dates from the 6th April, 1864. Early on that day No. 1 Company (Grenadiers) of the 57th Regiment, and some newly enlisted Taranaki Military Settlers (No. 9 Company), were despatched from the redoubt at Kaitake—the position captured by Colonel Warre—to the high land above Pai-marire—hau, hau, hau!” they shouted, as they dashed on their panic-stricken foes. To the soldiers, struggling to use their rifles, the “Hau-hau” war yells sounded like the barking of dogs. Lloyd ordered the men to take cover and return the fire, but the resistance was short and useless. Those who essayed defence were killed; the rest made for the ocean-beach, two miles away. Seven soldiers were killed, and twelve were wounded. The Maori casualties were slight. Lieutenant Clarke, with the rear-guard on the hill above, escaped northward by a track along the side of the ranges. The firing was observed from the redoubt at Oakura, and a party was despatched to Lloyd's help, but the Maoris had gone, and only the naked and decapitated bodies of Lloyd and his men were found in the fern on the scene of action. The spot is about a mile south of the present village of Oakura, and on the line of the main road. Captain Frank Mace, with some of his Taranaki Mounted Rifles, was the first to make the discovery. When the alarm was given in New Plymouth a column consisting of the 57th Regiment (Major Butler) and the Taranaki Bush Rangers (Major Atkinson) was despatched to
The soldiers killed, besides Captain Lloyd, were Private Dooley, Gallagher, and Sadler, of the 57th Regiment, Corporal Banks and Privates Megles (or Neagles) and Bartley, of the Taranaki Military Settlers. (This corps was a battalion raised by the Government at the end of 1863, recruited chiefly in Victoria and Otago, where many of its members had been gold-diggers. The men were enlisted for three years, and on discharge were given grants of land in Taranaki.) Lloyd's headless body was identified by the rather slender hands and wrists.
On examining the ground it was found that a zigzag trench ran down the face of the hill from the abandoned Maori pa on the skyline of the range above
The heads of the slain soldiers, including Captain Lloyd's, were carried by the Pai-marire disciples to their prophets, and several of them were preserved by the ancient smoke-drying process, and were sent from tribe to tribe to enlist Hauhau recruits, as in the Highlands of Scotland the fiery cross was sent from clan to clan. One of the heads was recovered in 1865; it was sent to Taranaki and mistakenly buried as Captain Lloyd's. The Maoris state that Lloyd's head was taken by Kereopa across the Island as far as Opotiki, on the Bay of Plenty; another head, said to have been Gallagher's, was carried by the prophet
The Pai-marire worship now assumed a more ferocious phase than that which its founder had first given it. pakeha officer's head from tribe to tribe through the Island. When all the tribes had been visited and converted to Pai-marire the Maori people would be endowed with such power and wisdom that they would be able to conquer the white race and restore New Zealand to its original owners. This was to be done with Divine aid, and by implicit faith in the ceremonies and karakia of the Pai-marire. In pursuance of this militant programme tohunga would so far adapt himself to the needs of the hour as to become the priest of the niu. The more ferocious spirits among the converts numbered many such men as Te Ao-Katoa (“The Whole World”), the hereditary priest of the Ngati-Raukawa of West Taupo, who had been educated as a tohunga Maori, and who in 1865 assumed the position of Pai-marire leader in his tribe.
The decapitation of the slain soldiers at
A shrewd excuse for decapitation of foes was made by a Samoan chief after the defeat in 1888 of a German naval column at Vailele, on Upolu Island. The Germans who fell were beheaded. Mr. Carver, a Wesleyan missionary, had occasion to visit Mataafa's camp, and spoke of the practice with abhorrence. “Misikane,” said one chief, “we have just been puzzling ourselves as to the origin of the custom. But, Misi, is it not so, that when David killed Goliath he cut off his head and carried it before the King?”
There is a curious parallel to the Pai-marire fanaticism in the history of the North American Indian Messianic rising in 1890. Mr. James McLaughlin, U.S. Indian Inspector, tells the story in his book “My Friend the Indian” (1910). In the autumn of 1890 Kicking Bear, a half-crazed fanatic of the Minniconjou band, left the Cheyenne River reservation and imparted to Sitting Bull, the great medicine chief of the Sioux, the secrets of a new religion which would bring the Indian into the inheritance of the earth. The doctrine took an enormous hold upon many of the Indian people. Sitting Bull had already heard of the new religion, which was said by some to have taken form at the instigation of some south-western Indians who had observed the practices of those descendants of the Aztecs who look to the east every morning in anticipation of the return of Montezuma, who is to redeem them from toil and subjection, and set them to rule over the earth. Sitting Bull, having lost his former influence over the Sioux, now planned to use the new belief to establish himself in the leadership of the people, whom he might then lead in any desperate enterprise. Kicking Bear, describing his journey to the wonderful land of the ghosts, said he and his companions met the Messiah, who showed them the wounds in his hands and feet made by the whites when they crucified Him, and took them to the Great Spirit, saying that He (the Messiah) would come again on earth, and would remain and live with the Indians, who were His chosen people. The Great Spirit said to him, “While my children are dancing and making ready to join the ghosts they shall have no fear of the white man, for I will take from the whites the secret of making gunpowder, and the powder they now have will not burn when it is directed against the red people, my children, who know the songs and the dances of the ghosts; but that powder which my children the red men have will burn and kill when it is directed against the whites and used by those who believe.” “We found our horses,” continued Kicking Bear, “and rode back to the railroad, the Messiah flying along in the air with us and teaching us the songs for the new dances.” The Great Spirit was to make the eath anew, a paradise for the red man.
Sitting Bull kept his people madly engaged in the new dances, and it was evident that he was secretly preparing for some rash movement. That autumn there were strenuous times on the Dakota frontier. The rising, however, was early quelled by the Indian police. The fanatic ghost dancers at Standing Rock, North Dakota, and their chief, Sitting Bull, found that the magic medicine did not save them from the white man's bullets.
THE MOST DESPERATE encounter in the first Hauhau campaign in Taranaki was the recklessly daring attempt of a band of two hundred picked warriors to assault a British fort, the redoubt on Sentry Hill, in broad daylight. Only the extraordinary faith which the newly converted disciples of mana and magical incantations of the fighting religion can explain this hopeless charge against a strong earthwork under the fire of scores of rifles at point-blank range. It was the first fight after karakia which they chanted and the cry of “Hapa, Pai-marire!” to avert the bullets of their foes, accompanied by a gesture, the right hand uplifted, palm to the front, as if warding off the balls, would secure them immunity from death or wounds.
The redoubt attacked stood on the crown of a round hill called Te Morere by the Maoris and Sentry Hill by the Europeans, near the right bank of the Waiongona River; the site is close to the present railway-station of Sentry Hill, on the Lepperton Junction-Waitara line. The hill Te Morere, one of the numerous rocky mounds of volcanic origin dotted about this part of Taranaki, was a Maori pa in ancient times; it derived its name, meaning “The Swing,” from a tall swing-tree or “giant's stride” which stood there, with long ropes attached by which the youth of the pa were accustomed to go flying out over a swimming-pool in the river—a favourite sport of the olden Maori. In the early days of the war in Taranaki the ruined hill fort was often used as a lookout place by the Manutahi Maoris, and from this circumstance it obtained its English name.
About the end of 1863 Captain
The construction of this outpost, so near the Maori position in the bush at Manutahi, was regarded by the Atiawa Tribe as a challenge; it stood on their land. When the Pai-marire religion ran through the land like a fire through felled bush the Atiawa took advantage of this new patriotic impulse to propose the sweeping-away of the obnoxious Pakeha garrison on Morere Hill. Their allies eagerly approved this test of battle, and a war-party was formed composed of the best fighting-men on the West Coast from the tribes lately inoculated with the maddening germs of Pai-marire. Two hundred warriors were banded together under the prophet
From Te Kahu-pukoro, Te Kahu-pukoro died at Otakeho toward the end of 1920. He was the ariki, or hereditary high chief, of Ngati-Ruanui, and was closely related to ope which marched against Sentry Hill on the 30th April 1864. Afterwards he was one of the picked fighters of
“Before I was old enough to bear arms,” said Te Kahu-pukoro, “I witnessed several of the fights between the Maoris and the British troops; the principal one was the engagement at Kaitake. I also saw the British warships shelling our people at Tukitukipapa on the coast near Katikara. It was at Te Morere (Sentry Hill) that I first carried a gun into battle. I was very young, but a big strong lad, quite able to march and fight. The ope which assembled at the Manutahi pa [the northern Manutahi, not far from Mataitawa] for the attack on the British redoubt at Te Morere was composed of the best warriors on the West Coast. The Pai-marire religion was then new, and we were all completely under its influence and firmly believed in the teaching of karakia, and told us that if we repeated it as we went into battle the pakeha bullets would not strike us. This we all believed.
“Very early in the morning of the day fixed for the attack on Te Morere we all assembled at the flagstaff in the pa at Manutahi. Hepanaia led the sacred ceremonies round the niu. All the principal chiefs of the Taranaki country were there. Wirimu Kingi te Rangitaake was there; tokotoko (staff), and led his men. Another high chief was
“At Hepanaia's call, ‘Porini, hoia! Teihana!’ (‘Fall in, soldiers! Attention!’) we all formed a ring round the niu, Hepanaia standing by its foot, and we marched round and round the mast, chanting the incantations which the prophet had taught us, the Karakia beginning, ‘Piki rewa, rongo rewa, piki hira, ronga hira.’ When the service ended we formed up in order of battle, with our weapons in hand and our cartridge-belts buckled about us, and marched for the British redoubt on Te
ngutu-parera, or flint-lock muskets; some double-and single-barrel shot-guns. The warriors also had tomahawks and stone patu in their belts; some who did not carry guns bore taiaha, and some koikoi (short spears of manuka). For myself, I was armed with a percussion-cap gun, and had two hamanu (cartridge-belts), one buckled round my middle and one over my left shoulder. I wore a shirt and a rapaki (waist-garment).
“Now, had we followed the advice of our prophet Hepanaia we might had succeeded in our assault on the soldiers' fort. Hepanaia proposed that the ope should make a sudden attack on the rear of the fort, but Hare te Hokai, a chief of Te Atiawa, insisted that the force should boldly attack the place in front, and this met with the support of most of the other chiefs. Another unfortunate thing was that, as we were marching from Manutahi, one of our men discharged his gun in order to give warning to any Atiawa people who might chance to be in or near the redoubt, for some of that tribe were serving on the pakeha side. This gave the soldiers warning of our approach.
“It was perhaps about 8 o'clock in the morning when we attacked the redoubt. Hepanaia led us on. He was a fine man, with a great love for his country and his people. In appearance he was tall and lean; he was stripped except for a short piupiu of flax around his waist, and was armed with a gun. We went into battle loudly chanting our Pai-marire service. Fern, about waist-high, and bushes of tutu clothed the plain and the lower slopes of Morere Hill, and through this we marched after coming out of the forest. We passed near the spot where the railway-station now stands, and then began the ascent of the gentle slope which led to the mound on which the soldiers' redoubt was built. It was a high, strong earthwork surrounded by a trench; within were the barracks of the soldiers. We did not stoop or crawl as we advanced upon the redoubt; we marched on upright (haere tu tonu), and as we neared the fort we chanted steadily our Pai-marire hymn.
“The soldiers who were all hidden behind their high parapet, did not open fire on us until we were within close range. Then the bullets came thickly among us, and close as the fingers on my hand. The soldiers had their rifles pointed through the loopholes in the parapet and between the spaces on top (between bags filled with sand and earth), and thus could deliver a terrible fire upon us with perfect safety to themselves. There were two tiers of rifles blazing at us. We continued our advance, shooting and shouting our war-cries. Now we cried out the ‘Hapa’ (‘Pass over’) incantation which Hepanaia had taught us, to cause the bullets to fly harmlessly over us: ‘Hapa, hapa, hapa! Hau, hau, hau!
Pai-marire, rire, rire—hau!’ As we did so we held our right hands uplifted, palms frontward, on a level with our heads—the sign of the
“The bullets came ripping through our ranks. ‘Hapa, hapa!’ our men shouted after delivering a shot, but down they fell. ‘Hapa!’ a warrior would cry, with his right hand raised to avert the enemy's bullets, and with a gasp—like that—he would fall dead. The tuakana [elder brother] in a family would fall with ‘Hapa!’ on his lips, then the teina [younger brother] would fall; then the old father would fall dead beside them. The bullets actually scorched my face—this cheek, then that cheek, was scorched by the balls, so thick and close did they come. But not until I felt and saw the blood running down my body did I know that I had received my first wound. A bullet struck me in the left shoulder, at a range of about as far as from where we are sitting to that hedge yonder [about 60 yards]. I was just at the foot of the hill on the flat where the road now goes between Sentry Hill and the railway-station. But I was so excited and so possessed by the fury of the battle that I did not feel it at first. I went on, and then I felt my shirt wet with blood streaming down from my shoulder, and in a few minutes another bullet hit me, and passed through my left hip, missing the bone. Then I had to fall back, and I went down to a little stream near-by where I bathed and staunched my wounds, and by this time the attack was repulsed and our people were flying back, and I joined them and managed to get into the safety of the bush.
“Our people fell in heaps. The prophet Hepanaia fell, shot dead, near the redoubt. Another man, Te Wiwini, a very brave young fellow, walked boldly and fearlessly up, firing as he went, until he actually reached the trench below the parapet before he was killed. My father Tiopira was shot dead, and so also was his brother Hapeta. It was for them that my grandfather kai-karakia or teacher.
“About fifty of our ope were killed there, besides many wounded. Families fell there. It was a one-sided fight, a miserable fight (he mate rihariha), for, in spite of the desperate courage of our warriors, we could not get at the soldiers; they were safe behind their strong walls.”
“
“We survivors all retreated to Manutahi, and there my wounds were bathed with flax-juice, and in about a month I was able to travel again, and I returned to my home at Okaiawa, in the Ngati-Ruanui country. Boiled flax-root water poured on the wounds, and also dock-root (runa), well scraped and boiled, were our favourite remedies for gunshot and bayonet wounds.”
Such was Te Kahu-pukoro's stirring story of his first battle. The terrible slaughter of Hepanaia's deluded followers temporarily weakened the new confidence in Pai-marire, but karakia. The fanatic religion soon took strong hold upon every West Coast tribe, and was carried by apostles to the east and north, and presently in scores of villages niu masts of worship were erected, and daily the wildly excited people marched in procession round and round the pole where the brightly coloured war-flags flew.
The memory of Te Morere is kept ever before the minds of Te Kahu-pukoro's people in a beautiful poem of mourning for the dead, composed by totara,
Some months after the attack on Sentry Hill the neighbouring Hauhau pa Manutahi was captured by the British in this way. On the 8th September, 1864, Colonel Warre, with a force of 500 Regulars and Militia and some friendly Maoris, advanced upon Mataitawa, and found the direct approach blocked by a stockaded fort at Manutahi. The Bush Rangers, under Major Atkinson, skirmished up and were received by a fire from the palisades. Major Ryan, with a company of the 70th, and Captain Martin, R.A., with two guns, came on in support, and on the flank of the position being turned the natives abandoned the stockade. The fortification was of a rather unusual figure. It was nearly 150 yards in length, and the shape was somewhat that of a double concave lens, 20 yards wide in the middle but expanding towards the flanks, which rested on the bush on either side. The place was built across an open fern patch; the track to Mataitawa went through the bush in rear. The pa had parapets 8 feet to 10 feet thick in rear of the palisading and casemated covered ways. The troops pushed on without further opposition and secured Mataitawa. The niu flagstaff at Manutahi was cut down, and the palisading and whares were destroyed. One Maori was killed and one mortally wounded in the encounter.
On the 11th September Colonel Warre, with three companies of the 70th Regiment under Major Rutherford, 150 men under Major Saltmarshe, and an advance-guard of fifty friendly Maoris,
pa, the fortress which had so long baffled Major-General Pratt in 1860–61. The force got within a few hundred yards of the pa under cover of thick fog. When discovered the troops were fired on by the Maoris on the hill, but the place was soon abandoned. The works were found to be very formidable. There were trenches 15 feet wide, and—a novelty in Maori fortification—a parapet about 16 feet thick, covered by a line of rifle-pits or a covered way, about 40 feet in front of the line of the stockade. Thus, had artillery been used, the Maori defenders, being in front of instead of in rear of the stockade, would have been entirely under cover. The shot and shell thrown into the stockade would have been quite ineffectual, and the garrison would have been able to receive any attacking column after the palisades had apparently been breached. Lieutenant Ferguson, R.E., had the construction of a redoubt on this very beautiful and commanding position overlooking the Waitara.
The original of the lament for the dead at Te Morere, as recited to me by Te Kahu-pukoro and Whareaitu, begins:—
The poem is chanted to-day on the death of people of the Nga-Ruahine and other clans of Ngati-Ruanui.E hiko te uira ki tai ra,Kapo taratahi anaTe tara ki Turamoe,He tohu o te mate, na—i.
Sentry Hill as it is to-day is an example of the unfortunate destruction of a famous national monument. All that remains of the fort-hill is a mere shell, like a hollow tooth. The crest of the mound has disappeared, and Morere has been gutted—cut away by the Railway and local bodies, and spread over the rail-lines as ballast and the roads as metal. When I last visited the place I found only a portion of one of the flanking earthworks as yet undestroyed. If the work of demolition were stayed now it would be possible to save part of the hill as a war memorial, but the celebrated Morere has been disfigured hopelessly.
A famous place in American history which suffered a similar fate to that which had befallen Sentry Hill is Pawnee Rock well described by Colonel Inman in “The Old Santa Fé Trail.” This great rock, the scene of many fights between United States troops and frontiersmen and the Indian warriors, has been torn away by the railroad and the settlers, Colonel Inman records, and little now remains of the famous landmark. Recently, however, the Government erected a monument to mark the spot.
NEARLY FIFTY MILES up the Wanganui a low shingly island, roughly diamond-shaped and about half a mile in length, lies in the course of the strong river, with rapids above and below and on either side. The upper part of this island—the only one in the Wanganui—is composed of bare shingle and boulders; the lower half is covered with manuka and fern, with a few trees. This is Moutoa (“Isle of Heroes”), a famous battle-ground of the river tribes. Many a combat to the death has taken place on the desert island, set in the midst of the rapids, and the most celebrated of all was also the last, the battle of the 14th May, 1864, when the Lower Wanganui tribes routed a picked war-party of the up-river Hauhaus, killed fifty of them, and saved Wanganui Town from invasion. Moutoa lies about half a mile above the large native village of Ranana, and two and a half miles below the settlement Hiruharama (Jerusalem). A short distance above the island, on the right bank, is the pretty little village of Tawhitinui, with its abundant groves of fruit-trees. Here an old native war-track comes in from Weraroa, on the Waitotara River. This village was the rendezvous of the Hauhaus before the battle which decided the political destinies of the Wanganui tribes.
Soon after the surprise and slaughter of the British party under Captain Lloyd at niu mast was erected under the prophet's directions on the marae in the large village of Pipiriki; it stood on the west or proper right bank of the Wanganui, opposite the site of the present hotel and township, which was then a cultivation ground known as Te Kapua, with the flour-mill on the Kaukore Stream. The spot where the pole of worship stood was on a terrace at the landing-place a little below the Rangiahua Hill, the beautiful wooded headland (opposite the steamer-wharf) which is a blaze of kowhai flowers in the spring of the year.
Mr. Booth, who was the Resident Magistrate and Government Agent at Pipiriki, and his brother and family were the only Europeans living in the district. They had a very narrow escape from death in the dangerously changed temper of the people, but were at last permitted to leave in a canoe, leaving all their property behind, and reached Wanganui safely. Living under Mr. Booth's guardianship was a little half-caste boy about eight years of age, the son of a British military officer and a chieftainess of the Atiawa Tribe of Taranaki; the mother was dead, and the father had returned to England, entrusting the boy to Mr. Booth for education. Booth endeavoured to take this lad away with him, but the Hauhaus would not permit it, and kept him with them; and he retains to this day a very vivid memory of the thrilling scenes that followed his guardian's departure. This eye-witness, Mr. It was through the help of the Governor, Sir rangatira woman of Te Atiawa, closely related to
The white soldier's head (it is known now that it was Captain Lloyd's) was passed round from hand to hand in the Pai-marire ceremonies at the foot of the niu. It is described as that of a fair-whiskered man with shaven chin, in the fashion of those days. The head had been thoroughly dried in the mokomokai or paki-paki-upoko process. Its bearer, the prophet Matene, was a tall
niu, until many of them embraced it, one after another, and revolved about it, whirling round and round until they sank at its foot in a fit of giddiness and religious mania. The white man's head was passed from hand to hand among the frenzied worshippers, and there were some extraordinary scenes of fanatic fury. Some of the people, particularly those who had lost relatives in the Taranaki War, gnawed the dried flesh in their demonstrations of hatred and revenge. One, a handsome young woman, who had been brought up in Mr. Booth's family and who had been regarded as a quiet, gentle girl, was so overcome by the new madness that she snatched the pakeha's head from her neighbour at the niu and bit the flesh of the neck with horrible savagery. The people, indeed, were transformed by Matene's teachings; the appeal to the feelings of revenge swept them along irresistibly, and made them easy instruments in the prophet's unauthorized plan of campaign.
The adherents of Pai-marire, incited by Matene and other leaders, determined upon a bold attack on Wanganui Town, and a flotilla of war-canoes was prepared. Each waka-taua was decorated with carved figurehead and streaming plumes after the ancient fashion. A message was sent to the Ngati-Hau Tribe at Hiruharama asking them to join in the attack on the whites. Ngati-Hau were otherwise inclined, and immediately summoned the down-river tribes to their assistance against the Hauhaus.
The people of Hiruharama and other Ngati-Hau villages removed down the river in a body to Ranana, below Moutoa Island. Matene and his Pai-marire host—men, women, and children—embarked in their war-canoes and swept down the Wanganui to Tawhitinui Village, which they occupied and fortified. A message was sent to the chiefs at Ranana, saying that they intended to pass down the river to drive the Europeans into the sea. An uncompromising refusal of the right of way was returned by pakeha of the Town of Wanganui as for the mana of their river. Ngati-Hau, Ngati-Pamoana, and the lower-river men were resolved to resist to the utmost the insolent passage of an enemy war-party. “If you attempt to force your way down the river,” they replied to Matene, “we shall fight you on Moutoa”.
The challenge was accepted, and it was arranged through the messengers between Tawhitinui and Ranana that the issue should be fought out on the following morning, the 14th May.
Both camps were busy all the day before the fight making
hakas and war dances and fervid whai-korero or speech-making. In the Hauhau quarters the Pai-marire ceremonies and chantings were continued nearly all night, and even the children were schooled in their part for the great conflict on the morrow. The women took them in hand, and (as Mr. Booth's protégé of 1864 relates) they were instructed to give a kind of moral support to the warriors by waving their hands, open palms backward toward their shoulders, calling as they did so, “Hapa! Hapa!” (“Pass over!”), so that the bullets would fly harmlessly past their champions' heads. The children went into this new war-game with enormous zest, and there was little sleep in Tawhitinui that night.
Very early in the morning the picked warriors of the Hauhau force, numbering about a hundred and twenty, crossed over in state to the island for battle. It was little more than a push-off, but they crossed with all ceremony in their great canoes, carved, painted, and plumed for war. Grounding the canoes on the shingly beach at the upper end of the island, they leaped ashore and lined up for the war-dance, the necessary prelude to battle. The eager spectators, gathered on the green terrace at Tawhitinui, saw their warriors dance their peruperu, led off by the big blackbearded prophet, and then watched them move toward the middle of the island and enter the manuka thickets.
The loyalist or friendly Maoris had in the meantime posted a selected band of their fighters in the scrub on the island. This party had crossed from the Ranana side of the river at the break of day. It numbered a hundred. Half of the warriors crouched in the thick cover near the middle of the Island; their leader was a chief of great courage and determination, Tamehana te Aewa. The remaining fifty men, under
The advance-guard of the friendlies allowed the Hauhaus to come some distance in from the beach and then opened fire. The first volley, fired at close range, was too high, and none of the Hauhaus fell. Many of the Kupapas—the Government party—then were seized by sudden fears; they were doubtful whether after all the Pai-marire devotees were not invulnerable to bullets. The Hauhaus came charging on, and the Lower Wanganui men gave way before them, losing several men. Meanwhile the hundreds of spectators on either bank of the river watched with uncontrollable excitement the progress of the battle on the island
As soon as the first shots were heard all the Hauhau onlookers set to at their magic-working incantations. Seated in rows on the Tawhitinui terrace, they cried their Pai-marire spell prayers. Led by the women, the children waved imaginary bullets back over their shoulders with both hands, exclaiming as they did so, “Hapa! Hapa! Hapa!” The old women were crazy with excitement, running back and forward, reciting their high chants, and crying to the young people, “Kai kaha te hapa! Kia kaha te hapa!” (“Let your hapa be strong!”) bidding them redouble their efforts; and into it the children went as hard as they could go, throwing Kupapa bullets over their shoulders—“Hapa! Hapa! Hapa!”
Down on the smoke-hazed island the battle was turning against the firendlies. The Hauhaus, encouraged by their first success, were steadily forcing Tamehana te Aewa's party toward the lower end of Moutoa. Some were panic-stricken and were ready to abandon the fight, but the gallant Tamehana, by a desperate effort, rallied his men and stayed the Hauhau advance. After shooting two Hauhaus, one with each barrel of his tupara, he killed a third man with a spear, and another with a tomahawk. He continued his fight with another gun, killing a fifth man, when he was put out of action by a bullet which broke his leg, shattering the knee-cap.
The finale to this great tournament was the killing of Matene Rangi-tauira the prophet. He had received a wound, and was swimming across the river to the right bank. patu-paraoa) to one of his men, Te Moro (afterwards a policeman in Wanganui), and, pointing to the shaggy black head of the struggling prophet, said, “Yonder is your fish.” Te Moro dashed into the rapid river and overtook Matene just as the prophet reached the Tawhitinui side of the river and grasped an overhanging shrub in an effort to drag himself out of the water. The Kupapa warrior, seizing him by his long hair, killed him with a smashing blow of his patu on the side of the head. Te Moro returned to the island, hauling the dead priest of Paimarire by his hair, and, dragging the body ashore where Haimona stood watching, said to his chief, “Ina to ika!” (“Here is your fish!”)
The Hauhaus lost about fifty killed, and had nearly as many of their number wounded. The Kupapa faction lost less heavily; fifteen men were killed and thirty wounded: the dead included the chiefs Kereti, Hemi Nape, and Riwai Tawhito-rangi. The brave Tamehana, who turned the tide of war against the Hauhaus, was taken down to Wanganui with the other wounded, and had one of his legs amputated. The casualties on both sides were extremely heavy in proportion to the numbers engaged. One European lost his life: this was Lay-Brother Euloge, who was a member of the Roman Catholic Mission, under Father Lampila, at Kauaeroa, a mile above Tawhitinui. He was shot while in charge of a small party of the mission Maoris who had been posted on the left bank opposite the upper end of the island.
The battle over, the downcast spectators on the marae at Tawhitinui were hurriedly joined by the morehu, the survivers of their war-party. In intense sorrow and dejection the defeated braves climbed the bank and stood there before their weeping friends, a long line of weary men. Many had suffered tomahawk-cuts and bullet-wounds, and the blood flowed down their naked chests and limbs. With heads bowed in sorrow and humiliation they stood there by the niu, which had lost its magic virtue, for its prophet lay dead on Moutoa. A little old chief, very fierce and wild, ran up and down in front of them gesticulating with his tongue-pointed taiaha, shouting himself hoarse, and heaping taunts upon them for their defeat.
The Hauhaus did not remain long in Tawhitinui after their crushing repulse. Had the Kupapas under Hiroti and pa. The fighting-men remained awhile at Tawhitinui and followed up as a rearguard. Perekama became the Hauhau headquarters, and the fort on the commanding hill at Weraroa, overlooking the whole of the lower Waitotara country, was enlarged and strongly garrisoned.
Desultory fighting betwen the Upper and Lower Wanganui tribes followed Moutoa, and lasted until early in 1865. Pehi Turoa, Pehi Hitaua, and
Like the Clan Quhele and the Clan Chattan in the classic combat on the Inch of Perth, the Wanganui men fought for the honour of the tribe. To
SOON AFTER THE Battle of Moutoa Island and the skirmishing at Ohoutahi the military authorities determined to establish a post at Pipiriki, fifty-five miles up the Wanganui, in order to hold the river against the passage of the hostile tribes under Pehi Turea, pakeha; even in the “sixties” very few except adventurous colonial travellers, missionaries, and occasional military officers had ventured up as far as the Manganui-o-te-Ao or to Taumarunui by canoe. One or two pioneer missionaries, such as the Rev.
The force sent up the Wanganui river to Pipiriki at the end of April, 1865, consisted of Nos. 8 and 9 Companies of the Taranaki Military Settlers, under Captains T. Wilson and Pennefather, and a company of the Patea Rangers, under Lieutenant
The position taken up was on the right (west) bank of the river, close to the Pipiriki native settlement and directly opposite the terrace on which the present township and the Pipiriki Hotel stand. Three earthwork redoubts were built close to each other. The main work, No. 1 Redoubt, was built on the ridge at the bend of the Wanganui near the prominent wooded hill called Rangiahua, overlooking the river; there was a much better site, but it was a Maori wahi tapu, or burial-place, and so was not occupied. The second redoubt, Popoia, was built on a spur, a little to the north-west of Rangiahua Hill, nearly opposite the present steamer landing-place; and No. 3 Redoubt was thrown up on the south side, close to an ancient native pa called Koanga-o-Rehua, and about 500 yards from No. 1 Redoubt.
The main position was garrisoned by the Taranaki Military Settlers. The Native Contingent, under pa, on the Waitotara.
The arrival of the Government force at Pipiriki and the fortification of the positions commanding the river were accepted by the Hauhaus as a challenge, and before long a formidable body of warriors nearly a thousand strong was assembled in camps on both sides of the Wanganui a short distance above the Pipiriki landing.
The Hauhaus included all the Upper Wanganui hapus as high up as Taumarunui, and many men of Ngati-Maniapoto, Ngati-Raukawa, and Ngati-Tuwharetoa. The leading chief was Pehi Turoa, the rangatira of highest rank on the Wanganui. The principal position occupied by the natives was Pukehinau pa, a commanding fortification on a hill about a quarter of a mile in rear of the terrace on which the present township stands. Another large camp was pitched on a terrace about two miles higher up the river, at a place called Ohinemutu, on the same side as the redoubts. The usual Pai-marire pole of worship was
No hostilities occurred until well on in July. Meanwhile the Upper Wanganui was lively with warrior crews paddling furiously down to reinforce the Pipiriki camps for a grand assault on the pakeha forts. Friendly natives in the village near the redoubts conveyed warnings to Major Brassey, through Lieutenant Newland (who acted as interpreter after Mr. Booth, the Resident Magistrate, had gone to Wanganui). The friendlies predicted an early assault, and the Major took additional precautions. The troops lay down at night fully accoutred, ready to turn out at an instant's call. A picket of six men had been maintained at the store-tent on the river-bank where canoes landed, but on the evening of the 18th July Major Brassey fortunately called in the picket; and this saved it, as was afterwards discovered, from a planned attack which would have annihilated it.
On the merning of the 19th July Lieutenant Chapman, of the Patea Rangers, when walking down towards the picket tent, was attacked from ambush at close quarters, but escaped to his redoubt. This was the beginning of fighting which developed into a regular siege and lasted for twelve days. The Hauhaus seized the wahi tapu, or burial-place, and opened a heavy plunging fire on the Taranaki Military Settlers' position (No. 3 Redoubt, called the “Gundagai”). The range was not more than about 30 yards. Other Hauhaus appeared on the ridge in rear of the main redoubt and commenced sniping at the troops. It was necessary to drive the Maoris off Rangiahua at all costs, and this was done by Lieutenant Clery with a party of twenty men, who gallantly stormed the position with the bayonet. Clery was slightly wounded, and two of his men were hit, but none were killed. The Hauhaus lost several shot dead as they fled from the bayonets into the low bush at the foot of the hill. The Maoris had begun to entrench themselves on the hill; these rifle-pits were completed by the captors of the position, and a small field-work was thrown up and defended until the end of the siege.
Meanwhile the position of the Rangers and Military Settlers withstood a general attack by the main body from the broken ground in the rear. The Hauhaus in strong force marched along the right bank of the river from Ohinemutu, and appeared on the side of the range about a third of a mile from Rangiahua. “We had a magnificent view of them as they advanced,” narrated Captain Newland. “It was the finest sight I ever saw.
The greater number of this war-party halted in a gully, and Newland and the Rangers, who had a better view of their enemy than the men in the headquarters redoubt, opened fire at a range of about 200 yards. The fire was effective; the Hauhaus were in close order, and many of them fell. They abandoned their intended assault in force and scattered for cover, dragging their dead and wounded away. Some hastily dug rifle-pits on the hills; others returned the Rangers' fire under cover of the bush and manuka and the inequalities of the ground. The earthworks of the corps, however, gave good cover; the parapets were high and well loopholed. The tents were struck when the fighting began, and bundled up on top of the parapet, facing the main body of the Hauhaus, to give additional head-protection.
This frustrated rush in a body gave place to sniping and guerrilla tactics. From the 19the to the 30th July the high wooded hills about Pipiriki swarmed with Hauhau musketeers, abundantly supplied with ammunition, and from entrenched positions on the high ground they maintained a persistently heavy and annoying fire. There was little to fire at in return, except the puffs of smoke from the Hauhau guns, and orders were given to be careful of the ammunition, as the reserve supply was not large. Half a dozen of the best shots of the Rangers were told off to reply to the enemy's fire. Three of the snipers were Sergeant Riria, riria!” (“Fight on, fight on!”) Marvellously she escaped death many times. Sergeant Rushton, after an unsuccessful shot, said to his comrade Sergeant McDonald. “I was low; try her at full 400 yards.” The marksman fired, and Rushton, watching through his glasses, saw the warrior chieftainess fall. It was learned afterwards that she had been shot through the head.
The Hauhaus frequently changed their positions and dug fresh rifle-pits during the night. On the third morning after the fighting began, Newland was ordered out with twenty of his
By day the swarming Hauhaus kept up a continual fire from the whole face of the hills above the redoubts; the nights were unrestful with their Pai-marire chantings and their loud fighting speeches and watch-cries. They sounded bugle calls in imitation of the soldiers; some of them had learned the “Reveille,” the “Advance,” and other military calls, and played them on their Captain Captain Rushton adds: “Our enemy tetere—the trumpets made with twisted-up green flax-leaves or hollowed-out tutu branches with mouthpieces. Similar bush bugles were used by the garrison of Weraroa pa, on the Waitotara. On both sides of the river the Hauhau gunmen were busy, opening their fire at daylight in the mornings. Some of them had good cover in the narrow gorge of the Kaukore, the small stream on which the old flour-mill stands, below the terrace opposite Rangiahua. This flour-mill, driven by the crew, had been built by the Booth brothers for the furtherance of agricultural industry among the natives; it now became the haunt of Pai-marire snipers, who gave the beleaguered force a good deal of trouble. The niu which stood on that side of the river at the cultivation ground called Te Kapua, in full view of the redoubts, was the centre of daily gatherings. Hundreds of Hauhaus, in a fury of fanatic exaltation, marched round and round the flagstaff chanting their hymns. The warriors, as they barked out their “Hau, hau!” at the end of every Pai-marire verse, brought the butts or the muzzles of their guns and rifles sharply down against the foot of the mast. When the siege was over and the Maoris were dispersed the troops found the niu-butt marked with the blows from innumerable guns delivered in this way.
The Government positions were completely hemmed in, for the Hauhaus not only held the hills but drew their lines between the redoubts and the river. The Rangers were in bad straits for water. The only way they could obtain it was by crawling down through the bushes at night to a spring on the lower side of the redoubt and bringing up in buckets a scant supply for the next day. Rations ran low—in the end they were reduced to quarter-rations of biscuit and salt meat; but, curiously, there was plenty of grog, and the men got three tots of rum a day. Despite the care exercised in the expenditure of ammunition, the supply was running very short. The position was one of great anxiety for Major Brassey and his small force, out-numbered five or six times by the Hauhau army. It was considered that the natives were sure to make a resolute attempt to storm the redoubts. Probably it was only the fear of the bayonet that prevented such an assault.
Major Brassey now determined to try and communicate with Wanganui. He wrote out a number of messages to headquarters, appealing for relief. Some were written in Latin, some in French, and these were carefully sealed up in bottles and thrown into the river after dark. In each cork a feather was stuck to attract attention. One of these bottle-letters which ran the gauntlet and survived the rapids and the rocks was picked up below Wanganui Town by Mr. Omnes sunt recti. Mitte res belli statim.” Another Latin message was brought in by a friendly Maori by way of Waitotara; it ran, “Sumus sine rebus belli satis,” which was the Major's terse way of informing the authorities that he was running very short of ammunition. These appeals were delivered to the Militia Office in Wanganui.
In order to make sure that the authorities were informed of the garrison's critical position Major Brassey resolved also to communicate with the town by canoe. Volunteers were called for, and two men of the Patea Rangers, Sergeant Constable and Private A. Edgecombe, were chosen for the perilous mission. Taking Major Brassey's despatches, they quietly put off in a small canoe under cover of darkness and made the river passage safely. At Hiruharama they met a relief expedition, under Major Rookes, in a great fleet of war-canoes manned by the Lower Wanganui friendlies.
Meanwhile fighting had temporarily been suspended. The Hauhaus, to the surprise of the troops, hoisted a white flag; they had heard by secret messages from the lower river of the approach of a relief force. A chief came to the Government headquarters with the white flag and declared that Pehi Turoa
The dangerous mission to Ohinemutu was fruitless. Pehi Turoa told Newland that the people had now changed their minds, and did not intend to go down and surrender. The armed natives sitting round, scowling at the white officer, were clearly in a dangerous mood, and as Newland saw nothing could be done he returned to camp in the canoe, after some very anxious moments when it seemed uncertain whether he would be permitted to return or be put to death. On leaving the Popoia Redoubt to go up-river on his perilous mission he had given instructions to his men to shoot the Hauhau hostage if at the expiration of a certain time he (Newland) had not returned. This native was given in charge of a squad with loaded revolvers. “Never was a Maori more relieved,” says a veteran of the Rangers, “than this man was when, within two or three minutes of the time stipulated, the small canoe with Newland safe on board shot round the bend of the river just above the Paparoa Rapid.”
Lieutenant Newland reported that there were from a thousand to twelve hundred armed men in the great camp at Ohinemutu, besides women and children; there were warriers there from all parts of the Island. They must have been in severe straits for food-supplies towards the last, and many of them had no shelter from the wintry weather but breakwinds of manuka and fern and blanket tents. It was evident that the Hauhaus had never intended to surrender, and extra precautions were taken in the redoubts, for it was thought that the warriors might make a final attack that night. But the anxious night passed without the expected Pai-marire charge; and next morning the canoes of the relief expedition were sighted poling up the bend below Pipiriki, and the river-gorge rang with the canoe choruses of the toiling crews.
The force which raised the siege was composed of a company of Forest Rangers under Major F. Nelson George, a company of Wanganui Rangers under Captain Jones, and Kepa's Native Contingent, in all 300 strong, together with several hundreds of the Lower Wanganui friendly tribes. Major Rookes, an ex-Imperial officer with West African service, who was in charge of
After meeting Major Brassey and finding the long-beleaguered posts all well, Major Rookes took a strong force up the river, some in canoes and some marching along the right bank, to attack the Hauhau camp at Ohinemutu. It was found deserted. The other side of the river was also examined, but the Hauhau army had melted away into the up-river fastnesses. Not a Maori was to be found to make a target for the relief force. Ohinemutu was burned, the cultivations destroyed, and the niu poles demolished. The main body of Major Rookes's force returned to Wanganui in a few days, leaving George's Rangers to augment
In the whole of the fighting at Pipiriki Major Brassey's force did not lose a man killed, and only three or four were wounded. The troops found and buried six Hauhaus, and it was known definitely that thirteen were killed. The total Maori casualties were probably about twenty killed and more than that number wounded.
THE WESTERN SIDE of the Island, from Wanganui to the White Cliffs in North Taranaki, was the spacious scene in 1865 of an indecisive campaign and a number of small expeditionary operations. Immediately after the New Year Lieut.-General Cameron took the field in the Wanganui district, under instructions to take possession of the Waitotara Block, which had been purchased by the Crown but reoccupied by the natives, and to operate against the hostile tribes from the Kai-iwi to Taranaki. The campaign was chiefly remarkable for the slowness and caution of Cameron's advance, and for the acrimonious correspondence betwen the General and Governor Grey on the conduct of operations. The West Coast tribes had concentrated their forces on the south side of the Waitotara River, and built a strong fortification on the summit of Weraroa Hill, a bold flat-topped height overlooking the river and the surrounding country for many miles. The position can be seen from the present bridge at Waitotara Township, looking up the river. Here at the large village of Perekama, on the river-side flat below, several hundreds of Hauhaus from the Wanganui to the Waitara had assembled, inspired by the presence of their prophet
Cameron, marching from Wanganui with about two thousand Imperial troops and two field-guns, pitched his first camp (24th
pa. High toetoe reeds, with flax and tutu bushes, clothed the level land; near at hand on the right flank of the march was the bush. The camp was suddenly attacked, in daylight, by a strong force of Maoris, supported by a large body in cover. The first volley from the toetoe and flax laid low about a dozen men, and the warriors charged right into the camp with gun and tomahawk. Lieutenant Johnston, A.A.G., and fifteen men were killed and thirty-two wounded in this sharp encounter. Major Witchell and his mounted men (Military Train) charged with the sword and forced the Maoris back into cover. The native loss was rather more than the British, but the Hauhaus had the satisfaction of surprising a British camp in broad daylight, and, as the sequel proved, of giving General Cameron such a dislike to the neighbourhood of the bush that for the rest of the campaign he kept as close as possible to the sea-coast.
On the following day the West Coast native army made an even more determined attack upon the General's forces, and drove in the pickets, killing several men. There was heavy skirmishing in the open, and the Maoris fought with great determination and considerable tactical skill. Their fighting leader was Patohe, a very intelligent and bold Hauhau soldier.
Among the Hauhaus who fought at Nukumaru was the late Te Kahu-pukoro, the Ariki of the Ngati-Ruanui Tribe. Te Kahu-pukoro was then only a lad of about thirteen, but he had already fought and been wounded at Sentry Hill. (See Chapter 2.) Describing the attack on Cameron's camp, the old warrior declared that it was a pakanga pai (an excellent fight), in which the opposing armies met in the open and got to close quarters. Armed with a gun, he took part in the charge into the General's camp, and fought again on the following day. It was a more satisfactory battle than the affair at Sentry Hill in the previous year, where all the odds were against the Maori braves who attempted the assault of a walled fort.
Another Maori veteran of Nukumaru, Tu-Patea te Rongo, gave an animated description of the two days' fighting. Tu-Patea, who lives at Taumaha, is the leading chief of the Pakakohi, Tribe, of the Patea district; he fought all though the West Coast War, and in 1868–69 was one of Tekau-ma-rua. He is a grey-moustached old soldier, of big athletic frame and strong features, a good type of the active fellows who kept the coast in turmoil up to the beginning of the “seventies.”
“Nukumaru,” said Tu-Patea, “was my first experience of battle. There were perhaps two thousand Maoris assembled on the Waitotara to bar the General's march northward. We all assembled at Weraroa pa, a few miles away, and from there marched down towards the sea to attack the troops. Among the warriors were men from the Waikato and Ngati-Maniapoto, besides a great many from Taranaki. Of our tribe, the chiefs were my father Hau-matao, Tu-mahuki Rongonui, Paraone Tutere, and Kahukura-nui. atua—a god. He remained in Weraroa pa while the army was out under Patohe engaging the soldiers. I marched with my father—I was only about thirteen years old—to get my first lesson in the art of war. I carried a short-handled tomahawk. My war-path clothing consisted only of a koka of flax, a short roughly dressed mat worn as a rapaki around the waist.
“The plain at Nukumaru was covered with fern, flax, and toetoe, and from the cover of this our men attacked the troops. In the first day's fighting my uncle Tama-kanohi was shot. I watched the fight. One of our warriors, Pita Weka, charged right into an officer's tent in the camp and shot the officer dead. (This was Adjutant-General Johnston.) Pita was killed in the battle at Te Ngaio, near Kakaramea, not long afterwards. He was a big active young man, a renowned toa taua, a bold and experienced warrior. Besides his double-barrel gun, he was armed with a whalebone patu, worn in his girdle.
“Our warriors rose from their cover and charged on the soldiers at the command ‘Kokiritia!’ from the chiefs, and then ‘Puhia’ (‘fire’), was the word. When the pakeha opened fire on us we held our right hands up on a level with the face, palm open, and cried ‘Hapa, hapa!’ (‘Pass over!’), the charm which atua, the gods Rura and Riki; but he was also, as I have said, an atua himself.
“Amongst the Taranaki high chiefs who fought at Nukumaru were Te Wharepouri and Tohu-Kakahi. Some writers have wrongly credited
“The fighting on the first day at Nukumaru lasted well into the night. We had twenty-three men killed. On the second day we attacked again, when the troops were at dinner; we were all determined to prevent Cameron's advance up the coast. There were Maoris there from all along the West Coast from Otaki up to Waikato. One warrior was a near relative of
Lieut.-General Cameron, shifting camp to a more secure position close to the sandhills, remained there until the night of the 2nd February, when he moved northward. His army had now been augmented to 2,300 of all arms. Marching at night with half the force, he crossed the Waitotara near the mouth on a raft of casks, made by the Royal Engineers, early on the morning of the 3rd. The troops camped on level ground on the right bank. A redoubt for 150 men was built on a precipitous cliff on the left bank, and two field-guns were mounted on it.
On the night of the 15th February this force marched to the mouth of the Patea River; the troops were replaced at the Waitotara by the force left at Nukumaru on the 2nd. The General remained for about a week on the left bank of the Patea, where a redoubt for 200 men was constructed. The main body then crossed to the right bank, a short distance seaward of the present Town of Patea, where a good position was selected on the high ground immediately above the river. Here an entrenched line, with a redoubt in the centre, was formed; the entrenchment enclosed a large area of ground, on which buildings were erected some time later for a large depot of provisions as well as huts for 600 men.
Cameron had made no attempt no attempt to reduce the Hauhau headquarters, Weraroa pa, and his action in moving up the coast and leaving this strong enemy position untouched in the rear excited strong criticism. He informed Sir pa and keep communications open. The Governor was of a different opinion, and the correspondence between Governor and General developed into a bitter exchange of irreconcilable views. Cameron resolutely declined to waste men's lives on the attack of such an apparently strong position, while Grey was equally determined to obtain possession of the pa, the key to the occupation of the
At the end of January a Government notice was issued proclaiming confiscated native lands in Middle Taranaki as open for settlement under the New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863, and later in the year the confiscated areas of Ngati-Ruanui and other tribal lands were proclaimed. The total area confiscated in the Taranaki-Wanganui district amounted to about 980,000 acres, of which a certain proportion was afterwards returned. The country belonging to Ngati-Ruanui and kindred tribes proclaimed was defined by outer boundaries extending from Mount Egmont to Parikino on the Wanganui River, and thence to the sea, and northward to the Waimate Stream. Including Waikato and other conquered districts, the total area at first proposed to be confiscated was about 8,000,000 acres; but even when this was reduced to 3,000,000 acres there was strong condemnation in some quarters of what was termed the Colonial Government policy of spoliation. The sharp differences of opinion between the Imperial authorities and the Colonial Government on this and other features of the war hastened the day when the people of New Zealand came to rely on their own military resources.
The Wanganui friendly natives requested the Government to permit them to attack the Weraroa pa, and, although the Imperial officers discouraged the proposal in every possible way, the Governor presently authorized the expedition and took personal command of the field. The Government also set about enlisting white volunteers for the defence of the frontier and occupation of the confiscated lands, and by the middle of July there were available, besides the Wanganui Native Contingent of about 200 men, two companies of Rangers (with Von Tempsky in command of one) and the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry. The Wanganui Maori Contingent was under Captain
The force camped at Maeneene, between Nukumaru and Weraroa, and negotiations, conducted chiefly by Captain McDonnell, were carried on with the Hauhau leaders in Perekama below the pa on the hill-crest. Sir pa to summon the garrison to surrender, and was in a position of imminent danger until some of the chiefs persuaded him to retire. The Hauhaus declared they would never surrender. Grey persevered in his preparations, and induced Major-General Waddy to send 400 Imperial troops to Maeneene as a support. On the 20th July a force of about 400 men (Yeomanry Cavalry, dismounted, Forest Rangers, and Maori Contingent), under Major Rookes, executed a skilful turning movement, in very bad weather, by marching under cover of the bush along the Karaka plateau, in rear of the Weraroa, and, in the night, taking up a position commanding the Hauhau villages of Perekama and Arei-ahi. The operation was completely successful. McDonnell and his Maoris surrounded and captured Arei-ahi with all the people, and about sixty fighting-men were taken prisoners, including some twenty warriors of the Ngati-Pukeko Tribe, who had travelled all the way overland from Whakatane, Bay of Plenty, to join in the West Coast fighting, and who were now rounded up just after their arrival. Fifty guns were taken. The prisoners were kept in a stockade hastily run up, and were then, with some others, shipped off to Wellington. There, to the number of eighty, they were placed on board a prison-hulk moored off Kai-wharawhara. Most of them escaped, with their old chief Tataraimaka (who had planned the escape), by swimming ashore one stormy night; many were drowned in the struggle for life. The swimmers devotedly helped their chief ashore; a number of the heroic men perished in the effort.
Weraroa remained to be captured and meanwhile fire was opened on it from the Karaka plateau at a range of 600 yards. A night attack on the Perekama was the headquarters of the Nga-Rauru and kindred tribes, whose warriors in 1864–65 had a military drill modelled on that of the British soldiers. They had frequent alarms, to accustom them to the emergency of sudden attack, and they had buglers who blew calls on a pa was planned, and a force set out via Perekamatetere, a long trumpet made of twisted-up green blades of flax. A veteran of the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry recalls the fact that on the afternoon and night march via the Karaka plateau the flanking column heard the flax-bugle calls of the Weraroa garrison across the intervening valley sounding very sweet and clear.pa was deserted. In the morning this was found to be the case. The unexpected night march to the rear and
The bloodless capture by means of strategy—otherwise the application of brains to military problems—of a position which General Cameron had declined to attack with two thousand men was a distinct triumph for the Governor, and it tended to widen the breach between him and the Imperial commander. The relief of Pipiriki was the next operation undertaken by the colonial forces.
In the meantime General Cameron had marched in his deliberate way up the coast and had established posts at several places as far as the Wai-ngongoro River. The principal opposition he encountered was at Te Ngaio, in the open country between Patea and Kakaramea. The General, with about a thousand men of all arms, moved out from Patea camp on the 15th March for the Wai-ngongoro. At about two miles from Patea volleys were fired into the column by a body of Maoris posted under cover of a ridge parallel to the line of march, on the right, near the Patea River. The advance-guard was thrown out in skirmishing order, bringing round the left flank to attack the natives. The Hauhaus fell back in good order towards Kakaramea, fighting well in the open, with deliberation and bravery. There were about two hundred natives in action, and for all their inadequate numbers and inferior arms they opposed a manful front to the invading army. Retiring along the swampy ground toward Kakaramea they made the most of their knowledge of the terrain and their native genius in skirmishing, but nearly half of them were shot down. Eighty natives were killed. It was the heaviest blow in point of causualties that the Hauhau tribes suffered in the West Coast War.
Tu-Patea, of Taumaha, describing this engagement of Te Ngaio, which was fought over his own tribal lands, said:—
“I followed my elders into action, armed with my tomahawk. Over two hundred of our people came out to fight in the open. There were five women among them, not armed, but urging the warriors on. One of them, Tutaki's wife, was killed. The principal chiefs were Patohe, my father Hau-Matao, Te Waka-taparuru Paraone Tutere, and Te Mahuki. Our prophet was the old man Huriwaka, from Otoia, on the Patea. His god was Rura. Huriwaka, before the fight began that morning, prophesied saying, ‘To-day's battle will be good; it will be a favourable fight for us.’ But we were beaten, and eighty of our people fell on the field of Te Ngaio.”
There were many instances of native heroism and daring. An eye-witness, Dr. Grace, surgeon in the force, wrote: “The
“The soldiers,” wrote Dr. Grace in his “Sketch of the New Zealand War,” “no longer desired to kill the Maori, and disliked more than ever being killed by him.” He heard the sympathetic Irish soldiers say, after the exhibition of native bravery at Kakaramea (Te Ngaio): “Begorra, it's a murder to shoot them. Sure they are our own people, with their potatoes and fish, and children. Who knows but they are Irishmen, with faces a little darkened by the sun, who escaped during the persecutions of Cromwell!” Dr. Grace was in error, however, in a statement that very few of the Maoris were killed in this battle in the flax and A veteran transport bullock-driver who witnessed the encounter at Te Ngaio says: “After the battle I saw the dead body of the biggest Maori I ever set eyes on—he must have been 7 feet high.”toetoe. The report of Colonel T.
The tribes engaged in the fighting at Te Ngaio were chiefly Ngati-Hine, Pakakohi, and Ngati-Ruanui. It was the final attempt in strength to dispute the right of way with General Cameron. The British casualties were a private of the 57th shot dead and three men wounded.
That afternoon the British force encamped in the captured village of Kakaramea, where a redoubt for 150 men was at once commenced. The position was about six miles from the coast and close to the Patea River; the present Township of Kakaramea is more inland and on higher ground.
On the following day (16 March, 1865) the column moved on and camped at the Maori village Manutahi, three miles from the historic village of Manawapou, on the sea-coast. Detachments were sent to Manawapou, which was on the left bank of the Ingahape River, at the mouth; and, as it seemed practicable to beach boats on the sandy shore on the opposite side of the river, redoubts were constructed on the high ground to cover a depot of stores.
The force, with headquarters, moved from Manutahi on the 29th March, halted for one day a few miles from Manawapou,
Mr. William B. Adamson, of Hawera, who came up the coast in 1865 as a transport driver in Cameron's army, says: “When we marched through where Hawera Town now stands, on our way to the Wai-ngongoro, we had a skirmish with the Maoris on the sandhills near the mouth of the Waihi Stream, and somewhere near Mr. tutu—to the Wai-ngongoro River. There was a little skirmishing as the column moved on from Hawera, the Maoris opening fire from the coast ridges, but a few rounds from the guns scattered them, and camp was pitched on the high banks above the Wai-ngongoro without further opposition.
A small steamer managed (8th April) to send a boat on shore at the Wai-ngongoro mouth with some provisions. Surf-boats were provided there and at the Manawapou, but there were numerous capsize and some fatalities. In a boat capsize in the surf at Manawapou seven men were drowned. These accidents, illustrating the difficulty of working this harbourless coast to land stores for the troops, and the knowledge that the land route towards New Plymouth was difficult as well as hostile, convinced the General that it would be prudent to retrace his steps. Accordingly the force marched down the coast again, leaving 150 men (57th Regiment) in each of the redoubts on the two sides of the river and a force at Manawapou. Cameron left Patea on the 29th April for Auckland to confer with the Governor on future operations. A force of 750 men was left at Patea for the winter.
In April, 1865, the officer commanding in Taranaki (Colonel Warre, 57th) extended his outposts by establishing a strong redoubt at Pukearuhe, near the White Cliffs (the Pari-ninihi, or “Steep Cliffs” of the Maoris), thirty miles along the northern coast from New Plymouth, and one at Warea, twenty-seven miles south, and another at Opunake, fifty miles from New Plymouth. At Pukearuhe Colonel Mulock was in command with 160 of the 70th Regiment and two R.A. gunners. These redoubts brought the length of Taranaki coast-line occupied to eighty-five miles; but the forts commanded practically only the country within rifle-range of their parapets.
In the early part of June a junction was effected between two small British forces in light marching order, one from the Waingongoro and one from Opunake: this was important because it temporarily reopened the coast road from New Plymouth to Wanganui, which had been barred to Europeans since the beginning of the Taranaki War in 1860. This opening of the road, however, was as yet only possible by the use of force majeure; not until a considerable time after
Much of the work in Cameron's march up the coast was done by the 57th Regiment, the famous “Die-hards” of Albuera memory, under Colonel Butler. They led the advance on Kakaramea, followed by detachments of the 50th and 68th. They provided the most advanced garrisons, and a strong force of the
pa. He was kept in captivity, practically a slave like
There was a good deal of skirmishing in mid-Taranaki in the latter part of 1865. At Whatino, a few miles from Opunake, on the 1st June, several men of the Mounted Corps, part of an escort to Lieut.-Colonel Colvile (43rd Regiment), came into conflict with six natives, who killed Trooper O'Neill and lost three killed themselves. On the 13th June Colonel Warre, with a column working in three divisions, attacked the Taranaki tribes in their villages inland of Warea. The troops engaged were detachments of the 43rd and the 70th Regiments, besides the Taranaki Bush Rangers under Captain Jonas. The villages of Nga-Kumikumi, Okeanui, Nekeua, and Te Puru were destroyed after a little fighting. Nekeua was an old fortified position with a deep trench round it. At Te Puru, where the Hauhaus were engaged in their Pai-marire devotions round the niu, there was a slight skirmish. A quantity of plunder from the wrecked steamer “Lord Worsley” was found in the villages burned.
On the 28th July Captain Close (43rd Regiment) and a private were mortally wounded while with a party from the Warea Redoubt gathering firewood in a clearing a short distance inland of Warea. The troops, extending, drove their attackers back. Next day a force of three hundred men left New Plymouth to operate against the Taranaki Tribe in the Warea district, and on the Taranaki Mounted Volunteers under Captain Frank Mace, marched out from Warea to engage the natives in their inland retreats. The force, divided into two columns, totalled about four hundred men, under Lieut.-Colonel Colvile and Major Russell. Marching into the bush and scrub country via Kapoaiaia, the divisions separated, and Captain Cay (70th), with a company of Russell's division, rushed a village and bayoneted eleven Maoris, besides killing and wounding many more by rifle-fire. The 70th had one man shot dead. There was some heavy skirmishing as the force retreated after burning the village. The Hauhaus followed the troops and attacked them in rear and on the flanks
whares. The British casualties in this sharp bush skirmishing were a lieutenant of the 70th and four men killed and six wounded.
On the 20th October, 1865, Captain Frank Mace, with a small party of the Taranaki Mounted Corps, rode into an ambush party of about seventy Hauhaus between Warea and the Hangatahua, near the mouth of the river, and had an exceedingly narrow escape. Mace was riding along with three men when a sudden volley was received at close quarters, so close that most of the bullets went over their heads. The Maoris came rushing out of the flax and fern, firing from the hip, as was often their way. One of the troopers, W. Bullot, was lying down over his horse's neck to escape the shots when a bullet partly scalped him, travelling up from the back of his neck and over the skull at the front. The man was dazed by his wound, and went riding round and round in a circle, firing his revolver aimlessly. Captain Mace galloped up and got him away; his horse had been hit and dropped soon afterwards. Mace was wounded in the leg, and several bullets went through his clothes. For this gallant rescue he received the New Zealand Cross. He had been one of the first troopers to join the corps, the Taranaki Mounted Rifles, on its formation in 1860, under Captain Des Voeux.
Lieut.-General Sir
It was pa, on the Waitara, to conclude peace with Wi Kingi's Maoris. In October, 1864, Governor Grey sent for him, and asked him to form a Ministry and assist him in saving the country under its overwhelming difficulties. Weld did so on the condition that he should be supported in his “self-reliant” policy. This policy he had lately outlined in these words:—
“I should propose to ask the Home Government to take away all the soldiers, and reduce our forces to about two thousand men, whom I should arm with the best rifles procurable; these I would have trained to bush-work, and employ a part of them on the roads when not required to fight. With regard to the natives, I should not disarm them—it would be equivalent to a war of extermination to insist upon doing so. Their pride would be hurt as well as their fears roused, and we should only succeed with the loyal tribes, who would thus be at the mercy of their enemies. I should pardon all offenders except those convicted of murder, and I should confiscate only enough land to show them that they lost by going to war; and, in order to secure the peace of the country, I should start armed settlements where they were required. But I should leave even the most turbulent tribes more land than they could ever require, which would then be of treble its present value. I should offer every inducement to the defeated tribes to settle down quietly, and enforce their submission by making roads through the most disturbed parts of the country—by force, if necessary. At the same time I should stop the lavish expenditure in presents and bribing the natives to keep quiet. By the policy I have sketched out I believe the expense of the colony might be reduced by one-half.”
The Governor having agreed to a new policy based on these lines, Mr. Weld formed a Ministry, in which Mr. J. E. Fitzgerald, who was in perfect accord with the new Premier's views, became Minister for Native Affairs. One of the members of the Ministry was Major Harry Atkinson. Parliament endorsed the new scheme, and gradually the employment of colonial forces succeeded the old method of relying chiefly on the British Regulars. The Imperial Government approved of the colony's intention to dispense with British regiments, and after 1865 the operations against the Hauhau tribes were conducted chiefly by New Zealand troops, white and native. General Chute conducted a vigorous Taranaki campaign in 1866 with mixed forces, Imperial and colonial, but from that year until the close of the wars the Government relied solely on its own officers and men.
The erosion of the West Coast cliffs between the Wai-ngongoro and the Patea has resulted in the almost total destruction of General Cameron's redoubt at the mouth of the Wai-ngongoro, which was in 1865 the advanced field base of the West Coast Expeditionary Force. The assault of the ocean in strong westerly and south-westerly winds undermines the lofty cliffs on the coast, particularly east of the Wai-ngongoro mouth, and hedges, fences, old historic forts, and grassed land are carried away. All that is now left of the Wai-ngongoro main redoubt (east side of the river) is an indistinct section of earthwork which formed the north-west flanking bastion, with a small portion of the north parapet and ditch. The work is on the verge of the cliff, in the west corner of the Ohawe Domain, above Livingston's Beach. The old military road ran down here—the present road follows approximately this route—and the river ford was a short distance above the mouth. The scenery here is bold: high cliffs towering above the boulder-strewn beach of black ironsand, and the Wai-ngongoro coming down in sweeping curves, with the wooded west and north banks of the river rising into heights crowned by the ruins of Maori pas and British redoubts. Above the river-mouth on the east side, and somewhat lower than the redoubt at Ohawe, is the ancient Maori fort Rangatapu, a very large earthwork enclosing a flat hilltop. This was orginally the pa of the moa-hunters, the ancient race who feasted upon the moa, the bones of which were unearthed in great quantities by Sir pa, formerly a lagoon enclosed by the sandhills.
On the opposite (west) bank of the river the Maoris, some of whom occupied the bold cliff pa Motutapu, standing north-west of the rivermouth, were accustomed to skirmish out and snipe the troops on the flat below. The Wai-ngongoro was then the frontier line.
MAJOR-GENERAL TREVOR CHUTE was a vigorous downright soldier who infused new energy into the operations on the West Coast. His tactics were in strong contrast to those of his predecessor. Cameron hated the bush, and consistently kept his troops as near the coast as possible. Chute, on the other hand, boldly entered upon forest operations, and followed the Maoris up into their strongholds, sought them out in their bush retreats and stormed pa after pa, concluding a successful series of attacks by undertaking a venturesome and difficult march through the roadless forest at the back of Mount Egmont. He proved the ideal commander for a short, sharp bush campaign.
There had been several murders by the Nga-Rauru and Pakakohi Tribes, who, like Ngati-Ruanui, had refused to receive the peace proclamation by the Governor in 1865. On the 1st November Mr. Charles Broughton, interpreter to the forces in the Wanganui district, went to Otoia, on the Patea River, to confer with the Hauhaus on the peace proclamation, and was treacherously shot. Farther north Ngati-Ruanui and their kin gave evidence of their determination to hold their lands against the pakeha and to scorn all demands for surrender. On the 4th October a small party of the Military Train was ambuscaded on the track between the Manawapou and the Wai-ngongoro redoubts, by way of Hawera, and one of them, whose horse was shot, was tomahawked.
Chute, having received his directions from the Governor to open a campaign against the West Coast tribes, began operations from the southern side at the end of 1865. He marched out from Wanganui on the 30th December for the Weraroa, the scene of Sir
Chute wasted no time at Weraroa. Crossing the Waitotara on the 3rd January, 1866, with three companies of the 14th Regiment and the Maori Contingent, he advanced upon Okotuku, a village on the edge of the high ground about five miles inland from the Wairoa (the present Township of Waverley). On the wooded plain below Okotuku, in the direction of Wairoa, was Moturoa, destined to be the scene of a disastrous fight for the Government forces nearly three years later.
At daylight on the 4th two companies of the 14th and a Maori force under McDonnell advanced upon Okotuku, where the village had been burned the previous day; it was now the intention to destroy the large plantations of potatoes and maize found there. A small advance-guard (Lieutenant pa, which was defended by a breastwork of heavy timbers, and took cover in a small hollow until Lieutenant Keogh's company of the 14th, with the Maori Contingent, came charging up to the position. The pa was stormed at the point of the bayonet, and three Maoris were killed; three more were killed by the Contingent and the Forest Rangers in the pursuit of the retreating enemy through the bush. The British loss was one killed and six wounded.
The next operation was the attack and capture of a strong Hauhau pa at Te Putahi, on high ground above the Whenuakura River. The terrain was thickly wooded, with awkward spurs, where it was easy for a small force to resist an advance. Very early on the morning of the 7th January the British force (detachments of the 14th, 18th, and 50th Regiments, Forest Rangers, and Wanganui Maoris) made a detour under cover of darkness and cautiously ascended through the bush to the top of the plateau on which the pa stood. McDonnell and his natives took the place in the rear while the troops advanced to the attack. The Hauhaus were first seen engaged in their morning service round the niu pole. Their resistance was determined, but the pa was soon taken at the bayonet's point, with a loss of two killed to the Imperial troops. Among the twelve wounded was Major McDonnell, who received a bullet in the foot. The Hauhaus lost fourteen killed in the pa, and in the retreat another was shot.
This sharp action drove the Hauhaus inland, and terminated
Otapawa The site of Otapawa is on a farm about five miles from the Town of Hawera, and a mile above the bridge across the Tangahoe on the Hawera-Meremere Road. Much of the beautiful forest still remains on the broken ground in rear of and on the flanks of the old Hauhau fortress. When I explored the place in 1918 with Mr. The artillery used in the attack on Otapawa consisted of a 6-pounder Armstrong and two small mortars, under the charge of Lieutenant (afterwards Lieut.-Colonel) Lieut.-Colonel Jason Hassard, of the 57th Regiment, who died of his wound (a bullet through the lungs) received at Otapawa, was a native of Fermanagh, Ireland. He was the second son of Captain Jason Hassard, 74th Highlanders. He was born in 1826, and in 1844 obtained an ensigncy in the 57th Regiment of Foot. He became a captain in that regiment in 1854. During the Crimean War he was present at most of the battles. He distinguished himself in the storming-columns at the assaults of the Redan and Kinburn. He received in reward the Sardinian, Turkish, and Crimean medals and clasps, the Fifth Class of the Medjidie, and a Major's brevet. He was afterwards at Malta and in India. At the end of 1860 the 57th embarked for New Zealand. In September, 1864, he was gazetted as Brevet Lieut.-Colonel; but he did not live long to enjoy his promotion, for he fell, mortally wounded, while gallantly leading his men to the assault of Otapawa.pa there are numerous ruas, or food-stores, and the sites of dug-in huts. The place is not fenced or in any way protected from stock, and it is worthy of a little attention as one of Taranaki's most historic spots. A reserve of about an acre would include the whole of the ruined fortifications.pa was roughly wedge-shaped, with the apex toward the river. The irregular base of the wedge, on level open ground, was defended
The General selected the Tawhiti, near the present Town of Hawera, as his field base for the advance on Otapawa. The intervening country was fairly level, intersected by small streams with steep banks. At Taiporohenui the large meeting-house of the Hauhau tribes was destroyed. Lieut.-Colonel Butler, with a detachment of the 57th, had now joined the column. On the 12th January Chute moved out across the plain and encamped within easy striking distance of Otapawa, and next day Ensign pa, and several shells exploded within the palisades. As no Maori appeared, it was thought by some of the troops that the place was deserted. However, there were over two hundred Hauhaus manning the trenches, waiting until their foes were within close range. The 57th, supported by the 14th, were ordered to advance to the assault. The veteran “Die-hards,” led by Lieut.-Colonels Butler and Hassard, steadily breasted the rise leading to the level front of the pa. They were within point-blank range when the whole front of the palisades blazed and a heavy volley came ripping through their ranks, followed by another volley as the soldiers rushed upon the stockade with their bayonets at the charge. Slashing at the aka-vine fastenings of the palisading with tomahawks and bayonets, the troops were soon in the fort and despatching the Hauhaus who remained to dispute possession. Those who escaped fled down the long steep spur to the Tangahoe, most of them eluding the Native Contingent which followed in chase. On the right flank of the pa, where the ground was steep and wooded, Von Tempsky and his Rangers had cleared the bush of some Hauhaus who had opened fire on the Imperial troops as they advanced to the assault.
The Hauhaus lost about thirty killed in this sharp encounter and they had many wounded, who were taken up the Tangahoe to a sheltered spot and there tended. Thence the fugitives, fearing further pursuit, travelled inland several miles, through a wild forest and gorge country, to Rimatoto, on the northern side of the Meremere Hills.
The British loss in the assault was eleven killed and twenty wounded. Lieut.-Colonel Jason Hassard, of the 57th, was mortally wounded. Major-General Chute had a narrow escape; a bullet tore the braid on his coat. The rather heavy casualties, suffered chiefly by the gallant 57th, were due to the impetuosity of Chute's frontal attack. Lieut.-Colonel Butler was indignant at not being allowed to send out flanking parties, but that part of the operation could have been attended to very thoroughly by the Forest Rangers and the Native Contingent had a little more time been allowed.
It was camp gossip after the battle that pa, and that it was his bullet that had laid his old officer, Hassard, low. This was incorrect. Bent, however, had assisted, on compulsion, in the building of the fort, and was in the place until two or three days before the assault, when he was sent away with non-combatants to a place of security in the forest higher up the Tangahoe.
The Hauhaus who garrisoned Otapawa were chiefly members of the Tangahoe, Ngati-Ruanui, and Pakakohi Tribes. One of their principal fighting chiefs was the old warrior and priest pa, but had ridden away shortly before the day of the engagement.
The principal stronghold of the South Taranaki Hauhaus having been captured, the General continued his advance, concentrating on Ketemarae, a famous gathering-place for the West Coast tribes and the junction of several old war-tracks. The stockaded village of Ketemarae (about a mile from the present Township of Normanby) was attacked by the troops, who occupied it early on the morning of the 15th January. Ten Hauhaus were killed. The Wanganui Native Contingent, in the advance, had some sharp skirmishing when the order was given to clear the various settlements in the neighbourhood of Ketemarae, including Keteonetea and Puketi.
The force moved on past Waihi, taking several settlements, and, crossing the Wai-ngongoro River, captured the large village of Mawhitiwhiti, the principal kainga of the Nga-Ruahine Tribe. Here seven of the defenders were killed. The day's work resulted in the destruction of seven villages of Nga-Ruahine and Ngati-Ruanui, including, besides Ketemarae and Mawhitiwhiti, the large kaingas Weriweri and Te Whenuku. Most of the fighting fell to the lot of the Native Contingent, and here Kepa (Kemp) te Rangihiwinui (later given a Major's commission) distinguished himself by his activity and dash. The scene of these sharp operations, the first attacks delivered on the Ngati-Ruanui and Nga-Ruahine in their bush homes, is now a beautiful farming district, famous for its fertility, and covered with villages and homesteads. Some of the Maori hapus still hold their native soil, and the sons of the old warriors of Nga-Ruahine are even carrying on dairying-work like their pakeha neighbours. One of the historic settlements is Weriweri, the home in the war-days of the fighting chief Toi Whakataka, who took a prominent part in the opposition to General Chute and afterwards in
The vigorous Imperial commander now rounded off his invasion of the Hauhau country by taking a column through to New Plymouth by the most direct route—the difficult, almost unknown, Maori trail through the dense forest on the east side of Mount Egmont. This route was the ancient war-track between Puke-rangiora, on the Waitara, and Ketemarae; to the Maoris it was known as Whakaahurangi, a name which alludes to the gradual ascent to the heights as the eastern ranges of the great mountain are approached. The Whakaahurangi track was the common route in pre-European times between North and South Taranaki, and in the early days of the New Plymouth settlement working-parties sent out by the New Zealand Company's agent in Taranaki had cut a bridle-track along the native trail. In the course of twenty years, however, heavy undergrowth had covered the almost disused track, and Chute's determination to
The column set out on the forest march from Ketemarae northward early on the morning of the 17th January, 1866. Chute took three companies of the 14th Regiment, Von Tempsky's Forest Rangers, and a picked body of the Native Contingent, in all 514 of all ranks, including 247 of the 14th Regiment. Each soldier carried a waterproof blanket and greatcoat, and biscuits for two days. The transport service consisted of 67 packhorses, with their drivers, besides 24 saddle-horses. The staff included Colonel Carey, D.A.G., and Lieut.-Colonel Gamble, D.Q.M.G.; and Dr. Featherston, the Superintendent of Wellington Province, accompanied the General. The march through to the open country at Mataitawa occupied eight days; it could have been done in half that time but for the necessity of cutting a track and making bridges for the horses. The first day's march was between nine and ten miles. The only skirmishing was an encounter between the Native Contingent in the advance, a few miles from Ketemarae, and seven Hauhaus on the track; three of these were shot. As the column advanced across the lower spurs of the mountain the country became more and more difficult; the forest undergrowth was dense and matted, and gullies and watercourses continually intersected the line of march. The Forest Rangers in the advance did excellent work as pioneers, cutting the track and bridging creeks and swampy gullies with trunks of fern-trees, which gave good footing for the horses. Half-way through the forest heavy rain set in, and the rest of the march was slow and toilsome in the extreme. The Rangers were now so exhausted by the heavy labour of pioneer duty that working-parties of the 14th, under Colonel Carey, were sent to the front.
On Sunday, the 21st, the force marched only four miles, crossing four rapid streams and fifteen gullies, and went into bivouac early in wet and gloomy weather. That evening it became necessary to kill one of the horses for a meat ration; all the provisions but a little biscuit had been exhausted. On the night of the 20th Mr. Price, of the commissariat, and Captain Leach and Ensign McDonnell, with some Maoris, had set out on a forced march for Mataitawa to get supplies for the troops. The rain fell in torrents, and the struggle through the roadless bush became so exhausting that Mr. Price had to be left under
Included in General Chute's column on the bush march was a detachment of the Mounted Artillery under Lieutenant
“We started on the morning of the 17th January, 1866, and marched by a well-marked track into the bush with a few native guides and three days' provisions and 300 men. At first the track was all that could be desired, and the first three miles were soon passed over. We laughed at the idea of taking more than three days to do sixty miles, but by degrees the path grew smaller and beautifully less until it disappeared altogether to the sight of any European, though the natives could follow it. After the first four miles we had literally to cut our way with hatchets and billhooks through the most entangled jungle, the undergrowth very thick with plenty of supplejack in it; but what was worse than all this were the innumerable gullies and small rivers. It took us an immense time to get the pack-horses over these obstacles. In most places we had to make steps with fern-trees, both up and down, for them, and we moved at about
Chute without delay set out on his return march through Taranaki southward by the west coast road, thus encircling Mount Egmont. At the Hangatahua River (usually called “Stony River”) Captain Mace's Mounted Corps and seventy men of the 43rd Regiment joined the column; a company of Taranaki Bush Rangers also came up to join in the projected operations against the Hauhaus in the Warea district. Before daylight on the 1st February the General moved out of camp with 450 men of all ranks and followed a track which had been reconnoitred by the Native Contingent scouts the previous day. Advancing through bush and scrub, the force came out on a large clearing five or six miles inland from the Warea-Opunake Road. A pa, called Waikoko, was now in sight about 500 yards distant. The troops were extended in skirmishing order, the 14th on the right, the 43rd on the left, and the Rangers in the centre. The order to assault the stockade was given, and under a heavy fire the troops rushed cheering upon the enemy. The Maori resistance was vigorous but short, and the garrison soon took to the bush in rear, leaving four dead men in the pa. One man of the 14th was killed, and a sergeant of Corbett's Rangers and two of the Wanganui natives were wounded.
This was the last skirmish on Chute's march. The force went on to Opunake and the Wai-ngongoro, and marched into Patea on the 6th February, 1866. In the five weeks' campaign, beginning at the Waitotara, the force had captured and destroyed seven fortified pas and twenty-one open villages, inflicting large casualties.
While the General was on his bush march from Ketemarae northward, Lieut.-Colonel Butler (57th) had some skirmishing with a flying column operating from the camp at the mouth of the Wai-ngongoro. With 200 of the 50th and 57th Regiments and 120 Maoris, and taking two field-guns, he marched inland on the 18th January and went as far as Tirotiro-moana, east of Ketemarae. The pa and cultivations there were destroyed. On
whares they were fired on. The Native Contingent, pursuing the Hauhaus through the bush, found another large village, a very well built place. A 57th detachment under Sir Robert Douglas came up, and the force attacked and carried the village, after a sharp fight in which five Hauhaus were killed and one Wanganui man was wounded. The village, niu flagstaff, and cultivations were destroyed.
The 57th Regiment, after its excellent work in General Chute's campaign of 1866, was sent to Te Awamutu, in the Waikato. There the corps remained for several months and then was ordered to England. Those men who did not take their discharge in New Zealand were despatched to England in the ships “Electra” and “Maori” in April, 1867. Seven officers and sixty-eight non-commissioned officers and men of the regiment lost their lives in the New Zealand campaigns. Many of the 57th veterans joined the colonial forces after their discharge. In the heroic defence of Turuturu-mokai Redoubt in 1868 four of the old “Die-hards” were engaged, and three of them were killed.
IN THE EARLIER campaigns the missionaries had been respected, and often had been free to come and go among the combatants, but the Hauhau no longer regarded them as tapu. March, 1865, saw the worst atrocity of the Pai-marire war, the murder of the Rev. Carl Sylvius Volkner, at Opotiki, by Kereopa and his band of fanatics.
The prophets took with them two deserters from the British forces. One of these renegades was
That the founder of Pai-marire did not authorize murders—or, indeed, hostile acts of any kind—on the proselytizing mission to the East Cape there is documentary proof. The following is
Matakaha, Wahi o Taranaki, Tihema 8th, 1864.
HEwhakaaturanga tenei mo te upoko. Ka tukua atu nei kia haere i nga wahi o te motu. Ko te ara, maro atu i konei a Waitotara, ka ahu atu ki uta, te putanga kei Pipiriki, maro atu ki Taupo, maro atu ki te Urewera maro atu ki Ngati-Porou, tae atu kia Hirini te Kani-a-Takirau, te mutunga mai. Kia tika te hari, kaua e whakahengia e te tangata, a penatia me Te Rangi-tauira ritenga whakehe i tera o aku akoranga i te motu. Ko tenei kia pai te kawe i tenei o aku akoranga ki nga wahi o te motu kia tae pai ai kia a Hirini, mana e hoatu pai ki ona whanaunga pakeha i reira.
Ki tenei reta korerotia i nga kaainga katoa, ki te kino i te repo ma koutou e ahua atu ki tetahi pepa hou, kia tae pai atu ai ki etahi kaainga atu, pena tonu a tae noa kia Hirini. Heoi.
NA TE UA HAUMENE.
(Na
[TRANSLATION]
Matakaha, Taranaki,
THESEare directions regarding the head which is being sent forth to the districts of the Island. This is the route to be taken: Go direct from here to Waitotara, then pursue a course inland until Pipiriki is reached; thence go direct to Taupo, and from there to the Urewera, thence on to Ngati-Porou until you reach Hirini te Kani-a-Takirau. There ends the journey. Let your proceedings be correct, not like those of Te Rangi-tauira, whose actions were not in accordance with my teachings in the Island. Let your conduct be good in carrying these my instructions to the various parts of the Island, even until you come to Hirini, who will convey the teachings peacefully to his European relations there.
This letter you must make known to all the villages. Should it become soiled in the swamps, you must copy it on a new paper, so that it may be conveyed properly to the settlements visited, and so until you reach Hirini.
That is all.
From TE UA HAUMENE.
(From
On his arrival at Whakatane Kereopa demanded that the Ngati-Awa tribes should hand over to him the Roman Catholic priest of their district. Pending their reply he travelled on to Opotiki, accompanied by some of the principal chiefs of Whakatane, including Mokomoko and Te Hura. (Later it was stated that the priest was spared because he was a Frenchman.) The Pai-marire cult was expounded at Opotiki, and nearly the whole of the Whakatohea Tribe became converts. Patara then demanded of the chiefs their missionary, Mr. Volkner, whom he desired to sacrifice to the god of Pai-marire.
This missionary, the Rev. Carl Sylvius Volkner, was one of several German Lutheran clergymen who had come out to work among the natives in New Zealand. He was a member of the Church of England body, and he worked with zeal and devotion
When
A niu flagstaff of worship was erected in the middle of the principal settlement, Pa-kowhai, facing the entrance to the Opotiki Harbour and the Pai-marire worship was commenced. Kereopa, with Lloyd's head, stood by the foot of the pole, and the trophy of the niu and rehearsed the chants of the new religion.
On the 1st March the coasting-schooner “Eclipse,” owned and commanded by a Jewish trader, Captain Levy, arrived at the Opotiki landing from Auckland, bringing as passengers Mr. Volkner and a brother missionary, the Rev.
On the afternoon of the 2nd March Mr. Volkner was taken out of his prison hut by an armed guard and was marched into
That scene in “Hionardquo;—“Zion,rdquo; as the Opotiki church was called by Volkner's old congregation—was of a character revolting beyond measure. It was as if a devil had entered into the people. Assuredly there was a demon before them there in human form, at once terrifying and fascinating them by his sheer savagery. Kereopa, dressed in his victim's long black coat, stood in Volkner's pulpit, and placed the dripping head on the reading-desk in front of him; by its side he set the communion cup of blood.
“Hear, O Israel!rdquo; he cried. “This is the word of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! We are the Jews who were lost and have been persecuted. Behold!rdquo; Gripping the head, he gouged out both eyes. He held up an eye in each hand between fingers and thumb. “Listen, O tribe!rdquo; he said. “This eye is the Parliament of England, and this one is the law of New Zealand!rdquo; So saying, he swallowed them one after the other. The second eye stuck in his throat, and he called for a drink of water to help him to swallow it. He picked up the head from the floor where he had dropped it, and set it up in front of him again on the pulpit-desk.
Then the cannibal priest took up the communion chalice and drank of its contents. He passed it to one of his flock, who put it to his lips and took a sip, and then it was passed from hand to hand among the congregation. Some put it to their lips to taste their missionary's blood; others dipped leaves into the cup and sprinkled themselves with its contents. The empty cup was carried back to the desecrated pulpit where the head lay; the stains of the martyred missionary's blood remain in the wood of the reading-desk to this day.
This atrocious deed earned the arch-murderer the epithet “Kai-karu,rdquo; or “Kai-whatu,rdquo; the “Eye-eater.rdquo; Six years afterwards when he was captured in the Urewera Country, he said he knew he would meet with misfortune sooner or later, because one of “Te Wakana'srdquo; eyes stuck in his throat; it was an aitua, an unlucky happening and a portent of death.
From the church Volkner's head was taken to the house of the Roman Catholic priest, where it was set on the mantelpiece; then it was carried to the murdered man's house, Peria; the object was to whakanoa, or “make commonrdquo; and pollute with blood, all the places sacred to the Christian ministers.
The after-history of Volkner's head is narrated by the natives, up to a certain stage. It was preserved by being smoke-dried over a fire, and when Kereopa continued his travels to Tauaroa, on the Rangitaiki, it was carried with him; the bearer was the renegade
Not all the Whakatohea participated in or approved of the slaying of Volkner. A member of the tribe who was an unwilling eye-witness of the execution says two sections of the Whakatohea were opposed to putting the missionary to death. Ngati-Ira, of Waioeka, and Ngati-Ngaere both disapproved of it. Ngati-Tama favoured Kereopa's work. This witness, a woman, recalls the abhorrence and fear with which she and some of her companions saw from a short distance Volkner's body hanging to the tree, and then its decapitation. She was taken into the church, “Hiona,rdquo; with the other people, and saw Kereopa place the minister's head on the torona (“thronerdquo;—i.e., the pulpit), and she witnessed the swallowing of the eyes. “The prophet,rdquo; she says, “had to take a drink of water before the second eye went down. Kereopa impressed on the people that by tasting the blood of the missionary when the cup went round the converts would acquire a knowledge of the English tongue, and would be able to work miracles. In the old Maori days the belief was that by the drinking of an enemy's blood his knowledge and mana were acquired by his slayers. Mr. Volkner's body was not mutilated except by the cutting-off of his head. Many of our people were astounded by the killing of the missionary who had been with us so long, but although one or two made an attempt to prevent the execution they were powerless before Kereopa and his armed men, and they were also filled with fear of his god and his magic incantations.rdquo;
The fate of the other missionary, Mr. Grace, hung in the balance for some time. He was publicly accused of having disseminated false doctrines amongst the people. Probably he would have been sacrificed like Volkner but for Patara, who offered to exchange him for
A few weeks after these events at Opotiki the newly recruited Hauhaus at Whakatane cut off a small coasting-vessel and murdered Mr.
The cutter was brought into the Whakatane River opposite the settlement and looted, and her mast was chopped through at the deck and taken ashore to Kopeopeo, a short distance outside the main village on the beach. There it was set up as a niu under Horomona's directions, and the Patu-tatahi and other hapus of Ngati-Awa and the Ngati-Pukeko, newly brought under the maddening influence of Pai-marire, went through their fanatic ceremonies round its foot. The old chief Te Apanui, who was averse to the faith and works of the Hauhaus, was compelled to participate in the worship. He was forced to the foot of the niu, and ordered to revolve about it with his raised hands resting on the mast, while his people went round and round in procession, chanting the new service taught them by the white-bearded prophet from Taranaki.
The sequel to these deeds of blood was the despatch, after considerable delay, of Government punitive expeditions, and the ultimate capture of many of those actively concerned in the murders of Volkner and Fulloon. Of these, Horomona, Kirimangu, and three others were tried and hanged in Auckland. The operations of the Government forces are described in the two following chapters.
The Ngati-te-Rangi chief Statement by pa in 1864:—
“In 1865, when the Hauhau religion began to spread to some of our Arawa people (the Ngati-Rangiwewehi), I went to live close to Kahuwera, a strong palisaded pa on a high point on the northern shore of Lake Rotoiti, near Otaramarae. I lived there with the family of my uncle Wiremu Matenga te Ruru, of Ngati-Uenukukopako. We camped on the beach below the pa. It became known that the Ngai-te-Rangi chief
“Matenga and his wife and several others of us went out daily in a small canoe. One morning as we were closely scanning the coast of the southern side of the lake we saw an empty canoe drifting about near the middle of the lake. The alarm was given, and soon a score of canoes were racing for it. The canoe had evidently been cast loose a very little while before. We concluded correctly that Hori and his party had crossed the lake in the early dawn and were somewhere near the shore in the bush south of us. We paddled ashore to the nearer part of the south coast, and there came on the trail. Matenga's keen eyes noticed a place where the soil had been disturbed a very little while before; it was on the cliff-side between Hauparu and Ruato Bays, and a tuft of grass with earth clinging to the
We landed and climbed the cliff, and soon we came upon the foot-tracks of a party of people leading into the forest. We followed them up rapidly into the bush south of Ruato, and we soon came upon a number of Maoris with kai-karakia (religious leader) or poropiti (prophet). Our chief Matenga called on the party to stop, threatening to fire on them unless they stood fast. Hori and his companions thereupon came to a halt, but made no move to surrender. Instead, they gathered round their prophet and chanted their Pai-marire incantations and called upon their gods to strike us blind. We surrounded them and listened to their karakia. Besides Hori and Tiu, there were in the Hauhau party Hori's old wife, Akuhata and his wife and child, a half-caste named Hoani Makaraoti (John McLeod), of Tauranga, Te Hati, tohunga who had saved my life at the Gate Pa. He had turned Hauhau, and was guiding the Tauranga people across the country. Having camped for a long time in the bush on the north side of Rotoiti, they had succeeded in crossing the lake unseen, and were making for the Urewera Country when we discovered them. Hori and his people were all unarmed; there was not even a stone patu among them. But old Timoti secretly carried a short-handled tomahawk under his shirt; this was discovered afterwards. The party had done their utmost to escape detection, but their tracks were readily found, and their device of dragging brushwood back and forward on the beach at the spot where they landed, to hide their footmarks, only served to put our scouts on their trail.
“The old chief and his prophet, as we approached, cried out to their two atuas or gods, Rura and Riki, to blind our eyes and prevent us seeing them. Then the prophet began his Pai-marire chant, as taught by Koterani, teihana!Karaiti titi Kai.Kopere, teihana!Rire, rire, hau!
“As they chanted the Hauhaus raised their right hands above their heads, the universal Pai-marire gesture. Then they chanted their fanatic prayers, seeming to believe that their incantations would avert their capture. The prophet began
Kororia me te Pata,Ranei tu,Ranei to,Riiko—e!Te wai te pikine,Huoro Pata, hema ta pi,Wai wi rau te,Rire rire, hau!(“Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning and ever shall be, world without end”—and, instead of “Amen,” “
Rire, rire, hau!”)
“I well remembered this karakia as I heard it then chanted by the Hauhaus with their right hands upraised, but it was not until long afterwards that I discovered what it meant. The Hauhaus believed that when they had learned all these incantations well their gods Rura and Riki would give them power to walk upon the waters and perform other supernatural deeds. Some of us asked, ‘Then why did not karakia then.’
“When we had surrounded the Hauhau party Matenga te Ruru told me to go out to the edge of the bush and fire my gun to let the Arawa know of our discovery. I hurried out to the edge of the bush near the cliff and fired, and then all the canoecrews who were out scouting came paddling eagerly up to where I stood. The prisoners were brought out to the beach, and we embarked them in a large war-canoe with pa there was a tremendous commotion. The people dashed out into the water to meet us, brandishing tomahawks over the prisoners and threatening to kill them. rangatira.
“The prisoners were brought ashore and were led up to a big tent which was pitched on the point of Kahuwera pa. There they were plentifully supplied with food—pork, kumara, wild honey, and so forth—but they were very sorrowful and could not eat much. From Kahuwera the people were sent on to
patiti (tomahawk) was found stuck in his flax girdle underneath his shirt. The prophet had ordered that no weapons should be carried on the secret expedition, and when he learned of Timoti's tomahawk he declared that this breach of his instructions was the aitua which had brought misfortune on the party.”
The arrest of waiata was as follows:—
Ko wai te iwi e korerotia kinotia nei?Ko te Arawa mangai-nui.He aha tona kino?He tohe nona ki te whakatutu ki te taha Maori.He aha te take a kaha ai ki te whakatutu i te taha Maori?He pati moni, he pati kai.He aha tona he e kitea nei e nga iwi?Ko tona pakanga ki te patu i nga iwi i te Awa-a-te-Atua.Tena tetahi?Ko te kohurutanga i a Te Aporotanga.Tena tetahi?Ko tona whakai ki te hopu huhuakore i te Ariki a Tauranga, i a Hori Tupaea.
The Government secured the manuscript of the song, and instituted a prosecution on a charge of seditious libel, professing to see in it an invitation to the other tribes to attack the Arawa. The whole thing lay in the interpretation of the Maori words. Archdeacon Maunsell and others gave expert evidence which had the effect of inducing the jury unanimously to acquit Mr. Davis.
Te Aporotanga mentioned in this waiata was the Whakatohea chief captured in the Kaokaoroa battle near Matata and shot by Tohi te Ururangi's widow in revenge for the death of her husband.
ON THE WESTERN side of the Urewera Ranges, overlooking the Kaingaroa Plain, are the fern-grown ruins of a series of Maori redoubts, the scene of a war drama, hitherto unchronicled, which probably was the most gallant deed of the friendly natives during the wars. These earthwork pas of Kupapa and Hauhau are arranged with relation to each other somewhat in the figure of the Southern Cross constellation. They stand on the verge of the high country more than 2,000 feet above sea-level, and 1,000 feet above the plains which stretch away for apparently illimitable distances north and south. The locality is some fifteen miles above Murupara, on the Rangitaiki, and can be reached only by a rough horse-track, fording the swift Rangitaiki near its junction with the Wheao, then following up the latter stream for some distance, and striking into the hills by a narrow and rather difficult trail through the tall tutu and fern. As the top of this outermost range of the Urewera rohepotae is reached, two small rounded hills are seen on either side of the track, almost within revolver-shot of each other. Each toropuke is densely covered with tutu bushes, flax, koromiko, shrubs, and fern. Only on close exploration is it discovered that these peaceful verdurous mounds are fortified. Breaking through the shrubbery and flax bushes, an oblong fort of trench and parapet is found crowning each of the hills; in some places the parapet is 5 feet or 6 feet in height, preserved from crumbling by its protective garment of vegetation. These redoubts were built and manned in 1865 by the Ngati-Manawa Tribe and the Ngati-Rangitihi section of the Arawa Tribe, who espoused the Government side against the Hauhaus and bravely barred Kereopa's passage from the Urewera Mountains to the Kaingaroa Plain and the Waikato, after his murder of the missionary Volkner and the conversion of the Urewera tribes to the rebel faith. The larger of the two is Te Tapiri; it is the hill on the north side of the track—the left as one approaches from the Rangitaiki Valley. The earthwork here is about 40 yards in length by 18 yards
pa on the south side of the trail is Okupu. These were the little forts which blocked the way to the west, and held up Kereopa the Eye-eater and his hundreds of newly made disciples. Looking eastward to the interminable ranges and forests of the Urewera, we observe that we are on the scarp of a tableland, much dissected by gullies and creeks, and that this tableland, now fern-covered, was evidently once populated and cultivated. Clumps of native bush stand here and there, but the edge of the main forest is about three-quarters of a mile distant. Half a mile away, in the direction of the forest, about south-east, is the site of the Hauhau camp Te Huruhuru. Farther in, three-quarters of a mile east from Te Tapiri, is a round hill called Hinamoki, close to the bush. This fortified hill was the headquarters of Kereopa and his gang of fanatics and murderers, with their army of Urewera warriors. Then, turning to the north, where the crest of the range breaks into less gentle outlines, we see the steep mountain-top called Te Tuahu-a-te-Atua (“The Altar of the God”). On this height, distant three-quarters of a mile by air-line from Te Tapiri Hill—the intervening terrain is broken into gully and severely slanting hill-slope—a section of the rebels built a fort which formed the objective of a desperate night raid by the Arawa contingent.
In the late summer of 1865 Kereopa and his apostles, gathering up a large body of Whakatohea people and carrying with them the preserved head of the murdered missionary Volkner, moved inland to the territory of the Urewera. The niu, or sacred flagpole of worship and incantation, rose in the bush villages, and Kereopa and his fellow-prophets of the new and bloody faith exhorted their savage congregations, teaching them the ritual of the niu as they revolved about the sacred mast-foot, and assuring them that if they embraced the gospel of Pai-marire no Government bullet could touch them. Volkner's head was left for the time being at Tauaroa, on the open Kuhawaea Plain, at the foot of Mount Tawhiuau; it was not taken to Te Tapiri, but presently other human heads were set up on the platform at the foot of Kereopa's niu. The mountain clans were summoned, and by May Kereopa was preaching his doctrine of blood and superstition to a gathering of practically the whole of the Urewera and Ngati-Whare, assembled near Ahi-Kereru. It was the leader's intention, after spreading the principles of the new religion among the bush tribes, to cross the Kaingaroa to Waikato and convert the Kingites to his creed.
Now it was that Ngati-Manawa determined to make an effort to prevent Kereopa penetrating their territory to reach the Waikato. Te Tapiri and Heruiwi, the routes by which the
So, in May of 1865, we find the Ngati-Manawa hurriedly raising an expedition to hold the Tapiri track. The business was urgent; there was no time to collect a large war-party. About forty people of the tribe, half of whom were women and girls, gathered at a rendezvous on the Rangitaiki, and, quickly marching up to the ranges, selected a commanding hill as a site for their post. A redoubt was speedily constructed, consisting of ditch and parapet as already described, reinforced with a timber palisade. This pa they occupied, and a message was sent to the Ngati-Whare and Tuhoe at Te Whaiti informing them that neither Kereopa nor any of his followers would be permitted to cross Ngati-Manawa land to the Kaingaroa Plain. An appeal for help had already been despatched to pa Te Tapiri proved too small for the united force, and therefore another redoubt was constructed on the adjacent hill Okupu. The forces were then rearranged so that some of each tribe garrisoned each pa. Te Tapiri was under the command of Rawiri Tahawai, and Okupu under Peraniko Parakiri Tahawai, both of Ngati-Manawa, and each took in a section of Ngati-Rangitihi.
The larger garrison, that of Te Tapiri, consisted of the following persons, nearly all Ngati-Manawa:—
Men: Rewi Rangiamio, Peraniko Parakiri, Rawiri Parakiri Tahawai, Horomona Rawiri, Waretini te Mutu, Poia te Ririapu, Enoka Unuhia, Te Mau-paraoa, Raharuhi, Kuratau, Heta Tamati Eru te Uru-taia, Ahuriri, Takeke, Ngahere te Wiremu, Ngaharere, Katu Poia, Ngawaka, Nga-Korowai, Rorerika, and Pani Ahuriri (younger brother of Harehare).
Women: Maraea Rawiri, Hinekou, Te Pare Tipua, Te Hau, Ramarihi te Hau, Roka Hika, Erena Horomona, Ruihi Eru, Te Amoroa, Mere Peka, Mere Rangiheuea, Ripeka Harehare, Hana Tia Poia, Raiha Poia (wife of Rewi Rangiamio), Kutia Poia, Waretini Paurini, Mereana Harete Peraniko, Ruihi Tamaku, Mera Peka Tamehana, Te Puaka Huriwaka, Nga-Aikiha Marunui, and Heni (sister of Harehare Ahuriri and the wife of Ngawaka te Toroa).
Among the Ngati-Rangitihi, besides their chief ngutuparera. Their stock of powder and lead was not large, owing to the haste with which the expedition had been organized, and the chiefs therefore did their utmost to prevent a waste of ammunition. In Te Tapiri pa the cartridges were made up by the old men Ahuriri and Rawiri Tahawai.
Among the women of Ngati-Manawa was a highly valuable auxiliary to the fighting force, a celebrated kuia matakite, or prophetess and sorceress, by name Hinekou. She was the mother of the two young warriors Te Mau-paraoa and Raharuhi (Lazarus). In her hands rested the direction of what may be called the religious or occult side of the operations. She was of the old cannibal age, and was a sorceress of reputedly terrible powers. She betook herself to her ancient gods, and continually recited karakia Maori, incantations of pagan days, read the tohu or signs of earth and sky, interpreted dreams, and performed dark ceremonies to confound and defeat the enemy. So wise a woman was a source of enormous strength in stiffening the morale of a Maori war-party.
The hilltop parapets of Ngati-Manawa and their Tarawera friends were still raw from the spade, and the lashing of the palisades had only just been completed, when the first shots were exchanged between the outlying pickets and the scouts of Tuhoe. The Urewera and Ngati-Whare headquarters with Kereopa was barely ten miles distant, and immediately the challenge of the Government party was delivered at Te Whaiti the call to arms was sent from village to village through the gorges and over the ranges to call in the full force of the tribes, and the conch-shell trumpets and war-horns, or pu-tatara and pukaea, blared their summons from hill to hill. A force of several hundreds of men was quickly on the march to the western frontier to engage and eject the daring Ngati-Manawa. The leading chiefs of the Whakatohea, Tuhoe, Ngati-Whare, and Patu-heuheu,
Emerging from the forests which blanketed the head-streams of Whirinaki, the Hauhau army fixed its camp at the old clearing of Hinamoki, a stretch of undulating land about three-quarters of a mile east of Te Tapiri, just on the edge of the great tawa and rimu bush. Here a small round isolated hill which rose about 30 feet above the clearings was seized upon as a suitable site for a fortification; it had the advantage of a convenient water-supply, for a small clear stream flowed in a valley between its slopes and the bush. The hill was trenched, parapeted, and palisaded, and whares were constructed within its walls for Kereopa and his disciples and as many of Tuhoe and Ngati-Whare as could find room in the closely packed quarters. The rest built rough shelters on the slopes and levels about the pa. Later a smaller camp, not well fortified, was made at Te Huruhuru, about a third of a mile to the south-west of Hinamoki in the direction of the descent to the plains. Above the double palisade of Hinamoki were flown the Hauhau war-flags called “Rura” and “Riki”—the Pai-marire gods of incantation and battle. There was not room on the fortified knoll for the necessary niu flagpole, and a spar was planted on the little level space at the foot of the hill, on its northern side. To this day the turanga o te niu, the spot where the pole stood, may distinctly be seen. It is a bare circular space of earth from which the surface sods have been removed—in diameter about 6 feet. Here stood the sacred mast of Pai-marire invocation and worship, surrounded by a low fence of stakes. Within this pale none but the priest could stand; and here Kereopa and his fellow-prophet Horomona, a patriarchal white-beard from Taranaki, took up their posts, leading the chants as they stood with their hands on the flagstaff, and slowly revolving about it while their disciples marched around it repeating the rhythmic service in loud chorus. On the stage at the foot of the mast was exhibited the smoke-dried head of a white soldier who had been killed in Taranaki, one of the victims of the surprise attack at
Not all the native spectators of those barbarous rites at the niu foot were willing witnesses. One at least was a herehere, or prisoner, temporarily in the Hauhaus' hands. This was Harehare, a young chief of the Ngati-Manawa, who happened to be at Te Whaiti on a visit to the Ngati-Whare, to whom he was related, when Kereopa and his party began hostilities. Harehare was not permitted to return to his people, but was held captive and taken to the camp at Hinamoki. His life was in danger, if not from Ngati-Whare, at any rate from Kereopa's acolytes among Whakatohea and Tuhoe; but presently he escaped into the night, and after hiding and wandering several days in the bush he rejoined his people on the plains after the last fight.
Kereopa could, of course, have descended to the Kaingaroa, but his Urewera followers determined to eject the daring Queenites.
Several skirmishes occurred between the opposing forces. Ngati-Manawa and their allies for the most part contented themselves with holding their redoubts built across the track and in defying Kereopa. Early in June, 1865, a skirmish was fought in the open ground between the camps. The enemy had cut off Ngati-Manawa from their water-supply, which was a small stream in a gully between the opposing camps. The Queenites made a desperate attempt to recover their source of water and to drive off the enemy who had entrenched themselves above it. Strong Hauhau reinforcements rushed out from the Huruhuru pa, and the enemy were led on by Kereopa with the utmost savagery, uttering ferocious cries and reciting Pai-marire charms. The prophet had assured his followers that his incantations and mana would render them bullet-proof; nevertheless two of them fell dead, pierced by balls from the Tapiri warriors, and several were wounded. The little band of Queenites fought their way back, losing five killed. These men were Eru te Erutaia, Tamehana te Wiremu Unuhia, Hohepa Matataia, Hemi Tamehana Anaru, and Te Ririapu.
The bodies of the first three named were decapitated by the Hauhau savages; the remaining two had hastily been concealed in the fern by their comrades, and so escaped mutilation with the tomahawk. The hacked-off heads were carried triumphantly to the foot of the niu at Hinamoki, and there Kereopa, in front of the people, snatched up each head in turn, scooped the eyes from it and swallowed them. Then, lifting up his voice in fanatic prayer-song, the cannibal priest, his face, hands, and garments smeared with blood, led his people in a burst of Pai-marire chanting round the niu. From this deed of ferocity following upon the crime at Opotiki, the arch-Hauhau came now
The three heads were set by Kereopa on the stage at the foot of the niu, beside the soldier's head, in the ceremonies which followed, and the prophet and his coadjutor old Solomon (Horomona Poropiti) exhorted the maddened tribespeople and prophesied complete victory over all pakehas and pakeha-favouring Maoris. Overhead flew the war-flags “Rura” and “Riki,” hoisted on the sacred mast. Round and round the niu again went the host of deluded worshippers, Kereopa the Eye-eater in the inner circle revolving about the pole, and the roar of hundreds of voices in the barking chorus was borne to the ears of the gallant little garrisons of the twin hills on Te Tapiri track.
Next day Kereopa boldly appeared in full view of the redoubts, on a bush-fringed ridge between Te Huruhuru pa and the hills of Okupu and Te Tapiri, and considerably more than half-way to the Queenite posts. The prophet was escorted by some of his disciples, who bore the heads of the three slain warriors of Ngati-Manawa. These heads were displayed on short sticks (turuturu) stuck in the ground, and over them Kereopa performed his Pai-marire ceremonies, crying his incantations and dancing with many and savage gestures. These insults to their dead infuriated the Ngati-Manawa and Ngati-Rangitihi, who from the parapets of Okupu fired several volleys at the Hauhaus at a range of about 300 yards, wounding a man named Meihana, one of the bearers of the heads. While Kereopa with his Pai-marire spells strove to strike terror into the Queenites, the walls of Okupu were crowded with men and women in an extraordinary state of rage mingled with fear. Their prophetess Hinekou was there, marching up and down the parapet, reciting her spells to whakaporangitia (cause madness to afflict) the enemy, and karakia to counteract those of Kereopa. While some of the musketeers directed a fire upon the prophet, others hurled curses at him, and some rolled up little balls of dough in their hands and, shouting, “See! I eat Kereopa's eyes!” swallowed them. So the strange scene continued until the volleys drove Kereopa and his head-bearers into cover in the gully beyond.
Ngati-Manawa and Ngati-Rangitihi were now in a desperate situation. Not only was their water-supply cut off, but their food-stores were very small, and their ammunition was almost expended. They were besieged and practically beleaguered, for while the skirmishing was going on on the tableland a party of the enemy had built another pa, hemming in the Queenites on the north. This pa was constructed on a sharp spur of the Tuahu-a-te-Atua Range, about three-quarters of a mile from Te Tapiri, and separated from it by a deep gully and steep slopes
The leaders of Te Tapiri and Okupu at a council of war now resolved to launch at least one vigorous blow against their foes before abandoning their positions. Meanwhile Hinekou, the wise woman, waited for a tohu, a sign from the gods, and she counselled patience for a little while.
The old seeress watched the heavenly bodies at night and presently announced that the propitious time had arrived. The tohu was a small star just above the moon. Hinekou announced dramatically that it represented the small war-party of the Kawanatanga—the Government—while the moon symbolized the large force of the Hauhaus. The sight of the star in the ascendant signified that the Kawanatanga would prevail over the foe. The kokiri (the storming-party) had already been selected by the prophetess. One by one she told off the men for the assault. Some volunteers were bidden remain in the pa, for Hinekou's gods warned her that they would fall if they ventured forth. Certain eager young men marched out in spite of her admonitions and they were killed, as she had predicted.
The storming-party numbered seventeen men, led by Mauparaoa Puritia, Rewi Rangiamio, and Raharuhi. Armed with double-barrel guns and tomahawks, they left Te Tapiri quietly under cover of the darkness and made a long detour along the fern slopes on the west, facing the Kaingaroa Plain, ascending to the bush just below the pa well before the first signs of day-break. The bush grew close to the south-east side of the pa, and the gateway faced the dark growth of timber and fern which sheltered the little forlorn hope. The kokiri lay there awaiting the rising of Kopu (Jupiter, or Venus, as morning star), which was to be the signal for the attack. The assault was to synchronize with a series of feint attacks made simultaneously from Te Tapiri and Okupu redoubts against the three positions held by the enemy on the tableland. It was a winter's night, very cold at this altitude (about 2,300 feet), and the scantily clad warriors shivered as they lay in their cover anxiously awaiting the appearance of the morning star.
Suddenly a dark figure emerged from the gateway of the fort and walked down the track towards Rewi Rangiamio, who was crouching in the fern near the front face of the pa. The man was the Hauhau sentry. Unconscious of the nearness of his enemies, he moved along the track until he was almost on top of Rewi. That warrior could wait no longer. He fired both barrels of his gun into the sentry, who gave a great bound and fell dead.
pa, and soon were clambering over the palisade and parapet. The pa, though small, was a strong place of defence, and could only have been taken by surprise. It had been constructed by cutting away the top of the sharp peaked hill and enclosing the flattened summit with an earth wall, ditch, and timber stockade. The whares of the garrison were built close up against the parapet, with the thatched roofs sloping inwards and the fronts open. Those of the kokiri who swarmed over the walls therefore found themselves on top of the huts. They thrust their guns through the flimsy roofs and shot some of the Hauhaus before they had time to rush outside.
There was desperate hand-to-hand work around the niu pole which stood in the centre of the pa. A man named Mihaere, of the Ngai-Tawhaki hapu of the Urewera, was shot at the foot of the niu. The surprise was complete; all who remained in the whares of the pa were shot or tomahawked. Those who escaped engaged the gallant little band as they fought their way back to Te Tapiri in the early foggy morning. Seven Hauhaus had been killed in the pa, but the loss inflicted on the enemy outside was much greater. One of the principal men shot was Te Roihi, of the Patu-heuheu; he was the too-wakeful sentry who received the contents of Rewi's tupara. Others of his comrades who fell in or around the walls were Karito, Wi Tere (Patu-heu-heu), Eria Toko-pounamu, and Ruka te Papaki (Ngai-Tawhaki).
The Queenites' loss was five killed and ten wounded. Rorerika, a fine old man of much courage, was shot through both thighs, and fell in the high fern below the fort. Both thigh-bones were broken, and Rorerika, knowing that his case was hopeless, with his tomahawk and hands scooped out a hole in the earth large enough to conceal his body from the enemy. The dying man then scraped the earth over himself as well as he could, and drew the fern around to hide all traces. So the old hero dug his own grave and saved his body from the mutilating tomahawk. The story of his last moments was plainly to be read by the relief-party of Arawa which arrived some days later, too late to join in the fighting.
Meanwhile the terrain between the Queenite redoubts and Hinamoki and Te Huruhuru was ringing with battle. The Queenites, immediately on hearing the first shots from Te Tuahu-a-te-Atua, delivered swift feint attacks on the Hauhau positions in order to hold the enemy's attention and prevent an effort to cut off Rewi and Raharuhi and their band. The parties told off for these operations took nearly the whole of the man-power of the garrisons; only five men could be spared to defend the forts,
waharoa, or gateway, of Te Tapiri pa. The attackers, assailed in their turn by hundreds of Hauhaus, were soon compelled to fall back on Te Tapiri, and a fierce fight was waged on the southern and eastern faces of that fort. Kereopa's men were beaten back from the walls after a strenuous attempt to storm. Maraea, the wahine toa, distinguished herself by shooting two men who had attempted to rush the gateway.
The members of the kokiri who had stormed the pa on Te Tuahu-a-te-Atua Ridge had desperate work in fighting their way back to their fort, from which they were cut off by a party of the enemy. They reached their friends at last, after making a long detour through rough and steep fern country. They were encumbered with the bodies of their killed and several men badly wounded—one had received an ounce bullet through his lungs—and finding it impossible to carry the dead off the field they concealed them in the fern, pressing the vegetation down round the bodies in such a manner that the foe never discovered the remains.
When the twelve survivors of the heroic storming-party at last rejoined their friends in Te Tapiri a council was held to consider further operations. Elation at the successful surprise attack upon Tuahu-a-te-Atua was tempered with the thought that if relief did not arrive very soon the position on the range would be quite untenable. Nevertheless, it was determined to hold the fort to the last possible moment.
Several days passed, made painful for the garrison by the want of food and water and the sufferings of the wounded. The one consolation was that they had inflicted so severe a blow upon the Patu-heuheu and kindred hapus at Te Tuahu-a-te-Atua that the survivors did not again occupy the hill pa; disgusted at their cutting-up, they marched off the field and left the other tribes to continue the siege.
Being now in a desperate strait, with scarcely any ammunition left, and with no prospect of relief, Ngati-Manawa and Ngati-Rangitihi resolved to abandon their posts. So, in the dead of night, having tied up their dogs and left their fires burning, to deceive the enemy, they quietly took the steep trail down through the tutu and fern to the Rangitaiki.
Daylight revealed to the Hauhau outposts the fact that the Tapiri redoubts were deserted, and a large force of Hauhaus came in pursuit. The retreating Kawanatanga men and women, however, having a few hours' start, had by that time crossed the
arawhata, and the log fell into the rushing Rangitaiki. By the destruction of this bridge the pursuers were delayed, and the respite of several hours thus gained enabled the fugitives to continue their march unmolested until they reached the open tableland of the Kaingaroa. The persistent advance-party of the Urewera, however, still followed them, and only drew off when near Pekepeke, two small hills on the eastern side of the plateau, a few miles south of Murupara. Their retirement was prompted by the sight of a body of men crossing the plain to meet the retreating Queenites.
This was the long-expected relief-party, the main body of the Arawa, under Major hapu at Paeroa Mountain. Mair took his force up into the range, the enemy retiring before him, and recovered the bodies of the slain friendlies.
So ended the plucky exploit of the friendlies on Te Tapiri Range, an epic of the Maori wars which has not until now found an historian. It was remarkable not only for the gallantry displayed by the small band of men and women who espoused the Government side, but for the observance of the ancient war-customs side by side with all the picturesque ritual of the Pai-marire. The Ngati-Manawa and Arawa expedition, although compelled to retire under pressure of numbers, accomplished its principal object, which was to frustrate Kereopa's plan to cross the plains and raise the Kingites against the Government. It was not long after Te Tapiri that he returned to Opotiki, for we hear of him there in August of 1865 bringing with him several heads of Government natives killed, smoke-cured, and preserved as trophies. These heads, he declared to his followers, would be efficacious as talismans in preventing the Government troops landing at Opotiki. That pakeha expedition was at hand. As for the Urewera who had come under the prophet's influence, but whose faith in the infallibility of his mana and incantations was somewhat shaken by the fall of so many men to the Kawanatanga bullets, Major Mair, with characteristic fearlessness, presently made a diplomatic visit to their headquarters and persuaded them to refrain from taking further active share in Kereopa's campaign.
On the 14th March, 1920, Captain tawa bush close to the Hinamoki pa, after exploring the battle-ground, and the old chief related many of the incidents narrated in this chapter. Harehare is now over eighty years of age. He wears the New Zealand War Medal for service on the Government side against the Hauhaus on many expeditions from 1866 to 1871. Other details were gathered at meetings with the Ngati-Manawa in their carved house, “Tangi-haruru,” at Murupara. The Urewera versions of the fighting differ from the Kawanatanga natives' narrative on some points.
Hinamoki (or Ohinamoki) was a settlement of Ngati-Whare. The Huruhuru pa was built by Tuhoe. It was not strongly fortified like Hinamoki Hill.
Harehare, when pointing out the spot where the Hauhau niu stood at Hinamoki, related that as the mountain tribes and Whakatohea were gathered one day on the marae surrounding the pole of worship, listening to Kereopa proclaiming the efficacy of his incantations against bullets, the faith of the disciples was rather damped when they suddenly received a volley which killed two of their number. The volley was fired by a Ngati-Manawa party at long range across the Hinamoki Creek. Harehare witnessed this incident.
Captain Mair supplied the following note about the casualties in the Tuahu-a-te-Atua fight:—
“Of the friendlies, Poia Ririapu had his lower jaw smashed; his son Katu was killed. Peraniko Tahawai (Parakiri) was very badly wounded. Ngaharare, Ngawaka's younger brother, was taken prisoner, flung on the ground, and held down while one of the enemy, placing his gun-muzzle (as he thought) on the centre of the neck, fired. The shot only stunned him; he lay still till next night, then recovered his senses and crawled out to rejoin his people. When tupara as they passed along a high ridge, showing clearly against the sky. He was a greater toa than Rewi Rangiamio. Another good fighter was Morihi, of Ngati-Rangitihi. As for the enemy, when I was sitting as Royal Commissioner dealing with Tuhoe lands, a surprising number of Ngati-Whare, Patu-heuheu, and Ngai-Tawhaki men were mentioned in sworn evidence as having been killed in the Tuahu-a-te-Atua fight. The total enemy loss must have been about twenty-five killed and the same number wounded. The loss effectually prevented Tuhoe and associated tribes from going to the Waikato.”
MANY OF THE men most actively concerned in the murder of Mr. Volkner and Mr. pas Parawai and Te Matapihi, on the west side of the Tarawera River, and when driven out of these they took to their island-like forts in the great swamp. The Government despatched Major pa, a considerable number of Ngati-Rangitihi were enlisted for the expedition, and Mair's force now numbered about four hundred men. He marched down the valley of the Tarawera River, skirmishing on the way, to Matata (Te Awa-a-te-Atua). The position at Parawai was too strong to be taken by assault, so
pa, occupied nearly two months. At Tiepa-taua and other places a few miles inland from Matata Mair and his Arawa cut the Hauhaus off from their cultivations on the slopes west of the Awa-a-te-Atua. Te Parawai pa was taken. Here, says a native who served in the contingent, Major Mair set a bold example of courage by working right up to the palisades and firing his rifle through the fence. The capture of the strong position at Te Matapihi was the next operation, and the Hauhaus were forced into the swamps. The friendlies settled themselves comfortably in the captured village at Matata Island, where there were many large whares, and expeditions went along the beach dunes and maintained a heavy fire on the enemy. Among the Arawa was the warrior woman Heni te Kiri-karamu, who had distinguished herself by her bravery and her humanity to the British wounded at the Gate Pa in the previous year, and who was now fighting on the Government side, with her uncle Matenga te Ruru. She was armed with a Minie rifle, and proved herself a good shot. One day, at fairly long range, she killed a Hauhau who was poling a canoe across a lagoon. The fighting grew closer, and for several days there was sharp skirmishing and sniping at a range of about 100 yards until the Hauhaus were driven out. Mair and
The swamp strongholds, Oheu, Otamauru, and Omeheu, inland of the coastal belt were all trenched and palisaded, and in these retreats the Hauhaus, like Hereward the Wake and his Saxons in the fens of Ely, considered themselves safe from conquest by their foes. Mair took them in the rear by quietly and swiftly landing a hundred Ngati-Pikiao on Otamauru, a large strongly trenched and palisaded pa about five miles up the Orini Stream in the direction of Whakatane; the stream bounded its east side. The war-party from Matata Island first marched along the sea-beach, under cover of night, taking care to walk just within the edge of the water (it was flood tide) so that their footmarks would not be seen by any Hauhau scouts. The attackers then struck inland, crossed the belt of sandhills, and swam the Orini River, with their guns held high and their ammunition fastened on their heads. They completely surrounded the Otamauru pa and took the garrison prisoners. This broke the resistance in
pa, on an island east of the Tarawera River, some four miles inland, was the last place abandoned. The Hauhaus retreated up the Tarawera River in their canoes, and thence paddled along the Motumotu Creek, which then connected the Tarawera with the Rangitaiki River; it ran parallel with the Orini.
The present road between Matata and Whakatane traverses the low-lying country which was the scene of Mair's difficult swamp campaign. Matata Island, once a large and populous place, is passed on the east side of the new mouth of the Tarawera River. Te Matapihi is on the west bank of the Tarawera, about a mile above the present punt-crossing, a short distance from the ocean-beach. The square scarped hillock of Oheu, in the raupo swamp, the smallest Regarding this man shot by Major Mair, Captain pa of the series, is seen a little way from the road, on the inland side. In the siege of this stronghold Major Mair shot a Hauhau through the forehead from Te Rangatai, on the opposite bank of the Tarawera River.pa, and the body floated down that river into the Rangitaiki and was picked up three days afterwards. The man had been shot fair through the forehead, and on word being sent to the enemy a message came back to say that their man had not been killed but had fallen in and been drowned through a magic spell wrought by an evil atua (god). The Major told the messenger that the atua had made a curious hole in his head. However, they were ashamed at having told lies, so declined to send for the body.
The coastal parts cleared of the Hauhaus, the Arawa went on a foraging expedition to Whakatane by canoe along the Orini River—it was then a deep navigable waterway, but has now been rendered useless by the Rangitaiki drainage-works. Loading their canoes with great quantities of kumara, taro, and maize from the deserted cultivations on the lower Whakatane, they paddled back to their base at Matata, and prepared to take the field again.
Intelligence had now reached Major Mair that the principal body of the Hauhaus had taken up a position at Te Teko, some twenty-five miles inland, where they had entrenched themselves strongly on the Rangitaiki River. The war-canoes were manned and the force was moved up against the strong current, and presently sat down in front of Te Teko and considered the strength of the enemy. The position occupied by the Hauhaus was a large pa, with the usual firing-trenches and a stout double line of palisading, abutting on the steep west (left) bank of the Rangitaiki, a mile and a half above the large settlement Kokohinau.
On reconnoitring the Hauhau stronghold Mair saw that it was not practicable to take it by assault, and he therefore decided to approach it by sap. He had closely observed the military engineers' methods in the sap at Orakau in the previous year, and proceeded to apply them to the reduction of Te Teko. His examination of the pa showed that the position had been very skilfully fortified. The main palisade, the kiri-tangata, stood about 10 feet high, composed of split totara timbers set closely together, and practicably unassailable by a storming-party. The main gateway in the fort faced west. At the rear there was a well-designed covered way to the water, cut obliquely down the bank of the river, here about 20 feet high. It was excavated out of the bank, and it sides were reinforced with strong totara posts; it was roofed over with slabs, which were then covered with earth. There was also a small palisaded dockyard for the canoes at the
pa, called Pa-harakeke, erected on the opposite bank of the river, within close range of Te Teko. The garrison of Te Teko totalled about one hundred and seventy men and youths; with them were a large number of women and children. Mair's force, drawn from the principal tribes of the Arawa, and including some of the Ngati-Tuwharetoa from Taupo, was between four hundred and five hundred strong.
In approaching the pa by sap Major Mair profited by what he had seen at Orakau—and, indeed, improved upon it. He observed that an old river-bed of the Rangitaiki, considerably higher than its present channel, described a great arc westward of the pa, curving round from south to north and meeting the river again some hundreds of yards below the enemy's position. This depression he selected as his base of attack. Five lines of sap were opened on the eastern brink of the old river-course (now marked by a grove of tall eucalyptus). Each sap was allotted to a tribe or large hapu, and the rivalry thus engendered produced intense competition in the trench-digging. The most southerly line of sap was given to Ngati-Pikiao, the strongest section of the Arawa engaged; and, although it was somewhat longer than the other trenches, it reached the palisades first. It was carried in a zigzag course in a line between Mount Edgecumbe and the south-west bastion of the pa. After commencing this sap Mair set his men to work on a trench parallel with the front face of the pa and about 100 yards distant from it. This parallel served as a base communication trench, and from it four other saps were opened out at varying distances.
The several lines of approach by sap were allotted to the tribes in this order, beginning with the southernmost trench directed towards the south-west angle: (1) Ngati-Pikiao, Ngati-Uenukukukopako, and Ngati-Tarawhai (of Maketu, Rotoiti, and Rotorua); (2) Ngati-Whakaue, of Ohinemutu, Rotorua; (3) Ngati-Rangiteaorere and some of Ngati-Uenukukukopako (Rotorua); (4) Ngati-Rangiwewehi (of Awahou, Rotorua); (5) Ngati-Tuwharetoa (from Taupo) and Tuhourangi (Te Wairoa, Tarawera). A large number of Ngati-Rangitihi were incorporated with the various trench-parties.
As these saps were advanced towards the stockade, demiparallels about 10 feet in length were opened out at short distances apart, on either side alternately, and marksmen took post there to cover the work of the trench-diggers. The main communication trench was also filled with musketeers. The head of each sap was just wide enough for one digger; three or four would be behind him deepening it to about 4 feet, while the rest of the
pa. Women as well as men toiled and fought. Among the Ngati-Uenukukopako hapu who joined with Ngati-Pikiao in driving the southern sap diagonally towards the pa was Heni te Kiri-karamu (wahine was Ana Pene, from Te Ngae, Rotorua. She was conspicuous for her fearlessness in exposing herself to fire and urging the warriors on. “While the saps were being dug,” narrates Heni, “each tribe and hapu striving furiously to be the first to reach the foot of the palisade, Ana Pene and several of the other Arawa women climbed on to the roofs of the whares built on the level ground outside the trench-lines, and loudly encouraged their men by chanting battle-songs and urging them to be strong and brave. High above all the noises of the battlefield we heard the penetrating voice of Ana Pene. When the firing was hottest she stood on top of a hut, heedless of the Hauhau bullets, shouting ‘Riria, e te iwi, riria!’ (‘Fight on, O tribe, fight on!’) and similar inspiring calls that heartened us all up and gave more vigour to the diggers' arms. Ana's husband and two brothers were among the fighters.”
Another exciting scene was a daredevil demonstration made one day by an Arawa named Hakawa. This man, a tall tattooed old fellow from Ohinemutu, came to Mair and asked for some yards of white calico. (This material was used for making bands, which all the Arawa wore about their brows to distinguish them from the Hauhaus when in action.) The commander gave him 4 yards of the stuff. Hakawa stripped naked, painted himself all over with kokowai (red ochre mixed with shark-oil), tied the white calico round his head, leaving the great part of it streaming out behind him, and completed his alarming outfit by sticking turkey-feathers in the turban band all round his head. Then, painted like a Red Indian, he rushed out to the open and went dashing at the top of his speed up and down in front of the pa, within close range, leaping from side to side, shouting words of insult at the enemy, and uttering short sharp yells or thrusting his tongue out in derision and defiance. Bounding furiously from side to side, he went the length of the pa-front several times, his calico head-streamer flying behind him like a pennant. Hundreds of shots were fired at him under the foot of the outer stockade by the astonished Hauhaus in their trench, but he escaped untouched. Major Mair, hearing the cheering and laughing and the great fusilade from the pa, went out to discover the cause of the uproar, and with difficulty recalled Hakawa, who was hugely enjoying himself. When Mair demanded the meaning of the remarkable exhibition the old warrior explained, with an amusing.
It became necessary to silence Pa-harakeke, the small fort on the opposite bank of the Rangitaiki, whose garrison kept up a harassing fire on the sappers approaching the angles of the main stronghold. Major Mair called for volunteers for the task, and a party of about twenty of the best fighters of Ngati-Pikiao crossed the river—several in a small canoe which Mair had captured, and the rest by swimming, using one hand to swim and carrying their loaded rifles, muzzles down, in the other, gripped half-way up the barrel to keep the charges dry. Three of the warriors—Te Pokiha, Mita te Rangi-tuakoha, and another man—on reaching the western bank under the pa, went up and demanded the surrender of the place, wishing to obtain peaceable possession of it if possible in order to avoid the necessity of shooting several of their kinsmen who were among the garrison. Maraki, a connection of the Ngati-Pikiao chiefs, was in charge of the pa. He and his companions surrendered. Freed from the annoying fire across the river, Mair's sappers pushed on more rapidly. When the fifth sap had passed the north angle of the pa (the end nearest the present road) Major Mair worked down the bank and towards the covered way which led to the river and succeeded in cutting off the garrison from their water-supply.
The sappers of Ngati-Pikiao, being the most numerous clan, were the first to carry their trench close up to the stockade. They were within a few feet of the south-west flanking salient, and prepared for the assault. Strong ropes of flax were plaited, and stones of 4 lb. or 5 lb. weight were made fast to them, with the intention of throwing them over the palisades and hauling down sections of the fence by united pulls. In the other saps the men were working away furiously, while the covering-parties continued their heavy fire on the stockade. The defenders of the fort were now running short of ammunition, and they were troubled also by the difficulty of obtaining water.
All was ready for the assault when Te Pokiha (Major Fox, the principal fighting chief of Ngati-Pikiao) called out to the garrison from the head of the sap, “Where are the Tawera?” He wished to give that hapu a last chance to escape the slaughter. “Come out, Te Tawera, that you may be saved!” The effect exceeded Pokiha's expectations. A white flag was displayed, and the whole garrison surrendered.
Major Mair ordered the Hauhaus to file out and lay down their arms. As they came out of the gateway one by one, headed by their dejected chiefs, their heads bowed in humiliation, the Arawa sprang up from their works, hapu by hapu, and leaped into the action of a furious war-dance, with choruses of tremendous volume. Ngati-Pikiao and their related hapus chanted, as they danced, the ancient battle-song beginning “Koia ano te peruperu,” accompanying their tremendous rhythmic shouting with appropriate action, raising their guns, held horizontally in front of them, up above their heads and down again, in time to the words. Then they chanted, in another measure, the famous old war-song “Kia kutia, au au!” The Taupo men, with the Tuhourangi, burst into their great battle-song. “Uhi mai e waero,” to the action of a leaping performance in which they jumped in perfect time high off the ground, their legs doubled under them like birds on the wing, facing this way and then that, with their guns gripped by the barrel, uplifted at arm's length. Then the tribes united in one grand war-song of triumph, delivered with terrific leap and stamp, in front of their silent captives.
Several of the Hauhau garrison had been killed in the three days siege, but the Arawa lost no men. Major Mair had a narrow escape. Towards the end of the fighting he was in the head of the Ngati-Pikiao trench, within 5 yards of the outer palisade, when a man fired at him from the trench inside the main stockade. The bullet probably struck a post of the pekerangi (the outer stockade) and was thereby given a jagged edge, for in its course it was momentarily entangled in Mair's long beard and tore some of his whiskers out by the roots. The shock and the excruciating pain caused Mair to imagine at first that part of his jaw had been carried away.
The prisoners were escorted down to the Arawa headquarters camp at Matata, where another war-dance of victory celebrated their arrival, and then Major Mair marched about a score of the principal offenders to Opotiki for trial by court-martial. Among the men captured was Horomona (Solomon), one of the Paimarire prophets from Taranaki, the chief instigator of the murder of Mr. Fulloon. He was a venerable man with long snow-white hair and beard, a mystic and sage of the ancient type. Horomona was born at Moturoa, the present site of New Plymouth. Other Hauhaus captured included the chief Te Hura, and Kirimangu and the boy Penetito who had been concerned in the death of Fulloon. pa, Te Hura was attacked by the Arawa chieftainess Puhou, of Maketu, whose nephew Tamarangi had been killed at Mana-Whakatane, opposite Te
patu, she rushed up to the captured chief Te Hura as he sat on the marae. She caught him by the hair, violently rated him, and would have killed him with the sharp-edged club had she not been prevented forcibly. Te Hura said not a word, and made not a move all the time, says an eye-witness; he sat there like a statue.
The Arawa expeditionary force followed up their success by scouring the Hauhau country in the Whakatane Valley and looting horses and other property and foraging for food. They returned along the Orini Stream to Matata with canoe-loads of potatoes, kumara, and taro. The Ngati-Rangitihi clan and a section of Tuhourangi and Ngati-Tarawhai occupied Matata, which was given them for their military services, and Ngati-Pikiao and the other hapus marched home to Maketu and Rotorua.
The trial of the principal captured Hauhaus took place in Auckland, and on the 17th May, 1866, five of the prisoners—Horomona the prophet, Mikaere Kirimangu, Mokomoko, Heremita Kahupaea, and Hakaraia te Ruwhi—were executed in Mount Eden Prison. Young Penetito and Hekara, who had been sentenced to death, were reprieved on account of their youth, and later were pardoned. Penetito in 1922 was living at Te Teko. He served under Captain Preece in the last campaign (1871–72).
Te Uhi, a Whakatane chief with a reputation as a worker of witchcraft, was one of those who surrendered to the European force at Opotiki. For his complicity in the cutting-off of the “Kate” and the killing of Fulloon and the crew he was sentenced to imprisonment. Te Uhi died at Opotiki in 1886; he imagined he was makutu'd, or bewitched, by a more powerful tohunga, and his fears killed him.
The southern trench at Te Teko, which was the longest, is the best marked of all the lines of sap to-day. In spite of repeated ploughings it is easily traceable in a line from the south-west bastion of the pa towards the volcanic peak of Mount Edgecumbe, which dominates the landscape. A large blue-gum tree is growing in the older war-sap, about 60 yards from the pa. The south-west flanking bastion towards which this trench was directed is the most distinct section of the pa-lines. The line of the main communication trench in the grove of eucalyptus, and two of the other four lines of sap dug towards the stockades, are also still traceable on exploring the ground.
Captain Preece in the early “seventies” occupied Te Teko as a military post with his No. 2 Company of the Arawa Flying Column, and built a redoubt.
Mr. pa on it, in the low-lying Matata country, writes as follows on the subject of the fortified places in the great Rangitaiki Swamp: “I have inquired of the natives and they state that Te Matapihi and Oheu are the places to which the Hauhaus went after the Battle of Kaokaoroa. The brother of Wharepapa (of the Tawera Tribe) was killed at Oheu. He was shot by Major Mair as he stood up on the parapet of Oheu pa. Major Mair was at a spot called Rangatai. Tamarangi climbed up a peach-tree at Mana-Whakatane, opposite Matapihi (westerly), and was shot from the pa; the distance would be half a mile at least. These Maoris must have had some ‘go’ in them in the old days. From Matapihi to Tiepataua they had a good solid road made. One part ran through the swamp, which was fairly deep, starting from the pa, across to Mana-Whakatane. They had a road made across, and a bridge near the end to let the water through; the piles are there now, totara and puriri. I cut a piece off to see what it was like, and the timber is as good as the day it was put there. Evidently they made the foundation of the road with large pumice blocks and then put earth on top (there is even now a great quantity of pumice boulders round about these parts), but how they carted the earth I do not know. This part of the road is about half a mile long; it is now fairly dry on account of the dredge-cut the Government put up to tap the Awakaponga Stream. I have found the remains of guns and revolvers on Matapihi. The natives tell me when they were spearing eels near the Kohika Lake they came across the remains of an old pa, so there was evidently one between Oheu and the Kohika. Omeheu Island is about three or four miles from the Rangatai, and I should say it must have been a great stronghold in the old days, as it is (or was) entirely surrounded by swamp.”
A PUNITIVE FORCE was despatched from Wanganui and Wellington to Opotiki early in September, 1865, to conduct operations against the murderers of Mr. Volkner. This expedition consisted of two companies of the Taranaki Military Settlers, two companies of Wanganui and Patea Rangers, a troop of the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry, and the Wanganui Native Contingent. There was also a company of men from Waikato under Captain George. The strength of the force was about five hundred men, and Major Brassey, the Indian veteran who had distinguished himself at Pipiriki, was in command. The transports which conveyed the expedition up the coast were the steamers “Stormbird,” “Ladybird,” and “Ahuriri.” At Hicks Bay, East Cape, on the 7th September, they were joined by H.M.S. “Brisk,” and by the small steamer “Huntress” as a tender for the landing at Opotiki. At 10 o'clock on the morning of the 8th September the fleet arrived off the Opotiki bar, and preparations were made to land the force. The Patea Rangers, about fifty strong, and Nos. 8 and 10 Companies of Military Settlers were transferred to the “Huntress.” The little steamer crossed the bar, but grounded on a sandbank, and with the ebbing of the tide she heeled over, with her decks towards the shore. Captain Levy, the coast trader who had been prominent in the episodes at Opotiki earlier in the year, had come up from Wellington with the expedition as pilot and interpreter, and he was at the wheel of the “Huntress” when she took the ground. The Hauhaus on the shore opened fire at long range, but did little damage. An over-confident Pai-marire prophet, strong in his fanatic faith, walked deliberately across the tidal flat to the edge of the channel within close range of the “Huntress,” reciting his incantations and making magic passes with his hands. The old priest took his seat on a log regardless of the heavy fire opened on him, which quickly stretched him dead. When the “Huntress's” men at last got ashore they found he had received eighteen bullets.
With some difficulty the small force at last landed on the sandhills opposite the large settlement of Pa-kowhai, the site of the present town of Opotiki. The Maoris, in strong force, opened fire from the left bank. The Patea Rangers (who were accompanied by Captain Von Tempsky as a volunteer) occupied the dunes directly opposite the settlement and resisted strong sorties of the Hauhaus. The north-east wind strengthened to a gale, and the position of the small landing force was extremely uncomfortable. The gale sent the loose sand flying in clouds, and eight men of the Rangers contracted a kind of sandy blight in the eyes as the result. One of the veteran Rangers recalls a curious remedy adopted for this eye trouble: “We had our ears pierced as a cure for it.”
The men spent a perishing night crouched on the sandhills, lashed by a cold wind and drenched with torrents of rain. They had no rations, and most of them not only were without their greatcoats, but had not even tunics; the Patea Rangers had gone ashore in the customary fighting-costume of shirt and waist-shawl, and some were barefooted. Shivering, hungry, and sand-grimed, the little party anxiously awaited relief. The gale had compelled H.M.S. “Brisk” H.M.S. “Brisk” was a steam-corvette, armed with a 68-pounder solid-shot gun on a traversing-carriage mounted in the bow; fourteen 32-pounders of 34 cwt. each, seven on each broadside; a 45 cwt. 32-pounder mounted abaft the mizzenmast (on wooden carriage) to fire on either quarter or right astern. The ship's compliment was 190 officers and men. The “Brisk” was a full-rigged ship with very small coal-capacity, so she nearly always moved about under sail. Her screw propeller, when not in use, was disconnected and hoisted up to the level of the upper deck by stout tackles. In 1853–54, in the war with Russia, the “Brisk” was sent up to the White Sea with the corvette “Miranda,” also afterwards on the New Zealand Station, and the “Eurydice,” and she shared in the blockade of Archangel. Admiral Sir
For some weeks thereafter the expedition remained in Opotiki, skirmishing occasionally, and revelling in the abundance of food in the captured settlements. The Whakatohea people were celebrated for their skill in wood-carving, and the alluvial plain of Opotiki was covered with well-built villages containing many beautifully decorated houses. The valley was rich in food crops and in groves of peach-trees. The force was plentifully rationed out of the abundance of meat and poultry, and the kumara and potatoes and other vegetables which the fields and gardens of the Whakatane produced. The Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry were mounted on looted Maori horses, and had the satisfaction presently, of engaging in a cavalry charge on the open plain.
Major Brassey took possession of the murdered missionary's church, which he entrenched and converted into a redoubt. The stores and camp equipment were placed in the church, and the force camped round it. The Patea Rangers, probably the hardiest veterans of the expedition, camped by themselves. They were proficient in the art of food-foraging, and on the march they outdistanced most of the other corps, particularly the less practised men of the 1st Waikato Militia under Major (afterwards Colonel) St. John. The Rangers were always ready on the instant for any emergency. Wherever they camped a rallying-post was appointed, and in the event of an alarm, at the call “Turn out, Rangers!” they ran to their post, belted and armed. They did not wait to fall in in parade order, but as soon as the officer in charge had a dozen or so about him he dashed off, leaving one man at the rallying-point to give the direction taken. The company of the Wanganui Rangers was another competent workmanlike body, armed like the others with carbine and revolver. Their commander was Captain Ross, who was killed at the Turuturu-mokai Redoubt, Taranaki, in 1868.
The Hauhau hapus of the Whakatohea fortified themselves between four and five miles up the valley, on the end of a low spur which abutted on the plain near the eastern side of the entrance to the Waioeka Gorge. The entrenchment consisted of three redoubts close to each other on knolls or terraces, one in rear of the other; two of these works were surrounded by palisading. On the flat below, where the road winds round the foot of the ridge, stood the niu flagpole. This fortification was called Te Puia pa. A short distance farther up the valley, and closely overlooking Waioeka River from the east, was the hill fort Opekerau. Hira te Popo's village—the present headquarters of Hira's people, the Ngati-Ira Tribe—was at its foot. The Native Contingent and Captain Nelson George's Forest Rangers skirmished close up to the Puia pa. In one of the expeditions after cattle Captain John Percy, commanding the cavalry, was severely wounded, near the Puia ridge.
On the 4th October a force under Major McDonnell advanced to the attack of the stockaded pa which the Hauhaus had just built at a spot called Te Tarata, on the right (east) bank of the Waioeka River, some four miles from the Opotiki settlement. The terrain here, the Kiorekino plain, is perfectly level; it is now covered with beautiful well-tilled farms. The first report that the natives had built a fort on the Kiorekino levels was brought into headquarters by several mounted men of the Native Contingent; in the meantime McDonnell made a preliminary attack on the pa and came under a very hot fire, from which there was little cover. The Patea Rangers dashed off
pa, they were busy sniping at the Hauhaus when the rest of the force came skirmishing up. The troops surrounded the pa on three sides—the steep bank of the river, 20 feet high, was on the other flank, the west. A piece of artillery was brought out from Opotiki, a 6-pounder gun from the steamer “Huntress,” manned by a crew of bluejackets. It was emplaced commanding the pa at close range and loaded with chain-shot and old iron. The fort was a hastily-built double stockade, consisting largely of whanake (cabbage-tree) trunks set in closely between posts of heavy timber; inside were the trenches and rifle-pits, connected with each other and well traversed.
The attack on Te Tarata quickly roused the garrison of Te Puia pa to action and assistance; the places were in plain view of each other and about three-quarters of a mile apart. Reinforcements from the Otara side, on the eastern flank of the plain, and from the triple entrenchments of Te Puia, after a Pai-marire service round their niu, came skirmishing across the plain to make a diversion in favour of their friends. They were met and engaged by the troop of cavalry, who charged through them and killed or wounded about a score.
Describing this engagement, one of the few cavalry charges made in the Maori wars, a veteran of the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry, Mr.
“Our small troop engaged in the skirmish on the fern flat at Kiorekino numbered twenty-two, under Lieutenant McPherson (afterwards Captain). Late in the afternoon, just as we were getting ready to skirmish up with the foot troops, it was observed that a party of Hauhaus had left the Puia pa and was advancing quickly across the plain towards us. We could see them marching round their niu pole on the flat below the pa, the preliminary to their dash down to relieve their comrades in Te Tarata. Some of our men had dismounted for the attack on the river-bank stockade. The cavalry method then was to work in formation of threes, not fours as now; it was right, left, and centre, and when working dismounted the centre man had to hold the horses. The order was given to mount and charge the Maori reinforcements. There was a slight dip in the ground between us and the Hauhaus, and they did not see us
niu, and there it dropped dead from two bullet-wounds. A fine big warrior with a great bushy beard who was lying wounded in the fern made an attempt to rise to fire the second barrel of his tupara lying near him, but a trooper—Maxwell, I think—reached it first and shot the owner dead with it. We were among those Maoris for a few crowded moments, swords slashing and thrusting, and guns and revolvers popping. The Maoris dodged in all directions. One daring fellow grappled one of our men and nearly pulled him off his horse. The trooper was trying ineffectually to fire his Tranter revolver, but only kept pulling the cocking-trigger, forgetting in his hurry to press the firing-trigger. [The Tranter, unlike the Colt, was cocked by a second trigger, below the chamber and outside the firing-trigger guard.]
“It was wonderful,” continued the veteran cavalryman, “to see the way the Maoris parried the sword-cuts. We found one gun afterwards which was hacked across the stock and up the middle of the heel of the butt; the man who used it had parried two sword-cuts in quick succession. Our troops could have done more execution if we had wheeled about at once after the charge and gone through the Maoris again, but we were not quick enough. Just after the fight I saw a Maori lying wounded on the field, and I went to a waterhole and brought him some water in my forage-cap, and I handed him over to the Wanganui Maoris, who took care of him.”
After the charge Farrier-Sergeant Duff brought in a lad of the Whakatohea Tribe whose skull had been cleft open with a sword. This youth, Paoro Taia, recovered, and was living in 1921.
Taking advantage of the low bushes, the flax clumps, and other vegetation around Te Tarata pa on the river-bank, McDonnell's force (Rangers, Military Settlers, and Native Contingent) kept up a heavy and accurate fire until well on in the
pa called out, about 8 o'clock in the evening, asking what terms would be given if the garrison surrendered. McDonnell's answer was that the surrender must be unconditional; the men concerned in the murder of Mr. Volkner would be tried; the others would simply be prisoners of war. The Hauhaus requested an hour's truce to consider the question of surrendering. This was granted them, and “Cease fire” was ordered. The defenders, however, did not all employ themselves in accordance with the conditions of the temporary truce. The Rangers and other attackers were by this time lying within 10 yards of the outer palisade. It was a moonlight night, and Sergeant Rushton, intently watching the pa, exclaimed to his comrade White, “They're cutting the lashings!” Some of the Hauhaus were chopping away at the aka vines used to fasten the horizontal rails to the uprights of the stockade, close to the gateway. Next moment some shots were fired from the pa, killing two men. A cloud passed over the moon, and down came a long section of the palisade, thrown outward upon the Rangers by the garrison to confuse the attacking-party and facilitate a retreat. There was an instant heavy rush of desperate Maoris, firing their double-barrel guns right and left as they charged out for liberty. Leaping down over the fallen portion of the war-fence, they met the Rangers hand-to-hand. The rangers first gave them the contents of their carbines and then used their revolvers. One big Maori pitched right over Private William Kelly's head as he fell in the act of charging out. Carbine and tomahawk clashed. It was hot work for a few moments; when it was over sixteen Maoris lay dead, close to the stockade. Most of the shooting by the Rangers in the mêlée was done with their Dean-Adams revolvers. In the midst of it all the 6-pounder from the “Huntress” was fired, very badly aimed, right over the slight dip in which the Rangers were posted. “The chain and old iron with which it had been loaded,” narrates a veteran of the corps, “made a terrific screeching as they flew over our heads; this was just after the escaping Maoris had given us their first volley.”
The Maoris dashed for the cover of a small watercourse and across the Waioeka River. Heavy volley firing was directed on the river-crossing, and several Hauhaus were killed as they swam or waded to the west bank. The One of the Maori survivors of the fighting at Te Puia and Kiorekino is the venerable tattooed warrior The site of the Tarata A mile farther on, near the entrance to the Waioeka Gorge, and close to the east bank of the river, are the grass-grown ruins of the Waioeka Redoubt. This was an outpost of the Opotiki district in 1866–70, when Tamaikowha and his band of Ngai-Tama and Urewera Hauhaus were on the war-path. A hundred yards from the redoubt is the pretty native pa so suddenly evacuated was occupied, and next morning the Maori dead were buried in their own trenches. The day's casualties for the Whakatohea, Ngai-Tama, and other Hauhaus engaged were about thirty-five killed and at least an equal number wounded. The Government force lost three killed; one of these, Private Tom Brown, of the Patea Rangers, received a bullet through
pa, on the Kiorekino flat, can still be traced. The spot is on a terrace on the east bank of the willow-fringed Waioeka River, four miles from Opotiki Town. A few hundred yards from it, on Mr. W. T. Pile's farm, between the homestead and the main road to Waioeka, is the battle-ground of Kiorekino, where the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry charged into the Hauhau reinforcements. On this farm also stood the niu flagstaff round which the people of Kiorekino marched in their Pai-marire services.kainga of Opekerau, among its peach-trees on a terrace at the foot of the old hill fort of the same name. The Ngati-Ira hapu here are all staunch disciples of the Ringa-tu religion, the offshoot of Pai-marire.
Intermittent skirmishing continued in the Opotiki district until November of 1865. The cavalry were useful in reconnoitring and foraging expeditions in the open country, and the Rangers and Native Contingent actively scouted the approaches to the plain and the river-bed avenues to the mountainous forest country in rear. The capture of the pas at Te Tarata and Te Puia convinced most of the Whakatohea that it was useless to oppose the occupation of the Opotiki Valley, and in October the Ngati-Rua hapu of the tribe, numbering over two hundred, came in and surrendered to Major Stapp. Ngati-Ira, of Waioeka, under Hira Te Popo, remained hostile.
The principal expedition inland undertaken by the troops was a forced march into the Waimana Valley via Ohiwa, in an attempt to capture Kereopa and his band of followers. The force, numbering one hundred and fifty men, was under the command of Major McDonnell. The expedition occupied three days. Early on the morning of the 20th October the force reached the outskirts of a small bush kainga, Koingo, on the Waimana River, where Captain
McDonnell's advanced guard, passing along a narrow bush-track, suddenly encountered Kereopa and his bodyguard. The prophet escaped into the bush, but five of his men were shot. Meanwhile Captain Newland had rushed the village, killing three men and taking several prisoners. The Hauhaus here were the Urewera and Ngai-Tama.
This well-executed attack and other guerrilla activities of the force, chiefly in the Waioeka Gorge, produced the surrender of many of the Hauhaus. Among those who came in was the chief Mokomoko, afterwards hanged in Auckland. Major Mair came in with many prisoners who had been captured at Te Teko, and eighteen Hauhaus were sent to Auckland for trial. In November the Native Contingent returned to the West Coast for the campaign under General Chute; the second battalion of the 1st Waikato Militia, with some Military Settlers, remained in occupation of Opotiki.
One of the expeditions carried out by the Patea and Wanganui Rangers, the Ngati-Hau (Native Contingent), and other corps was a forced march to the Waimana Valley in search of Kereopa, who was known to be in shelter among the Ngati-Tama of that rugged bush district. Captain
“We marched along the coast to Ohiwa Harbour, and there branched off from the beach and went up through Kutarere. Thence we crossed over the range into the valley of the Waimana and divided our force. The Patea Rangers and Ngati-Hau followed up the branch creek Pae-tawa; the rest, under Captain Ross (Wanganui Rangers), followed up the course of the Waimana River. At 2 o'clock in the morning we Patea Rangers were in a narrow gorge wading up the stream. Major McDonnell, the commanding officer, asked me and Winiata Pakoro, the little Ngati-Hau warrior, to scout on ahead. Towards daylight we came to a place where the stream branched. We took the creek to the left and then ascended a spur on the right. We found a track leading over the range. I said to Winiata, ‘Me ata haere taua, ka kino te haere pearsquo; (‘Let us go slowly; the track may be dangerousrsquo;). ‘No,rsquo; replied Winiata, a very impulsive little warrior, ‘let us hurry on.rsquo; He went up the spur; I followed him, and we looked down through the bush on the top and saw a niu flagstaff and the huts of a small village directly below. This, we found afterwards, was a place called Te Kuwini. Winiata did not hesitate, but rushed down ahead of me, and we charged through an opening in the palisade into the pa, and across the
whares. The Maoris, thinking a large force was upon them, began to retreat, and my little comrade kept up a hot fire on the running Hauhaus. Not wanting to be caught like a rat in a trap, I slung my revolver by its lanyard to my wrist, and got my back up against a post at the gate of the pa with my carbine ready. I kept my eye on a small hut 8 yards or 10 yards to my left. The door opened, and a tall tattooed warrior with a rifle in his right hand came out, rubbing his eyes with his left. I called out, levelling my carbine, lsquo;Drop your gun, and I'll save your life.rsquo; The Maori tried to put a cap on his gun. lsquo;You're a dead man now,rsquo; I said, and fired, aiming for his breast. Just as I fired, he swerved quick as lightning, but the bullet struck him in the shoulder, and he fell. Just then our force came dashing down the hill to the pa. I had to stand over my wounded man to save his life, as the Ngati-Hau wanted to kill him. Winiata wounded Te Whiu, a young Hauhau. (Te Whiu afterwards turned to the Government side and was chiefly instrumental in the capture of Kereopa in 1871.) Te Kuwini was a small place—there were only about twenty Maoris in the pa. The spot is about four miles above the present township of Waimana.”
Desultory skirmishing continued in the hinterland of Opotiki during 1866 and 1867; several settlers and others were killed, and there were numerous expeditions up the Waioeka and Waimana valleys. The Patea Rangers, who took a particularly active share in the scouting and fighting, were in Opotiki nine months, returning to the West Coast at the end of May, 1866. This very competent little corps was broken up in 1866, through the niggardly treatment of the men by the Government in regard to their grants of land for military services; but many of the good fighters in the corps joined other bodies of volunteers, and their courage and experience in bush fighting made them valuable officers and non-commissioned officers.
HAVING SUCCESSFULLY PROSELYTIZED the tribes of the Bay of Plenty, from the Rangitaiki to Opotiki, Kereopa and Patara in 1865 continued their Pai-marire mission eastward to the tribes of the Tai-Rawhiti (The Coast of the Rising Sun). Kereopa went to Turanganui (now the Gisborne district), where he made hundreds of converts among the Aitanga-a-Mahaki and Rongowhakaata Tribes. The Turanganui Plain around Bishop Williams's mission station at Waerenga-a-Hika was at the time a well-settled, peaceful Maori countryside, covered with cultivations, particularly maize, and rich in fruit-groves. A considerable trade was carried on with Auckland, and numerous schooners and cutters were loaded with produce of the native farms. Into this land of quiet and plenty the cannibal prophet carried his frenzy-exciting religion, and fanaticism, discord, and at last war ruined the long toil of missionaries. The Bishop, in the end, was compelled to abandon the Waerenga establishment to save his life, and the Pai-marire converts reverted to the practices of war and fortified themselves in trenched and palisaded strongholds.
Pata Raukatauri was to some degree a restraining factor; he opposed violence and murder, but he preached Pai-marire throughout the East Cape settlements, and many hundreds of the numerous Ngati-Porou Tribe from Hicks Bay to Waiapu became disciples of the new faith. Hone Pohe was one of the principal advocates of Pai-marire in the Waiapu district, as Pita Tamaturi, of the Aitanga-a-Mahaki, was in Poverty Bay.
One day in the beginning of June, 1865, a large gathering of Ngati-Porou untouched by the Taranaki fanaticism was engaged in the ceremonial opening of a new church at Popoti, near the base of Hikurangi Mountain, when the native minister, taiaha and patu.
Setting out next day, the taua or war-party reached
Several small engagements followed in the Waiapu Valley. The loyal chiefs, headed by pa, the stronghold of
Some time passed with intermittent skirmishing between the Queenite and Pai-marire factions. Ropata distinguished himself in an affair at Te Horo, where, by making a feigned retreat and laying an ambuscade, he killed several Hauhaus and drove the rest back in disorder. On the 18th July some of Fraser's force had a skirmish in the open, Lieutenant Gascoyne and Ensign Tuke in charge, and inflicted several casualties on the enemy.
On the 2nd August Fraser moved out and made a successful advance on the Hauhau stockade Pa-kairomiromi, several miles up the Waiapu basin. The force was divided into two, taking different routes, and the joint assault on the pa was timed for daylight. Ngati-Porou friendlies guided the parties. Fraser and Gascoyne were in charge of the right attacking column (seventy men); Biggs and Tuke took the left (sixty men). At break of day the right wing reached the end of a low ridge in rear of Pa-kairomiromi, which was a large square stockade, with two flanking bastions at diagonally opposite angles. The palisading was about 10 feet high, with loopholes near the ground and a firing-trench inside.
Crossing a small stream unseen by the Hauhaus, the right column fixed bayonets, and Fraser gave the order to charge. Before the flat intervening between the stream and the pa had been crossed the force received a heavy volley through the palisading. A number of the enemy had been sleeping in the rifle-trench. Fraser made straight for a gateway with many of him men; Gascoyne and others swarmed over the palisade. There was some sharp fighting at the gateway, where Fraser was using his revolver, and bayonet met long-handled tomahawk. Then Biggs's column dashed up on the right, attacking one of the flanking angles, and the Hauhaus broke and ran. Twenty-five of the enemy were killed in this well-executed affair, besides many wounded, and about thirty prisoners were taken. Eight of the European force were wounded, some dangerously. After pursuing the retreating Hauhaus some distance the force burned the captured stockade and marched back to the Hatepe camp.
In the meantime pa on Te Mawhai, the headland which forms the south head of the bay, above the whaling station known as St. Patrick's Cove. Three old whalers, Waddy, pa. The headland was almost an island—it was joined to the mainland by a very narrow neck—and was practically unapproachable except at low water. A short distance inland, facing the centre of the bay, the Hauhaus had strongly entrenched themselves in a pa called Pukepapa; they largely outnumbered Potae's loyalists. Another fortified position of the Pai-marire people in the vicinity was Tautini pa. During August, Potae and nearly the whole of his fighting-men, who had received arms from the Government, went out along the coast to Anaura and other places to gather in the loyal people, leaving the pa temporarily defended by five men and the women; their only arms were muzzle-loading shot-guns.
pa kept loading the guns for the brave wahines. These young women, Te Rangi-i-paea, Mere Arihi te Puna, and Heni te Pahuahua, shot several of the attackers, whose bodies tumbled to the rocks. The defence was waged with desperate resolution; the gallant handful knew that upon them depended the lives of all the women and children in the pa. Some of the older women who had no guns did their part by hurling stones down upon the Hauhaus swarming up the cliff. When the attack was beaten off, thirteen dead Hauhaus lay among the rocks. One of the defenders wounded was Henderson, the old whaler; he was afterwards taken to Auckland, where he died in the hospital.
pa fled to the bush. The hill pa Pukepapa was then attacked and captured; most of the garrison evacuated it by night. Ropata dealt out stern punishment by shooting with his revolver several of his tribe, the Aowera, who had joined the Hauhaus and been captured in the skirmishing.
The next encounter (18th August) was near Tahutahu-po, where the Hauhaus had taken up a position, between Tokomaru and Tolago Bay.
The defeated Hauhaus abandoned Tahutahu-po and fled southward to the Turanganui country, where they joined the
pa. Ropata and his Aowera warriors then returned to the Waiapu Valley to devote their attention to the Hauhaus in Pukemaire pa.
Pukemaire was a rather formidable position: a trenched hill with two pas connected by a covered way; it stood three miles inland, and was garrisoned by about four hundred Hauhaus. Reinforced by a party of Forest Rangers (about fifty men, under Captain Westrup and Lieutenant Ross), landed from H.M.S. “Brisk” on the 1st October, Major Fraser marched against Pukemaire on the 3rd. It was bitterly cold weather, and the attack was delivered in heavy rain. The forces under Fraser and Ropata numbered 380, which was found sufficient to surround the pa. The attackers skirmished up the ridge towards the entrenchments and opened a flying sap. Ropata and twelve of his men got close up under the stockade, and, making fast a rope to a branch cut from a kauere tree (puriri), one of them threw the bar over the stockade. It caught on the upper cross-rail (roau) of the fence, and a quick strong pull by the warriors brought down some yards of the stockade, making a breach. Ropata leaped up into the breach and entered the works. An exceedingly heavy downpour of rain at this moment frustrated the efforts to push the attack home. Ropata himself was half-frozen with cold, but, seeing a dead Hauhau lying inside the parapet, he fastened the rope with which the breach had been made to his feet, and gave the order to haul away, and a great shout arose from his men when they beheld their chief's trophy. The rain continued to fall heavily, and Fraser at last gave the order to withdraw. The European force returned to Te Hapete, bearing the bodies of two dead—one shot, the other the victim of the cruel weather. Nine Hauhaus had been killed. The principal part of the main force went to Wai-o-Matatini settlement for shelter, and awaited favourable weather for a renewal of the attack.
A second attempt was arranged by Major Fraser when the weather cleared. On the night of the 8th October Captain Westrup marched out from Te Hapete to take up a position in rear of Pukemaire, and the rest of the force marched at daylight next morning to attack the front. The place was found deserted. The Hauhaus, well served by their scouts, had escaped just in time. They retreated northward through the rugged bush country, and fortified themselves once more in a hill pa called Hungahunga-toroa (“Down of the Albatross”), about twenty miles from Waiapu in the direction of Kawakawa.
This palisaded stronghold, deep in the bush, was surrounded by cliffs very difficult to scale, but Biggs and Ropata, with
During the attack Ropata had captured in the bush a man who was recognized at Pita Tamaturi, one of the chiefs of the Aitanga-a-Mahaki, of Turanganui: he was a leading spirit in the Pai-marire crusade. Lieutenant Biggs, seeing this man in Ropata's grip, asked who he was, and, on being told, shot him dead with his revolver. hapus of Ngati-Porou within the fort to cease fire, and come out and so save their lives. The resistance stopped, and the Ngati-Porou rebels, hapu by hapu, were called out. But there was no call for the iwi ke, the strangers, members of Whakatohea, Ngati-Awa, Whanau-a-Apanui, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, and Taranaki, numbering some sixty in all. When the wayward Ngati-Porou had all been summoned out of the pa, laying down their arms as they came, the remainder, realizing that they were to be given no mercy, made a rush for the safety of the forest, jumping and sliding down the cliff in the rear of the pa. They were out of sight before the Government force discovered their escape.
About five hundred of the rebellious Ngati-Porou were taken here, with three hundred stand of arms. The prisoners were all fighting-men; none of the women or children had been taken to this mountain retreat.
Most of the Ngati-Porou were now in custody, and on being marched out to Waiapu were required to take an oath of allegiance to the Queen and to salute the Union Jack. They were permitted their liberty on parole under the chief Mokena and Captain Deighton, R.M., with a guard of thirty of the Hawke's Bay Military Settlers. The peace thus secured at the East Cape was never again broken, and many of the Ngati-Porou so summarily weaned from the Hauhau craze became in after-years loyal supporters and soldiers of the Government in the campaign against See Appendices for notes by Captain Preece on the operations on the East Coast.
Bishop William Williams, of Waiapu, writing from Turanganui to the Governor, Sir tapu things had been offered him but rejected. However, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki received and hospitized the Hauhau emissaries.
On the 18th March a second Pai-marire party from Taranaki came to Turanga, accompanied by a number of Kairoa and Ruatahuna natives, who had all joined the Pai-marire. The faith spread quickly among the people. Even the better-disposed natives who had been disgusted at Mr. Volkner's murder seemed “thoroughly spellbound” “their decision has well-nigh forsaken them,” said the Bishop. In the Hauhau party, the Bishop said, there were two principal men. One was Patara, a man who had had much intercourse with the English: he was at Tunapahore at the time of Mr. Volkner's murder, and professed to be much disgusted at Kereopa's deed. “At the same time,” the Bishop wrote, “I cannot divest myself of the feeling that he was aware of the intention to commit the murder. The other chief man is Kereopa, a man of the vilest character. At a meeting on the 14th I came in near contact with this Kereopa, who was often endeavouring to excuse himself, saying that it was the Whakatohea who committed the murder. I told him I could not shake hands with a murderer—that I could see the blood still wet upon his hands. Since that time he has made use of threatening language: lsquo;Let the Bishop keep out of my way. He has refused to make peace with me; let him remember that I am a murderer.rsquo;
“On the 20th March,” the Bishop continued. “on which day the Wairoa party was close at hand, being reported to be four hundred men—though their number turned out to be only half this amount—there seemed to be so many suspicious circumstances about these Pai-marire that I felt it necessary to speak to Mr. Wylie who had the control of the schooner lsquo;Sea Shell,rsquo; and suggest that this vessel should lie at anchor in the bay, in case there should be any unforeseen event which might make it desirable to make use of her. I told him that Mr. Leonard Williams and myself would in the meantime go to the Wairoa natives and ascertain the state of feeling. Alarm was taken at remarks made by certain chiefs to a settler's wife, to the effect that they would not be able to protect the settlers, and several families left their houses the same afternoon and made their way to the vessel. It turned out, however, that the second party of Pai-marire who came to Wairoa were of a very different character from those who had been at Opotiki. The principal leader found great fault with Kereopa, and said that they had no instructions from Horopapera [
“There are two prisoners here, one with each party,” the Bishop wrote further. “One of these is, I believe, a runaway soldier. He has had the opportunity to escape, but declares he does not wish to leave the natives. The second is a young man, said to be of the 70th Regiment. He is not delivered up to Hirini because those who have charge of him imposed a condition that Hirini should retain him until their return from Taranaki.” The Bishop asked for this renegade. The natives, he said, kept a very strict watch over him.
The Hauhau prophet Patara wrote a letter in English to the Patutahi settlers, Poverty Bay, reassuring them. Patara, who signed himself “William Buttler,” told the whites to have no fear, that he only wished to make war on the Governor and the soldiers, but added that if the pakehas at Makaraka and other places had arms sent to them he would consider them enemies.
THE NORTHERN PART of the East Coast district pacified, it was now possible to begin operations for the defeat of Hauhauism in the Poverty Bay country. Here the position was serious, for the greater part of the native population had fallen to the fascinations of Pai-marire and accepted the new religion, and several hundreds of men had fortified themselves in a strong pa within rifle-shot of the English mission house at Waerenga-a-Hika (“Hika's Clearing”), about seven miles from the present Town of Gisborne. Others occupied two fortified villages further inland, Pukeamionga and Kohanga-Karearea (“The Sparrowhawk's Nest”).
At the end of October, 1865, Mr.
In the middle of November the Government force, numbering between a hundred and fifty and two hundred Europeans and three hundred Maoris, moved on Waerenga-a-Hika and took up positions
pa. The fortification was built on level land, with a swampy lagoon in rear; in front was the mission station, 300 yards distant. The Hauhau pa consisted of three lines of defence—the outer stockade (wita), the main fence (tuwatawata), and the earth breastwork (parepare). The wita was a sloping fence, about 6 feet high, its top nearly touching the tuwatawata, its base inclining outward 2 feet or 3 feet. Only the main timbers of the wita were in the ground; the rest of the stakes did not touch the earth, but left an opening of about a foot at the bottom as firing-space for the riflemen behind the tuwatawata, which was a stout palisade 10 feet high. Inside it was the earth parepare about 4 feet 6 inches high. In many forts there was also a parakiri, a third stockade, strongly built of stout tree-trunks solidly set in the ground.
Major Fraser occupied the Bishop's house at the mission station as his headquarters, and some of the best shots sniped at the pa from the roof. The Colonial Defence Force and Military Settlers entrenched themselves behind a hawthorn hedge which commanded two faces of the pa, and the Forest Rangers, under Captain Westrup, took up their position on ground near the lagoon.
The siege of the pa occupied seven days. In order to hasten the reduction of the stronghold Lieutenant Wilson and thirty of his Military Settlers were sent to the northern face of the stockade, where a sap was commenced and carried close up to the fort. Here they were attacked by a large body of Hauhau reinforcements from one of the other villages, and came under a very heavy fire from this body as well as from the pa, when they charged with fixed bayonets back to the main body. In this dash Wilson's force had six men killed and five wounded.
Next day (Sunday) the Hauhaus, after the devotions round the niu pole, moved out from the pa in three strong bodies and charged with fanatic determination on the men holding the hawthorn hedge. They came holding up the right hand, palm to the front, in the attitude of warding off or catching the pakeha's bullets. Shouting their Pai-marire war-cries, some of them rushed up to the opposite side of the hedge and fired through into the men in the trench. The reply was vigorous, and was supported by the body in camp. The Hauhaus came on almost up to the rifle-muzzles only to be shot down in scores. They were repulsed, leaving about sixty dead on the field. The Government forces lost none.
There were some hand-to-hand encounters during the fighting. On one occasion three Hauhau braves sallied out and challenged their enemies in the open. Young huata or spear. The Hauhau made a lunge and speared him in the left hand, but Tutu killed his foe with a bayonet-thrust through the body.
After a week's constant fighting Major Fraser decided to try artillery on the pa. The only gun he had was a 6-pounder brought ashore from the steamer “Sturt.” There was some ineffectual firing in incompetent hands, until pa, and this rough-and-ready but efficient bombardment produced the required effect. The garrison hoisted a white flag and surrendered. A number escaped through the swamp in rear of the pa, but four hundred laid down their arms and gave themselves up as prisoners.
“They could scarcely be recognized as men as they came out after their long defence,” said a member of Ngati-Porou, who had fought at Waerenga-a-Hika; “they were covered with mud, and their hair was long and shaggy.”
The Hauhau losses in this siege, which ended on the 22nd November, 1865, were more than a hundred killed, besides several scores wounded. The Government casualties were eleven killed and twenty wounded.
The capture of Waerenga-a-Hika, followed by the destruction of the fortified position, completely settled the Pai-marire revolt in Poverty Bay. The Hauhau fugitives from the district took refuge in the Wairoa district, in the northern part of Hawke's Bay, and it presently became necessary to open a campaign there. Most of the prisoners taken were released, but a number of the most troublesome of the Rongowhakaata and the Aitanga-a-Mahaki were transported to Chatham Island for safe-keeping until the coast was tranquillized.
During the fighting at Waerenga-a-Hika a man of the Rongowhakaata named
Captain
TOWARDS THE END of 1865 trouble developed among the hapus of the Ngati-Kahungunu Tribe occupying the beautiful and fruitful valley of the Wairoa (Hawke's Bay). Pai-marire emissaries in the earlier part of the year spread their doctrine with such success that the ritual of
The Queenite chiefs of Ngati-Kahungunu also wrote to Ngati-Porou requesting their assistance, and Mr. McLean visited Tuparoa at the beginning of January, 1866, and handed the letter to Ropata and
Ngati-Porou's response was prompt. A hundred and fifty men under Ropata and other chiefs embarked in the steamer and reached the Wairoa landing on the 4th. Their pay while on active service was fixed at 3s. per day. Ropata and Hotene were appointed by Mr. McLean to act as assessors of the Magistrate's Court at yearly salaries of £50 each.
In the meantime (25th December, 1865) the European force at the Wairoa, with some of the local Maoris, had fought a sharp action with the Hauhaus at a stockaded settlement called Omaru-hakeke, about twelve miles up the Wairoa River, killing twelve men and losing Captain Hussey (Taranaki Military
“In these hurry-scurry days, when great Pan has long been dead,” wrote Dr. Scott, “few people lived nearer Arcadia than we of Te Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, some twenty-five to thirty years ago. Inhabiting comfortable houses, situated on the bank of a magnificent river which in due season supplied us plentifully with fish, while its lagoons and tributaries contributed wild ducks innumerable, and the forest fringing its banks pigeons and Maori game without end; surrounded by, and not on too intimate terms with our Maori landlords and their
hapus, who raised wheat and other produce in large quantities, and were then an industrious, happy community, we contentedly ground our flour in our improvised steel windmills, procured our modest supplies of luxuries (otherwise unattainable) twice annually, through my friend Mr. Carroll, from Napier, and, newspaper-, law-, and lawyer-less, lived on happily and took little thought for the morrow. And for many years our intercourse with our native friends was genial and sincere on both sides. They invariably resorted to us in great trouble or calamity which threatened or assailed their quiet, domestic life, consulted us in their little ailments, and gratefully appreciated
pakeha. But as the years wore on there gradually fell a shadow between us. Distrust usurped slowly and by degrees the olden confidence; and the Maori King (who has now virtually followed Pan, but unlamented) became an entity in Waikato.“Events followed quickly. Our quondam landlords and their tribes sold their lands—which was the beginning of evil for our Utopia—and swallowed the proceeds, mostly. Some acres remained, represented by ships which were lost or rotted on the beach, and mills which never saw erection, but were destroyed together with much goodly produce during the ensuing troublous times. From being peaceable, industrious, and at times ridiculously abstinent, the Ngati-Kahungunu at Wairoa became turbulent, drunken, and ripe for mischief, while the Hauhau devilry was brewing in their midst.
“About this time (1865) I was resident at Wairoa with my wife and family, and not a little anxious as to the possible result of affairs, disquieting rumorus coming in hourly, the surrounding hills nightly resplendent with signal fires, and our only effective European force consisting of some sixteen men, while the immediately local natives were not only untrustworthy but bounceable to a degree. I was not a little pleased one morning to hear the unwonted sound of a Light Infantry bugle waking the unaccustomed echoes, and was soon shaking hands with the officers of the East Coast Expeditionary Force, who, under their gallant chief, Fraser, had stemmed and swept before them the swelling tide of fanaticism from the East Coast southward to where they stood. From these brave gentlemen and soldiers I soon learned that,
nolens volens, I was expected now to seek the time-honoured ‘bubble’ even at the rifle's mouth—to which I was, however, more inclined inasmuch as I had found an old schoolfellow among them, who so infected me with the desire to see a little service in the bush that I gladly acquiesed and joined forthwith. lsquo;Besides, you know,’ drawled Norman (Taranaki No. 9 Company Military Settlers: we used to call him ‘Cupid,’), ‘our medico was badly hit at Waerenga-a-Hika, and we must have pills.’“Behold me, then, a sufficiently unwarlike individual from the banks of the sedgy Cam, with a revolver on hip and haversack full of surgical sundries on back, trudging along, about midway in a line of some 250 fine fellows, rangers, settlers, and Maoris, with an irrespressible and loquacious little Irish orderly tortting alongside, who also bears a satchel with bandages, &c., and all singing ‘Old John Brown,’ at the top of our manageable voices until we drop into some dense
manuka scrub, which exercises its influence upon the upper notes; and then ford a creek breast-high, which seems to wash out the vocal ability altogether.“A bugle sounded ahead, and Lieutenant St. George and I went on at the double to have a look at the Hauhau
niu, or sacred flagstaff, which, together with its circular site and settlement surrounding it, the Hauhaus had abandoned at our approach, removing, however, only to the opposite bank of the river which flowed beneath the natural mound and plateau upon which it was erected. Thence they shouted, and exhibited defiance after the Maori manner, but hitherto no shot had been fired, though the men, in extended order, were loaded, alert, and ready.“We utilized the
niu at once as a means of signalling to the enemy, and Hamlin's white handkerchief having been hoisted as a flag of truce, parleying took place across the river between the native chiefs, friendly and insurgent. But Fraser grew tired of the finessing, and sang out to Hamlin, who was interpreter, ‘Tell them to throw down their arms and
“‘Sure an’ it's the assembly, and the double, sirr!’ said, or rather shouted, my man; and away we went with the rest, while St. George, Richardson (my old schoolfellow), and Biggs tore past us at the top of their speed, shouting out to the men to come on.
“And we did go on, urged by an undefinable something which seemed to renew our energies as required during that apparently long and most exciting race. Meanwhile the flute-like whistling overhead became less and less melodious at every step, until at last it increased into an intermittent angry hiss. An unconquerable desire to see the worst, for we guessed our people were getting roughly handled, a rush forward between the thick flax and
toetoe bushes, and the scene is all before me.“Right in front, and at about 40 yards distant, hangs a dense, opaque mass of fog and smoke obscuring everything, which is momentarily pierced by tongues of vivid flame. Looking down I see miniature furrows suddenly stricken out of the green sward by invisible ploughs, while the tall
toetoe grass drops its head, and the vibrating flax-leaves shrivel up and bend apparently without cause. Around in every conceivable attitude, and availing themselves of all sorts of cover, our men are loading and firing frantically, for there are but few up as yet, and I find I have unwillingly joined the advance-guard, which Richardson informs me of thusly: ‘What the devil are you doing here?’. The opposing fire is very fierce and rapid. But fresh men are arriving every moment, blown, helpless, staggering after their long race; but in a few minutes flat upon the gound or squatting behind a frail screen of manuka or toetoe, and also contributing to the infernal din around us.”I had already dropped down behind a log and fired a couple of shots from my revolver—not at anybody in particular, but into the hurly-burly of smoke, flame, and yells before me—when I became conscious of a commotion on the extreme left of the position we occupied, and just then, catching sight of Major Fraser, observed that he was beckoning me. It was a perilous run from cover to cover, for the intervening space was fairly swept by the enemy's fire, but I got across unhurt, and arrived just in time to find poor Hussey dying. A shot had crashed literally through his spine, as, sword in hand, he was urging his men on. A few hardly intelligible words, and a true gentleman and brave soldier ceased to exist.
”Don't let the men know, if you can help it,’ Major Fraser said, just as a heavier burst than usual flashed out of the misty thunder-cloud, and Private Hollingsworth toppled over into my arms with a bullet through his shoulder, while the corner-piece of a
whare close by went scurrying up in the air. ‘By Jove, this is getting hot,’ Fraser said, as Biggs and Richardson with about thirty men came along at the double, with fixed bayonets, and Bugler Spenser sounding the charge. ‘Stop! Down men, all!’ shouted Fraser; and as his order was instantly obeyed by nearly all, few casualties resulted from the discharge of the second barrels, which
kokiri, or rush, which they dreaded. Only Sergeant Hawes (afterwards Captain of the Taranaki Volunteers), being tall and not quite quick enough, got it through the arm, and incontinently tumbled over.“‘Now,’ shouted Captain Biggs (afterwards murdered at the Poverty Bay massacre) in a temporary lull; and with a yell which was not a cheer, though somewhat akin thereto, the men climbed and swarmed over the intervening fence and entered the village [Omaru-hakeke] with a rush. There was wild and terrible work inside for a few minutes, and then potshots at the fugitives escaping up the hillside which dominated the settlement. Parthian-like, the Hauhaus fled and fought bravely. In the evening we returned to headquarters, bearing our dead and wounded with us, and we burned ploughs and carts and carved houses, also much maize, and split up canoes and did other mischief.”
Among the volunteers from Wairoa in this engagement was Mr. (now Captain)
Early in January an expedition moved out from Wairoa against the enemy, who were entrenched at the top of Tikorangi Hill. They abandoned this position in the night. Major Fraser then decided to return and await Ngati-Porou reinforcements.
The Hauhau faction, after this affair, moved up to the southern side of Waikare-moana Lake, where they remained until the stern and vigorous
The Ngati-Porou numbered one hundred and fifty men. The Ngati-Kahungunu, totalling two hundred, were led by Kopu Parapara and the gallant Ihaka Whanga, of Nuhaka and Mahia.
hapus of Ngati-Kahungunu, Ngati-Ruapani, and Urewera.
Leaving the Wairoa camp on the 9th January and marching by way of Te Tawa, Manu-tawhiorangi, and Te Koareare, the force early on the 13th approached the entrance to an obviously dangerous place where the track ran along the bottom of a valley between two high ridges, a highly suitable spot for an ambuscade. Ropata had pushed on about two miles ahead of the main body, with an advance-guard intently watching the trail. His leading men discovered a footprint in the dust of the track, no doubt that of a Hauhau scout, and passed the word back to Ropata, who called out to them not to tread upon it until he came up. The advance-guard halted and watched a singular war-path rite. Ropata (according to a Ngati-Porou narrative) knelt down and carefully scooped up with both hands the earth bearing the impression of the scout's bare foot and swallowed the whole of it. (In the Maori narrator's words: “Aohia ake nga oneone o te tapuae ra, horomia katoatia ki roto o tona puku.”) This done, he said, addressing his unknown enemy, “Kati noa oti ko to tapuae e pau i au ki roto o taku puku, ko to tinana ano ia ka ngaro atu i au” (“As your footprint has been consumed by me within my stomach, so will your body be destroyed by me”).
This preliminary ceremony satisfactorily performed, the advance-guard was moving forward cautiously, when the first of the foes were descried in the distance on the summit of the height called Raekahu, near the Waikare-taheke River. Ropata ordered a halt until the main body came up, and then allowed Ngati-Kahungunu to take the lead, as it was their district, advising them to fire into places where any enemy was likely to be concealed. This prudent counsel, however, was not followed as the shallow valley at Te Kopane was entered. The Hauhaus were entrenched in rifle-pits and behind earthworks skilfully hidden with fern on the ridges on both flanks of the advance and also directly ahead, where a parapet and firing-trench, not visible at a distance, crossed the flat of the track between the hills. Firing began when this trench was approached, and heavy volleys were poured into the long column of men by Hauhaus in ambush in the fern on either flank. The Ngati-Kahungunu, being crowded closely together, presented a target that could not be missed. Twelve were killed outright by the first volleys, and over a score were wounded. Ngati-Kahungunu were thrown
A retreat was imminent when Ropata, a master of battlefield tactics, came up and ordered the fern on the right-hand side of the gully to be fired. A strong breeze was blowing in the direction of the well-posted Hauhaus. The dry fern was set alight, and the enemy on that flank were compelled to fall back before the onrolling flames and dense smoke. Ropata then led a rush on the hill, shouting “Kokiri, kokiri! Kua whati, kua whati!” (“Charge, charge! They fly, they fly!”) The rebel Rongowhakaata, hearing that dreaded voice, knew that Ngati-Porou were upon them, and took to flight. Ropata dashed up in pursuit of the retreating Hauhaus and found their camp on the summit of Raekahu Mountain, where some of the people were captured.
The enemy made no further stand, but fled towards Onepoto, near the outlet of Lake Waikare-moana. There most of them manned canoes and took shelter on the north side of the lake, where they were secure from further pursuit. Those less swift of foot were captured in the bush or on the shore of the lake.
Ropata and Hotene proposed to Ngati-Kahungunu that Hauhau members of that tribe captured should be spared, but that any men of the Ngati-Porou, Urewera, or Rongowhakaata taken should be killed in order to prevent rebellious assemblages of tribes from outside districts. The Wairoa chiefs Kopu and Paora te Apatu, however, demanded also the execution of any Wairoa Maoris found in the Hauhau band, and accordingly Ropata shot with his revolver the principal prisoner, Te Tuatini Tamaionarangi, a high chief of the Ngati-Kahungunu. Some sixty Hauhaus were killed in the day's fighting; of the friendly natives fourteen were killed, including Rawiri Hika-rukutai, who was Ropata's uncle, and between twenty and thirty were wounded. The only Europeans engaged at Te Kopane, besides Major Fraser, were Lieutenant St. George (Colonial Defence Force Cavalry), Mr. E. Towgood (who was a volunteer with Ihaka Whanga's natives), Mr. Richard J. Deighton, and Major Fraser's two servants and an orderly.
This decisive battle broke the Pai-marire rebellion in the Wairoa district. Ngati-Porou, to whom the success was wholly due, returned to their homes at Tuparoa and Waiapu, and remained at peace until they were called upon to take the field against
THE DISTRICT OF Hawke's Bay south of the Wairoa was not seriously troubled by the Hauhau propaganda until late in 1866. Shortly after the Volkner tragedy at Opotiki in 1865 and the arrival of the Pai-marire prophets in the Poverty Bay and East Cape settlements, Mr. rangatiras of Ngati-Kahungunu—the old warriors Tareha, Te Moananui, and
At the beginning of October 1866, the Ngati-Hineuru Tribe, a small but war-loving clan whose principal villages were Te Haroto and Tarawera—on the present Napier-Taupo Main Road—
pa in 1864.
At Te Pohue the force appears to have been joined by recruits from other parts, including some from the Wairoa district, for before a move was made on Napier the total strength was about one hundred and thirty. The column was divided, Panapa going on to Omarunui, on the Tutaekuri River, six miles from Napier Town, with the greater portion of the force, while pakeha and Maori and then join in the sack of Napier. It was expected that at the same time Wi Hapi and Hauhau sections of Ngati-Kahungunu would march on Porangahau and other settlements in the south of the province. In the event of a successful attack on Napier the Hauhaus in other districts were to rise and descend on the pakeha and the friendly Maoris; the Urewera were expected to
The arrival at Omarunui of Panapa and a hundred armed men was reported by the friendly natives to Mr. McLean; and Mr. Hamlin, Native Interpreter to the Superintendent, who had been sent out to inquire the intentions of the strangers when they were halted at Petane, was now deputed to warn them to return to their homes, otherwise they would be attacked. For a long time the Hauhaus remained silent. At last Panapa said that peace and war were both good; but nothing more definite could be gathered as to his intentions. The Hauhaus took no notice of the Superintendent's warnings, and it was evident that they meant mischief, although by Panapa's instructions they remained quiet and refrained from any act of violence. The place where they had taken up their quarters, Omarunui, was a fenced village on a flat above the cliffy bank of the Tutaekuri; the chief of the kainga, Paora Kaiwhata, with most of his people left and joined Tareha in the strongly stockaded settlement called Pa-whakairo (“The Carved Fort”), about a mile distant.
The people of Napier were now fully alive to the danger of attack, and preparations were made for action against the invaders from the mountains. The armed force available consisted of the Militia, numbering about one hundred and thirty men and youths, and a company of Napier Rifle Volunteers, forty-five rank and file, under Captain Buchanan. A message was sent to Wairoa for Major Fraser and his company of Military Settlers, who had done good service in the East Cape and Poverty Bay campaign. Fraser and his men, numbering forty, and also a party of Wairoa Maoris under Kopu-Parapara and Ihaka Whanga, reached Napier on the 11th October. The Napier forces were under the command of Colonel
The Napier citizen soldiers, numbering in all about two hundred, including some twenty-five volunteer cavalry, marched out from the town soon after midnight on the 11th October
niu pole of worship which had been erected in the village, Panapa the prophet standing at the foot of the mast and leading the Pai-marire incantations.
Mr. Hamlin was sent into the village under a flag of truce with a message from Mr. McLean demanding the surrender of the Hauhaus in an hour, otherwise they would be fired upon. Hamlin returned and reported that the natives would not listen to any proposal. After waiting an hour the order was given to attack the village.
The Militia, two companies under Major Lambert, were sent forward to ford the river opposite the settlement and take up a position on the bank. The Hauhaus were still undecided how to act, for they had not intended to take the offensive until the signal was given that pakeha foe. Orders were now given to open fire, and volleys were poured into the village from three sides. The Hauhaus ran for the shelter of their whares and the large meeting-house and returned the fire; some skirmished out to the open, but a number fell, and the huts proved precarious cover. Panapa, the war-priest, came out into the open and was shot dead. The firing continued for over an hour, and the Maori casualties grew heavy. At last, seeing it hopeless to hold the village longer, and disheartened by the fall of their prophet, whom they had believed to be invulnerable to bullets, the majority of the survivors decided to surrender. A number of the defenders rushed out in the rear and attempted to escape to the hills across the swamp, but Captain Gordon and his volunter cavalry galloped round and intercepted the fugitives. All except one or two were killed, wounded, or captured. Those who remained alive in the village hoisted a white flag, and the “Cease fire” was ordered. Nikora was the leader of those who surrendered; he had fought gallantly and received a severe wound. The brothers Kipa and Kingita both were killed. The Hauhaus lost in this short sharp affair twenty-one dead and about thirty wounded, of whom some died in hospital, Fifty-eight unwounded prisoners were taken. Very nearly the whole war-party, therefore, was accounted for by death, wounds, or capture.
pakehas advancing to surround us. I expended all my ammuntion here. A bullet struck me in the stomach, but its force, somehow, was deadened by my clothing, and it did not injure me beyond inflicting a heavy blow; it entangled itself in my shirt. Another bullet thudded on my chest just over my heart, but my waistcoat and shirt stopped it from penetrating, or else the angle at which it was fired caused it to glance off. This was at a range of about 100 yards. I saw Nikora shot in the body; two bullets struck him. A number of us retreated across the swamp and took to the hills, but we were surrounded there by cavalry and forced to surrender. All of us who could walk were marched to Napier, and the wounded were taken to hospital there. Then we were shipped off to Wharekauri (Chatham Islands) in a steamer. Kikora and the other wounded men were sent after us when they had recovered in hospital. Only one of my comrades succeeded in returning to Te Haroto: this was a young man named Maniapoto. Three years afterwards he was killed at Te Pononga, near Tokaanu.”
Whitmore's casualties were slight. One Militiaman, Private W. Young, and a Ngati-Kahungunu Maori were killed, and Captain Kennedy, eight other Europeans, and five Maoris were wounded.
Meanwhile Fraser's small force despatched to Petane had gained an equally decisive victory. Early on the same morning as the battle of Omarunui (12th October, 1866) the company of Military Settlers, reinforced by Captain Carr and some armed settlers, intercepted pakeha, was killed, and eleven of his men fell with him; one was wounded, and three were taken prisoners. The only European casualty was Sergeant Fletcher, wounded. Among the Maoris who escaped were two rather noted men, Paora Toki and Anaru Matete. The latter was a most determined fighter. In 1868 he joined
Thus the bold enterprise of Ngati-Hineuru and their allies ended in complete disorder, wiping out the fighting strength of
The explanation of the daring manifested in the attempt of so small a war-party to attack a well-armed European settlement is to be found in its extraordinary confidence in supernatural aid produced by the preachings of the Pai-marire apostles. Panapa's disciples believed that the Atua of the Chosen People, who were the Maoris, would endow them with strength to prevail over their enemies; moreover, there was the faith implanted by pakeha's bullets could be averted by the magic incantations and the favour of the gods. The double defeat on the outskirts of Ahuriri convinced the survivors that the Hawke's Bay pakeha had not only a more powerful Atua, but were endowed with an unexpected capacity for fighting. The lesson was not lost on the tribes when the news of Ngati-Hineuru's ruin spread through the interior, and whatever troubles befell other settlements Napier was never again menaced.
A monument unveiled by the Hon.
AT THE CLOSE of Major-General Chute's campaign on the West Coast there was a brief cessation of active military operations, and the settlement of the confiscated lands was begun, but occupation was precarious, for Ngati-Ruanui, Te Pakakohi, and Nga-Rauru were only waiting their time. Areas totalling about 50,000 acres, mostly open land, south of the Wai-ngongoro, were laid out in military settlements; the townships were Kakaramea, Mokoia, and Ohawe. Many of the Military Settlers took up the occupation of the sections to which their period of service entitled them—there were chiefly men who had already had farming experience—but the majority in the end disposed of their grants and left the district.
When the Government in 1866 came to the decision to occupy the confiscated lands between the Wai-ngongoro and the Waitotara the West Coast portion of the expeditionary Force at Opotiki was recalled, and in June went into camp at Patea. This body consisted of the Patea and Wanganui Rangers, two companies of the Taranaki Military Settlers, and the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry. A contingent of the Wanganui friendly Maoris who had been doing garrison duty at Pipiriki now joined the Taranaki column, peace having been established on the Wanganui by a pact with the up-river tribes under Pehi Turoa.
Major
On the 16th June, 1866, Mr. S. Percy Smith (afterwards Surveyor-General) and several companions had a narrow escape from an ambush-party. “I was riding across the fern plains at Hawera,” Mr. Smith narrated, “in company with Mr. Octavius Carrington (then Chief Surveyor of Taranaki), Major McDonnell, and Lieutenant Wirihana, of the Native Contingent, on the way back from the Wai-ngongoro to Kakaramea, when we fell into an ambuscade near where the middle of the Town of Hawera now is. We were cantering along the narrow winding track among the fern and bushes. I had a big horse, a brute to hold in. When we reached a point at the junction of General Cameron's old route with the track that turns off to Ketemarae I heard Wirihana, who was behind me, call out, ‘Hauhaus!’ I turned my head towards a clump of flax bushes and fern, and there about 40 yards off saw a lot of black heads popping up above the fern. I could not pull my horse up quickly, and
After this ambuscade, which occurred at Te Haumi, between Hawera and the Waihi Stream, McDonnell sent to the Ngati-Tupaea hapu at Pokaikai a cartridge, a percussion cap, a bottle of rum, and a white handkerchief bearing the words “Rongo pai” (“Good tidings”), asking them which of the emblems they would accept. They retained the handkerchief and returned the other articles, thus signifying their intention to remain peaceful. However, a short time later (1st August) McDonnell suddenly marched on Pokaikai with two hundred men and attacked the village early in the morning, No. 8 Company of Military Settlers charging in with the bayonet. Two men and a woman were killed, and a girl received four bayonet-wounds. There were many women and children in the place. Most of the Hauhaus escaped to the bush down a gully, the majority of them in their alarm leaving their guns in the huts. They received volley after volley as they fled. One of McDonnell's men was killed, a young man named Spain, who had recently left Mr. Smith's survey-party, then camped at Manawapou. According to one report he had gone into a whare to bring out a dead Hauhau; another version was to the effect that he was searching for loot. At any rate, he was fired on and mortally wounded. It was reported that he was shot in mistake for the renegade pakeha to leave Pokaikai. The troops captured thirty-five guns of various makes left by the
The affair was not very creditable to McDonnell. The natives complained afterwards that they had been lulled into security by the peace messages of the Governor sent through his prophet
This surprise attack was followed by negotiations with the Tangahoe Tribe and a section of the Pakakohi, resulting in many of these Hauhaus surrendering and signing the declaration of allegiance. The greater part of Ngati-Ruanui, however, still held aloof, and in the beginning of September a reconnaissance-party had a slight skirmish near Ketemarae.
In September a redoubt was built at Waihi, and this position became the field headquarters of the South Taranaki force. Captain Newland and a body of Rangers and the Native Contingent who constructed the redoubt had numerous small skirmishes with the Hauhaus, who frequently fired on the working-parties from the edge of the bush half a mile away.
The Ngati-Tupaea and others of Ngati-Ruanui presently exacted utu for the attack on Pokaikai. On the 23rd September a cart convoy escorted by three troopers of the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry left the post at the Round Bush, near the present Town of Hawera, for the redoubt at Waihi. The cart was loaded with fresh meat and bread, and contained also an invalided Wanganui Ranger, Michael Emerson, formerly of the 65th Regiment. It was driven by Private tutu bushes. A volley was suddenly delivered at Haggerty, whose horse received six bullets and fell dead. Haggerty was thrown on the track with a wound in the leg, and instantly there was a rush of Hauhaus from the fern and a flash of tomahawks as they despatched him. “They were on him like a pack of wolves,” says
Captain rimu tree, and killed him. ‘This is utu for my friend Haggerty,’ cried Winiata, as he ran up to tomahawk the fallen Hauhau. We followed up the rest, who bolted. After this we prepared to attack Pungarehu, as that place and Te Ngutu-o-te-manu were the chief strongholds of the Hauhaus.”
The principal engagement of the campaign was fought at Te Pungarehu, a village in the bush on the western side of the Wai-ngongoro and not far from the afterwards celebrated Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. The position of the place was not exactly known for this bush country was unmapped and unexplored by Europeans; but McDonnell's practice was to scout about until a well-marked track was found, and then follow it up. With a force of about a hundred and ten men he crossed the Waingongoro late on the night of the 1st October and marched
Whares were scattered about this clearing, which was found after the fight to be Pungarehu, peopled by many families of the Nga-Ruahine Tribe. Lieutenant C. A. M. Hirtzel (Palmerston North), then in the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry, thus describes the attack on the kainga:—
“We lay in the bush on the outskirts of the village, after crossing a small creek, until dawn; the cocks were crowing in the settlement as we halted. Just at daylight one of the men's rifles went off accidentally, and so we had to rush the place at once. I jumped up, calling to my corps—the cavalry, dismounted—to follow me, and ran for the village. Our sergeant-major, Duff, dashed past me, and was into the place first, I think. Some men rushed to each whare, and McDonnell demanded the surrender of the people. The Maoris opened fire, and we replied, firing into the whares. Some of the natives rushed out; others fired at us from the hut doorways. Sergeant-Major Duff was stooping down to look into the doorway of one of the dug-in huts when he was shot and mortally wounded. I saw a woman with a baby in her arms come out of the largest whare—the one where Duff was hit—and walk away into the bush on the right flank of the clearing. One of our men was about to shoot her when I stopped him and protected her. She stood looking at me a moment and then disappeared in the bush. I asked Captain Newland to send some men to help me get Duff's body away, and I was just in the act of getting over a fence when I was shot in the back, and after I was carried to the rear I saw no more of the fight. The bullet struck near my spine below the shoulder and went right round the back. Meanwhile there was hot firing, and the village was in a blaze. Ensign Northcroft, as I heard afterwards, ran up and carried Duff off into shelter. The Maoris kept up a heavy fire from the bush at the rear end of the clearing, and more came up from Te Ngutu-o-te-manu to assist them when they heard the firing; they tried to work round on our left flank and surround us, and the withdrawal of our force was risky and difficult, but McDonnell carried it out well.”
Five of the whares in the village were fortified, according to McDonnell's report. In order to dislodge the occupants, who had fired heavy volleys on being called on to surrender, the troops scraped off the earth which covered the roofs and pulled down the slabs to fire into the defenders. In half an hour the attackers were masters of the position, and firing ceased. Then the force, when engaged in setting fire to the whares, was suddenly fired on heavily from the bush, and as this firing increased it was evident that the Hauhaus had been reinforced strongly, and
Besides Duff, two men had been mortally wounded, and several others were hit in the heavy skirmishing which followed the first attack, and these were carried off in blankets by the main body when the return march was ordered. Captain Newland, Captain Kepa, Ensign Northcroft, and a few men held the Hauhaus in check while the main body withdrew, and fought a gallant rearguard action with a much larger body of Hauhaus. Those who had escaped from the Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell wrote as follows to the Under-Secretary of the Defence Office, under date 30th March, 1871: “For the consideration of the Hon. the Defence Minister, I have the honour to state that at the attack on Pungarehu in October, 1866, Ensign Northcroft, of the Patea Rangers, and now a Sub-Inspector in the Armed Constabulary, did, with great bravery, and at the risk of his life, rescue Sergeant-Major Duff, who was mortally wounded and helpless, from the enemy; also at the attack upon Tirotiro-moana, in November of the same year, Mr. Northcroft, being on that occasion in front in the bush with Private Economedes, was met by the enemy, who fired and killed the latter. Mr. Northcroft held his ground until assistance came up, preventing mutilation of the body and the capture of carbine and revolver, besides a considerable sum of money the man had on his person. This officer would have been recommended by me for the above to the Hon. Colonel Haultain as deserving the Victoria Cross could it have been conferred on a colonial soldier.” It was not, however, until after the lapse of forty years that Captain Northcroft was awarded the New Zealand Cross for his gallant deeds.whares in the clearing were reinforced by warriors hurrying down from Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, and they hotly pressed the retiring force through the bush and the gullies. Those who particularly distinguished themselves in this hard-fought affair were Ensign (afterwards Captain) Northcroft, Poma Haunui (of Hiruharama), and volunteers
The Ngati-Ruanui Tribe, chiefly the Nga-Ruahine section,
whares were destroyed. One of the fighting chiefs, Toi Whakataka, was wounded in escaping from a large whare in the clearing. Young Te Kahu-pukoro, who afterwards became one of
After this well-planned and well-executed blow against the bush-dwellers Major McDonnell carried out several surprise raids upon forest settlements, compelling those Hauhaus who did not deem it expedient to make submission to retire farther into the interior. Keteonetea, Te Popoia, Tirotiro-moana, and other settlements (lying to the east of the present railway-line) were the principal objectives of these expeditions. There was a brisk action on the 18th October at Te Popoia. The force advanced to the attack just before dawn, but at a place where the Maoris had felled trees across the narrow bush-track heavy volleys were fired into the advance-party, and, as it was still dark, a retirement was ordered. Captain William McDonnell, who was leading, was severely wounded in the hip.
In another expedition to this place on the 22nd October a detachment of the 18th Regiment from the Wai-ngongoro Redoubt took part; the column was commanded by Major Rocke of that regiment. This was a more successful attack, for it was delivered in daylight. The Maoris made resistance at the barricade of logs, but the troops rushed it, killed two Hauhaus, and destroyed the village. The British had one man killed.
The Hauhaus at this place made use of a curious bush-engine against their enemies. Just alongside the tracks leading to Te Popoia they set some formidable tawhiti, or spring traps, formed of growing trees. The tawhiti was a sapling of some tough and elastic timber, preferably matipo. Such a tree by the trail-side was stripped of its branches and bent down and back without breaking it, until it was lying as nearly horizontal as possible, in such a position as to sweep the road. The end was fastened with a flax-line carried across the track, so laid than any unsuspecting invader coming along the track in the darkness or uncertain light would release the trap and the next instant receive the full force of the rebounding tree. (A very similar device, consisting of a bent sapling, an invisible trap-line, and a spear has been encountered by explorers and
tawhiti in the night advance on Te Popoia; however, any casualties thus caused could not have been serious.pakeha-Maori, told me that in 1866, when he was living with the Ngati-Tupaea, he saw ten or twelve of these sapling spring traps, or tawhiti, set on the tracks just outside Te Popoia.
On the 5th November Major McDonnell took a force much farther inland, intending to surprise the Ngati-Tupaea clan at their village, Tirotiro-moana, by approaching it from the rear. The column had a long bush march, working round over what is now the Eltham district. On crossing the Mangemange Creek, which flows out of the Ngaere Swamp and joins the Tangahoe below Otapawa, the leading files received a volley from a Hauhau party in ambush behind some logs on the high bank. Economedes, a Greek—an excellent soldier—was killed. The force rushed up into Tirotiro-moana Village, which was a short distance above the creek, but found it deserted. Natives were seen in considerable numbers in a clearing, but McDonnell's force was scarcely in condition to follow them up after the long and wearying march, and the order was given to return to Waihi.
Another expedition about this time was of importance because it was the first visit of a Government force to Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, and also because it was the last occasion on which the 18th Royal Irish Regiment took the field against the Maoris. The force included, besides a detachment of the 18th from the Wai-ngongoro Redoubt, the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry, a useful little corps which did a great deal of dismounted work in Taranaki. Sir
“In the summer of 1866 we had seen great columns of smoke rising from the heart of the bush, and we knew that in the forest inland of Waihi the Hauhaus were preparing large clearings for growing food; for these we were now searching. After a march through the heavy timber that then covered the plain we came to a wide clearing on both sides of a small watercourse. This we discovered was the stream (the Mangotahi) which formed part of the western and southern boundaries of Te Ngutu-o-te-manu clearing. The place was a little distance to the north of the present Domain paddock. On the northern or inland side
Regarding this unusual type of Maori whares were scattered about the clearing. The place was quite deserted, but I think the Maoris could not have been very far away. The houses were of a different style of construction to anything I have seen before or have seen since among the natives. They were log cabins much after the pattern of those used in the backwoods of North America. Each hut was built of small unbarked logs laid horizontally on one another, and notched at the ends so as to interlock closely. The sides of the huts were low, not more than 4 feet or 5 feet high; the interior was hollowed out of the earth to a depth of about 2 feet, so that in entering, as in the usual wharepuni of those days, one had to step downwards through the low doorway. Loopholes for rifle-fire were cut in the log walls, 2 feet or 3 feet above the ground. The roofs were thatched with raupo reeds and nikau-palm fronds. There was a large number of these whares scattered about on each side of the track ahead. Had they been occupied that day we should have had a very bad time of it indeed, for each hut was a little blockhouse and rifle-pit combined in itself, and each could have been defended independently of the others. Through the gun-apertures in these strongly built huts, impervious to bullets, they could have shot down our men in scores with perfect safety. It was a regular death-trap; and when we discovered the real strength of the apparently unfortified village we were very thankful that the Hauhaus were not at home to receive us that day. We burned the settlement, and returned through the bush without meeting the enemy.”whare, the Rev. whare-rakau or whare-tuwatawata settlement. I believe they got the idea in the early days before the war from the Rev. Skevington, the missionary, who lived in a house built in log-cabin fashion down at the Inaha, where the Riverdale Cheese-factory now stands. It was from this whare probably that they learned how to notch the ends of the poles and saplings so that they would fit in closely together.”
This log-cabin kainga is very close to the place where McDonnell was defeated in the second attack on Te Ngutu-o-te-manu in 1868.
IN THE EARLY part of 1867 the tribe called Piri-Rakau (“Cling to the Forest”), descended from ancient aboriginal clans, came into conflict with the Government forces in a series of sharp skirmishes along the northern edge of the bush-covered tableland in rear of Tauranga Harbour. These Piri-Rakau, assisted by parties of men from other districts, were all Hauhaus, and the Pai-marire pole of worship was a feature of each village. The edge of the Hautere plateau, much dissected by ravines, at a general altitude of 1,100 feet above the sea, was the scene of engagements in which a few Imperial troops co-operated with the Colonial Militia and a contingent of Arawa Maoris against numerous war-parties of the bush-dwellers. The conditions of campaigning were difficult because of the very broken character of the country, but the Arawa friendlies and a few skilful colonials made conditions so precarious for the Hauhaus by seeking them out in their bush villages and destroying their crops that the little campaign soon convinced the rebels of the futility of active resistance.
Towards the end of 1866 twelve survey-parties began the work of cutting up the confiscated lands for settlement. These lands were on the upper parts of the Wairoa and Waimapu Rivers and in rear of Te Puna. The Piri-Rakau and their kinsmen and allies of the Hauhau faction soon exhibited their hostility by sending warnings to some of the surveyors to remove from the district on pain of death. These threats were followed by armed raids on several camps, and the theodolites of Messrs Graham and Gundry, two of the surveyors, were carried off. About this time a settler named Campbell was murdered on his section near Waimapu.
Besides the resentment of the Hauhaus at the preparations for the settlement of the country taken from them, there was a strong desire to avenge the deaths of the scores of their people who fell in the battle at Te Ranga, 1864. Pene Taka, the Ngai-te-Rangi man who was chiefly accredited with the laying-out of
Pa entrenchments, had joined the Piri-Rakau with a number of his people—the majority of Ngai-te-Rangi remained neutral—and he announced that he intended to obtain utu for the death of his relative Rawiri Puhirake at Te Ranga. Prominent among the Hauhaus was the old warrior priest, and prophet Hakaraia, from Kenana (Canaan), near Te Puke. A number of Ngati-Porou from the Moehau Peninsula had cast in their fighting fortunes with the Piri-Rakau under the chiefs Te Popata and Te Kewene, and many Ngati-Raukawa and some Waikato also joined them.
The opening action of the campaign occurred on the 18th January, 1867, at the village of Te Irihanga. On the previous day a force of the 1st Waikato Militia was moved out to the Omanawa Redoubt for the purpose of covering the arrest of Pene Taka and others of Ngai-te-Rangi, and Te Kewene and others of Ngati-Porou, on charges of interference with the surveyors by taking their instruments and threatening them with death. On the morning of the 18th the officer in charge of the force at Omanawa crossed over towards Te Irihanga with forty men. This movement, which was premature, quickly brought on a fight. A volley from the Hauhaus, as the small force began its ascent of Te Irihanga Hill, mortally wounded Sergeant-Major Emus of the Militia; he died four days later. On receiving this surprise volley the Militia quickly extended in skirmishing order, and hot firing lasted for about three-quarters of an hour. After an indecisive encounter the Militia force drew off and returned to the Omanawa post.
The next expedition (21st-22nd January) consisted of detachments of the 1st Waikato Regiment of Militia, under Colonel Harrington, and the 12th Regiment, commanded by Colonel Hamilton. The force crossed the Wairoa River at Poteriwhi in canoes and boats (just above the present bridge), and ascended the long fern-clad slopes of Minden Peak, where the 12th Regiment bivouacked for the night. Mr.
Passing through Te Irihanga the Militia skirmished through the belt of bush which separated it from the next settlement, Whakamarama. On entering the large fields of maize and potatoes at Whakamarama the Militia came under a heavy fire from the edge of the forest all round. The tall maize afforded good cover, and no casualties occurred just then.
At the request of the Government, Major William Mair, R.M. at Maketu, raised a force of two hundred armed Arawa, at a pay of 3s. a day, for the purpose of following up the Hauhaus to their forest villages and dispersing them and destroying their cultivations. Mair was instructed to begin at Te Puke, then the headquarters of Hakaraia's band (Waitaha and Tapuika clans), to destroy food crops there, and then to push on to Oropi. After burning the village and making havoc in the food-gardens the Arawa pushed on along the edge of the bush. The instruments belonging to Mr. Graham, the surveyor, were found at Te Puke. Oropi was found unoccupied and was destroyed. Here a large quantity of loot and some gunpowder was found, and Hakaraia's great flag and other Hauhau banners were discovered in the bush.
On the 4th February a combined attack was made on the Hauhaus assembled at Te Akeake, a short distance inland of the redoubt called Pye's Pa (after Captain Pye, V.C., of the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry) at Otupuraho. The column was made up of the 1st Waikato Militia under Colonel Harrington, Mair's Arawa, and some other Arawa under Captain Walker. The Hauhaus were collected in some strength in a wooded gorge.
In the middle of February a strong expedition was organized at Tauranga to attack Te Irihanga and Whakamarama again. On this occasion the force was composed almost entirely of Arawa natives commanded by Major William Mair and his brother Gilbert. Captain H. L. Skeet's company of volunteer engineers, a fine body of young surveyors, all well accustomed to bushwork formed part of the column, and several companies of the 1st Waikato Militia acted as supports. The expedition followed the route taken by the first attacking column, up the right (proper) bank of the Wairoa, fording that river at the lower falls. The first night out was spent in bivouac at Awangarara, near the ford. On reaching the Irihanga village, on the eastern fringe of the forest, on the 15th February, the place was found strongly held by the enemy. The Hauhaus did not fire until the troops got into the open ground near the top of the hill on which the village stood. The summit was about 150 yards from the bush. The fern on each side of the narrow road was 8 feet or 10 feet high. The Hauhaus had cleared a space of about 10 yards wide between the hill and the bush by treading the fern down, and the heads of the fern were pressed over in the direction of the line of march of the troops. This was done in order to enable the defenders of the hill to fire destructive volleys while the attackers were passing over the ground between the summit and the bush—a task of difficulty and slowness on account of the artful manner in which the fern had been pressed over. As the troops approached the hilltop the Hauhaus opened fire. Major Mair's Arawa, who were leading, waited until the enemy had delivered a heavy volley, and then, before the Hauhaus could reload, charged and captured the settlement, and drove the Hauhaus into the bush. The force advanced and penetrated to Whakamarama, the headquarters settlement of the Piri-Rakau and their chief source of food-supplies. (The present sawmill at Whakamarama, fifteen miles inland from Tauranga by the Wairoa route, is close to this spot.) The village and
rimu, tawa, and even puriri, a tree not often seen on this part of the coast. Comfortable thatched whares, with some slab houses, were scattered all over this terrain, among the plots of maize and potatoes; the place had recently been cleared of forest, and burnt logs and stumps were dotted about the fields. A tall niu, the pole of worship, stood in the principal part of the settlement; its foot was encircled by a red-painted railing modelled on church altar-rails. There were similar niu masts at other villages along the edge of the forest—Irihanga, Oropi, and other kaingas. In some cases the mast was painted red as high as the crosstrees.
The retreating enemy were pursued through the belt of forest, about a quarter of a mile in length, separating Irihanga from the eastern end of the Whakamarama village and fields. The strip of heavy timber between the two settlements is still standing; then, as now, it was fairly clear of undergrowth. There was a sledge-track through it connecting the two villages, which were half a mile apart. Mair's Arawa contingent, dashing ahead, fell in with the Hauhaus in the middle of the bush. The enemy made a determined stand behind the cover of some very large trees and logs. Their resistance was broken by Harete te Whanarere, one of a famous fighting family of Ngati-Pikiao, from Rotoiti. On the side of the track, where the huge, densely foliaged trees make a twilight gloom, he pluckily grappled the foremost of the antagonists, a big Hauhau, whom he threw to the ground. The two warriors were engaged in a desperate struggle when another Hauhau dashed out from his cover, and, placing the muzzle of his Tower musket against Harete's body, fired and smashed both the hip-joints. (Though terribly wounded, Harete survived for some years.) Hemana then dashed up and killed the man who had shot Harete. Several of the Piri-Rakau were wounded in the tree-to-tree fighting here. It was typical bush warfare for a few minutes. Only the black heads of the combatants were to be seen now and again, and the muzzle of a gun showing for an instant, followed by a puff of smoke, then an instant dash for another tree. The Hauhaus presently broke and fell back on their main body at the Whakamarama village.
Just after the Piri-Rakau had retreated from the scene of this skirmish midway through the belt of bush Ensign Mair noticed a trail of blood leading down to a deep gorge on the left, or east,
tu-taumata (Lomaria discolor), which are silvery-white underneath. When doubled over, the white under-surface of the fern showed conspicuously against the dark green of the ferns, moss, and tree-trunks around it. Mair observed that these white fronds were splashed with blood; and, diverging from the route followed by the others, he scouted down to the creek in the gorge. Hot on the trail, he followed the blood-marks to a cave, over the mouth of which a little waterfall came down. A shot rang out from the cave, narrowly missing him. Mair rushed in and encountered a wounded Maori kneeling behind the rocks in the gloom, and shot the man dead just as he was levelling his long single-barrel gun for another shot. Taking the dead warrior's gun and whakakai pendant of tangiwai greenstone as trophies, Mair hurried back to the scene of the fight. He found by inquiry afterwards that the man he had shot, a big tattooed warrior, was a Piri-Rakau named Rota, one of the leading men of the turbulent tribe.
Ensign Mair soon overtook his brother William, who, with his Arawa, was hotly engaged with the enemy at Whakamarama. The contingent skirmished through the maize-fields, where the corn was higher than a man's head, and forced the Hauhaus back to the western end of the clearing. Here, at their third position, Te Umu-o-Korongaehe, on the edge of the bush, the enemy made a further stand.
One of the Arawa, a man named Kitua, was severely wounded by a curious projectile, a large nail, which lacerated his leg badly; there were several slighter casualties. tawa tree which was lying across the track. These men fired at about 25 yards, mortally wounding young Tom Jordan in the abdomen. At the same moment Lieutenant Horne, who had taken cover behind a big rimu tree, killed the foremost assailant, a stalwart young fellow named Raumati, with a bullet through the eye. His fall so discouraged his companions that the small force were enabled to retire with Jordan's body and rejoin the main division. Raumati was a chief of the Piri-Rakau. He had fought in the Waikato War, receiving a wound at Otau, Wairoa South, in 1863, and he was one of the men who defended the Koheriki trenches, the left wing of the Gate Pa, in the battle of 1864.
The work of carrying out the dying volunteer was difficult. He was a big, heavy man, and there were only four to bear him out to the main body, while two others acted as rearguard and kept the Hauhaus off with their carbine-fire. The Piri-Rakau, however, had had enough of it by this time, and their pursuit was not very spirited.
In this skirmishing, in which several hundred Hauhaus were engaged, most of the fighting was done by the Arawa; few of the Europeans got up in time. The crops were ordered to be destroyed, but the area was so large that the troops could only cut down or otherwise destroy a part of the maize and potatoes. The whares in the group of villages were destroyed, and the force marched back to Tauranga.
Major William Mair led his Arawa with his customary skill and judgment. A characteristic story is told by an eye-witness as an illustration of his coolness under fire. While he was waiting for his supports to come up under a hot fire at Irihanga some of the advance-party gathered in a grove of peach-trees loaded with fruit. Mair climbed to the top in full view of the Maoris, 40 yards away, to reach the ripest peaches, and the Hauhau bullets brought the fruit tumbling down; but the Major remained there enjoying the peaches and calling down to his brother and other comrades below, “Have you enough, boys?”
Of this Irihanga-Whakamarama battle (15th February) Mr.
On the 19th February the Arawa moved on to Paengaroa and Kaimai; the latter village was found deserted. On the 2nd March Major Mair and his Maoris threw up breastworks at Paengaroa to cover the work of the survey-parties and to watch the Kaimai hostiles. On the 3rd March
Several other hazardous scouting operations into the great forest of the ravine-seamed tableland trending up to the Hautere wilderness were undertaken by the Mairs and their pickel bodies of Arawa. Many Ngati-Raukawa from Patetere and Waotu had joined the Piri-Rakau, but these presently withdrew to share in a strong Kingite attack from the north upon the Rotorua district, left temporarily unprotected by the absence of so many Arawa in the Tauranga operations.
The remnant of the Piri-Rakau still own a large area of the high land on the fringe of the forest and inland to the Hautere plateau. Many of the Maoris employed at the Whakamarama sawmill, close to the principal battle-grounds, are descendants of the Hauhaus who fought the troops here and at Irihanga in 1867.
IN MARCH OF 1867 a formidable attempt to invade Rotorua was made by a body of Waikato, Ngati-Raukawa, and Ngati-Haua men, acting at the instigation—or, at any rate, with the approval of King Tawhaio. The object was to exact retribution for the action of the Arawa tribes in barring the way to the East Coast army of reinforcements for Waikato in 1864. The invaders reached the western shore of Rotorua Lake, but did not succeed in their essay to attack Ohinemutu itself.
The first alarm of the Kingite-Hauhau incursion was communicated to the Civil Commissioner at Tauranga by Dr. Nesbitt, the Government agent and medical officer at Rotorua. He reported in March that a force of Waikato Hauhaus, numbering from three hundred to five hundred fighting-men, had appeared on the edge of the Mamaku Forest and had encamped at Puraku, near Tarukenga, sending parties out to Waiteti and to Parawai, near Puhirua, close to the lake. Those at Parawai were said to be under the command of Hakaraia, the Hauhau prophet from Te Puke. It was ascertained later that Kihitu was the principal leader of the Waikato and their allies.
The first to engage these raiders was Ensign pa ahead of all his men, and found only a few able-bodied warriors there; most of the garrison were old men and women and children.
The Maharo Redoubt, on the summit of Pukeroa Hill, had been built under Mair's direction before he left for Tauranga with the main body, and had been placed under the charge of pa, the terminal of the ridge, overlooking a small kainga of Ngati-Whakaue on the sandy shore of the lake. As was discovered afterwards, this war-party numbered seventy. The invading taua was headed by a woman, a circumstance reminiscent of the warlike customs in Samoa, where a high-born taupo woman usually led the march into battle. This woman of Waikato was Pare Turanga, a high prophetess and a sorceress or seer of visions (matakite).
There was not an instant to lose, for it was clearly necessary to seize and hold the pa at Te Koutu before the enemy reached it. Accordingly Mr. Mair, having called on the most active of the men in Pukeroa to join him, rushed off to forestall the invaders. He had now thirty-nine men, a small body to join issue with the strong and evidently well-equipped invading force, who looked a splendid body of warriors as they came marching at a steady walk over the plain, stripped to the waist and armed with guns and tomahawks with numerous cartoucheboxes strapped around them. Mair's men had not a rifle among them. His own weapon was a double-barrel gun; his Arawas were armed with similar pieces and with single-barrel guns and old-fashioned Tower flint-lock muskets.
The little Arawa force forded the Utuhina Stream 200 yards or 300 yards from its point of discharge into the lake. The water came up above the men's waists, and they had their guns and ammunition-boxes over their heads to keep them dry. They could hear the wild music of the Hauhaus' Pai-marire chant, a fanatic chorus, rolling up from the warriors as they marched into battle. Once across the little river the Arawa made direct for Te Koutu through the manuka scrub, here pitted with boiling springs and bubbling mud-holes, a nest of perils for an enemy unacquainted with the ground. Racing for the old hill pa, they clambered into its ditches on the south and east sides
pa was roughly square in shape, about 45 yards in length and the same in width; its outline can plainly be traced to-day, although the olden parepare or parapets, trench, and traverses have suffered from the hand of time and the feet of grazing stock. [Later, in the “seventies,” Captain Mair, then resident at Te Koutu as Government officer, planted rows of Pinus insignis round the ramparts, and the stumps of these trees—which, when 100 feet high and 4 feet through the butt, were felled for timber and rafted round to the Ngongotaha sawmill—remain to-day to mark the limits of the ancient fortification.]
The enemy were led on by Pare Turanga, the chieftainess already mentioned, a handsome young woman, tattooed on chin and lips, attired in beautiful native garments of finely dressed flax—a huaki with its double flounce of taniko pattern about the shoulders, leaving the right arm bare, and a korowai of white flax with dangling black dyed thrums around the waist. Huia-feather's adorned her luxuriant black hair. She wielded a long spear-headed taiaha, and this she handled in true warrior fashion as she came running on at the head of her warriors, perfectly indifferent to danger. Yelling their Pai-marire battle-cries, the Waikato Hauhaus made desperate endeavours to wrest the opposite trenches of the pa from the Arawa. They attempted to outflank the Lakes men, but this was frustrated by Mair and his comrades, a few of whom dashed up to the south-west corner of the redoubt and enfiladed the enemy holding a portion of the westernmost trench. Meanwhile a number of Arawa, led by pa and occupied some ruas, or old food-pits, and other depressions there, and from this cover they kept up a constant and heavy but not very well directed fire upon the Arawa, very few of whom were hit. All that could be seen of most of the enemy were the black shaggy heads popping up here and there across the 20 yards of clear ground in the interior of the pa, and a gun hastily raised and discharged.
The sharpest fighting occurred at the south-east angle of the pa. Mr. Mair and a man of Ohinemutu named Te Honiana, dashing up the hill, secured cover behind a small but thick patch of manuka a few yards from the angle, and from here kept up a steady fire. Some of the enemy had taken cover behind the traverses of the old trench, which were still in usable order Meanwhile a fine young warrior of the Arawa, a man named
Ki au te mata-ika” (“Mine is the first fish!”—i.e., the first antagonist slain), when he himself was shot through the lungs by Hone, of Ngati-Ahuru, and fell mortally wounded. His fall was quickly avenged by Whiripo, of the Ngati-Tuara hapu; he shot and severely wounded Hone, who, after the fight was despatched by a bullet from Rameka's gun as utu for Werimana's fatal wound.
Almost simultaneously Mair and Honiana secured a good view of a daring slim lad, conspicuous for his head of yellow-red hair, the ruddy tinge called by the Maoris urukehu. Their bullets both struck him, and he fell dead. It is believed he was Netana, of the Ngati-Haua Tribe.
Now the Arawa on the other side of the pa succeeded in outflanking the enemy holding the northern face, and these at last broke and fled with the survivors of those who had faced the fire and Mair and his immediate followers. The whole war-party of Waikato turned and made for the cover of the thick manuka, fighting as they retired. The last to leave the battlefield—as she had been the first to enter it—was the fearless chieftainess, brandishing her red feather-decked taiaha, and rolling her eyes in the warrior grimace of the pukana until the shelter of the thickets was reached.
Seven Waikato warriors were killed in and around this pa of Te Koutu; their bodies were interred in an ancient wahi-tapu, or burying-ground, which is marked to-day by an old willow-tree in the highest part of the redoubt. The Arawa, following up the retreating enemy, killed two more in a clump of kahikatea timber called Te Pa-nui-o-marama, on the flat in the direction of Ngongotaha. The pursuit ended at Te Puna-a-Tuhoe (now called the Fairy Spring), close to the base of Ngongotaha Mountain, and here two more were shot, making eleven in all; but the bodies were carried off by the retreating Waikato, who made off round the base of the Kauae spur and fell back on Tarukenga.
The Arawa lost only one man—the brave Werimana, who was carried to Ohinemutu, where he died that night. Five men were wounded. Captain Mair gives the following list of the thirty-nine men who followed him to Te Koutu:
Some of these men, such as the Ngati-Tu chief of
IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE Arawa repulse of the Waikato Hauhaus at Te Koutu (17th March, 1867) news reached Rotorua that the main war-party under Kihitu had occupied and was fortifying a position at Puraku, a short distance from Tarukenga, on the edge of the wooded ranges west of Rotorua Lake. This place was close to Parahaki, the scene in 1835 of the murder of Hunga by Haerehuka, a tragedy which led to the invasion of the Lakes country by the great warrior Te Waharoa and his Ngati-Haua. Now history was repeating itself in this attack by the Waikato tribes after a lapse of thirty years, but in this later instance the assailants were destined never to set foot on the shores of the famous lake or to reach the palisades or their hereditary foemen's fort. The Kingites established themselves comfortably in their eyrie at Puraku (called also Ahiria, or “Assyria”), whence they could overlook the whole basin of Rotorua, posted as they were on its lofty rim. They hoisted their curiously designed war-flags on a niu pole within the walls, and day and night the camp resounded with the solemn music of their Pai-marire chants.
This fortification at Puraku was first built by the local disaffected tribes, the Ngati-Tura and others, and a small section of Ngati-Rangiwewehi. Ensign pa. Mair's daring scouting exploit, when he went into the forest from Tauranga and found the large rebel force had moved out from Poripori southward, had the result of arousing the authorities to a sense of Rotorua's imminent danger,
The principal operation was the attack and capture of Puraku. There was a preliminary reconnaissance in force when the pa was temporarily abandoned; it was partly destroyed by the force. Then, at the end of March, the full strength of the European and Maori force marched up the valley of Waiteti Stream, working past the northern spur of Ngongotaha Mountain to the ferncovered terraces and the bush ranges above. pa, which was a few hundred yards from the bush. The scheme was to surround the pa on the forest side, the main body meanwhile keeping the enemy busy on the front facing the lake, then to attack and drive the garrison into the cordon in rear.
Mair, realizing the broken and difficult nature of the country, asked his superior to allow four hours in which to complete the task allotted him. However, he was only given two hours. Mair moved off quickly with his hundred Ngati-Pikiao, accompanied by Ensign Dean Pitt and Sergeant-Major
The force pushed on with the utmost speed, but the two hours allowed were quite insufficient to allow Mair time to cut off the retreat. Meanwhile a heavy fire was opened on the pa by five or six hundred rifles and guns, a fire so heavy that the Hauhaus realized their position was hopeless. It was possible now to form an idea of the strength of the Hauhau position, garrisoned by several hundred warriors, whose double-barrel guns and muskets flashed fire from beneath the outer stockade. The pa stood on a gentle eminence on the open fern land which sloped down from the forested and gully-bitten plateau (over which the Waikato-Rotorua Railway now runs) to the valley of the Ngongotaha. It was commanded by higher ground on the west, but the interior of the pa seemed well protected by a strong palisading; moreover, as was afterwards discovered, every whare in the fort was rendered bullet-proof by being built close up against the inner stockade and
niu rose above the stockade near from the north-western angle; it had a topmast and yard like a ship's mast, and from the yardarm and masthead halliards flew the Kingite flags. On the north, east, and west sides were waharoa, or gateways, closed by solid slabs of timber. Between the two lines of stockade, a few feet apart, was a skilful trench system with traverses and covered ways. On the western and southern sides were fern-covered gullies, hillocks, and ridges, trending to the forest; on the north and east were cultivations and fruit-groves, the food-gardens of the Ngati-Tura hapu, most of whom had joined the Hauhaus in the pa—the only section of the Arawa nation, besides a portion of Ngati-Rangiwewehi, who showed any sympathy with Hauhauism.
Mr. Mair gradually worked round the right flank towards the rear of the pa under great difficulties owing to the broken terrain. He detailed a party of his Maoris under two young chiefs, Hemana (nephew of Major pa on the west; here was a sentry's rifle-pit. Just as he was in the act of mounting this low hill, his advance was stayed by an incident characteristic of the heroism and devotion which so often marked the Maori warrior.
A tall, tattooed man, in a white shirt and waist-mat, emerged from the west gateway of the pa and advanced to meet the white officer. He wore a hamanu or cartridge-belt with boxes across his shoulders, and another buckled around his middle, feathers in hair, double-barrel gun in hand. He walked with a deliberate jauntiness across the short fern towards Mair. Halting when within about fifteen paces of his antagonist, he grounded his gun-butt and, placing his hands across the muzzle of the tupara, he gazed fixedly with stern defiance straight into Mair's eyes. Ensign Pitt and Sergeant-Major White were just behind Mair. Two of the young Arawa—Whakatau was one—ran up and, dropping to the knee, levelled their guns at the Hauhau.
“Kauaka!” said Mair; “kauaka!” (“Don't!”) gesturing to his men not to fire.
The Maori spoke. “He aha,” he asked, “ta koutou i haere mai ai ki te whakaoho ia matou, i te iwi Kawanatanga?” (“Why do you come here to alarm us, who are a tribe of the Government?”)
“No Waikato tenei ope” (“This war-party is from Waikato”), replied Mair.
“He horihori!” (“It is false!”) declared the Hauhau.
This cool and impudent attitude for the moment puzzled Mair, to whom the thought occurred that possibly the garrison consisted largely of Ngati-Rangiwewehi, an Arawa clan who had been in rebellion but now were known to be anxious to join the side of the Queen and make amends for this disaffection.
There was a further interchange of words, but Mair now perceived that the Hauhau's daring intervention was only a device for gaining a little precious time to enable his people to escape.
A few moments more and the Ngati-Pikiao would have gained this mound which commanded the pa. The unknown warrior's bold action, however, had given his comrades two or three minutes' grace, and they were quickly racing out of the pa for the forest and the gorges under the heavy fire of the Militia force. in which Mair's men now joined. As for the tattooed hero of this episode, he bounded like lightning to the side of the trail,
pa stockade. Miraculously he escaped; a little later he was seen—conspicuous by reason of his white shirt—running over a spur 600 yards to the south. His devotion undoubtedly enabled many scores of his comrades to escape.
Now came the pursuit of the enemy, flying for their lives through the gorges and forests. The Arawa, lightly costumed for the bush, took up the chase of their hereditary enemies, the Waikato and Ngati-Haua, with great zest. Yet here entered in an illustration of that clan-fellowship which so often operated to save a hostile tribe. Puraku was within the territory of Ngati-Tura, a subtribe of the Arawa, and the lake-side people were closely connected by ties of kinship with these dwellers on the ranges. Ngati-Tura had thrown in their fortunes with the Waikato ope, and their men, or most of them, were within the pa when the attack was delivered. Probably they had no great sympathy with the Hauhaus, but expediency dictated their temporary alliance with the invading ope. When the pa was evacuated, most of these Ngati-Tura, instead of flying to the forest, concealed themselves in the high fern which densely filled the little valley and covered the ridges immediately to the south of the stockade. In this valley seven or eight of the Hauhaus were shot as they ran, but the canny Ngati-Tura escaped by lying quietly in the fern until the chase had passed on. No doubt they would have been discovered had the Arawa from Rotorua takahi'd, or trodden down, the fern, as was the practice in cases of the kind, but the Government's brown allies carefully refrained from doing so, knowing doubtless that some of their unfortunate kinsmen lay trembling there.
As Ensign Mair and Sergeant-Major White stood near the palisade just after the mêlée that followed the capture of the pa they saw a tall naked Hauhau, his brown skin shining in the sun, running up the side of a little hill, to the southward of the pa. Both threw up their rifles for a shot. “Sight for 600 yards,” suggested White. They fired together, and the Maori fell. When the body was examined afterwards it was found that one of the bullets had struck him just behind the base of the neck, killing him on the instant. He was a young man; his name, as was ascertained, was Tu-Wairua.
The main body of the fugitives took flight up a long, narrow gorge, a deep gulch which the present railway-line crosses about two miles on the Waikato side of Tarukenga. Hemana and his party, holding this gorge, killed several men, and one or two more were shot dead or severely wounded at various points on the line of flight. In all, the Hauhaus lost eleven men killed, and had
aka vines. The train traveller to-day may gain a fleeting idea of the formidable obstacles presented to troops, even the mobile and lightly-clad Maori, by observing from his carriage-window the numerous sudden gullies on the plateau between Mamaku and Tarukenga. They formed an impediment to the flying enemy, too, but the Hauhaus had the advantage of having been over the ground recently.
Up the straight sides of some of these gulches the Hauhaus clambered by means of the trailing aka vines, some as thick as ships' hawsers. Hemana was so hot in chase of one man that the two, fugitive and pursuer, were on the same aka together. The Hauhau, struggling desperately upward, was caught by his foeman, who gripped him in his arms, and in the struggle they either lost their hold of the aka or the tree-vine gave way under the strain, with the result that the two warriors came down by the run to the bottom of the gully, where Hemana killed his man.
The Hauhau leader, Kihitu, was shot through the hips, and was carried off the battlefield by his men. He lived to reach his home, but died from his wounds about a year later. Many others of the enemy were wounded. Not a man among either the Arawa or the Militia was hit. Had the Hauhaus remained to fight it out, Puraku might have become another Orakau, but they were quick to realize that they were in a trap from which only prompt flight would save them, and so they did not offer the fight that might have been expected from their numbers. Their fire from the pa was feeble in comparison with that of the attackers, and only a few returned the shots of their pursuers in the chase.
Rotorua was never again invaded by the Kingites, and enjoyed immunity from raids until
When the Government forces inspected this captured pa they found it a marvel of Maori military engineering ingenuity, and even to-day its trenches with traverses and flanking bastions remain almost intact, a monument which should not be obliterated. The double palisading was destroyed by the Arawa, but they fortunately did not take the trouble to fill in the entrenchments. There were two strong palisades, the pekerangi on the outside of the trench and the kiri-tangata (“the warrior's skin”) immediately
pa. The trench was about 3 feet wide with a depth of 5 feet. The interior of the work measured 80 paces in length by 45 paces at the widest part, and this space was largely occupied by low huts thatched with kaponga fern-tree fronds, the sides and eaves well protected by being earthed up for several feet. The earth floors of these huts were dug in a foot or two below the level of the marae outside, a feature which gave their occupants additional safety. The trench, with its numerous traverses and covered ways, was essentially the same as our soldiers' trenches in France and Flanders in the Great War, but in one detail there was a difference. The pakeha engineer throws out the earth from the trench in front of his ditch in order to form a low parapet; the Maori cast the earth on the inner side, his rear, lest the bullets of the enemy, striking the loose, soft soil, should throw dirt in his eyes, confuse his aim, and perhaps temporarily blind him. The dug-out soil also formed a parepare, or parapet, on the outer side of the main line of palisading, close against the back of which the bullet-proof whares were built. On the marae, the open space or parade-ground, stood the niu, around which the Hauhaus marched chanting their Pai-marire service. There was a low, roughly built railing, a Hauhau altarrail around the foot of the mast; within this tapu space stood the tohunga, the priest of the war-party, who slowly revolved about the pole, leading the chantings.
On the 9th December, 1918, the author explored this Hauhau fortification in company with Captain tutu-grown slopes on the Ngongotaha or eastern side of the line, a walk of 200 yards down the fern slopes in the direction of some pine-trees that mark a deserted dwelling brings one to the pa. There are no bold walls or maioro to mark the spot, but the fern-grown mounds which were once the earthed-up sides of whares remain in places 3 feet or 4 feet above the general level of the ground. The palisades have vanished, except for one or two burnt butts of tatara timber. The sites of the three gateways, the principal one on the western side, may still plainly be traced. Except at these gateways and at places where the covered ways ran, the deep narrow ditch of the Hauhau trench is continuous about the roughly rectangular pa. Its sides, in places, are as cleanly cut as if they were delved out but yesterday: this is where the scaling of moss which accumulated upon the fern-protected walls has fallen off. The trench is in most places 4 feet deep, somewhat shallower than its original dimension, but the wonder
The Maori engineer was careful to guard against enfilading-fire, hence the continuous line of the trench is broken by a man-high traverse every few yards. On the northern side, where the ground falls steeply to the old track through the fern—the front attacked by the white section of the force—there is a strong flanking bastion projecting about 25 feet from the main work.
Relics of the Hauhau war-party were still to be found within and about these fern-hidden ditches and mounds when we paced the lines and sketched the entrenchments—a broken gun-barrel of large bore, apparently an old Tower musket; broken iron cooking-pots, and fragments of human bone, memento mori of Kihitu's warriors.
Puraku stands on Crown land, a portion of the Okoheriki Block, purchased from the Maoris. The pa should be preserved from destruction in the course of settlement, the fate that has overtaken so many fortifications of great historic value. It is the best existing example of Maori skill in entrenchment in the wars of the “sixties.”
Captain Mair wrote (11th April, 1919): “The hero in that fine episode when the warrior came out of Puraku pa and parleyed with me to gain time was Te Matai Paruhi. He was a member of the Marukukenga hapu of Tapuika, who live near Te Puke. He died some years ago.”
THE PERIOD 1866–68 was a time of intermittent skirmishing and bush-marching for the military forces and the settlers in the Opotiki district, which was particularly exposed to forays from the gorges and ranges of the Urewera borders. The principal trouble-makers were the Ngati-Ira hapu of the Whakatohea Tribe, under Hira te Popo, and the Ngai-Tama and Urewera, led by the savage warrior Tamaikowha, of Waimana. The Waioeka and Otara gorges were the favourite haunts of the inland Opotiki rebels, and Tamaikowha, when not engaged in raiding the Opotiki frontier, was strongly posted in his ancestral fighting-ground, the narrow valley of the Waimana, the principal tributary of the Whakatane River.
In February and March, 1866, Lieut.-Colonel Lyon, who had been left in charge of Opotiki, led expeditions, chiefly Patea and Wanganui Rangers, up to the Waioeka Gorge in search of the Hauhaus. Several of the enemy were killed in the skirmishes which occurred in very difficult and dangerous country for an invading force. The principal success was at Wairakau, a strong position on a cliff above the rapid river. Captain pa and cleared the enemy out of it. In the chase which followed four Hauhaus were killed. A large quantity of property looted from the Opotiki settlers was found in the captured pa.
Another expedition was one directed against the settlements in the Otara Gorge, where one or two Whakatohea men were shot and others captured and disarmed.
rapaki or waist-shawl long after his people had taken to the garb of the pakeha.
After the fight at Kairakau, on the Waioeka, in March, 1866, Tamaikowha took revenge for the death of some of his kinsmen there by laying an ambuscade at the mouth of the Waiotahe River, between Opotiki and Ohiwa, and killing Wi Popata, a Maori of the Arawa Tribe who was carrying mails for the Government between Opotiki and Tauranga. Captain Newland, who was riding along the beach to Ohiwa and Whakatane about the same time, narrowly escaped the war-party. The heart was cut from the Maori mailman's body and was cooked for a cannibal
whangai-hau, or whangai-atua, to his tribal gods Hukita and Te Rehu-o-Tainui; he professed to be the medium and priest of those pagan deities.
At a later date a European was similarly ambuscaded and killed at Waiotahe. This was Mr. Bennett White, who was shot from ambush at a pohutukawa grove on the right bank of the river, close to the mouth; the present main road to Opotiki traverses the spot. White was riding from Whakatane to Opotiki when he was waylaid. His head was cut off and stuck on a rock alongside the track, and Tamaikowha had portions of the body cooked for a cannibal meal.
In May, 1867, Tamaikowha and about twenty men crossed the range betwen Waimana and the upper end of the Opotiki Valley, and carried out a murderous raid on the farthest-out military settlers near the mouth of the Waioeka Gorge. These four men were Messrs. George T. Wilkinson (surveyor by profession, and afterwards Government Native Agent at Otorohanga, in the King Country), Livingstone, Moore, and Begg. They lived in a whare alongside the Waioeka Redoubt, which was not then garrisoned. Surrounding the house on a very wet day (21st May), Tamaikowha and his band completely surprised the unfortunate settlers, who had rifles but no ammunition. Dashing out of the whare, they ran for the bush, but only two gained it, Wilkinson and Livingstone. The other two men were shot down and tomahawked, and their hearts and livers were cut out by the savages. Wilkinson and Livingstone escaped to Opotiki, after a terrible flight through the bush. The Ngai-Tama burned the house and cooked and ate their trophies of the chase. Tamaikowha offered up a portion of one of the hearts in oblation to the gods of war. The raiders retired across the ranges to Waimana, and heavy floods in the Waioeka and other rivers prevented pursuit by the force sent out from Opotiki.
At this period a number of the military settlers formed a small volunteer corps at Opotiki Henry Mair (brother of William and
In this affair at Te Pokopoko seven or eight Maoris were killed. The kainga was situated on a flat in the bed of the river-valley. These Ngai-Tama had been concerned in the killing of Moore and Begg at Waioeka. After the skirmish Mair and Rushton attended to an old much-tattooed Urewera man whom Rushton had shot, and gave him a drink of rum; they prevented the Maori contingent from robbing him of his greenstone tiki. This warrior was from Maunga-pohatu.
During 1867 there were numerous Hauhau raids on the outskirts of the settled districts and on the friendly natives in the Whakatane and Ohiwa country. On the 12th September an attempt was made to burn the blockhouse at the Waioeka before it could be finished, but the enemy was driven off after a skirmish. Several expeditions into the haunts of the Hauhaus were undertaken by Lieut.-Colonel St. John in retaliation for their forays, but the natural difficulties of campaigning in such a country, where the mobile Maori had all the advantage, prevented any effective operations against Tamaikowha and his marauding bands.
In January, 1868, a large war-party of Urewera raided Ohiwa and Waiotahe, laid ambuscades on the sea-beach track, and terrorized the friendly natives. Lieut.-Colonel St. John early in February followed these men up into the Waimana: he had a force of ninety men (Opotiki Volunteer Rangers and Militia). In a skirmish high up the Waimana (10th February) the Hauhaus lost three killed and five wounded; St. John's force had two wounded. An attack on a village a little later was without success, as large Hauhau reinforcements arrived, and St. John found it advisable to withdraw.
A body of one hundred Arawa was now raised by Major Mair and the Opotiki forces were strengthened by the arrival of a division (company) of Armed Constabulary under Major Fraser. In March Hauhau raiders attacked the friendly natives of Rakuraku's hapu (the Upoko-rehe) at Ohiwa and killed an old chief on Hokianga Island, in the harbour. A punitive
pa on the flat. Captain Rushton, describing the operations, said: “We rushed the base of the ridge, the top of which the Hauhaus held. The position was such a difficult one that a council of war was held by the officers or the question of whether to advance or retire. Being the youngest subaltern, my decision was asked first. I voted to retire, for I knew that Tamaikowha was strongly entrenched in a very strong position at Tauwharemanuka, a mile and a half or two miles up the gorge. It would have been a death-trap for us. The officers decided not to continue the advance, and this, I believe, saved the force from destruction. We discovered that the Urewera were entrenched on the spurs all round commanding the gorge, and when we had got into the jaws of the narrows, with rifle-pits on both sides, we would have got it hot.” The force withdrew to Whakatane and Opotiki. One man, a Tauranga volunteer, was mortally wounded in the skirmishing, and one Hauhau was shot.
A later expedition (May, 1868) followed up Tamaikowha and Heteraka te Wakaunua after a raid into the Lower Whakatane Valley on the Ngati-Pukeko, who were friendly to the Government St. John and Fraser followed the enemy through Ruatoki and many miles up the Whakatane Valley, but heavy floods in the rivers compelled them to return without discovering the elusive Hauhaus.
THE YEAR 1867 was one of comparative quiet in Taranaki, troubled only by Maori interference with the survey of the confiscated lands, and by large gatherings of the Hauhau tribes at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu and other bush villages. It was now that Whakarongo, whakarongo mai e te iwi! Tenei te tau tamahine, tenei te tau o te Rameti” (“Hearken, hearken, all ye people! This is the year of the daughters, this in the year of the lamb”). But the lamb-like peace was only the prelude to the most ferocious fighting in the Taranaki campaigns. kainga to kainga and explaining the new scheme of campaign, which consisted in making surprise attacks on small isolated military posts, in laying ambuscades, and in enticing the white troops into the depths of the forest, where the Maori warrior would have the advantage. Had such a man as tohunga schooled in the lore of ancient Maoridom, he revived the practices of the cannibal era and the half-forgotten rites of paganism, which, conjoined to some of the ceremonies of the Pai-marire, imparted to the campaign under his generalship a new and bitter ferocity. He revived the worship of Uenuku and Tu, the Maori gods of battle—the rite of propitiation of the deities with a human heart torn from the
mana-tapu, he encouraged his followers to do so, and on several occasions in the latter part of 1868 and the early weeks of 1869 the bodies of slain soldiers of the colonial forces were cut up, cooked, and eaten in his forest camps. “Even the winds of heaven are Titoko's,” said his followers. The whakarua, the north-west breeze, was the breath of Uenuku, his war-god and his familiar spirit, and when it prevailed it was a fitting time to despatch a fighting expedition.
In May, 1868, trouble began to develop on the plains. Some of whare I had on a section near Waihi. He would tell me no more, but repeated his warning and returned to the Hauhau camp. In the morning I informed Mr. Booth, the Resident Magistrate, and asked him to warn the settlers, as it was evident that
This tragic opening of the new campaign occurred on the 19th June on the block called Te Rauna, a portion of the confiscated lands close to the east side of the Wai-ngongoro River and near the Maori settlement Mawhitiwhiti. The three military settlers, Cahill, Clark, and Squires, were engaged in felling and sawing timber in the bush when they were suddenly attacked by Haowhenua, Katene, and several other men, who fired a volley into them from ambush and then tomahawked them. The Maoris claimed that the timber and the land were theirs, and they were determined to kill intruders. Warnings to quit had been disregarded by the settlers.
When the news of this deed—clearly a prelude to war—reached the Waihi garrison, a despatch was sent off to recall McDonnell, who had gone to Wanganui. The outlying settlers were warned, and preparations were made against an attack. The force in the district at this critical hour was quite inadequate for
The slaughter of the three bushmen was quickly followed by the killing and savage mutilation of a man of the mounted corps of the Armed Constabulary within sight of Waihi Redoubt. This man, Trooper Smith, had gone out to the edge of the bush to search for his horse. He was shot down from ambush and tomahawked. A detachment was sent out at the double, but all they found when they reached the spot was half the body of the poor trooper. The legs were lying on the ground, but the upper part of the body had been carried off by the Hauhaus to Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, where it was cooked and eaten. This deed of frightfulness, intended to strike terror into the whites, was the first of the series of man-eating exploits by kai-tangata.
In an intimidating letter intended for the pakehas, sent a few days afterwards to a semi-friendly chief at Mawhitiwhiti,
On the 20th June an ambuscade laid on the track near Waihi for the ration cart convoy resulted in a skirmish in which a sergeant and ten men fought a large party of Hauhaus until reinforcements arrived. Two troopers were wounded, and the Hauhaus had two of their number killed. The garrison of Waihi was now reinforced by the arrival of Rifle Volunteers from Wellington. Many of them were young recruits who had too little time for training before they were called upon for the most trying of all fighting—skirmishing in the bush against practised Maori warriors.
The headquarters settlement of the belligerents of Ngati-Ruanui and Nga-Ruahine from the beginning of 1868 until November of that year was Te Ngutu-o-te-manu (“The Bird's Beak”), a clearing deep in the rata forest, lying about ten miles
“The Adventures of rata and pukatea trees were loopholed and converted into bush redoubts; but the strength of the place lay chiefly in its forest environment, the absence of roads, and the unfamiliarity of the troops with the tracks which wound through the tangled bush. Its front could be approached by a rough cart-track cut through the heavy timber from the neighbourhood of the Wai-ngongoro. The clearings of Te Rua-ruru and Te Ngutu-o-te-manu adjoined each other. The principal building in the latter place was taiaha, the weapon called “Te Porohanga,” the warriors of the “Tekau-ma-rua” (“The Twelve”). This term, though generally applied to the whole of the war-party of sixty or seventy, strictly speaking, pertained to the first twelve men chosen, who formed the advance-guard on an expedition and who were strictly tapu while out on a foray. The process of selection of the warriors is described in detail in “The Adventures of pakehas who took up a life with the natives in the war days.
pa Ohangai, on the Hauhau side of the Tangahoe River. The Ngati-Ruanui Tribe received him with savage ceremonies, and he became Tito's protégé. The prophet pakeha forces. At Taiporohenui, Keteonetea, Otapawa, and other stockaded villages of the Ngati-Ruanui Bent lived with his rangatira, taking his share in all the work of the community; he had imagined for himself a life of leisure among the natives, but he soon found that he was little better than a slave. Among a less intelligent and forceful people than the Maoris perhaps he would have realized his ambition of an easy life and a position of authority; as it was, he found his level, which was that of a servant. He was compelled to labour in the plantations and in the building of fortifications, and all the other heavy labour of the tribal life. His special skill was made use of in repairing the Maoris’ guns, and for several years he was Ngati-Ruanui's chief armourer and cartridge-maker. His first Maori name was “Ringiringi,” which
The field headquarters of the colonial forces in Taranaki at this time was the Waihi Redoubt, an important post of the Armed Constabulary, until the close of the Parihaka trouble in the early “eighties.” The site of the redoubt at Waihi, with its loopholed walls, blockhouses, and observation-tower, is now a farm, Section 45, Block V, Hawera Survey District. The first fort was erected in 1866; the second, much larger and more substantial, was completed in the early “seventies.” It was a rectangular work of heavy timbers, enclosing a space of 55 yards by 52 yards, and it contained two blockhouses, guard-room, reading-room, orderly-room, magazine (underground), and a well. The two blockhouses were each 50 feet by 52 feet, built of matai slabs, adze-dressed, and about 7 inches thick. They were at diagonally opposite angles, and extended about 8 feet beyond the redoubt walls so as to form flanking bastions. The walls of the stockade were 6 inches thick, and loopholed. The look-out tower, at the northern angle, was 8 feet square and 35 feet high, and was loopholed; the lower rifle apertures were nearly level with the ground.
There were redoubts also at Hawera, Okautiro (Mokoia), Kakaramea, Manutahi, and Manawapou, besides General Cameron's old redoubts at the mouth of the Wai-ngongoro.
From the main road and the railway between Hawera and Patea we see the green hill on which the Okautiro Redoubt was built by the colonial troops in 1867. This ridge, on which the earthworks are still traceable, is about a quarter of a mile south of the Mokoia Railway-station. The redoubt was built by a company of Volunteer Militia taken on for six months in the period between the operations of the Military Settlers corps and the formation of the Armed Constabulary (1868). Captain Page was in charge. One of the members of the Volunteer Militia company was Mr.
A MILE AND a half north of the town of Hawera, along the Turuturu Road, where the clear trout-stream of the Tawhiti curves round the base of a great parapeted pa of ancient Maoridom, is a quiet grassy knoll sacred to the memory of the most desperate combat in the whole of the Taranaki Wars. Within a wire fence on the left that divides the green fields from the main road the traveller may see the slight undulations of the ground that indicate the long-since razed parapets of the Turuturu-mokai Redoubt, the “Rorke's Drift” of Taranaki. No memorial marks the spot where a little band of Armed Constabulary and Military Settlers—nearly all Irishmen—held the fort successfully against pa Turuturu-mokai, a stronghold with a history dating back more than twelve generations. It was captured about three centuries ago from its builders by the Ngati-Tupaea Tribe, whose descendants now live at various settlements east of Hawera. When the Military Settlers in 1866–67 occupied the country at and around Turuturu-mokai the Ngati-Tupaea went inland a few miles and fixed their headquarters at the terraced pa Puke-tarata, now the tribal burying-ground, on a hill above the Mangemange Stream. There are ancient forts on both sides of the Tawhiti Stream; on the south side, close to the road from Hawera, is Te Umu-a-Tongahake, with its ruined parapets and trenches. The British redoubt would have been secure had it been constructed a little farther eastward on the crown of the hill; as will be seen, its interior was open to a raking fire from the slightly higher ground.
By the beginning of 1868 several military settlers had fixed their homes on the fertile plains about Turuturu-mokai, and the redoubt—now without a garrison, for conditions were more peaceful for the time being—was used by one of these pioneer farmers, Mr. Morrison, as a pen for his sheep. Another settler, whare. Up to the edge of the heavy bush on the east and north the gently undulating land was covered with high fern, flax, tutu, and koromiko, with here and there native cultivations and groves of peach-trees. Maori tracks wound across the plain, through the old cultivation and into the Maori clearings cut from the heavy forest that came close down to Johnston's farm.
After the killing of the three bush sawyers near the Waingongoro, Colonel McDonnell detailed a detachment of twenty-five Armed Constabulary, under Captain George Ross, to garrison Turuturu-mokai and put it in order. The few military settlers in the neighbourhood came in at night, working on their sections during the day. The redoubt was so small that the officer of the detachment had to live a whare outside the work. The parapets were low, and had been broken down in places; they were about 5 feet high, and were surrounded by a trench 6 feet deep. Just inside the gateway, where the ditch was crossed by a plank, there was a small earthwork, a traverse to blind the entrance. The little garrison set to work to repair the redoubt and strengthen the parapets but the work had not been completed when the Hauhau attack was delivered. There were no loopholes, and the parapet was not topped with sandbags, with spaces between for rifle-fire—a most necessary thing in these frontier forts. It was impossible, therefore, for the defenders to enfilade the trench, or, in fact, to fire at all, without exposing themselves over the earthwork. There was a plank walk running along the inner side of the parapet, a fire banquette, but it had not been finished, and it was so wet and slippery on the night before the attack that the men had asked the captain to allow them to do sentry duty outside instead of on the walk.
The redoubt was about 20 yards square, with rounded flanking bastions at diagonally opposite angles, one at the north-west corner, facing the Tawhiti Stream and Waihi, and the other on the south-east, facing the higher ground and the bush. Within the earthwork were several tents, and a thatched house, used as a commissariat store and guard-room, stood in rear of the earthwork curtain near the gateway, in an awkward position, for it masked the fire of the men in the south-east angle, preventing them from properly defending the entrance.
For some time before the attack a kind of truce prevailed, and the Maoris frequently came into camp, selling potatoes and onions to the Constabulary. Daily there were men and women about the place, gossiping and joking with the men, but all the time intently watching the slow work of repairing the redoubt and spying out, as they could with ease from the adjacent
In the forest stronghold of Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, seven miles away, the war-chief pa, and was weakly and carelessly defended; and a picked band of warriors, numbering sixty, the usual strength of the Tekau-ma-rua, was told off for an assault, to be delivered before dawn. In the great meeting-house “Wharekura” (“House of Knowledge”) the chief assembled his people and selected the members of the Tekau-ma-rua by means of divination with his sacred weapon, the taiaha “Te Porohanga,” which was supposed to be influenced by the breath of the war-god Uenuku. Before the chosen sixty set out on the war-path hakas were performed by the men and poi dances by the girls to “send them away in good heart,” as an eye-witness (pa, armed with their guns and tomahawks, and with their cartouche-boxes and belts strapped about them, taiaha in his hand and farewelled his soldiers. “Patua, kainga!” he shouted in his great gruff voice. “Patua, kainga! Kia mau ki tou ringa!” (“Kill them, eat them! Kill them, eat them! Let them not escape! Hold them fast in your hands!”)
The warrior Haowhenua, a chief of Nga-Ruahine and near relative of pa at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu.
It was a bitterly cold, freezing night. Most of the Maoris were very scantily attired, after the fashion of war-parties, and some only wore short flax mats. Passing through the bush and crossing the Tawhiti Creek in the midnight hours, they stole up the gully inland of the redoubt and lay close to each other in the fern, shivering, awaiting the signal for the rush. All this time karakia after karakia—incantations to the heathen gods, and Hauhau prayers to the Christian Trinity—for the overwhelming of the pakeha.
The night dragged on too slowly for the impatient and shivering warriors. Some wished to rush the white man's pa at once, but their leaders forbade it till there was a little more light. Several of the younger men began to crawl up through the fern towards the walls of the little fort. The form of a sentry was seen, pacing up and down outside the walls. He could easily have been shot, but the time had not yet come.
In the frontier redoubts it was customary to call the garrison to stand to arms at 3 a.m. and to remain ready till daylight as a precaution against Maori surprise attacks, which, as a rule, were delivered about an hour before daylight. The sergeant or corporal of the guard usually went round and wakened the men quietly by tapping the tents, but on this fatal morning at Turuturu-mokai the corporal omitted the call, and the men off guard slumbered until the first rifle-shots roused them to battle for their lives.
Soon after the attack began, Captain Ross was killed while bravely defending the gateway with revolver and sword. The canteen-keeper, Lennon, also was killed outside the redoubt. Then, in the midst of the fighting, the pagan, ceremony of the whangai-hau, the offering of a foeman's heart to the gods of battle, was performed by one of the Hauhaus, the young war-priest Tihirua. The heart of the first man slain (Lennon) was cut from the body even before it had ceased to beat. It was the ancient custom to offer the heart of the first victim to Tu and Uenuku, the deities of war. Lighting a match, Tihirua held it under the bleeding heart until the flesh was singed slightly and began to smoke. Then, crying out “Kei au a Tu!” (meaning that the supreme war-god Tu was with him or on his side) he threw down the heart, and snatching up his tomahawk, he rushed again into the fight. When Captain Ross was killed, his heart, too, was cut out. A human heart, either that of Lennon or of Captain Ross, was found on the ground outside the fort after the fight. The other probably was carried off to Te Ngutu-o-te-manu as the mawe of the battle, a trophy of oblation to the gods. This savage
“Suddenly, just before the first faint break of day, I heard Lacey challenge, ‘Halt! who goes there?’ There was a single shot, and next moment a thundering volley from the enemy in the fern. The Maoris had crept up the gully on the west and north side of the old pa Turuturu-mokai, and silently lay in wait not far from the eastern flank, and on the east and south they now concentrated their attack. Lacey was wounded in the shoulder by one of the Maori bullets, and as he thought he was cut off from the redoubt he ran into the fern and escaped to Waihi. At the first shot Captain Ross was up and out of his bed in the whare, and in his shirt only, revolver in hand, he ran over the plank and in through the gateway. I took post in the eastern flanking bastion, with Milmoe and others. Milmoe and I were the only two armed with Enfield rifles and bayonets, and I think it must have been the glint of our fixed bayonets as much as anything else that kept the Maoris from rushing us. Our weapons were unhandy—it took a long time to load and cap them—but they shot well. Then at it we went, firing away for our lives wherever we could see anything at which to shoot.
“There was a cry that the natives were coming in at the gateway, and a number of us rushed for the entrance to hold it. I found a dead man, William Gaynor, sitting against the earthwork screen just inside the gateway. He had evidently been in the act of firing over the low parapet when a Maori, who had charged in, killed him with a tomahawk-blow on the temple, as we discovered in the morning. He slid down, turning round as he fell, and remained in a sitting position, his back against the parapet, his rifle resting in the hollow of his arm. Captain Ross was killed near the gateway, and his heart was cut out. Lennon, the canteen-keeper, was killed outside the redoubt. They tomahawked him in two cuts, slanting downwards on his temple.
“I was wearing a Glengarry cap—I had no uniform, as I was a volunteer settler. A man fired at me over the parapet at such close range that the explosion blew my cap off and sent me down half-stunned in a sitting position. Now we heard some of the Maoris in the ditch cutting away at the parapet with their long-handled tomahawks in an attempt to undermine it. We shouted out from time to time. ‘The troopers are coming,’ but the Maoris only laughed fiendishly and continued their chopping and digging. We fought there for two hours, and kept them off till help came from Waihi after dawn—but we had never expected to see daylight again.” Statement to the writer by
In the other angle, that facing towards Waihi, an equally heroic resistance was made by six men, of whom only one escaped death or wounds. Among these men were two brothers, John G. Beamish and whare dressed only in his shirt, and when the gateway was attacked he headed the defence of it. He fired many shots out of his revolver before he was shot, probably while reloading. After the fight we found his body lying inside the gateway between the earthwork curtain and the guard-hut; his heart had been cut out; we found it lying outside the ditch, not far from his hut. While some of the enemy tried to rush the gateway, others took to the rising ground on the east and south-east, and fired right into the north-west angle in which six of us had taken post; they could rake part of our angle between two of the tents. We, on the other hand, were able to enfilade the ditch on the west flank, and so prevent the gateway being rushed, but to do so we had to expose our heads over the parapet, which was only about 4 feet high above the firing-step. I was firing away there for about an hour, I suppose, before I was hit, and then there was another hour's fighting before relief arrived from Waihi, by that time the sun was up.
“Most of our firing was at very close range; only two or three yards, sometimes less, separated us from our enemies trying to swarm into the place. My brother was shot at close quarters. Both sides were yelling at each other as they fought. I was hoarse with shouting at the Hauhaus to come on, and bluffing them that the troopers were coming. ‘Come on, come on!’ we yelled, and the Maoris called on us to ‘Come out, come out!’
“Some of the Maoris,” Mr. Beamish continued, “set fire to the raupo huts outside the redoubt. They were armed with muzzle-loading Enfields and shot-guns, and we could now and then see the ramrods going up and down as they sent the charges home. Then sometimes we would see the flash of a tomahawk and catch a glimpse of a black head above the parapets. When they set fire to the huts we were able to take aim at some of them by the light of the blazing whares. Then they started to dig and cut away at the parapets with their tomahawks. We could plainly hear them at this work, and I heard one Maori ask another for a match; I suppose he wanted to try and fire our buildings inside the walls.
“One after another our men dropped, shot dead or badly wounded. I had very little hope of ever getting out of the place alive. But we well knew what our fate would be if the Maoris
“My younger brother fell mortally wounded, and before he died he told us he believed it was a white man who shot him. [This would be the deserter, Charles Kane.] I was wounded about the same time. An Enfield bullet struck me in the left shoulder. It took me with a tremendous shock, just as I was stooping down across a dead man to get some dry ammunition. The bullet slanted down past my shoulder-blade and came out at the back. This incapacitated me from firing, or, at any rate, from taking accurate aim, so I had to content myself with passing cartridges to
“Daylight came, and those of us who could shoulder a carbine were still firing away and wondering whether help would ever reach us. We knew they must have heard the firing and seen the flashes of the guns at Waihi Redoubt, only three miles away. Suddenly the Maoris ceased firing and retired into the bush. Their sentries had given them warning that troops were coming. As they dropped back we rushed out of the redoubt and gave them the last shot, and then Von Tempsky and his Armed Constabulary arrived at the double, and the fight was over. Out of the twenty men who held the place, ten were killed (the captain, sergeant, a corporal, and seven privates) and six wounded; and the only wonder is that any of us ever came out of it alive. My wound kept me in hospital for five months.” This narrative was given to the author by Mr. John G. Beamish, of Patea, on the site of the redoubt, 28th July, 1920. Mr. Beamish, who is the last survivor of the defenders in Taranaki, is now eighty-two years of age.
Private (Constable)
“It was a bitter, cold frosty morning. Five minutes after the sentries had been relieved that morning some of our men heard one of the two men (Lacey) who had just gone on duty suddenly challenge and fire. He shouted, ‘Stand to your arms, men!’ and made for the redoubt, but was cut off from it and had to run for Waihi. He received a bad wound in the shoulder.
whares, I saw a human heart lying on the ground outside the trench; the savages had cut it out of his body. We found afterwards that he must have been killed between the parapet and a whare which stood inside the gateway; this was the raupo-thatched building used as a guard-room and store-room. Another Ross, a private—no relation to the Captain—jumped the parapet and was killed in the ditch. He was an old 57th Regiment soldier.
“I received four wounds as I lay in the north-west angle. I was shot in the left arm, through the back near the spine, in the right hip, and in the right ankle. When I got to the angle there were five men there. Of these, three were killed outright, including Sergeant McFayden, and one of the Beamish brothers was mortally wounded. My comrades were fighting for quite two hours before we were relieved; I was out of action early in the fight. When relief came I got down to the fires outside: the Hauhaus had set fire to Captain Ross's whare and the storehouses and they were still burning. However, I soon came away, because I was so weak from loss of blood that I feared I would fall into the fire if I stayed there longer. As I was going out across the plank bridge when the fight was over—it was full daylight then—I looked down and saw two dead Maoris lying in the trench, one on either side of the plank, feet to feet
“I have often thought since the fight that we made a mistake in firing off our revolvers at the Maoris in the ditch at the beginning of the attack. We should have reserved them in case of a final rush of the enemy.” Statement to the writer by
One of the first men killed was Corporal
On the east side and at the north-west angle some of the Hauhaus dug away at the parapet with their tomahawks, endeavouring to cut a hole through or to undermine it. In one place the earthwork was so much weakened that it fell in, but fortunately not before help came.
Five men besides Garret Lacey, the wounded sentry, escaped to Waihi. Two or three of these, who were Military Settlers, were unarmed; they lived in a whare outside the redoubt. Another who had tried to escape, a private named Kershaw, was wounded a few yards outside the north-west angle and was found there by the relieving force.
It was 7 a.m. before the relief force of which the garrison had begun to despair arrived from Waihi. For the tardiness of this reinforcement Major Von Tempsky was to blame, but another officer was most unjustly and cruelly made the scapegoat. All the Armed Constabulary at Waihi Redoubt were under arms from 3 o'clock until daylight each morning. The garrison turned out as usual this Sunday morning, and the parade had just been dismissed when firing was heard in the direction of Turuturu-mokai. The men rushed out of their tents, and Major Von Tempsky, the senior officer, called out, “No. 5 this way,” and marched his division (company), numbering sixty men, off to the relief. The garrison remaining consisted of sixty of No. 3 Division, half of whom were mounted Constabulary, and about a dozen men of No. 2 Division. The troopers ran to the stables for their horses, which had been saddled at the early morning turn-out, fell in, and numbered off, when Major Hunter came out of his whare, which was between the Constabulary redoubt
The unjust stigma sank deeply into Hunter's soul. He was a high-minded, sensitive man—none braver in the force—and it was undoubtedly in a determination to refute this unwarranted accusation against his soliderly honour that he deliberately threw his life away in the charge against the stockade at Moturoa three months later. His younger brother, Captain Hunter, fell at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu.
As the relief force of Constabulary advanced and, fording the Tawhiti Stream, came doubling up the hill, the Hauhaus retired to the bush on the east, leaving three of their dead on the field. The little redoubt was a frightful scene of slaughter. Ten men—half the defenders—lay dead or dying, two of them mutilated with tomahawk, and six others were wounded. Only six unwounded men came out to greet their Waihi comrades. The casualties were—
Captain Ross, Sergeant McFayden, Corporal Privates J. G. Beamish, Garrett Lacey, Flanagan, Michael O'Connor (or Connors), Kershaw,
Among the sixty warriors of the Tekau-ma-rua was the young chief Te Kahu-pukoro, who, though only a youth, had already seen four years of war. Describing the attack on Turuturu-mokai he said:—
“Our leader Haowhenua headed the principal assault. Take-take led the attack from the north side, and it was he who shot and wounded the sentry outside, on the flank. Nuku, a brother of Narrative given by Te Kahu-pukoro, head chief of Ngati-Ruanui, at Otakeho, Taranaki, 1920.pakeha there with a short-handled tomahawk. [This was Private Gaynor.] After this first assault we all fired heavily upon the pakehas at very close quarters, and some of us cut away a portion of the parapets with our tomahawks, trying to force a way in. Only three of our men were killed, an old man named Papia, Taroai (from Ketemarae), and Uruwhero, a young man whom pakeha reinforcements were sighted coming from Waihi we thought we had killed or wounded all but two of the men in the redoubt. These two men jumped up on the parapet when they saw help coming, and shook their rifles at us and danced a haka, and shouted at us in derision, ‘Te bloody Maori—hau, hau!’ As the reinforcements advanced, firing at us, we retired to the bush in the rear, and then worked round home to our pa at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu.”
The survivors who particularly distinguished themselves by their gallant bearing and resolute resistance were
This determined attack on a military post quickened the field force into precautions for the safety of the other redoubts. Waihi was strengthened by the withdrawal of Captain Page's company of Armed Constabulary, ninety strong, from the Waingongoro Redoubt: this concentration of troops inland, however, left the middle Taranaki coast from Manawapou northward free to the Hauhaus.
Very shortly after the fight Captain
On the night Captain Roberts was given charge of the redoubt Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell who had ridden up from Manawapou and was very excited over the fate of so many of the garrison, asked the young officer to walk outside the redoubt with him. When they had gone a short distance he said, “Sit down.” Drawing his sword he extended the blade, gleaming brightly in the winter moonlight, and brought it back up to his lips, kissed it, and said dramatically, “Roberts, I shall have revenge for this.” The sequel was the first attack on Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. McDonnell was a man of dashing courage, but he was of excitable temperament, and when skilful leadership was required his impulsive character had its military defects.
The site of Turuturu-mokai Redoubt is included in a national reserve vested in the Hawera Borough Council, near the crown of the hill on the east side of the Tawhiti Stream, and about a mile beyond the borough boundary. The road cuts obliquely across the south-east angle of the work, so that the bastion at that corner—the part of the redoubt held by totara trees planted as memorials by survivors of the fight grow in the angles. An unsightly wire fence intersects the south-east part of the redoubt inside the road-fence; this should be removed and the place enclosed in alignment with the contour of the work. The scene of this heroic defence should be marked by a fitting memorial, such as that which stands on the battle-ground of Te Ngutu-o-te-manu.
The name Turuturu-mokai (that of the massive old pa near the redoubt) embodies a memory of the savage days of Maori warfare. It signifies the short stakes on which the smoke-dried heads of warriors killed in battle were set up in ceremonial display.
LIEUT.-COLONEL MCDONNELL, waiting until he had received a reinforcement of volunteers, consisting chiefly of the newly raised Wellington Rangers and Wellington Rifles, delivered his first blow in avengement of Turuturu-mokai on the 21st August, 1868. Before daybreak that morning, in a thick wet fog, a column numbering about 350 men fell in at Waihi Redoubt, and, crossing the Wai-ngongoro River, struck into the bush to attack Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. McDonnell's force consisted of detachments of Nos. 2, 3, and 5 Divisions of the Armed Constabulary, totalling about 110 officers and men; Wellington Rangers, 66; Wellington Rifles, 83; Taranaki Volunteer Militia, 32; Patea Yeomanry Cavalry, 18; and a number of unenlisted volunteers. The column was divided into two, one under command of Major Von Tempsky and the other under Major Hunter. A French Roman Catholic priest, Father Jean Baptiste Roland, accompanied the force; in the fight in the bush that day his gallant conduct in tending the wounded under fire won him the admiration and affection of all the force. Father Roland was afterwards well known as Dean Roland. He died at Reefton many years ago.
McDonnell, in a despatch dated Camp Waihi, 22nd August, 1868, described his operations on the previous day in the first attack on Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. He stated that he paraded the force, totalling 345, at 5.30 a.m., and experienced considerable difficulty in crossing the flooded Wai-ngongoro River. The column entered the bush by the track he had previously used. The rain was coming down in torrents. On arriving at Pungarehu McDonnell left Lieutenant Roddy, with the Taranaki Volunteer Militia, as a connecting-link betwen the main body and the Patea Yeomanry Cavalry outside the bush. He now found that rifle-pits and defensive posts had been made on each side of the
McDonnell then directed Von Tempsky to take his men along the track to the left and endeavour to enter the village simultaneously with the men whom McDonnell led round to the large clearing in front. When they reached there they were received by a very heavy fire from the village. As soon as sufficient men were up (they could only come in Indian file), the commander ordered a cheer and a charge. “Never was any order more heartily responded to,” wrote McDonnell. “In spite of the destructive fire poured on us from the bush on our right and from the palisading in our front, we went right into the pa without a pause.” Major Von Tempsky entered about the same time from the left, and the defenders broke and fled in every direction where they could find bush to cover them. As the remainder of the force came up they were extended round the village, at the edge of the bush, while those within the palisading cleared the whares. Only one man was found within, and, as he fired and killed one of the men, a hand-grenade was thrown in “to prevent him doing further mischief,” as McDonnell put it.
The whares were searched for arms. In the large house a considerable quantity of powder was found in flasks, also a good-sized box of Government ammunition of all kinds, and a quantity of breech-loading cartridges, made by the natives themselves. Ammunition was found in almost every one of the small houses. Katene's pouch, quite full, his double-barrel gun, eleven other guns, two swords, two revolvers, tomahawks, and spears were taken, and either brought away or destroyed. The houses were set on fire. The dead and wounded had been brought to the large sawn-timber house Wharekura, and when all had been well cared for by the doctor they were sent on under Major Von Tempsky, with Nos. 3 and 5 Divisions A.C. When they got clear away the large house was fired in several places, and when it was in flames McDonnell, leaving a strong rearguard under Major Hunter, moved out of the stockade.
About this time the natives were reinforced and commenced firing from several parts of the bush, but their fire was promptly returned by the rearguard. McDonnell was anxious to follow them, but could not find any track, and as they seemed to be in
pa and speedily silenced the enemy. On reaching the Wai-ngongoro River it was found in high flood; and it was a work of danger as well as difficulty to get the force across. The principal anxiety was for the wounded, but volunteers came forward and offered their services, and, after a severe struggle, succeeded in getting them all safely across. The men managed to scramble across, some by the rope and some holding on to the cavalry horses, but a great deal of ammunition was rendered unserviceable. “We reached Waihi about 6 p.m.,” McDonnell concluded, “and drenched and tired as the men were they gave three cheers that were refreshing to hear. The losses of the enemy must have been severe. We know of seven bodies.”
The European casualties in this engagement were four men killed and eight wounded.
One of the few surviving veterans of the fight, Mr. whares scattered about the clearing, with here and there some of the rata and mahoe trees left standing.” [In a belt of light bush just north of the Domain paddock in which the military monument stands there are still some of these ancient mahoe trees, towering and venerable by contrast with the lighter and younger growth around them.] “We soon came under a heavy fire as we skirmished up across the
mahoe trees on the east side of the Mangotahi Stream. Richard was my rear-rank man. We had not been fighting long when word was passed along that one of our fellows was down, and I found it was my brother. I ran back and bent over him, but he was gone in a few moments. He was hit in the jugular vein and bled to death. We had some desperate fighting as we retired, after setting fire to the settlement and the large meeting-house. One of our men, Burrowes (he who had escaped from the Turuturu-mokai affair a few weeks previously), volunteered to throw the hand-grenades we had brought with us, and I saw him lighting the fuses and throwing these bombs into the whares through the low doorways.”
When the Hauhaus returned to the village they found that some of the huts had not been burned when the troops fired the village, and in the thatch of these whares they discovered unexploded grenades. The shells were given to
THE SECOND ATTACK by Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell on the Hauhau bush stronghold at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu was delivered on the 7th September, 1868, and resulted in a disastrous defeat for the Government column. The repulse had far-reaching consequences, for it brought large accessions to
The force, which marched out from Waihi just after midnight in freezing weather, numbered 360, of whom nearly a hundred were friendly natives from Wanganui. Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell's force was in three large detachments. The Armed Constabulary, Wellington Rifles, Wellington Rangers, and some Taranaki Volunteers made up the first and second detachments; the third was composed of the Kupapa, or Maori, force. The detachments were made up as follows: No. 1 Detachment, under Major Von Tempsky—No. 2 Division of the Armed Constabulary, 16 men; Patea Rifle Volunteers, 14 men, under Captain Palmer; No. 5 Division A.C., 59 men, under Captains (Sub-Inspectors) Brown and Roberts; Wellington Rifles, 45 men, under Lieutenants H. Hastings and Hunter; Taranaki Rifle Volunteers, 26 men, under Lieutenant Rowan; Volunteers from Waihi, 2 men: total, 142. No. 2 Detachment, under Major W. Hunter—No. 3 Division A.C., 32 men, Captains Newland and Goring; Wellington Rangers, 65 men, Captain
Colonel McDonnell's plan was to strike deep into the forest and endeavour to surprise the Hauhaus in their village Te
rata forest in the direction of Mount Egmont for seven or eight miles before a sign of the Hauhaus was found. A track was discovered, and this was followed back in a southerly direction. Then one of the Wanganui Maoris climbed a tree and reported smoke about half a mile farther along the track. Maori voices were also heard in the distance. McDonnell advanced, and his leading Maoris surprised a sentry's camp on the track. Here the Kupapas killed a man and two little children. Another child, a small boy, was saved and carried throughout the fight on a Wanganui man's back; he became well known in later years in Taranaki as Pokiha (Fox) Omahura. Up to this time the leaders of the force did not know exactly where they were, but it was presently discovered that they were well in the rear of Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. A break in the interminable forest was seen ahead, and the force moved on cautiously towards the edge of the clearing. Kepa was ordered to take his Wanganui Maoris and work round the pa on the left flank, and Von Tempsky's division went ahead towards the pa, crossing a small creek (the Mangotahi) which bounded the clearing on the west and north.
As Von Tempsky's men, with part of Major Hunter's division, moved up in skirmishing order through the rata and mahoe timber to the north end of the clearing a heavy fire was opened on them, at very close range, from Hauhaus well concealed behind the undergrowth and logs and in the branches of several of the rata trees. It was now that Captain Kepa came running up and told McDonnell that the place was Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. Casualties became numerous, and McDonnell was undecided whether to advance or retreat. It was a fatal moment of indecision, for he left his subordinates without definite orders, and the units of the force quickly lost touch with each other. Men fell struck down by bullets from unseen marksmen. Lieutenant Rowan was shot in the face, the bullet breaking both jaws. He was carried out of fire by Private J. H. Walker and others, and handed over to the surgeons and Father Roland, the Catholic padre, who had again accompanied the force.
Volleys were fired into the rata trees and at the cover on the edge of the clearing, but no advance was made, and men continued to fall fast. It was very clear that defeat was near if the force remained only on the defensive. The seasoned men of the Armed Constabulary were able for the most part to take care of themselves, like the Maoris, but many of the unfortunate recruits of the Wellington Rangers and Rifles, quite unfamiliar with bush-fighting methods and fatally slow in the art of seeking cover, were perfectly useless when pitted against the active
Had the order been given to storm the place the casualties would have been fewer, but McDonnell imagined a far stronger force was opposed to his. Ensign Hirtzel, who was with Captain Buck, of the Wellington Rangers—“Buck's Bruisers” they were called—heard his captain ask McDonnell, “Where are the axes? Why don't we charge the pa?” But no order came, and the force became disorganized under the continuous heavy fire, to which there was no chance of replying effectively except by a charge.
Had McDonnell but correctly gauged the position he scarcely would have hesitated to assault the place. The fact was that there were not more than about sixty men in Te Ngutu-o-te-manu when the engagement began, and that most of these skirmished out into the forest to meet the troops, leaving the pa easily assailable by a determined commander. Hunter and Von Tempsky both requested permission to storm the place, but McDonnell still hesitated. At last, seeing how numerous the casualties were and considering it his duty to extricate his force with as little further loss as possible, he ordered a retreat to the Wai-ngongoro. The wounded were sent on under Major Hunter, and McDonnell following with about eighty men. There was no track on the route taken, which was a course through the tangled bush in as direct a line as possible for the open country. Captains Brown, Newland, and Cumming accompanied the larger part of the expeditionary column. A heavy rearguard action was fought. The Hauhaus had now been reinforced by men from some of the neighbouring villages, and pressed the retreating force hotly to the gully at Te Maru. Father Roland took his turn at the toil of carrying the wounded out, and there were bullet-holes through his hat when the day's battle was over. Kepa and some of his best men fought well in keeping the Hauhaus in check. The force took out fourteen wounded, some of them carried on crossed rifles in lieu of stretchers.
In the meantime the senior officer remaining before the palisaded village, Major Von Tempsky, waited vainly for the order to advance against the pa. Indignant at not being permitted to charge the place he moved restlessly to and fro, careless about taking cover. He was shot down at last by one of a party of Hauhaus crouching in the undergrowth near the bank of the Mangotahi Stream. Some of the defenders of the pa had opened fire from the rata and pukatea trees—several of the large hollow trees had been loopholed as redoubts—but soon after the fighting began they rushed out to skirmish in the forest. It is generally agreed by Ngati-Ruanui and Nga-Ruahine
pakehas fell, and when the fight was over there were eight or nine men lying near the slain officer, whom the Maoris found out afterwards was the celebrated “Manu-rau,” as Von Tempsky was called. After the troops had fallen back before a charge led by Katene Tu-whakaruru—erstwhile on the Government side—one of whose young children had been cruelly killed by a Wanganui Maori, several of the young men dashed forward to tomahawk the fallen whites. rata tree, but this was incorrect. He fell to a bullet fired from ground cover not more than 12 yards away.
All this time within the stockade in the bullet-swept clearing the war-chief taiaha in hand, reciting prayers to his Maori gods and shouting to his soldiers. “Patua, kainga!” he cried; “kill them, eat them!” And again and again he shouted in his far-carrying voice, “Whakawhiria, whakawhiria!” bidding the warriors encircle their foes. It was from this battle circumstance that the son of Te Rangi-hina-kau received his name, Whakawhiria. Earlier in the day, as soon as the first shots were heard in the distance, pa to join the women and children, and the white deserter had a narrow escape from death as he made his way through the bush, for he was fired on by some of the troops who took him for a Maori, and only evaded them by hurrying down the bed of the Mangotahi Creek.
Soon after the bush battle began, the pagan rite of the whangai-hau was performed by two tohungas, Wairau and Tihirua, the priest of the burnt sacrifice. The veteran
“One of our warriors was the old priest Wairau, whose comrade and coadjutor was young Tihirua, of the Ngati-Maru
whangai-hau, or feeding the gods of battle, Tu and Uenuku. Wairau held up the bleeding heart, and Tihirua applied fire to it. The young man carried pakeha matches, and, striking these, he held them to the flesh till it began to singe and sizzle and smoke. The smoke (paoa) that rose from it was regarded as a tohu, or omen. Wairau watched it intently to see the direction of its drift. The smoke rose and drifted out through the trees in the direction of the pakeha force. Had it been blown the other way, across or towards the stockade, it would have been a fatal omen for the Maoris, indicating the speedy fall of the place (ka hinga te pa). But the breath of the atua directed it the other way, and Wairau knew then that the white soldiers would be the vanquished ones that day.”
Scarcely any two accounts of European survivors agree as to the events on the battlefield after the withdrawal of McDonnell. The salvation of those who lived to reach the Waihi Redoubt once more, after a terrible night in the trackless bush, was due to the gallant Captain
“To this day,” said Colonel Roberts, “I do not know precisely why Colonel McDonnell decided to retire as he did, leaving the rest of us without definite orders. We could have taken the pa, I believe. We were handicapped, however, by the presence of some unfit men, particularly the Wellington Rangers; their officers were very good, but the men should not have been sent into the bush. They couldn't walk in the bush and carry a rifle, far less fight in the bush. The practised bushmen among us, like myself—I had done pioneering bush-work before the Waikato War began—had grown to look on a tree as a friend. The recruits from Wellington knew nothing of the bush, and were easily panic-stricken when required to work in skirmishing order, where a man is necessarily separated from his comrades. They were falling over logs and vines; a man needs to get his bush-legs just as a sea passenger needs to get
“We had no definite orders after the fight began. The last I saw of Major Von Tempsky was near the creek in rear of the Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell sent a message to Von Tempsky by his brother, Captain William McDonnell, requesting him to follow No. 2 Division when it retired; but it is doubtful whether, if the Major received the message, he understood it as a definite instruction to withdraw. He certainly remained anxious to attempt the storming of the pa, some time after the fighting had begun. I remember well that he struck me as being curiously listless. He was cutting away with his sword at a hanging bush vine, not cutting it through, but rather chipping it downwards, cutting shavings off it. He was waiting for orders from McDonnell.pa.
“I had fired a few shots at the palisade,” continued Colonel Roberts, “more for the sake of making a noise than anything else, for I could not see a single Maori. Our men were hotly pressed by the Hauhaus' fire from good cover. We were by this time on the east side of the pa, firing away, and waiting vainly for orders. I heard Lieutenant Hunter—who had been the life of the camp at Waihi—calling out to his men, ‘Give it to them boys, give it to them! I can see the white of his eyes! Give it to him!’ and similar cries. I saw him a little time afterwards, poor fellow, lying on the broad of his back, dead, staring at the tree-tops. There were a few men with me; an officer cannot see more than ten or fifteen when he is skirmishing under such conditions. I asked whether any one had seen McDonnell. I then came to the conclusion that he was fighting his way out. In this situation I did a thing which, strictly speaking, really was a great piece of presumption on the part of a junior officer. I ordered the bugler to sound the ‘Halt!’ and the ‘Officers’ Call.’ I collected all the men I could, and two or three officers appeared. Captain Buck was one of them. I asked them whether they knew where the Major was, and they said they heard he was killed. We had a consultation, and I told them that from the sound of the firing I believed McDonnell was making his way back to Waihi. Then I asked, ‘Which of us is the senior?’ and on comparing dates of commissions with Buck I found I was the senior officer. When I had collected a few men I formed them into a sort of semicircle with the outer
pa. Then I said to Buck, ‘You stay here, and I'll go and see what has become of Von Tempsky. If I'm not back in ten minutes or a quarter of an hour you'll know what to do.’
“I worked back through the bush towards the other side of the pa, passing some of my men who were still sticking to it. They called to me ‘Don't go back, sir! You'll be shot!’ They said they believed the Major was shot. I went along the flank two or three chains towards the creek that ran in the rear of the pa. I saw nothing of Von Tempsky, but he must have been lying close by. It was all dense bush here, with some very large mahoe trees—the biggest I had ever seen—and some rata. At last I turned to come back, and just as I did so a bullet buried itself in a sapling behind me. I made my way back towards the place where I had left Captain Buck a quarter of an hour
“By this time it was getting quite dusk in the bush, under the close, dense foliage. I came to the conclusion that I had better try to make my way out to camp with the wounded. I had heard firing away on my right and knew it must be McDonnell fighting his way out to Waihi. There were eleven wounded, but most of these could walk. My total strength now was fifty-eight men. Sergeant Russell fell shot through the hip; he was a fine brave fellow. We had to leave him there lying propped up against a tree, with a loaded revolver in his hand. We had some faint hopes of rescuing him later, but the Hauhaus got him, after he had stood them off at first with his revolver. Lieutenant Hirtzel was with us, and another good man was big
“I kept my men together as well as I could in the bush, and got my wounded along; we went very slowly, occasionally turning to fire. I don't think we were travelling more than half a mile in the hour. All of us were now very exhausted, and I ordered the men to sit down in the bush undergrowth for a rest, waiting till the moon rose, so that I could fix my course. We had two or three friendly Maoris with us, Kupapas from Wanganui. I kept them close by me, for I was depending on them to lead us out of the bush; in fact, I put a sentry over them to make sure they did not give us the slip.
“We were still within cooee of the pa; in fact, we could hear the Hauhaus' yells and war-songs all night, we were that close. About 2 o'clock in the morning the moon rose over the tree-tops, and now that I had an idea of the points of the compass I made a start again. I sent the Maoris ahead, telling my man who was keeping an eye on them to make sure that they were not attempting to leave the column. ‘If they do,’ I said, ‘you know what to do.’
“When we started on our retreat we were well in on the
Narrative to the author by Colonel
All the dead and some of the wounded were left on the battle-field. The death-roll numbered twenty-four, of whom five were officers. Twenty-six wounded were brought off the field. One man, Private Dore, of the Wellington Rangers, who was shot through an arm in Robert's retreat, was lost in the bush, and did not reach Waihi until four days afterwards. Of the officers, Major Von Tempsky, Captain Buck, Captain Palmer, Lieutenant Hunter, and Lieutenant Hastings were in the list of dead. Palmer and Hastings were with Robert's force, and were mortally wounded. Palmer died as he was being carried through the bush, and was left there.
Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell, in his despatch to the Minister of Defence (9th September, 1868), said that his intention on setting out from Waihi Camp was to reach Te Rua-ruru through the bush, attack the village, and return by way of Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. On reaching Mawhitiwhiti he struck inland on the main track to Te Ngutu and to seaward of the track that was supposed to exist and was marked on a map as leading to Te Rua-ruru. A very old trail was followed up for some time, then it ceased altogether, and the force headed in the supposed direction of Te Rua-ruru. The country was very rough, intersected with gullies and streams, and the bush was a tangled network of supplejack. About 1 p.m. a bush ridge was ascended, and then on the advice of Hone Papara, the Maori guide, McDonnell struck for the sea to try to hit a track. It was after another hour of this work that the first signs of Maoris were seen and heard, and a little later the track to the rear of Te Ngutu-o-te-manu was entered, and the force came under fire at the creek. The force was soon under fire from the front, right, and rear, but, except within a palisading in the clearing in front, no enemy could be seen. It was now that McDonnell, considering it impossible to
“Presently,” Colonel McDonnell's despatch continued, “news was brought to me that Major Von Tempsky, Captain Buck, Captain McDonnell, and Lieutenant Hunter were shot dead. But just then Captain McDonnell came up and stated that Major Von Tempsky, Captain Buck, and Lieutenant Hunter were killed, and that he had told Lieutenant Hastings that the only chance was to carry out the orders that had been given Major Von Tempsky; at once his reply was that Captain Buck was senior, and he would consult him. Captain McDonnell then went to see Captain Buck, but found that he was killed, and the enemy by this time in possession of the place where the bodies of Buck, Major Von Tempsky, and two men lay. He returned then, and pointed out to Mr. Hastings the necessity of retiring. The fire at this time was very heavy from the front, rear, and right, and from the tops of the rata trees. He then followed on my trail with eight natives and ten Europeans, and reported as above. I had now with me about eighty men, including natives—hardly sufficient to carry out the wounded, now increasing in number, and to keep down the fire from our right. Knowing that a large portion of the force was in rear, and several good officers, I moved on, feeling sure they were covering our retreat; but I presently found that the enemy had got between us, and it appears from what Sub-Inspector Roberts tells that soon after Captain McDonnell had left the Hauhaus succeeded in completely surrounding the rearguard, and it was only with the greatest difficulty they cut their way through them. The Hauhaus then left him (as he struck to the left farther into the bush) and came after us, overtaking us before we struck the main track leading into Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. Captain McDonnell mean-while had taken up a position at Te Maru to keep our front open. Our wounded had by this time increased to twelve, who had to be carried, beside several who had been hit but could walk. The men with our party worked hard, but were so done up as to require every persuasion and advice I and my officers could
McDonnell emphasized the great need of training and experience in forest fighting. The Wanganui and Ngati-Apa Maoris, who accompanied the force and who, it was known, killed fifteen Hauhaus, themselves suffered no loss; not even a man was wounded. This, he said, was proof that to fight Maoris successfully in a bush where every tree and every track were known to them required men who had been long and carefully trained to such work. Instead of his men dispersing and taking cover, they could not be prevented from huddling together in small lots, making a good target for their enemies. His efforts and those of his officers were in most cases without effect in convincing them of the mistake they were making.
As for the Hauhau losses, McDonnell reported that those known killed by the Europeans numbered thirteen, and by the Kupapas fifteen, making a total of twenty-eight; this was exclusive of losses the enemy must have suffered when the main body was fighting its way out. The Maoris, however, dispute this estimate.
It is the day after the fight. The square in the centre of the forest stockade is an amazing scene of ferocious excitement. The men with blackened faces, and all but nude, are dancing hakas
taiaha, his halbert-fashioned staff. At last he raises his head, and in a great croaking voice cries to his men that they must tahutahu the bodies of the pakehas—they must destroy them by fire. And this must not be done within the walls of the pa. The slain must be dragged outside the palisades, to the clearing which fronts the fenced village.
When the funeral pyre was prepared by the Hauhaus the body of Von Tempsky was laid upon it in the middle, and the other slain soldiers were piled around and above him, laid crossways on each other. As the Maoris cast the Major's body on the pile of firewood taiaha in his hand, and cried his farewell, his kupu poroporoaki, to his dead foeman. There were his words (as given by I nga ra o mua i whawhai koe i tena wahi i tena wahi, i ki hoki koe ka puta koe ki te ao marama. Ka tae mai hoki koe ki au, moe ana o kanohi. Taea hokitia, nau i kimi mate mou naku. Ka moe koe.” (“In the days of the past you fought here and you fought there, and you boasted that you would always emerge safely from your battles to the bright world of life. But when you encountered me your eyes were closed in their last sleep. It could not be helped; you sought your death at my hands. And now you sleep for ever.”)
In this not unpoetic fashion did the war-chief of the forest speed his fallen foe to the spirit-land of heroes.
The great pile of firewood—trunks and branches of dry tawa—was set alight with a brand from one of the village fires. When the pyre was kindled an old man walked up to it with a long forked pole in his hand. He was tohunga, or priest,
Haere, haere, e koro!” (“Go, depart, old man!”) Like the smoke from a burning Viking dragon-ship, the funeral boat, so rose the corpse-smoke, black, in the midst of the green forest. And so, in that fiery breath, in true heroic fashion, farewelled by the pagan scalds and the tattooed braves, passed the fallen white men of Te Ngutu-o-te-manu.
One of the soldiers' bodies was cooked and eaten. umu (earth-oven), was that of a stout man (he tangata momona). It was eaten on the marae by the people, after it had been carried up in baskets, to the accompaniment of a chant by the bearers. The principal men who ate the human flesh were the old priest tapu.”
tohunga Wairau and Katene Tu-whakaruru enjoying the manmeat, which was eaten with potatoes. Katene joined in the meal, partly out of feelings of revenge for the killing of one of his children by a Wanganui Maori. mana tapu, his personal sanctity. Describing the process of cooking the body, Bent said:—
“I watched the preparation of the body of the white soldier for the warrior's feast. The head was first cut off with a tomahawk, and then the body was cut open and prepared as a butcher prepares a beast he has killed. The body was laid on the red-hot stones in the bottom of the haangi or umu (the earth-oven) so that the outer skin could be scraped off easily. This was done by the cannibal cooks with sharp cockle-shells. Water was then poured over the hot stones, to create the steam which was to cook the meal, and green leaves were spread on top of the stones, then the man-meat was placed in the oven. The body was cut up into convenient portions, and arranged so as to cook thoroughly. The oven was 5 feet long and about 3 feet deep, and there were several layers of meat, with green
huha. The hands were laid with the palms uppermost, because when they were cooked they curled up, and the hollow palm was full of hinu or gravy, which was a great delicacy to the olden Maori. Mats and other coverings were laid on top again and more water poured over them, and then the earth was laid over all, so that no steam was permitted to escape. The body of the pakeha took between two and three hours to cook. Then the oven was uncovered and the contents carried up to the marae in small flax baskets with kumara and fern-root.” “It was usual, too,” added the old pakeha-Maori, “to cook some pikopiko, the young curly fronds of the mauku, or ground-fern, with the meat; it added to its flavour.”
It was customary also to use panahe roots, steamed, as a corrective for the meat. The panahe is the wild convolvulus; its roots are long and thin, somewhat like macaroni, and are slightly bitter in taste.
The battlefield of Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, which is reached by the Ahi-paipa or Tempsky Road from the Township of Okaiawa, is a public reserve of 50 acres, partly in grass and partly covered with a tall growth of mahoe trees, exotic pines, and oaks. The greater part of the reserve is leased for grazing. Some of the rata stumps and logs lie rotting on the ground under the shade of the new growth of mahoe, which now covers part of the clearing entered by the colonial troops in 1868. Many of these mahoe or whitewood trees (so called because of their gleaming white bark and trunks) are, however, more ancient than the period of the war. The domain, sacred to the memory of a score of colonial soldiers, is entered by a road beneath an overarching thicket of ancient whitewoods, their venerable trunks and twisted limbs glimmering ghostly in the shades. This is part of a belt of mahoe which marks the southern end of the Hauhau clearing made in 1866–68. The belt extends eastward into a grassy paddock; there the land is slightly higher than the green expanse of turf where the soldiers' monument stands, bounded on the west and north-west by a strip of timber and a little half-dry stream, the historic Mangotahi. A monument to Von Tempsky and his comrades stands near the northern end of the park, some little distance from the spot where they fell. North of the monument is a plantation bordering the grass field. In this woodland there are some huge mahoe; one is just such a tree as that in which pa on the morning of the attack. It is a twisted, knotty old wizard of a whitewood, its trunk hung with moss and ferns, and in its butt a hollow large enough to conceal one or two men. At the base it was about 8 feet through, a mass of misshapen roots and buttresses. Beyond this pine and mahoe wood again is a paddock in which there are many traces of
The old man pa in 1868, and although he did not actually witness the attack on the stockade, as he was sent out with the women and children to a safe place in the forest, he saw all the afterevents, including the burning of the fallen soldiers’ bodies and the cannibal meal on the day after the battle. Pou described the fortifications, which were not formidable, and could have been taken by a determined assault. “The pa,” he said, “had a stockade, ditch, and low parapet. The ditch was outside the tall stockade of totara timber, and the parapet, just inside the fence, was formed with the earth thrown up by the diggers. The trench surrounded the greater part of the pa; it was not dug on the west side, where the Mangotahi Stream, with its abrupt bank, closely approached the stockade. On a low hillock on the west, just above the stream, was
The domain caretaker's bungalow cottage, its veranda festooned with passion-flower and honeysuckle, fronts the site of the olden marae, the village square or campus. At one side of this marae, according to the old chief, stood the large assembly hall Wharekura,
“The place where Von Tempsky was killed,” said Pou, “was not at the monument, as some suppose. It was over here,” and the old man walked to the north end of the pa, past the slight rise in the ground where the rear palisade stood. Passing through a low hedge which crosses the reserve here, Toi looked about him for the stumps of the great rata trees of 1868. He pointed out the stump of one, sawn across, just above the bank of the creek near the little footbridge to the park playing-lawns. The other tree for which he was searching formerly stood, he said, in the plantation to the east, near a large cabbage-tree to which he pointed. In those two trees Maoris were posted as sentries—the inner one was the principal lookout place—and as sharpshooters. “But it was not they who shot Manu-rau” (Von Tempsky), said Pou, confirming the narratives of pa, just under the little fall of ground at the creek-side. It was Te Rangi-hina-kau who shot Von Tempsky; with him were Wairau and others. Kaake, an old tattooed warrior from Araukuku, was shot by the troops at the end of the pa.
“Many of the pakehas were ignorant of the ways of war,” said Pou. “They came marching along upright, staring about them in amazement, very unlike the Maoris, who skirmished crouching, keenly searching the undergrowth, sinking to the ground for cover, and fighting nearly naked.
“There were only thirty or forty men in the pa at the beginning of the fight,” Pou declared. “The rest had gone out to shoot cattle inland in the direction of Te Rua-ruru, two or three miles away. They heard the firing, and dashed back and caught the troops in a cross-fire, hence the defeat and retreat of the whites.”
The place where the bodies of about twenty soldiers were burned in a funeral pyre was pointed out. It was outside the pa stockade on a maara or cultivation, clear of bush, where the plantation now is, south of the village. The spot is on the right-hand side as the domain is entered from the road. “A great fire was made with tawa logs and other timber, and when it blazed up and began to consume the bodies we children were stricken with awe and fear.”
I explored the battle-ground on other occasions (1919 and 1920) with Mr. marae where the soldiers' monument stands. The site of an unusually large house was traced in the grass paddock on the north or Egmont side of the plantation, close to an angle formed by two thorn hedges. This ground was a clearing in 1868, with whares scattered about it. A short distance northward again, around the head of the Mangotahi watercourse, now almost dry, there were numerous remains of olden dug-in huts and food-stores. This is where the log-hut village previously decribed stood in 1866.
While the veteran recounted those events of half a century ago we explored the clearing and the adjacent bush and fields, and found numerous traces of the olden village. On the north-eastern side of the reserve, in a paddock through which the head of the little stream Mangotahi runs, a farmer's cows were grazing peacefully over the field where kainga of 1866 stood, there were numerous depressions in the turf indicating the sites of old-time whares dug into the earth for greater warmth and snugness, and for defence. There were also hollows indicating the ruas, or store-pits, for potatoes. Near the creek were the softly grassed ruins of a parapet and rifle-pit commanding the crossing-place. Numerous rotting stumps of matai (black-pine) showed the heavy character of the bush which formerly covered the spot.
On the opposite or southern side of the now dry watercourse—it is near its head—many slight depressions and undulations in the turf marked the site of the old-time refuge-place and gathering-ground of the Hauhaus. In the middle of the track across the paddock the foot struck against smooth stones embedded in the ground, and a little investigation showed that these formed the taku-ahi, or hearthstone, which formerly occupied the centre of a whare. All had mouldered away, except, close by, two decaying butts of matai posts on opposite sides of the site of a dug-in hut. Dairy herds chew placidly in the midst of this conquered sanctuary of the rebel Ngati-Ruanui; and the unheeding foot of the white farmer passes over the long-quenched home fires of the bushmen, whose ashes have been scattered to the winds that have free passage over the plains, for the forest that was their help and refuge has wellnigh all been hewn away.
One day in the early “eighties,” long after the war, whare by the side of the road which led through the village. As he entered the house, stepping over the high paepae or threshold, one of them seated within the house said to him, “You have crossed a very rich threshold” (“He paepae whai-taonga”).
“What do you mean?” asked Bent.
“Beneath that beam of wood,” replied the Maori, “there lies the sword of ‘Manu-rau.’”
This was the truth. The owner of the whare had become possessed of Von Tempsky's sword, which was preserved as a sacred relic, a taumahatanga, or offering to the gods. It was not displayed in public, but was placed beneath the threshold, to which in Maori eyes a kind of sanctity attached, and beneath which valuable relics were often placed, to assure the security of the house and occupants. The sword was carefully greased and wrapped in flannel before it was laid in its resting-place. Some years later it was buried in the grave in which its Hauhau owner was laid, and there it lies to this day.
Thus saith the Lord: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
And there is hope in thine end, said the Lord that thy children shall come again to their own border. (Jeremiah, xxxi, 16 and 17.)
IT WAS ON the prison-island of Wharekauri, the largest of the Chathams, that whakapapa rangatira, or aristocratic pedigree.
hapu of the Rongowhakaata Tribe, of the Poverty Bay district. In his youth he received some education at the Waerenga-a-Hika Mission School. He became a rather notable fellow on the coast for his skill in horsemanship, his ability in handling boats, particularly surf-
pakeha world in one way and another, and with his natural shrewdness and his well-sharpened wits, added to uncommon force of character, it was easy for him when the opportunity presented itself to take a place of leadership. Superadded, too, was a strain of mysticism, but this does not appear to have manifested itself until the period of exile on Chatham Island.
“I think from what I have heard,” Captain
For more than two years the exiled Hauhaus were detained at Waitangi, Chatham Island, where a redoubt had been built and quarters and cultivation-grounds assigned to the prisoners. Captain Thomas, Resident Magistrate, was in general charge of affairs on the island, and Captain Tuke commanded a military guard of twenty-five men. Early in 1868 Captain Tuke was transferred to New Zealand, and the guard was reduced to fifteen men on the instructions of the Hon. karakia, or form of service, was skilfully chosen from passages specially applicable to the condition of the Wharekauri prisoners, far removed from their friends, and hemmed in by their foes. Atua.
tohunga, he borrowed ideas from many sources to excite the imagination of his followers and enhance his priestly mana. It was the beginning of a strange career in which his sway over the Maori mind of a certain bent, though often beaten to the ground by defeat, ever rose resilient, and, in spite of his defects of character, remained strong to the end. On his death a quarter of a century after the escape from Wharekauri—the flight of the Israelites from the land of bondage, as he described it—he was venerated as a god by the faithful, and that tradition persists to this day among his old flock.
Dissatisfaction among the prisoners was so strong towards the end of 1867 that reports of their condition reached the New Zealand Government, and Mr. Rolleston was sent down to investigate the position. He reported very unfavourably regarding their treatment in some respect, particularly in the matter of the medical examination; this had been carried out in such a manner as to arouse the just resentment of the women among the exiles. The discipline of the military guard was very bad, and drunkenness was common. A sergeant (Elliott) admitted having kicked some prisoners who refused to turn out when ordered; and the conduct of some of the other men towards the people was calculated to provoke a revolt.
When the guard was reduced to fifteen men and a non-commissioned officer under Captain Thomas, as the result of Rolleston's recommendations, karakia and
On the afternoon of Tuesday, the 30th June, 1868, the
Atua, they would return to their native land.
The prophet's words thus confirmed, the intensely excited people awaited with perfect obedience
The plan was executed with complete success on the Saturday forenoon. The sentry at the redoubt was seized and disarmed, and the whole of the guard were rushed and tied up in a few moments. Captain Thomas was thrown down like the others, and bound hand and foot; afterwards, at his appeal that the bonds were hurting him, he was untied and handcuffed, and locked up in a cell. Only one man was killed—and this was in disregard of patiti. The redoubt armoury and magazine were ransacked, and on
Meanwhile the “Rifleman” had been boarded and seized. Captain Christian, the master of the vessel, was ashore with Captain Thomas at the time. He was captured by the Maoris, but was not tied up; his captors allowed him his freedom on his promising not to interfere with the seizure of the schooner. The ketch “Florence” was also seized; the master (Captain Priest) and crew were sent ashore. The vessel was looted, and the cable cut. The vessel drifted ashore and became a wreck; this prevented any news of the rising being sent to New Zealand.
The settlers' houses having been ransacked for arms, money, clothing, and other things likely to be useful to the Maoris,
On the evening of the 4th July the anchor was weighed and the “Rifleman” beat out of Waitangi roadstead. Mr. Payne was ordered by
Now befell the first episode which exhibits Hona, in the Maori) in the “Rifleman” it was a saying he had heard sailors use; this was the cause of the long spell of head winds. He professed to consult the Atua as to the identity of this Jonah; then it was revealed unto him that it was his old uncle
“When the schooner came into the bay at Wharekauri from New Zealand I was away working on a sheep-station inland, and so I did not witness the actual seizure. As soon as the vessel had been captured This was illustrated in a rough sketch. The part square rig on the mainmast as well as the foremast was frequently adopted in old-time three-masted schooners, though never seen nowadays in those vessels. Technically the “Rifleman” was a three-masted two-topsail schooner.
“Our voyage to New Zealand, after putting back once owing to head winds, occupied four days. As the captain had been seized and left on shore, the mate of the schooner was the navigator. I and several other Maoris were sailormen during the passage, and helped the white crew in setting and trimming sail. There were more than two hundred of us on board—men, women, and children.
“I witnessed the throwing-overboard of one of our people, an elderly man named karakia, or religious worship, practised by Atua, his god, was not willing that the offender should be taken to the mainland. The schooner, the Atua told him, would not reach the shore so long as whiua ki te moana).
“At this time it was late in the afternoon, and the sun was setting over the windy ocean. I was on deck helping the sailors with the ropes. We saw a great wave, a billow like a mountain, rolling towards us. It would surely overwhelm us when it reached us. It was about as far from the spot where we are sitting to those kahikatea trees on the bank of the Taringamutu” [about
Whenei me te kohatu” were Peita's words.] “He did not swim after the ship. And we, who were in fear that the great wave sweeping along towards us would break on the ship and sink us, saw in that moment that we were saved. The billow did not break, and the schooner rode safely on the sea. The sun shone out from the clouds for a few moments before it set.
“It was early in the morning that we caught sight of the east coast of New Zealand. There were nine of us on deck at the time—six sailors and three of us Maoris (Rawiri, Tuari, and myself) who were helping the crew. The wind had come fair after pakeha fashion as to when land would be sighted; some would stake £5, some £6, some £10.” [A large sum of money had been secured on the Chathams at the time of the rising.] “The mountains of the North Island were seen just after the sun rose, and there was loud rejoicing among the people.”
The land sighted that morning (10th July) was the snow-covered high country inland of Poverty Bay.
Captain
“So far as
“Looking back on my Chatham Islands trip,” concluded Captain Mair, “there is a remarkable coincidence in my association with
[Captain Mair shot
tapu manuscript ritual book, containing the heads of Old Testament passages forming the Ringa-tu or Wairua-Tapu services, was shown to Colonel Porter and the author some years ago by
When prisoners were being led out for execution by
THE EUROPEAN INHABITANTS of Poverty Bay did not learn of
Captain Biggs meanwhile had started back to Gisborne to hurry up supplies, as his force had been five days out and were now without rations. As for ammunition, they had only thirty rounds
On the day following the fight
The operations of a hastily organized body of volunteers, pakeha and Maori, from Wairoa will now be described. Soon after
Captain Deighton and Mr. Preece at once went to get ammunition, sending the Maori messenger back to Captain Biggs to inform him of what they were doing and of Ihaka Whanga's plans. Mr. Preece was sent with a small party taking packhorses laden with ammunition for the friendly Maoris. Travelling all night, they reached Te Mahanga early next morning. The party was just about to start when a messenger arrived with a letter from Captain Biggs to Captain Deighton, reporting that the enemy had escaped through his lines during the night and were moving across country towards the head of Te Arai Valley, and asking the Magistrate to get a force together at Wairoa to intercept the Maoris at Te Reinga or Waihau lakes. After consulting with Ihaka Whanga, Mr. Preece decided to return to Wairoa at once to assist Captain Deighton in organizing a party. At Wairoa the chiefs were called together, and it was arranged that Paora Apatu with a hundred men should start next day. Meanwhile some twenty old Military Settlers from Lieut.-Colonel Fraser's disbanded force were got together under Mr. Clement Saunders, a former member of the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry, who had just joined a Volunteer corps as lieutenant, and twenty picked Maoris under Mr. Preece. The little force set out late that afternoon and reached Opoiti the same night, then pushing on to Whenuakura, where Ngati-Kowhatu (former rebels), under their chief Te Rakiroa, had been allowed to settle. When these people were informed of the escape of the Chatham Island prisoners they pretended that they had heard nothing of it; afterwards it was concluded that
It was decided to scout towards Hangaroa next day and await the arrival of the Wairoa natives. That night Lieutenant
The advance-party under Richardson and Preece moved on, in wild wintry weather, and at the second crossing of the Hangaroa met Lieutenant Wilson, of Poverty Bay, and a Maori named Netana. Wilson had been out scouting the tracks, and he brought instructions to Richardson from Biggs to return to Whenuakura.
Accordingly the force marched on the back trail. Towards evening of this day (24th July)
The main body of the friendly natives from Wairoa had not appeared, and an expected force of Mahia Maoris, under the staunch old Ihaka Whanga, did not arrive in time for the fight. Richardson and Preece and their gallant few engaged their foe spiritedly, but it was soon realized that the position was hopeless. The range, however, was held until nearly dark. The Hauhaus now worked up along the gullies on either side, and as there were not sufficient men to oppose this flanking movement a retreat was ordered. Ammunition was failing, and the small force was without rations. A rearguard action was fought, and Richardson skilfully extricated his force by sending the less active and experienced men on first to cross the gully in rear while the commander and Preece, Carroll, Karaitiana, and a few other good shots kept up an accurate fire on the Hauhaus. The first party, on reaching the next hill, now halted and opened fire, enabling the brave little rearguard to cross the valley under cover of their rifles. In this way an orderly retreat was carried out, with the loss of only one man, one of Karaitiana's Maoris, who fell early in the fight with a broken thigh and had to be left on the field; another native had his hand blown off by the accidental explosion of his rifle. The force reached Mangapoike that night and camped there, and next day marched back to Wairoa. It was afterwards ascertained that the Hauhaus had suffered eight casualties. One of their mounted scouts was captured at the beginning of the action. It was only the good work of the few sharpshooters and the approach of darkness that saved the little band from destruction. The locality of this engagement,
At this time Lieutenant Gascoyne, accompanied by Dr. Scott, made another gallant ride with despatches, taking a message from Mr. Deighton, the Magistrate at Wairoa, to Colonel Whitmore
The next engagement with
On the 8th the force was well up the gorge-like valley of the Ruakituri, and the advance-guard led by Mr. Davis Canning, a gallant settler from Hawke's Bay, was hot on the trail of the Hauhaus, who were heard shooting pigeons in the distance. Early in the afternoon Captain Carr (Hawke's Bay), who had
In the meantime Captain Richardson and Mr. Preece, with a party of picked Europeans and natives, and a few Mohaka volunteers under Ensign Lavin (afterwards killed in the Mohaka massacre, 1869), marched to Opoiti and scouted thence to Te Reinga and Whenuakura. The latter place was found deserted. It was afterwards discovered that
On the morning of the 9th a very early start was made from Whenuakura, and at about 3 p.m., as the force was descending towards the Ruakituri, it was met by about thirty of the Ngati-Porou, under the chief
The European losses at the Ruakituri were six killed and five wounded. Among the Hauhau casualties were
Early in October Karaitiana Roto-a-Tara, the young chief already mentioned as having distinguished himself in the fight at Te Koneke, was sent up the Wairoa with his comrade Ahitana and two other men to visit Whataroa (or Erepeti), Te Waru's village, and gather what news they could about A grandson of this brave chief Karaitiana Roto-a-Tara was a sergeant in the Great War, and was awarded the Military Medal for services in France.whare and killed the sleeping men with tomahawks. Karaitiana's heart was cut out and was taken by Reihana to Waikare-moana, where it was offered to the war-god Tu with the ancient Maori ceremonials, and was deposited at the tuahu or sacred altar of Whakaari pa, on the northern shore of the lake. When pa some time later he ordered the heart and tuahu on which it was placed to be destroyed.
Mr.
Ropata and Hotene strongly urged Colonel Lambert to move on, but he said the country they had to go through gave the
pa abandoned, and could have followed his welldefined cut trail towards Poverty Bay. Thus he would have been attacked unexpectedly from his rear, and the terrible massacre at Matawhero would have been averted.
THE REPULSE AT Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, the loss of valuable officers, and the disgust in the ranks at the mismanagement of the expedition had reduced McDonnell's field force to a state of disorganization and semi-mutiny. Many good men left the force in disgust; the Wanganui Kupapas returned to their homes strongly impressed by mana, and the troops remaining in Taranaki were so weakened that it became imperative to shorten the front, and in the end to withdraw from the occupied country north of Patea. McDonnell's reverse, with its train of misfortunes for the Government cause on the West Coast, seriously embarrassed the Ministry in power (Mr. Stafford's Cabinet), which was hard put to it not only for funds, but for men to serve in the field. McDonnell resigned, after withdrawing the whole of the force to Patea, but fortunately a good soldier was found to take his place, a man of energy and initiative, with a professional training which McDonnell lacked. This was Colonel
An incident of the withdrawal to Patea from the plains was a skirmish at Turangarere, near Manutahi, complicated by two Government detachments firing on each other. A force of sixty men, under Captain Smith, was on the way from Patea to Manawapou to shift the camp stores, while a down convoy of about fifty was advancing from the opposite direction. The detachment from Patea sighted a body of armed Maoris on Turangarere Hill; the Hauhaus were coming down to burn the bridge over one of the streams. The Maoris fell back firing, and just then the convoy from Manawapou arrived, and, mistaking the Patea detachment for Maoris, shot and killed one of them. Describing the affair whare of Mr. Maxwell, a settler in the district.”
At Kakaramea the Hauhaus came down and attacked the redoubt built there after the attack on Turuturu-mokai. They fired heavily into the place at night. The flashes of the guns were seen at Patea camp, and rockets were sent up, a prearranged signal system, asking whether the Kakaramea garrison was in need of help. The reply, with rocket, was that no assistance was required. When the post was abandoned the Kakaramea Hotel was burned.
It became necessary for the outlying military settlers to come into Patea, and the abandoned huts of the pioneers, like some of the redoubts, were speedily burned by the Hauhaus. One man was cut off. This was Turangarere Hill, the scene of the convoy affair, is on the Patea-Hawera Road, about two miles from Manutahi. Below it on the north is Flaxbridge Creek, so called because in the pioneer days bundles of flax were thrown into the small creek as fascines for a crossing. It was at this swampy creek, a little way seaward of the road, that the Maoris poured a volley into the The old-fashioned wayside hotel at Kakaramea close to the stock saleyards—a great gathering-place for farmers on cattle-sale days—stands on the site of the first hotel, which was burned down by the Hauhaus in 1868, when the troops evacuated the coast. On the crest of the hill about 250 yards in rear of the hotel are the grassed-over traces of the Constabulary redoubt. A boxthorn hedge now runs across part of the redoubt-works on the crown of the hill. The place from which the Hauhaus came and fired into the camp at night is the hill north-east of the redoubt, and 500 or 600 yards distant, near the present road leading inland from Kakaramea. They threw up a breastwork on the hill.raupo swamp below Turangarere Hill.raupo and killed the settler “Sandy” McCulloch, who was hiding there.raupo. He was crouching with only his nose and mouth above the surface of the water. The volley killed him, but the Maoris could not find his body, and it was long afterwards that his bones were discovered in the swamp.
Colonel Whitmore, on assuming command at Patea, set vigorously to work to reorganize the small force at his disposal. The levies from Wellington and Nelson took their discharge and went home; Von Tempsky's division (No. 5) had been disbanded, and all that was left as a nucleus of a new field force were No. 1 Division A.C. from Napier, fifty strong, and the remnants of Nos. 2 and 3 Divisions. pa crossed the Patea River and established himself in a new camp which presently became the objective of Whitmore's attack. There was a preliminary demonstration at Otoia on the 21st October; a newly raised contingent of Wanganui Maoris marched out, and some Armstrong shells were thrown at the Hauhaus on their hill post at a range of 1,200 yards.
Whitmore got rid of all the irregular troops, resolving to work only in future with enlisted men, and he urged the Government that in future all recruits should be enrolled in the Armed Constabulary and not as temporary volunteers.
At the beginning of November it was discovered that
Recruits for the Armed Constabulary were now coming in, and a newly raised company, No. 6 Division, 100 men, arrived at Wairoa on the 6th November, coming up late in the afternoon when Whitmore had decided upon an attack before daybreak next morning. The Colonel was greatly pleased with the appearance and eager spirit of the new division, and with the captain in command,
At midnight, in misty, showery weather, the attacking column marched from Wairoa inland in the direction of Moturoa and Okotuku. Whitmore's force consisted of detachments of Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 6 Divisions of Armed Constabulary, some Patea Rifles, Patea Cavalry (dismounted), Wairoa Militia, and a contingent of Wanganui Maoris under Captain
The road entered the bush and high tutu scrub by a cleared bullock-track 12 feet wide. This tract of timber was a narrow belt of tall bush, largely rata, extending like a long tongue from the forest on the east—the right flank of the advance—towards the Kohi Valley on the west, and masking the partly cleared ground on which the Maori camp was built. The terrain was the watershed between the Kohi Stream (which flows into the Whenuakura) and the Mou-mahaki (a tributary of the Waitotara). A very short distance separates the valleys of the two rivers at this place. On the left flank as the troops marched out to Moturoa the wooded valley of the Kohi was skirted, and as the Hauhau position was approached the deep precipitous gorge of the Ngutuwera
The Maori fortifications were in an incomplete state when the attack was delivered, and had the place been reconnoitred properly beforehand the issue might have been very different. One of
“I helped to build this pa, which after the battle became known as Papa-tihakehake, because of the events on the battleground when the place was strewn with the dead Europeans. Before it was constructed we had a temporary settlement here with some potato cultivations. Our war-leader, pakeha scouts would find us sooner or later. So we set to work—felled and split timber and dug trenches, and made earthworks. We had been at work four days when we were attacked, and did not have time to finish the fortifications. We had only one side done, besides three taumaihi (towers or redoubts), one in the elbow of the work and one at each corner. The palisade on the south side was the only line finished; the second stockade of timbers on this line had not been completed when the troops found our retreat. The pa was not closed in; the stockade erected commenced above the gully on the west, running east to this roadway, and then turning slightly and continuing towards the edge of the standing bush. The length was about 5 chains.”
The front of the pa presented a concave face to the approaching attackers; some of those who reached the place described it as roughly half-moon in shape. The western wing of the stockade was about 2 chains in length, and the main line 3 chains, extending towards the thick belt of forest on the east. (The line of this main defence is now intersected at right angles by the road which runs north-north-east towards Okotuku.) In rear of the defences were the nikau and fern-tree huts of the Hauhaus, with their cultivations on either side of the head of the gully. The stockade for the greater part was a single fence, built of heavy split timbers and whole tree-trunks, set 3 or 4 feet in the ground and standing 12 feet high. Within this palisade was a trench 6 feet wide and 6 feet deep, with traverses and fire-step and a parapet. At each end of the stockading and in the angle
taumaihi or redoubt-like tower had been erected, an item of defence partly borrowed from the design of pakeha redoubts; this kind of bastion was afterwards used in the building of Tauranga-ika pa. Each taumaihi was a small fort in itself. Tu-Patea described it as roughly circular in figure, built of earth and layers of fern in the usual manner of field-works; it was about 15 feet in diameter and 20 feet in height. Timber ladder-ways gave access to the top, and the sides were palisaded and loopholed. Each of these small redoubts would hold about twenty men, and could be used both as watch-tower and as citadel. It was reached by a covered way from the main trench. The taumaihi at the eastern end was held by the Ngati-Hine Tribe; their principal warrior was Paraone Tutere, an experienced old fighter and a good shot. The middle tower was garrisoned by the Tangahoe men, and the south-west one, just above the edge of the gully, by Ngati-Ruanui. The whares and food-stores of the garrison were grouped on the bank of the gully near this spot.
We return now to Whitmore's attacking column, which advanced at grey dawn along the avenue through the bush and took cover behind logs and stumps and in the edge of the bush, waiting for the order to charge. Whitmore detached No. 1 Division and the contingent of Wanganui Kupapas under Kepa to move round to the right of the pa, directing them to get close up to the palisade and attack it on that flank while the main body assaulted in front. No. 6 followed the other divisions after a short halt outside. Roberts was at the edge of the bush with his “Young Brigade” when Major Hunter passed him with his division detailed for the storming of the pa. As Hunter passed he said to Roberts, “Follow me up like the devil!”. No. 6 was at first extended on the left, but quickly was in the thick of the assault. A signal had been arranged when Kepa and No. 1 Divisions were in position on the right.
Meanwhile the defenders of Moturoa were on the alert. Their sentries were in the taumaihi before dawn, and that hero of many fights Katene Tu-whakaruru, was the first to catch sight of Whitmore's advance-guard as it emerged from the bush. It was a damp, misty morning, and the figures were indistinctly seen moving from tree to tree and sinking down into cover. Katene quietly warned his comrades, and in a very few moments the trench and taumaihi were crowded with warriors, waiting with death-like silence for the soldiers' charge.
Whitmore, crouching behind a stump at the edge of the ragged clearing, noticed that no dogs barked, and that there was no sign of the women moving to collect firewood as was customary in a Maori kainga in the early morning; and other officers shrewdly surmised that the Hauhaus had been forewarned. Kepa and his men (fifty Wanganui natives, besides twenty-five of No. 1 A.C.) were on the edge of the clearing on the extreme right of the pa, where the long palisade could be seen extending westward to the broken ground. In front of the pa and on the right the ground was covered with low fern and with stumps and burnt logs; on the left there was a tangled tract of low bush on the edge of the gully.
At last the signal for the assault was given, and Major Hunter rushed for the palisades with his storming-party of fifty Armed Constabulary (No. 3) and some of the Patea men. Hunter, who was determined to refute the unjust aspersions cast on his soldierly honour after Turuturu-mokai, had requested the duty of leading this forlorn hope. The Maoris waited until the first of the stormers were within 10 or 12 yards of the stockade, and then opened fire in a thunderous volley. The whole front of the pa blazed. “I never saw the like of that sheet of fire,” said a survivor of the party. “Men went down all round me.” Whitmore
taumaihi which formed the bastion at that end of the unfinished fortification. Others fell before the fire of the well-hidden Hauhaus, and soon there were a dozen men lying dead or wounded on the bullet-swept open ground. Kepa did not get
Roberts with his No. 6 Division now came up in support. When he was waiting for the word to charge in, the young commander formed up his men and said to them, “Now, when you see me do that,” and he held up his carbine, “you all follow me, and every man for himself till you get across to the other side—don't look behind you!” The word was given, and No. 6 ran the gauntlet of the Hauhau fire across the open ground and reached the eastern end of the stockade. The men dropped to cover behind logs and stumps and were at once hotly engaged, holding the position after the stormers had been repulsed.
The fighting on the right flank was now fierce and deadly. Hunter had been shot in a vital place, the femoral artery, and it was impossible to stanch the wound. He was only 8 or 10 feet from the stockade corner when he fell, just in the act of turning to the nearest men to bid them take cover. He died very soon after being carried off and laid under a mahoe tree. The rescue of his body from the Maori tomahawks was a gallant deed. Several men were wounded in the attempt, but Captain Gudgeon, Privates Kelly and Foote, and one or two others succeeded in getting him clear of the palisades.
Whitmore soon came to the conclusion—a quite erroneous one—that the pa was too strong to be taken, and he ordered a retirement. This was carried out with judgment and gallantry, and more than one New Zealand Cross was earned that day.
When the bugle sounded the “Retire” the Maoris left the shelter of their stockade and fire-trenches and charged out to skirmish with their foes in the open. One Hauhau was shot down—the natives declare that he was the only man of the defenders who was killed that day—after a desperate rush on the troops with his tomahawk. This was an old tattooed savage, Te Waka-taparuru; he leaped right over the palisade from the inner parapet and dashed on his foes in a fit of whakamomori (recklessness). Here, as at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, the battle-rite of the whangai-hau was observed. The body of the second Constabulary man killed—shot by Pikirapu, of Ngati-Hine—was lying close to the stockade at the eastern bastion. The young warrior Tihirua (otherwise Te Rangi-puaweawe) rushed out with his tomahawk, and making three great cuts in the dead man's breast thrust in his hand and tore out the heart. This was the mawe of the battlefield. At his waist, buckled to the flax girdle, was a leather pouch, such as was generally used for carrying percussion caps; in this he had some matches. Tu-Patea te Rongo described the ceremony which followed:—
“I saw Tihirua light a match and hold it underneath the
paoa (smoke) rose into the air. The old man Tu-mahuki, who had rushed out with Tihirua, watched this intently, for it was a divinement to determine the issue of the battle. The smoke rose and drifted out from the pa in the direction of the soldiers. Then Tu-mahuki cried ‘Kokiri!’! (‘Charge!’) and we all rushed out and engaged the pakehas in the open. Had the smoke of the burnt sacrifice been blown towards the stockade it would have been an evil omen for us; the fort would have fallen to the enemy. There was very little wind, but what there was sent the paoa towards the soldiers, and by that token we knew that we should be the victors. Tihirua, his divination ended, cast the human heart away to one side as a taumahatanga, a sacred offering to the gods. After Tihirua's ceremony we charged determinedly upon the enemy. We skirmished with them in the bush, and I shot five men there that day.”
After holding the position on the east flank of the pa until the wounded had been carried off through the bush, Nos. 1 and 6 Divisions retired in excellent order, fighting a hard rearguard action. No. 1, as Whitmore reported, retired through the bush with great regularity and order, and then No. 6 covered the retreat. Each division halted in turn and kept the Maoris in check while the others withdrew through it. Colonel Roberts, describing this operation, said: “I came across Goring there; he fought well that day. I said to him, ‘You try this billet for a change.’ ‘All right, mate,’ replied Goring, in his drawling way, and he coolly and competently commanded his division in turn in holding the rear.” Colonel Whitmore in his account praised Roberts and his young soldiers for their share of the operation: “No. 6, retiring skirmishing, was now attacked by the enemy almost all along the line, and nearly hand-to-hand. Through the jungle the voice of the gallant commander rang out continually, ‘Be steady, my men, stick together,’ and each time a cheery reply, ‘We will, sir,’ might have been heard in answer from the ‘Young Division.’”
Meanwhile on the west flank a small detachment of No. 2 Division, all of them veterans of either colonial or Imperial service, were engaged in sharp fighting with a considerable body of Hauhaus outside the pa. This part of the day's work was described on the battlefield (1921) by one of the survivors, Mr.
Meanwhile on the west flank a small detachment of No. 2 Division. He said:—
“When we marched out from Wairoa a detachment of us, numbering twenty-two, under Captain George McDonnell and Sergeant Bassett, was sent off to the left flank to engage the
pa, above the gully). The object was to keep the Hauhaus from working round through the gully on that side and outflanking us. We had some hot fighting there. We fired across the fern and tutu that filled the valley. Whenever we saw a puff of smoke we fired at the spot, and the Hauhaus kept up a fire as sharp as ours. I never saw the pa at all that day; we were quite close to it, but some bush and scrub intervened: our special job kept us quite busy enough. Our officer and the sergeant left us early in the action and joined the rest of the force, and we were left there long after the retreat of the main body began. We were quite without orders, so had to carry on the fight to the best of our own judgment. Corporal Talty took charge of us—he was the senior non-com. left—and he deserved the New Zealand Cross for his gallant and skilful work that day. Talty was a veteran Irish soldier, late of the 57th Regiment, with
pa) made sure we were the Hauhaus and opened fire on us. The Hauhaus were now in possession of the belt of bush on our left, and they kept a close and hot fire on us, so we were under the bullets of foe and friend alike. The Hauhaus followed us towards Wairoa, and some of them burned down the settler Ritchie's whare, near the Mangatangi Creek (where the dam now is for the Waverley electric-light supply, three-quarters of a mile from the township). The force brought out an Armstrong field-gun from the redoubt and fired a few shells at them, and they retreated.
“I had only two rounds of ammunition left when I got out to the open, besides the one in my Terry carbine. I remember that I tried to put one of these in, thinking I'd be able to sit up and have a final smack at the Hauhaus if I was wounded, when I found my carbine already loaded. I fired close on sixty rounds in that day's fight.
“The first man shot at Moturoa was Sergeant Kirwin (No. 6 Division A.C.), who was accidentally wounded on the morning march into the bush; a comrade's Enfield rifle, carried at full cock, went off and struck him in the back of the neck. He was put on a stretcher to be carried out, but he was left in the retreat, and the Maoris got him and killed him.”
No. 2 Division brought out two badly wounded men who had been left on the bush track. One of these was very gallantly recovered by Lance-Corporals Hamilton and Cooper and Private Monrod, who went back for him on hearing from a man, who ran on, that there was a wounded man down the track.
The retreat of the force emboldened the Hauhaus to follow them almost to Wairoa. When the various detachments had reached the entrenchment on the hill held by Captain Hawes, Whitmore re-formed the divisions, and ordered the commanders to retire slowly by fours along the Wairoa Road. Alternately each division from the front extended, knelt down, and prepared to relieve the rearguard as it retired skirmishing, and as each rearguard passed its relief it formed fours again and rejoined the column. Carts had been sent for to Wairoa to take away the numerous wounded. The last man wounded was one of the Wanganui Maoris who was sitting down at the parapet on the hill; the bullet (which penetrated his lungs) had been fired at Lance-Corporal Wallace, of No. 2. Captain Roberts had a narrow escape after reaching the entrenchment. An ounce bullet from one of the pursuing Maoris struck the side of the plate on the butt of his carbine, which he was carrying at the trail. The force of the blow was such that it sent him down on his knees. The Armstrong guns were brought out from the Wairoa Redoubt about three-quarters of a mile and opened fire, and most of the Hauhaus then drew off, but several daring spirits followed the troops out so far that some of their bullets fell in the redoubt.
The return of the victorious Hauhaus to their palisaded camp was a scene of terrible savage exultation. They came in dancing, yelling, shouting war-songs, and brandishing the arms and equipment of the slain soldiers. The dead Constabulary men were collected and dragged to the camp, stripped of their uniforms, and then burned in a great funeral pyre—all but one body, which was eaten. Tu-Patea te Rongo, who was in the forefront of the day's hot work, thus described that cannibal meal:—
“I saw the body of one of the soldiers cut up, cooked, and eaten. The body was hauled in behind the fence and cooked in a big hangi, as a sheep would be cooked. Some of our old warriors cut off the legs and part of the breast for their meal, and hung up other parts of the man-meat in a tree for future use. We young men were filled with wonder and fear when
tapu. Timoti, of Nga-Rauru, was one of them; Tama-kanohi was another. The old tattooed tohunga kaitangata meal was that we were afraid of the wairua (the spirits) of the dead soldiers.”
It appears probable, from accounts gathered, that the body cooked and eaten was that of a young man named Kenealy, of No. 3 Division A.C.; he had been a private in Captain Palmer's Patea Rifle Volunteers, and had fought at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu. William Kelly, a veteran of No. 3, stated that he saw Kenealy fall close to the palisades in the first assualt, and the Maoris dragged him off; he was a fine young fellow of about twenty-one.
So ended the Battle of Moturoa, the worst reverse the troops had suffered in the West Coast war. It certainly was Whitmore's one great blunder. The hard-fighting little Colonel made few mistakes in the after-campaigns; Moturoa was a ghastly and effective lesson. An officer who distinguished himself in the rearguard action says: “I could never understand why we left the Maori position at Moturoa so soon. We had the day before us. We should have surrounded it and stayed there. Losing a few men was no reason for retreating; we should have stuck to it. It was bad management—you couldn't blame the men; they all behaved well. I don't know to this day why we retreated. We would not have had a better fighting-ground. We were only three miles and a half from our base; we had a good force and plenty of ammunition. It was easy country, mostly open and level, and only a little bush. Te Ngutu-o-te-manu was different; there we were far from our base in dense bush. Guns could easily have been taken in along the bullock-track through the belt of bush right up to the Moturoa clearing.”
Another veteran of the engagement says: “Undoubtedly Colonel Whitmore made a great mistake in retiring from Moturoa so soon in the day. If we had to retreat we should have waited till dark. We should have stayed there. We always put the set on the Hauhaus when we stayed with them in the bush and fought it out.”
Whitmore in his despatch greatly underestimated his losses. According to his account the returns showed: Killed, 5; wounded, 20; missing, 11, of whom 3 were killed. As a matter of fact, all the missing were killed. A veteran says: “My estimate
Another veteran (No. 3 Division) said: “We left twenty-six men on the field at Moturoa.”
Colonel
Still another estimate gives the numbers as—Killed and missing, 19; wounded, 20, including 5 Wanganui natives.
Colonel Whitmore now decided to fall back behind the Waitotara River in order to place his force between
Whitmore wrote to the Defence Minister offering to resign, but the Government decided to support him in his command. The position at this juncture was exceedingly critical.
Whitmore had increased his force at Nukumaru camp to 350, and was busy drilling the recruits, when he suddenly received (in the middle of November) imperative orders from the Defence Minister to fall back with all his troops to the south side of the Kai-iwi River, and so dispose them as to hold that line of defence. The reason for this unexpected and, in fact, astonishing order was not made known to the Colonel at the time, but he carried out the Government's instructions, and then was informed that
For the patrolling of the Wanganui frontier line Whitmore placed his chief reliance on the two local Cavalry Volunteer corps, one troop under Captain Finnimore and the other (the Kai-iwi Cavalry) under Lieutenant (afterwards Captain) pa, out foraging, were engaged in killing geese when a party of the Kai-iwi Cavalry, headed by Sergeant-Major Maxwell, came down on them and sabred or shot six. A few weeks later Maxwell himself was mortally wounded under the palisades of Tauranga-ika.
On the 2nd December, 1868, Colonel Whitmore left Wanganui by steamer for Poverty Bay with 212 Armed Constabulary.
The site of the Moturoa (“Long Bush”) engagement, known among the Taranaki Maoris as Papa-tihakehake, is about three miles and a half inland from the Town of Waverley (formerly Wairoa) by the road to Okotuku. The exact spot is not marked on any existing survey map or plan, but the study of the ground and an examination of a county map enable the place to be fixed with accuracy. The south-west end and taumaihi of the pa, on the edge of a gully, were on the ground now known as Section 282, and the other (east) end of the pa was on Section 74, Okotuku Parish, Wairoa Survey District. The engagement was fought over this ground and also on what is now Section 73. The main road intersects the pa-site. The line of the front entrenchment may still be traced by a slight depression in the ground on the main road running at right angles to the roadway, but this faint undulation would be unnoticed by the ordinary passer-by. In the adjoining paddock no trace of the olden defence exists, but a remnant of the bush (rata, tawa, karaka, and mahoe) which covered the plain on the eastern flank remains near a homestead which stands about 300 yards from the pa ground. A relic of the site of the fortification is an ancient rata stump, about 8 feet high and 5 feet in diameter, on the east side of the road, alongside the fence, a few yards in rear (north) of the stockade-line. This rata butt will be found a useful guiding-mark by any one wishing to locate the exact scene of the battle.
My last exploration of the scene of the engagement (4th March, 1921) was in company with two veterans of the battle—Mr. hapu. These old warriors fought on opposite sides at Moturoa. Tu-Patea pointed out the line of the incomplete fortification, the spot where Major Hunter was shot by Paraone Tutere, the place where the body of the A.C. man was eaten, and the spot where the other bodies were placed in a heap and burned in a funeral pyre. The locality of the last-mentioned incident is on the east side of the present road, in the paddock on the right hand, going from Wairoa to Okotuku; it was in the clearing a short distance south of the easternmost angle of the stockade.
The old Hauhau bush fighter dramatically showed the action of the whangai-hau ceremony which he witnessed. Tihirua, the young priest of the battlefield sacrifice to the god of war, was the son of Tu-mounga, the
“I was not in the engagements at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu,” said Tu-Patea. “I joined He po kino tenei po’ (‘This is an evil night,’ meaning a night of danger). ‘Be vigilant,’ he ordered, ‘and keep a keen lookout for the enemy.’ So we were ready for the soldiers when they attacked us at daylight in the morning. In the fight here I used a hakimana (a single-barrel percussion-cap gun). Afterwards, however, I was armed with a purukumu (breech-loading carbine). I took it from a soldier killed in the battle. The pakeha Ringiringi (pakeha covering (goldbeater's skin) for the carbine-cartridges, he used the tonga-mimi (bladder) of various animals—cattle, sheep, and pigs—and also used the floats and bladder of eels for the same purpose.”
Major William Hunter, killed at Moturoa, and his brother Lieutenant Henry Hunter, who was killed at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu less than three months before, were natives of Antrim, Ireland. William Hunter, who had been trained in the Militia in Ireland and at Hythe, became Captain and Adjutant in the 1st Waikato Regiment of Militia in 1863. He was for some time assistant clerk in the Auckland Provincial Council. Henry Hunter served in the 1st Waikato with his brother before going to the West Coast. Both brothers were excellent soldiers, and one of Major Hunter's fellow-officers in the A.C. describes him as the bravest man in the force.
Colonel Roberts, in discussing the engagement, said: “Most of our fellows were first-rate men and fought well. There were very few exceptions—and, in fact, I only remember one. There was a slightly wounded man who was being carried out on a stretcher. When he heard that the Maoris were close up he jumped out of the stretcher and ran for his life out to the Wairoa Redoubt. The stretcher-bearers were too slow for him. He afterwards exchanged into a mounted force, and when he asked for leave to enlist in that corps I told him I thought it would suit him very well because he would be able to get away faster on horseback than on foot.”
Alongside the post-office in the main street of the Township of Waverley stands the green wall of the Wairoa Redoubt, from which Colonel Whitmore's force marched out to Moturoa. After the withdrawal of the forces from the coast at the end of 1868, when the whole coast was temporarily abandoned to the Hauhaus, Wairoa was the only post which held out between Kai-iwi and Patea. The redoubt is overgrown with trees and shrubs; the centre is a roughly kept grassy lawn. The vegetation has helped to preserve the work. The parapets are in places 9 or 10 feet high, and one of the small flanking bastions still stands. The land is a Post and Telegraph section. The redoubt is the only one on the West Coast still in existence in the heart of the town of which it was the nucleus, and it should be preserved as a place of great historical value.
TURANGANUI, AS THE present Town of Gisborne was known in its early years, was a small township in 1868; it consisted of a few stores, an hotel, courthouse, post-office, and several other buildings, on the Waimata River, close to its mouth. Captain Reid's store was the principal place of business. On the opposite (east) side of the river were two military redoubts. Five miles inland was Matawhero, the principal farming district, with numerous homesteads scattered over a wide fertile plain extending to the Waipaoa River. The European population of Turanganui and Matawhero at this time was about one hundred and fifty; the Maoris in the district numbered some five hundred. Most of the prominent settlers, including the military officers, lived at or near Matawhero; among these were several men against whom
pakeha population and the Kawanatanga Maoris of Turanganui to be served.
Many messages of warning—some definite, some vague—had reached the people of Poverty Bay. Unfortunately the most serious warning of all was disregarded. The military authorities kept nine men on duty as scouts to watch for the approach of Hauhaus from the interior. Lieutenant Gascoyne was placed in charge of these scouts, and with the approval of his commanding officer, Major manuka in a valley some eight or ten miles to the right of his camp, and leading to a ridge overlooking the Manga-karetu Stream. From the hilltop he sighted smoke rising out of the timber some miles inland; his Maori companion thought it was probably the fire of a party of native pig-hunters, as there were no villages in that part of the country. Gascoyne rode in to the settlement of Makaraka and reported to Major Biggs what he had learned and seen. He requested leave to keep three of his men watching the old overgrown track, but Biggs did not approve of this proposal; he said he knew that
On the 8th November
Then, having obtained from one of his spies exact information as to the position of the various settlers' homes, he divided his force—numbering a hundred men—into kokiri, or striking-parties, of varying strength to attack the several houses, His principal lieutenants were Nikora, Te Rangi-tahau, Nama, Maaka, and Te Waru Tamatea. The largest kokiri, which
Shortly before midnight on the night of Monday, the 9th November, 1868, the Hauhau force, all mounted, forded the Waipaoa River at Patutahi and rode into Matawhero. One of the farthest-out settlers was Mr. Wyllie, against whom
Statement to the writer by kokiri in which he marched was led by Petera Kahuroa, of the Ngati-Hineuru Tribe. Peita was armed with a rifle and bayonet. The first people captured were killed by a man of Ngati-Kahungunu, who stabbed them to death with his fixed bayonet. The leaders in the attack on Major Biggs's place were Nikora and Te Rangi-tahau. Peita witnessed the slaughter of the Major and his family. Volleys were fired into the house after the door was broken open, and Biggs and his wife and child and several occupants of the place were killed with rifle-shot and bayonet. Next the home of “Wirihana” (Captain Wilson), a mile or more away, was surrounded and fired into, and after the place was set on fire the Wilsons were killed in the same way as the Biggs family. “The principal man appointed to kill the Wilsons,” said Peita, “was Rawiri, of the Rongowhakaata Tribe, and it was not, as some have said, the half-caste Eru Peka or patu (the sharp-edged stone club). Te Kaka used a patu-paraoa (whalebone club). In our expeditions such men were told off specially to slay those taken prisoner. Some used the tomahawk. As for myself, I never liked killing men with the tomahawk. I disliked such work—I preferred the gun.”
The attack on Major Biggs and his family was delivered about 2 o'clock on the morning of the 10th November. Biggs was still up writing. (Major Gascoyne states that he was writing out orders for all the settlers to assemble at Gisborne Township on the following day as a precaution against a sudden attack.) Major Gascoyne in his reminiscences (“Soldiering in New Zealand”) wrote thus in vindication of Major Biggs, whose courage, prudence, and energy he praises: “He was mistaken in supposing that
After setting fire to the Biggs's home the Hauhaus mounted and galloped on to Captain Wilson's house, which a party under Nama had already surrounded and set on fire. Nama and his men on reaching the house had called out to Wilson, who had been sitting up late writing letters. On discovering they were Hauhaus he opened fire with his revolver; by this time he probably had heard the firing at Biggs's. His servant Moran came to his assistance. The attackers battered the door down and fired into the house. After some shooting, the raiders set fire to the house at both ends, and Wilson and his family were forced to leave it after he and Moran had held it as long as possible. Some of the natives wished to spare the Wilsons, and it seems from what can be gathered that when the family came out from the burning house the captain was under the belief that he and his wife and children were being taken into safety. However, after they had been led about 200 yards in the direction of Mr. Goldsmith's place, their captors suddenly fell on them with the bayonet. Captain Wilson, who was carrying one of the children, was bayoneted in the back, and fell dead with the little boy in his arms. Mrs. Wilson was then savagely bayoneted, and was left for dead, stabbed in several places. Three of the children and the servant Moran were killed; the little boy, James
After the slaughter of the Wilsons the scattered homesteads on the Matawhero were quickly attacked by the mounted raiders, and one family after another was slaughtered. The friendly natives were simultaneously pounced upon, and many were despatched with rifle, bayonet, tomahawk, or patu. House after house was looted and burned after its occupants had either been killed or had almost miraculously eluded the murderous kokiri bands.
Those who were killed on that fatal night and morning of fire and blood included Messrs. Dodd and Peppard (two sheep-farmers who had a station some miles distant from Matawhero), Lieutenant Walsh and his wife and child, Mr. Cadel (storekeeper
Those who escaped in the grey dawn, warned by the firing at their neighbours’ houses or by some gallant men who rode from one house to another warning the inmates, ran across the fields or along the beach towards Turanganui. The plain was ablaze with burning homes, and the blood-maddened Hauhaus were galloping over the country, shooting indiscriminately, looting, and destroying.
Lieutenant Gascoyne, out in the scouts' camp on the Hangaroa track, received the news of the raid from one of his native scouts who galloped in from the bay. Gascoyne and his few men immediately raced in to headquarters, but were cut off from Turanganui by
Captain Westrup and Captain Tuke soon arrived from Napier with some European volunteers and a large force of friendly natives. kaingas, and a great quantity of plunder of all kinds, including many good horses, besides about a hundred rifles and guns, some revolvers and swords, also a good deal of ammunition. The various raiding-parties united at Patutahi, after sweeping out all life from Matawhero, Makaraka, Repongaere, Makauri, and other settlements. From the Patutahi village
Westrup and Gascoyne and an armed force searched the devastated settlements and buried the dead. Gascoyne was then despatched inland on
In the principal encounter the old Hawke's Bay chief coup was carried out about this time by
IMMEDIATELY ON HEARING of the Poverty Bay massacre and the retreat of some of the settlers towards the Mahia Peninsula, Colonel Lambert, commanding at Wairoa, sent Lieutenant Preece up to Whangawehi, on the north side of Mahia, with instructions to give what assistance he could and to report himself to Captain Westrup. Preece found two steamers at Whangawehi, one going to Napier and one to Poverty Bay. Captain Westrup instructed him to go to Turanganui with Ihaka Whanga's men, numbering about sixty. On arrival at the bay Preece found that Lieutenant Gascoyne had escaped the massacre, having been out scouting at the time, and had taken command. The whole country was smoking with the fires of burning homesteads. Captain Westrup returned next day with Captain Tuke and some Armed Constabulary men and Captain Tanner and a number of his Hawke's Bay Cavalry Volunteers. Lieutenant Preece remained at Turanganui a day and returned to Whangawehi by steamer, thence overland to Wairoa, where he reported to Colonel Lambert. Captain Westrup said he would await the arrival of a large force of Hawke's Bay Maoris, which he expected in a day or two, before taking the offensive. At Wairoa measures were taken to get a force ready to start from that point, and provisions and ammunition were collected. About the 25th November 200 Ngati-Porou men under pa. “It was a beautiful sight,” wrote Gascoyne, “a line of fire and smoke half a mile long, with both flanks thrown forward, rapidly descending the hill.” The men closed on the centre as they approached the Hauhau entrenchments, and a deadly fire was concentrated on the camp. The Hauhaus fought well until the final rush, when they dashed out of their entrenchments and across the river into the forest, leaving about two score dead and dying in the captured position. A number were shot in the river immediately in rear. Among those who fell was the notorious Nama, who had been concerned in the murder of Karaitiana and his three comrades at Whataroa; he was mortally wounded by Henare Kakapango, one of Gascoyne's scouts.
Among the Hauhaus who fought at Makaretu was
“When the final assault on our pa was delivered I hastily filled all my pockets with cartridges, in a tent, and ran out with a rifle slung over my shoulder and another in my hands. I ran to the edge of the cliff above the river. The bank was perpendicular and about 50 feet high. It was no use staying to fight then; the enemy were in our lines. I jumped from the brink of the cliff into a deep pool of the river. As I dashed for the cliff I was fired at. Nama, who was near me, was shot. I got across the river and escaped into the bush, but many of my comrades were shot in the water or on the banks. There was high manuka growing on the other side of the river (the Wharekopae), and I crept into this. There I was seen by Huhana (Susan), one of
In the fighting at Makaretu the total Hauhau loss was about
During the operations at Makaretu pa long deserted, on the crest of a narrow and precipitous range more than 2,000 feet above sea-level. The scarped fort towered high above all the surrounding country, the most picturesque and most formidable position occupied by the Hauhaus in the war. On being driven from Makaretu
The weak feature of this pa, as in most Maori forts, was the lack of a water-supply within the lines. The front of the position, the face of the ridge, was defended by three parapets and trenches; the ditches were connected with each other by covered ways. The lowest and outermost line was about 250 yards long, with very high scarped walls terminating on the cliff at either flank of the fort. The second line of parapets was about 10 feet in height, and the third, protecting the huts built on the summit, was 16 feet high, surmounted with flax baskets filled with earth, a substitute for the European plan of sand-bags. The place was very difficult of approach; it was compassed about with gorges and dense forest, and the rear of the position was a sharp ridge like a knife-back, falling away precipitously for several hundreds of feet on each side.
The first attack on Ngatapa was delivered on the 5th December by Ngati-Porou and the Wairoa natives, two companies of about one hundred and fifty men each. The right column was commanded by Ropata and Preece, the left by Hotene and others. Ropata and Preece, with a few men, leaving their main body in the valley, clambered up the steep face of the cliff and gained the end of the trench on the left front of the pa immediately in rear of the front wall. There was no flanking bastion here, and Ropata was able to enfilade the trench for some distance, firing along it as fast as he could discharge the loaded rifles which Preece passed on to him. There the gallant Maori officer and his white comrade remained for some time in a most precarious position, keeping up a hot fire, supported by their best men. In the afternoon 2 portion of the outer works was captured, with a loss to the Hauhaus of three killed, but ammunition now ran short, and it was impossible to do anything more in the absence of support from the main body of Ngati-Porou. Those who stuck to Ropata
On the recommendation of Colonel Whitmore both Ropata and Preece were awarded the decoration of the New Zealand Cross for their exceptionally brave attack at Ngatapa.
Ropata was disgusted at the defection of the main body of Ngati-Porou; and he wished to recruit fresh men. Whitmore was anxious to attack Ngatapa at once, but on the advice of Ropata and Gascoyne further operations were deferred until an adequate force was gathered to deal with
Further details of the operations in the first attack on Ngatapa show that on the 4th December, the day following the final fight at Makaretu, the combined Ngati-Kahungunu and Poverty Bay force, Ngati-Porou under Ropata and Hotene, and the Wairoa men, moved out by the ridge overlooking the Wharekopae Stream. The enemy's position on the crest of Ngatapa was seen in the distance, and, having located it, it was decided that the force should return to camp and march against pa. Just below there was a stream. There was a lot of felled manuka in front of the pa, and when the force reached the edge of this Mr. Preece halted and sent some men round the edge of the clearing with instructions to observe the position from that point, but not to show themselves, and on no account to fire on the enemy if they saw them, unless they were fired on. These men disobeyed the instructions. One of them fired when he saw some of pa. Mr. Preece went down several times to try and bring up men who had been crouching round a fire during the day about 500 yards below his position. He and Ropata and a few others had taken the enemy's outer works, and were firing from there into the inner part of the pa. The only men who were killed in this attack were four of their party. One man was wounded, and, with assistance, Preece took him down to where the men were at the fire. He left him there with instructions that he was to be carried to camp. [It was ascertained afterwards that this order was disobeyed, and that the man was abandoned by his people, and was killed by the enemy after the withdrawal.] No attack was made on the right side of the pa that day. In Ropata and Preece's bold attack the killed men's guns were loaded as well as their own, and were used to keep up a constant fire. Very late in the afternoon Ropata said to Preece: “We can take the pa if we are supported. Go down to the main body and ask Gascoyne to get assistance.” The young officer went down with two men. When they got to the foot of the hill it was dark. They decided to follow the Wharekopae, and reached Lieutenant Gascoyne's camp at Makaretu at 8.30 or 9 o'clock that night after a very rough march down the stream, a slippery papa-rock river with gravel in places. Preece reported to Gascoyne that Ropata wanted immediate assistance. Gascoyne could not induce the natives to move that night; they said they would start at daylight in the morning. Tareha and his men had moved off on their return march. At daylight Gascoyne's Maoris were just ready to start when Ropata, who had held his position all night, came in, and he was so disgusted at not getting the much-needed help that he decided to return to Waiapu and recruit a new force. Lieutenant Gascoyne had done his utmost before Ngatapa to induce the retreating natives to return to the attack, but without avail.
Captain Preece narrates this incident to show how Maoris are affected by superstition: “Hemi Tapeka was a man whom I had seen distinguish himself at the attack on Pukemaire (Waiapu) in September, 1865; there he went right up to the flanking angle, killed one of the enemy, and held his position until others got up to him. He had been a good fighter, too, in the Upper Wairoa in 1866. When I went to get men to go up to the attack at Ngatapa I found him crouching by the fire (500 yards below the pa). I said: ‘Well, why are you here? You are not a coward.’ He replied: ‘No; but if I go up to-day I shall be killed. I had a dream last night. My thigh twitched; that is a tohu aitua’ [evil omen].”
It was late in December before Colonel Whitmore had perfected his arrangements for the reduction of Ngatapa. In the meantime the Hauhaus had been active, making several raids towards Poverty Bay. A party from Ngatapa came down one night and killed several people at Pipiwhakao, five miles from the Constabulary camp at Makaraka. The advance on pa, but separated from Ngatapa summit by a deep gully; the distance between this post—which the Constabulary entrenched—and the pa was nearly half a mile. From this hill—which was a base of operations, named the “Crow's Nest”—as detachments were sent out to encircle the pa, shell-fire was opened on the Hauhau position with a Coehorn mortar, which had been brought up from Turanganui with great difficulty. It was seen that Ngatapa had been greatly strengthened since the first attack. A considerable area of ground in front had been cleared by felling and burning the bush so as to afford less cover to the attackers. A high wall, loopholed, had been built across the front, and another timber palisade had been built on the inner side. The flanks also had been stockaded. The pa was roughly in the form of a wedge, with the apex to the rear on the highest part of the mountain; the incline at which the ground lay enabled the gunners to shell the interior of the fort with accuracy. The first or outer line of entrenchment on the front covered the spring from which the garrison drew the water-supply. It was not possible to scale the steep flanks with a sufficient force to rush the place; in fact, the sides were scarcely scalable at all, although the bush and shrubs gave hand-hold for part of the way; and the attackers' attention was directed chiefly at the entrenched and stockaded front, with bodies of Constabulary and Maoris posted at various positions along the flanks and in rear. The first attempt to capture the Hauhau entrenchments was carried out by Captain
The siege continued for three days and nights. The very narrow ridge in rear, falling steeply from the pa, with several
pa, and in the teeth of a gale with rain and under a heavy fire he secured a position close under one of the outer parapets and remained there all night waiting for dawn to continue his assault with shovel, axe, and rifle. On the same afternoon (4th
hapu were given command of this party. Descending into the ravine under cover of the thick bush, the stormers advanced unseen until immediately under the high cliff, which they scaled with great gallantry, securing climbing-hold with one hand, rifle in the other. The precipice was composed largely of loose rock and gravel, and a secure grip was difficult. When near the top of the ascent they came under the Hauhaus' rifles, but the accurate fire from the covering-party below enabled them to scramble up into the allotted position with some loss. One of the Ngati-Porou who was shot, a man named Rewai Tauranga, fell on Captain Porter, and both rolled to the foot of the cliff. Porter quickly rejoined his men. An enfilading fire was opened along the second trench, and the face of the parapet was quickly manned, causing the defenders to retreat within the innermost line. This position captured, the whole force moved forward, and arrangements were made for blowing up the inner parapet with gunpowder and storming the citadel of the pa next morning.
The night was wet and windy. pa. A section of this side, between Hamlin's Maoris on the right of the attack and the lines of Fraser's No. 1 Division in the rear, had been left unguarded; the cliff here was perpendicular for some distance and then slanted very steeply down into the dense bush.
“The fall of Ngatapa was due chiefly to the fact that the Ngati-Porou cut us off from the spring which was our water-supply. The fort was taken because we were without food or water. (I mate ai tera pa na te kore-kai, na te kore-wai.) When our position became desperate and it was decided to retreat to the forest under cover of night, we let ourselves down the cliff on the flank of the pa by means of aka (bush vines, lianes) cut from the trees just outside the fort. The part of the cliff where I went down on an aka rope was about 60 feet high. I escaped into the deep forest, but many of our people were captured and shot.”
Shortly before dawn (5th January, 1869) it was discovered that the Hauhaus had abandoned their mountain-hold. The voice
pa.
Immediately the abandoned fort was occupied by the Government force a pursuit was ordered, and Ngati-Porou and the Arawa Division went in chase of the fugitives. The Hauhaus had scattered into small parties, taking different trails in the effort to throw their foes off their track. Ropata adopted similar tactics, and ordered his men to break into small detachments each following up a trail.
Ropata's methods in ordering the summary execution of all the Hauhaus captured by Ngati-Porou may have been ruthless, but the memory of the massacre at Poverty Bay was still raw in every mind. The principal chief overtaken and killed was Nikora te Whakaunua, the head rangatira of the Ngati-Hineuru Tribe, of Te Haroto, on the Napier-Taupo track. He was one of the prisoners taken at Omarunui in 1866. In the siege of Ngatapa he had been severely wounded.
pa by Ngati-Porou and the other Government Maoris) and the prisoners saved totalled about 150; most of the prisoners were women and children, many of whom had been carried off by
The casualties of the Government force at Ngatapa in the second attack beginning on the 31st December and ending on the 5th January numbered eleven killed and the same number wounded. Of the killed, five were members of the Armed Constabulary force and the rest Ngati-Porou and other Maoris.
mana as a priest and prophet, the founder of the new religion, grew apace; his magnetic personality and his skilful use of Scriptural passages applicable to the condition of the Maoris drew to him men from many a tribe who saw in his leadership, favoured by the gods, hope of successful war against the pakeha. He never really recovered from the blows inflicted upon his force at Makaretu and Ngatapa, yet so shrewd a soldier and a strategist was he, with a perfect genius for delivering lightning assaults in unexpected places, that he was able again and again to take the field and to maintain his resistance to the Government for more than three years.
Captain
“That good soldier Major Mair was in command at Opotiki at the date of the capture of Ngatapa. In addition to the Waioeka redoubt, a blockhouse had just been built to protect the Opotiki settlement, near the entrance to the Otara Gorge. I was ensign in charge of this Otara blockhouse with twenty-five men—about half Maoris—and have good reason to remember the fall of Ngatapa. About 10 o'clock on the morning of the 7th January, 1869 (two days after its capture), I was reading in my room when a Maori with a double-barrel gun walked in. I sprang
pa, and being related to Wi Kingi's tribe, the Ngaitai, made his way out by the Otara Gorge. I took him in to my commanding officer, Major Mair, and he told me that the Maori's arrival was of great importance because of the information he gave. This incident put an end to the growling I had from two or three grumbling Europeans of the garrison regarding my care in not allowing the door to be opened in the morning without all standing to arms; they called it funk. The occurrence showed how easily a post might be taken through carelessness of the sentry and guard.”
Colonel
“It is karakia (prayers), when the 32nd and 34th Psalms are sung, altered by Atua (God). In all cases where food is obtained thanks is given, and men going out are particularly instructed not to eat, drink, or smoke until they return to camp, lest the Atua should be offended. Should a party return unsuccessful, blame is attributed to one of them having disobeyed the orders given; for this sin the Atua has kept the food from them. The offender, if pointed out by his companions, is punished by Karakia (service) is held four times a day; the last is the prayer for sleep when retiring to rest, after which no one is allowed to move about, and silence is kept by all. No one dare approach whare after that time. kaka parrot on his shoulder, or with a tomahawk to get honey from hollow trees. It is a practice of his to go out and reconnoitre the surrounding country, climbing to the tops of the highest ranges, not returning to the camp till evening. He professes that all his expeditions to murder or plunder are by the inspiration of his Atua, as when he was inspired at the Chathams to deliver his people from bondage. When so inspired he will often arise from his sleep and call his followers together to prayers, after which he informs them that the Atua has given something to him during his sleep, but whether food, man, or woman he cannot tell. A party is then despatched in a direction indicated by him. If a man or food is found, well and good; if a woman, she is to be brought to him. Should the party return unsuccessful the man to whom charge of the mission was given is tied up and confined in a whare for days without food or fire. Should a messenger or a man having been absent from camp some time return, no one dare hold conversation with him until he sees whare, and remains outside waiting the word
“It is Atua has said they should become enceinte. Whatever men may think of this, they seldom dare refuse, or Atua has revealed to him a traitor, and will request that man's death. He is never at a loss for a pretext to dispose of any one obnoxious to him.
“When thunder is heard, his men will inquire the words of the Atua; he will then reply to the effect that the Atua tells him that there are men among them desirous of escaping to the Government, and that they will be killed. A rainbow is another favourite sign of the Atua to him, denoting many things, as it suits him. He threatens future punishment for all men escaping to the Government; however long they may live in imagined security, judgment will come for deserting the Atua. He asserts that all the Government people will be delivered into his hands, and great power given him, when all seceders will be put to the sword. When a man is put to death, a Psalm is chanted over him, and then he is led to execution. When on the march or the war-path no one is allowed to smoke or eat till the word is given by Atua are rechristened by him with Scriptural names.”
THE REDUCTION of the Ngatapa mountain fortress accomplished, Colonel Whitmore withdrew most of the Armed Constabulary from the East to the West Coast, where it was necessary to dislodge The site of Tauranga-ika stronghold is now occupied exactly by a native village (Nga-Rauru Tribe). On the marae and the adjoining ground within the high hedge of the village the outlines of the pa can be traced in the uneven turf. The Maoris point out the spot where the tall watchtower stood near one of the koki, or flanking bastions, on the north-west side of the marae. Tauranga-ika is eighteen miles from Wanganui, alongside the main road to Taranaki; the pa is on the north or inland side of the road.pa, the best-designed fortification yet built by the hostile tribes in the country between Wanganui and Taranaki, occupied a commanding position at the edge of the bush on the road leading from the Kai-iwi to the Waitotara. In front the garrison overlooked the open country sloping gently to the Nukumaru lakes and the sandhills of the coast; in rear was the roadless and almost trackless forest. Tauranga-ika was of large size, defended with trenches and rifle-pits, parapet, and a double line of stockade. Its design was skilful, as will be seen from the plan, and it was so built as to give the defenders an enfilading fire along each flank. It measured about 450 feet each way. The large posts of the palisade were from 6 to 12 inches in thickness and stood 10 to 15 feet above the ground, and the spaces between them were filled in with saplings set upright close together and fastened to cross-rails with supplejack and aka-vine ties. As was usual in Maori stockades, the saplings of the outer fence did not quite reach the ground; only the posts of this line were sunk in the earth, and the defenders in the trench were enabled to fire under the foot of the fence. In rear of the inner or main stockade there was a parapet 6 feet high and 4 feet in thickness formed by the earth thrown out of the trench. The interior of the
toetoe and raupo covered with earth; even galvanised iron taken from the plundered settlers' buildings was used as roofing. At one of the flanking angles was a conspicuous watch-tower (taumaihi) over 30 feet high, constructed of stout timbers. In front, outside the palisading, stood a flagstaff on which the Hauhau war-flags were hoisted. Two gateways in the rear stockade gave access to the bush and the water-spring. pa.
While Whitmore was absent on his East Coast campaign recruits for the Armed Constabulary came pouring in from the South Island and Australia, and all December of 1868 the officers and non-commissioned officers at Westmere Camp and at Woodall's Redoubt on the Kai-iwi were busy drilling the new men. pakehas into the sea. The Maoris were detained and sent into Wanganui.
Colonel Whitmore arrived at Wanganui on the 18th January, 1869 and at once prepared for the advance on Tauranga-ika. His force consisted of about eight hundred Armed Constabulary and the Wanganui and Kai-iwi Mounted Corps, besides some two hundred Wanganuui Maoris under Kepa. Lieut.-Colonel William Lyon was second in command under Whitmore. The Kai-iwi River was bridged by an advanced column, and on the 25th January the whole force was moved across it to the right bank. There already was a road for the greater part of the way to the Waitotara. About the end of 1864 a large number of unsuccessful gold-diggers at the Whakamarino (Whangamarino), in Marlborough, were brought across from Picton by the Government and given contract work on the formation of this West Coast military road, which was completed from Goat Valley, near Wanganui, to the Waitotara, passing Tauranga-ika. General Cameron did not take this road, but kept close to the sandhills on the coast. The inland route was too near the bush for his liking; in fact, it passed through the bush at the Okehu Gorge and other places, highly likely spots for ambuscades. Whitmore's road parties put the road in repair for the passage of his large transport body and built bridges where required.
Whitmore now formed a small body of picked scouts, officially styled the Corps of Guides, for special work in advance of the column. This corps numbered at first seven, and seldom reached a dozen in number. It was at first commanded by William Lingard, a young trooper of Bryce's Kai-iwi Cavalry,
Immediately after crossing the Kai-iwi on the 25th Whitmore ordered out the Guides to scout the wooded gorge-like valley of the Okehu, as he intended to take his force through it next morning. When night fell Lingard, Maling, and their five comrades left the camp for their risky night's work. They were shod in moccasins like Indians for noiseless marching; this was the idea of Mackenzie, a dark-skinned old soldier, a veteran of the Indian Mutiny, who had come out to Canterbury from India with Sir Henry Cracroft Wilson. The moccasins were made from the skin of a horse which Mackenzie had shot that afternoon; the skin while warm was fitted to the men's
It was a very calm night and bright moonlight. Mackenzie, whose senses were uncommonly keen, declared to Lingard, some time after they took post in the thick fern at the edge of the ravine, that he could smell the Maoris in the bush below. The scouts were posted at intervals above the gorge. About daylight two of them, working cautiously down, discovered a large body of Hauhaus, who were attempting to burn the bridge over the Okehu. The men were fired on, and, turning, made for the open country and the camp at top speed. Maling and Lingard, finding that they were almost surrounded by the Maoris, concealed themselves in the high fern alongside the track, with their Terry carbines ready; they bit their cartridges for reloading, as was necessary in those days, and put their percussion caps in their mouths for instant use. Just before they did so they shook hands and promised to stick by each other to the end. A moment later a body of armed Hauhaus raced past their place of hiding, and presently they heard heavy firing from the direction of the camp. The troops had turned out and were covering the retreat of the scouts. The two comrades in hiding now found that they were under the fire of their own men, for the bullets were cutting through the tall fern above their heads. They decided to run for it and chance the Maoris, who were firing away on their left.
As they ran they came upon Mackenzie's dead body lying on the track. His head had been smashed in, and his carbine and ammunition and Afghan sheath-knife were gone. Taking a short-cut across the fern, Lingard and Maling safely reached the camp. The one life lost was that of the brave Mackenzie; the previous day he had a presentiment of his end, and told his comrades that he would never see another sunrise. The surgeon was of opinion that he had fallen dead from heart-seizure before the Hauhaus overtook him.
The unmasking of the Hauhau ambuscade in the gorge was a good night's work. The Hauhaus fell back, and the Colonel marched his men through the dangerous defile unmolested.
By the 1st February Whitmore was at Nukumaru, and next day pushed on the cavalry and brought the infantry up towards the left flank of Tauranga-ika under cover of the bush. Camp was pitched 800 yards from the pa, and a body of Constabulary advanced and dug themselves in in a half-moon formation within 100 yards of the stockade; some of the divisions had the shelter of a ditch and bank on the south flank
pa. Whitmore scarcely displayed his accustomed skill and energy in the operations against the stronghold. If he really intended to capture pa with the large force at his command. As it was, the attack is well described by a veteran, who says that the command “tackled Tauranga-ika in a half-hearted sort of way.” The Volunteer Cavalry had scouted all the open or lightly timbered country around the place, and Whitmore came to the conclusion, apparently, that there was no urgent need to envelop the position as the enemy would remain within the stockade for the present. The two Armstrong guns were brought up towards the evening and placed on an eminence on the left front of the pa 500 yards away, and without orders from Colonel Whitmore the officer in charge began to shell the position. The commander had not intended this; he wished to reserve all his means of attack till next morning. The bombardment did small damage to the fort and very little harm to the garrison, who were all in secure quarters in the trenches and shell-proof ruas. The advanced divisions of the Armed Constabulary opened fire on the stockade in reply to the Maori volleys, and some of the force crept up within about 50 yards and entrenched themselves.
The Constabulary in their trenches enlivened the early hours of the night with bivouac songs, and the woods rang with the rousing choruses of “Marching through Georgia” and “Oh, Susannah.” The Hauhau musketeers enjoyed the soldiers' music. “Go on, pakeha, go on,” some of them shouted; “give us some more.” But when it grew late the pa became remarkably silent; and when at break of day the Colonel began to move his men round the rear of the right flank of the position it was too late to envelop the enemy. The Coehorn mortars opened fire to get the range; the divisions told off to complete the surrounding movement moved on, and the Armstrongs threw some shells into the stockade. Some of the Armed Constabulary pushing on in advance, however, reconnoitred the pa and found it empty. It had been deserted during the night. The Hauhaus—men, women, and children—with their pakeha-Maori,
The explanation of this sudden decision to abandon the fort was given by liaison with the wife of another rangatira of the pa, and this intrigue, soon detected, was considered fatal to his prestige, spiritual and temporal. He had trampled on his mana tapu, as the Maoris phrase it; he was no longer the invincible war-priest and war-captain of his people.
pa; it would be courting disaster to remain. No doubt the spectacle of Whitmore's army entrenched in front and the arrival of the first of his Armstrong shells clinched the popular decision. The people in silence struck into the bush.
Whitmore ordered an immediate pursuit. He pushed the Volunteer Cavalry on to Weraroa by the track across the open country, and sent his best bush corps (No. 8 Division Armed Constabulary) and Kepa's Wanganui men to follow the retreating enemy's trail. Whitmore, in writing of this episode, endeavoured to mask his disappointment at his failure to hold
The Hauhau rear-guard was overtaken on the Karaka tableland immediately above the left bank of the Waitotara River by Kepa and his advance-guard of Wanganui men. The retreating force turned to fight and planted an ambush, resulting in several casualties among Kepa's men, including a sub-chief named Hori Raukawa, who was killed. Kepa with his few men broke through the Hauhaus and fell back on Captain Porter and his No. 8 Division, Arawa and Ngapuhi Maoris, with a few good European bushmen. Porter quickly extended the supports across the flat, mostly fern country, with some bush, and he and Kepa engaged the Hauhaus till dark, when they drew out to Weraroa. In this skirmish the Hauhaus had three killed. They took utu for their losses by decapitating Kepa's comrade, whose body was left on the field, and cutting out the heart and liver, which made a cannibal meal for some of the savages that night.
Next day (4th February) the enemy could not be found, and the most mobile corps in the command were despatched on reconnoitring expeditions. The Waitotara was crossed and an expedition went as far as Moturoa, the scene of Whitmore's defeat in November of the previous year. The headquarters remained at Nukumaru, and Nos. 1, 2, and 8 Divisions Armed Constabulary, under Lieut.-Colonel
Nothing definite was known of These details were related to the author in 1908 by A curious story also is narrated regarding the killing of Sergeant Menzies and the mutilation of his body. A Hauhau named Paramena was severely wounded in the Ngaio engagement near Kakaramea (1865). He was shot in an arm and in a leg—which was shattered—and he was also cut about the head as he lay wounded by the drummer-boys of the Imperial regiments when they were passing him. His smashed leg was amputated. Sir manuka paddle which he snatched up from the canoe, and when the sergeant dropped back into the canoe stunned or dead a Maori named Toa-wairere slashed off his left leg with a tomahawk and carried off the leg into the bush, where it was cooked and eaten by Kereopa and some of his comrades.
On the following day No. 8 Division Armed Constabulary (native) under Captain Porter, and the Wanganui men under Kepa, were sent across the Waitotara at Papatupu to hunt up the Hauhaus. They scoured the bush, and following up the enemy's trail, found the fire in which the sergeant's leg had been cooked and the calcined bones. Some skirmishing followed, but the
After a considerable amount of bush reconnaissance work carried out by No. 8 Division and Kepa's Maoris it was discovered that mamaku fern tree, the wharawhara and other edible mosses, the mushroom-like harore that grew on the trunks of the tawa trees, hakeke or wood-fungus, and the huhu, the large white wood-grub. They did not dare to light a fire in the daytime for fear of betrayal by the smoke rising above the forest-trees. Powder and lead were in short supply, and percussion caps were very scarce and precious.
Early in March of 1869
Here he gathered most of his people together, but did not fortify the village, which stood on a small area of level ground close to a steep declivity some 200 feet above the river. A party sallying out from here lay in wait on the sandhills at the mouth of the Whenuakura River and attacked (10th March) a dray convoy under Lieutenant and Quartermaster Hunter on the way to Patea. The attack was repulsed without loss to the small Government party. On the following day Colonel Whitmore established himself at Patea, and thus once more occupied the positions abandoned after the disaster at Moturoa in November, 1868.
On the night of the 12th March he marched to attack rata trees. Most of them fired from a lower level than the attackers, and the majority of the Government men shot were hit in the head.
This singular battle in the fog developed rather seriously for Whitmore's force, for man after man fell dead or wounded, while the enemy was invisible. Meanwhile the women and children and the non-combatants of
The Hauhaus had made a plucky resistance at Otautu, favoured by the fog, to save their women and children. They only relinquished the fight when their ammunition was exhausted.
At Whakamara Village, on an open clearing within the bush, near a fortified position,
The Whakamara pa was built on a narrow neck of high land with a flat in front and in rear and deep gullies on either flank. The Hauhaus were camped on the rear flat near some peachgroves when the attack was delivered. It was to Whakamara that many of the natives retired after their defeat at Te Ngaio (Kakaramea) in 1865, and it was a gathering-place of the Hauhaus in the period 1866–68. Here the expedition under Whitmore found a tall Pai-marire flagstaff, probably the largest pole of worship ever erected by the natives. Tu-Patea te Rongo, of Taumaha, Patea, says:—
“Our niu at Whakamara was a lofty rimu mast, 4 or 5 feet through at the butt. We had felled the tree in the bush a mile away, and, after squaring it, hauled it to the camp. It was set up on the open marae in the front of our camp. The strong pa of Whakamara was in the rear; the troops did not attack it when they came, but pushed on in pursuit of us. The flag-mast was set up like a ship's mast, with topmast and crosstrees and four yards. The lower yard was crossed about half-way up the lower mast. At the crosstrees on the lower-mast head two yards were
Mr.
“We cut this niu down when we captured Whakamara in 1869. We had seen the flags flying on it from a great distance off long before the fight. It was the tallest niu mast I have ever seen. It was a great pity, I think, that it was destroyed.”
The forest chase from Whakamara terminating near Taiporohenui was the most arduous duty of the whole campaign. The pursuing column was commanded by Major Kepa; it was the first time in the history of the wars that European officers and men volunteered to serve under a Maori officer. Kepa's reputation for skill, energy, and bravery was so high that the pakeha troops willingly offered for the service when volunteers were required for the flying column. Kepa's force was about two hundred and fifty strong, consisting of his Wanganui Contingent, the Arawa-Ngapuhi Corps (No. 8 Division Armed Constabulary), under Captain Porter, and sixty white Armed Constabulary of various divisions under Captains
On the afternoon of the first day's chase (18th March) the Hauhau rear-guard laid an ambush for the pursuers in a deep, densely wooded gorge. The concealed enemy let the advance-guard pass through and opened fire from both sides on the main body of the Armed Constabulary and the Wanganui Contingent. Kepa and his men, however, attacked swiftly and determinedly, and the advance-guard turning about, the Hauhaus were taken in flank and dispersed. They retreated so quickly after delivering their fire that only one was killed. This was the last attempt at resistance made by
The country traversed, trackless and densely wooded, was dissected with many gullies and gorges, one of which was many hundreds of feet in depth. This great ravine was encountered when the foremost pursuers, including Captain Northcroft and the most active of his bushmen-soldiers, were close upon their foes. It was so narrow that the rifles were sighted for only 200 yards when the Constabulary were firing at the Maori rearguard laboriously climbing up the opposite side. The force had to descend to the bottom of this defile, through which a small stream ran, and the traverse was so difficult that it took the men from noon—the hour when they were engaging the enemy across the gulch—until 8 o'clock at night to reach the top of the cliff on the other side. The two forces camped that night only about three-quarters of a mile from each other.
Next day at the Kaka-pirau Creek the first stragglers were caught and killed. The chase went on through the dim and pathless forest under an endless canopy of green. Every male
A veteran of the Arawa section of the advance-guard, Pirika Hohepa, of Rotorua, thus described some of the incidents in the bush pursuit:—
“The force to which I belonged, the Arawa and Ngapuhi Division of the Armed Constabulary, was always called upon to lead the column in any dangerous work in the bush, and it became a saying among us that although we were Number Eight Division on parade we were always Number One when we were moving into action against the enemy. Before we started out on the forest chase there was a meeting of the Arawa committee in a wharepuni at Whakamara, and at this council it was stated that Colonel Whitmore had given direction to decapitate all prisoners taken and bring in the heads. [This, of course, was a misconstruction of Whitmore's statement.] We followed the fugitives through the forest. On the top of a hill we came suddenly upon a man and two women and some children resting. When the man saw us he ran and crouched down between the two root-buttresses of a pukatea tree. One of our Maoris shot him and he fell. A European [Tom Adamson, Major Kemp's pakeha-Maori] rushed forward, and, lifting up the fallen man's head, he stretched the neck across one of the root-flanges of the tree, and snatching out a short-handled tomahawk from his belt just behind his right hip he chopped the Hauhau's head off. This was not fair to the man who shot the Maori; the European bushman, however, kept the head, and actually obtained a reward for it from the Colonel. The Maori thus killed and beheaded was Matangi-o-Rupe, a chief of the Ngati-Ruanui. Further along the forest-track one of our Government Maoris shot and decapitated Pinoka, another Taranaki warrior. Those were the only rebel heads I actually saw taken on that expedition, but other Maoris, I know, were killed and beheaded.
“The heads of the slain Hauhaus were dried and preserved in the olden Maori fashion, and I shall describe to you what I saw. It was the Ngati-Hau, the Wanganui tribe, who carried out this
tohunga, or expert, at his work. The tohunga who carried out the process of pakipaki-upoko was an old man named Teoti, from the high country near Tongariro. He had dug a hole in the ground and in it made an oven (hangi) with stones on which he placed wood. When the wood was mostly consumed he raked the burning sticks away and left the red-hot stones. Above this glowing oven the head was placed on the end of a stick, and flax mats and other garments were heaped closely over all to retain the heat. From time to time the old man removed the coverings to smooth the skin down and wipe off the moisture. The intense heat made the skin very white (kiritea), like the complexion of a European, and this showed up the tattoo-lines prominently. The process was repeated with the other heads, and old Teoti really made a very good job of it!”
The column divided when Na, Witimoa, to upoko!” (“There, Whitmore, are your heads!”) exclaimed the hunters of men as they turned out their ghastly trophies of the chase. The Europeans did not deliver their heads in such unceremonious fashion; nevertheless, a tally was kept and all were paid for, mostly in orders for clothes and other necessaries. Whitmore at once issued orders that no more heads must be taken. However, the Wanganui men did not get another chance.
In a note on these incidents of the chase Captain Christopher Maling, who in 1869 was sergeant in charge of the Corps of Guides, wrote: “The whole matter of the head-hunting was due to a misunderstanding on Major Kepa's part. I was present when the heads were brought in to Colonel Whitmore. We had just arrived, having come by a different track to that taken by Kepa, and I was telling the Colonel about the barbarity of the thing. He told me that he had never authorized anything of the sort. He said he had told Kepa that the Governor had authorized a reward of £1000 for the capture of hapus and it was desirable to find out their various destinations. He was perfectly amazed when he saw those heads brought in.”
rata tree. [The skeleton was found there long after the war.] The women prisoners gave the information that
It was seen, on reaching the edge of the far-stretching morass, that raupo and flax fenland. Whitmore's advanced force, cautiously reconnoitring the swamp under cover of the bush along its edge, found that at the narrowest part a quarter of a mile or more of quaking and treacherous bog, threaded by a deep sluggish stream—the source of the Mangemange River, which flows into the Tangahoe near Otapawa—separated the mainland from the islanded village in the centre of the swamp.
Whitmore keeping his men carefully concealed from the view of the enemy, set the force to work making fascine hurdles, formed of long saplings and cross-pieces interlaced with supplejack and aka vines, for the purpose of crossing the swamp near a point where there was a large eel-weir. The troops were enjoined to keep as silent as possible; no fires were permitted to be lighted by day and only very small ones at night under cover of the forest. The Maoris could be heard speaking and shouting in the kainga, unsuspicious of their enemy's presence.
By the night of the 24th March all was ready for the crossing. Fifty light-going Wanganui and Arawa Maoris were sent across first, and the force then quietly laid the fascines in a line over the swamp, and all crossed the quivering bog in safety and silence before daylight in the morning. Leaving Lieut-Colonel Lyon with some of the Constabulary to hold the bridge-head and cover the retreat in case of need, Colonel Whitmore pushed on through the belt of bush between the swamp and the Maori kainga. The surprise would have been complete and kainga three days previously, scores of men, women, and children were seen escaping into the bush and the swamp on the other side of the settlement clearing. As it was thought these were neutrals, no order to fire was given. Too late it was discovered that
A pursuit was ordered, but the Hauhaus had a long start, and it was impossible to overtake them. They retreated northward at their utmost speed, and, abandoning their own district altogether, travelled through the almost trackless forests and over the ranges to the Upper Waitara. There pa, on a long tongue of level land with steep banks in a sweeping bend of the Waitara. At the Kawau and other kaingas in its neighbourhood he remained until the year 1875, when part of the Ngati-Maru country was purchased by the Government.
Colonel Whitmore, after the fiasco at Te Ngaere, considered it unnecessary to trouble much further about
Lieut.-Colonel Lyon was given command of the South Taranaki district, with headquarters at Patea. Taking most of the Constabulary, Whitmore then transferred his activities to the Bay of Plenty. One column under Lieut.-Colonel St. John marched to New Plymouth by way of the Whakaahurangi track, on the east side of Mount Egmont, the route traversed by General Chute in 1866. The left wing marched to Opunake and embarked in the Government steamer “Sturt” for Onehunga via Waitara, the S.S. “St. Kilda” taking the other part of the force.
Colonel Whitmore, before going on to Auckland and the East Coast, gave consideration to the question of military operations against the people of the Ngati-Maniapoto at Mokau Heads in avengement of a shocking massacre by a raiding-party of that tribe. On the 13th February a small war-party from Mokau, led by the chiefs Wetere te Rerenga and Te Oro, suddenly appeared at Pukearuhe Redoubt, the northernmost Taranaki outpost, established in 1865 on the site of an ancient Maori stronghold, the key of North Taranaki. The raiders slaughtered the white inhabitants and also a venerated missionary, the Rev.
Among the pioneer soldier settlers in the district was Captain William B. Messenger, who, in 1869, was working his farm near the mouth of the Mimi River, about six miles south of Pukearuhe
Meanwhile the Maoris stood regarding her intently, and there was something in their savage appearance that convinced her danger was impending. When Captain Messenger arrived he questioned the two men closely. They told him they were on their way north to the Mokau, and wanted him to put them across the Mimi in his canoe. This he did, and after they crossed the river he watched them disappear along the track to Pukearuhe.
Mrs. Messenger's fears were justified on the following day when a friendly Maori came galloping down to the Mimi ford with the news that the little garrison at Pukearuhe had been wiped out. “Will you come back with me and see what has
Realizing that nothing more could be gained by a close inspection, and that the Hauhaus were probably waiting in ambush for him, he turned and galloped off towards the Waitara, with the feeling haunting him that this was only the beginning of a great organized raid on the North Taranaki settlements. On the track to Urenui and the Waitara Mrs. Messenger was being urged to haste by the Maori escort. “Hurry, missus,” he kept saying; “Hurry—they'll catch us if we don't hurry!” Continually he looked back apprehensively, expecting every moment to see some of the war-party in pursuit. However, his fears were needless, and he took his charges safely into town. The strange Maoris seen, it was afterwards discovered, met the Ngati-Maniapoto party from Mokau.
On news of the attack reaching New Plymouth an expedition was organized and went up to the White Cliffs by sea. The bodies of Lieutenant Gascoigne, his wife, and their four children were found, lightly covered over with sand. All had been tomahawked. The body of the Rev.
It was some time before the story of the massacre was obtained from the Maoris by Captain Messenger. The Ngati-Maniapoto war-party appeared on the beach below the redoubt on Saturday morning, the 13th February; the advance detachment only was seen from the post, the main body had halted out of sight. The leading natives went up to the redoubt, and finding two men there (Milne and Richards) induced them to go down to the beach by saying that they had a drove of pigs for sale. They descended the steep path separately and were killed one after the other. The whole of the war-party then ascended to the redoubt and found that Lieutenant Gascoigne and his family were out in their field of potatoes and maize.
For the Maori narrative of the massacre, see Henare Piripi's confession in Appendices.taua returned to Mokau Heads. Although the leaders of the King party at Tokangamutu tacitly approved of the proposed
Soon after the discovery of the bodies a party of men under Captain Messenger scoured the ranges in rear of Pukearuhe and in the direction of the Mokau, and on the occasion nearly caught Wetere and several of his war-party, who were in the act of preparing their evening meal when their pursuers came on them at twilight in the bush. The surprise would have been complete but for the uncertain light. There was a rush of Maoris into the gloom of the forest, followed by a few hasty shots, and that was all. Wetere was an outlaw with a price on his head until 1883, when he was included in the Government's amnesty to those concerned in the war. He always denied having killed the Gascoignes or Mr. Whiteley. After the massacre Pukearuhe was garrisoned by Armed Constabulary under Captain Messenger, and remained an important military post until the demobilization of the field force in 1885.
In April, 1869, Colonel Whitmore made a reconnaissance of Mokau Heads preparatory to suggested reprisals for the raid on Pukearuhe. The troop-steamers “Sturt” and “St. Kilda,” employed in conveying the Constabulary to Onehunga, went in close to the mouth of the river, and the “Sturt,” commanded by Captain Fairchild, landed three boatloads of men
kainga, Te Kauri, on the opposite side of the river, which was hidden by the cliffs from observation at sea, but only a few people were seen in the distance; most of Wetere's people had taken canoe up the river. Several shells were fired from the “Sturt's” brass gun in the direction of the native kainga; these were the last artillery shots fired in the Maori wars. It was decided that operations at Mokau were unnecessary, and Whitmore, therefore, assured that the nine years' war on the West Coast had ended at last, gave his attention to the campaign against
Although actual fighting had ceased, several important expeditions were carried out by the colonial forces in the South Taranaki and Waitotara districts during April, May, June, and July, 1869. The Pakakohi and Nga-Rauru Tribes, who had not remained with
Narratives by two veterans of the West Coast forces describe the principal canoe expeditions in search of the Pakakohi Tribe. Mr. korero with the white authorities and were willing to make peace with us. We returned to our canoe and paddled down the river as fast as we could go, and when I met the flotilla I reported to Major Noake. The end of it was that 128 of the Pakakohi Tribe surrendered and came down with us to Patea. The men were shipped off to Otago, to tame them.
William Kelly, of Stratford, Taranaki, who had been an American man-of-war sailor before he enlisted in the New Zealand forces, gave the following account of the last expedition after the remnant of the Pakakohi, who were sheltering on the upper part of the Whenuakura River:—
“In July, 1869, a detachment of twenty of us (Patea Rangers and Armed Constabulary), under Captain Kells, went up the Whenuakura River in canoes in order to try and capture the chief Te Onekura, who was concerned in the murder of Mr. Broughton, the previous Government interpreter, on the Patea in 1865. Te Onekura was supposed to have taken the Government money—a large sum—with which Broughton had intended to pay for a block of land. All the members of our expedition were experienced canoe-men. I had learned to paddle and pole when we were at Pipiriki, on the Wanganui. We reached a good-sized settlement some miles up the river, and took the Maoris there by surprise, but there was no firing except by way of ‘bluff.’ We found an old Maori there, one of the Hauhaus, who, we thought, would be able to tell us something. Captain Kells, Tom Adamson, and I took him out into the bush a little distance from the settlement, within gun-shot sound. We stood him out there and told him that we'd shoot him unless he told us where Te Onekura had hidden the stolen money. The old man could not or would not tell. He maintained a stubborn silence. We told him he was about to be killed for his failure to answer us, and I slowly levelled my carbine and fired just past his ear. The plucky old man never moved. The shot was heard in the village as we intended; the idea was to compel the Hauhaus to divulge the secret of the money and to impress them with the belief that we had shot the old fellow for his obstinate silence. We kept the first Maori back in the bush a while, and dealt with another Hauhau in the same way, but with no success. Returning to the settlement, we got a boy to show us the track down through the bush to another place on the river-bank. There we took the people by surprise; they were all gathered in a large wharepuni, which was partly dug out of the ground, with the sides earthed up, so that the floor was a foot or two below the level of the ground outside. We interrogated these people also, but to no effect; the Government never recovered the looted money. We took a number of prisoners here and brought them down to Patea.”
IN THE CAMP of refuge in the deep forest of Tahora one of kokiri against the pakeha and the friendly Maoris on the Bay of Plenty plains.
With recruits from the Urewera and Whakatohea Tribes,
The Hauhaus first visited Ohiwa Harbour, where a party raided the friendly natives, and a surveyor, Mr. Pitcairn, was killed on Uretara Island, where he was camped shooting kuaka (godwit). Wi Piro and Rangi-tahau were in this band.
At the Ruatoki settlements
About three miles and a half south of Whakatane Town, close to the main road leading to Taneatua and Waimana can be seen the grassy mounds which indicate the site of an old Maori flour-mill, driven by water, and a small redoubt which stood alongside it. This spot, Te Poronu, was the scene in 1869 of an heroic fight against overwhelming odds, one of the most valiant defences in the Maori wars. The site of the historic mill is on “Mill Farm,” a beautiful area of level land between the steep hills on the east and the Whakatane River. Crops of maize and potatoes grow luxuriantly in the surrounding paddocks, and the olden mill mound and the adjacent earthworks of the little square redoubt are covered knee-deep in grass and clover. A small clear stream, the Poronu, crosses the main road a hundred yards away and flows down on the east side of the mill-site; a venerable willow-tree on the opposite bank will help the traveller to fix the spot. This stream was dammed by the building of a bank across the shallow valley, and a large pond was formed above the mill, extending up towards the present road-line. This dam supplied the water which turned the mill-wheel, and there was a spillway between the mill and the redoubt; this was crossed by a plank serving as a bridge. Another flood spillway was cut on the other side of the redoubt.
The mill was built about 1867 to grind into flour the wheat largely grown by the industrious Ngati-Pukeko. The machinery was a gift from the Governor, Sir pakeha guests. His Maori wife, a young woman named Erihapeti (Elizabeth)—called “Peti,” for short—was the daughter of Manuera Kuku, a chief of the Warahoe Tribe, of the Upper Rangitaiki. With them was Peti's sister Monika, whose name was usually abbreviated to “Nika” she was a pretty girl of sixteen or seventeen. Jean had lately been living at Otipa, on the Rangitaiki River, near the foot of Mount Edgecumbe, where he had been trading, and had built
About the end of 1968 the military authorities sent a detachment of Armed Constabulary out to Poronu and built a small redoubt as a means of defence for the mill; the Ngati-Pukeko had appealed for protection in consequence of threats to burn the place having been made by the Hauhaus of Ruatoki and other Urewera settlements. This was the result of Heketoro's fight and escape, an affair which occured at Puketi, an ancient hill fort which stands a short distance south of the present Township of Taneatua. Heketoro and a companion had escaped after a remarkable adventure, in which a leding chief of the Urewera was killed. The Armed Constabulary garrison was soon removed, and when
A pitiful incident marked the march of the Hauhau war-party on Rauporoa and the mill. At Te Puapua, the advance-guard, headed by Te Makarini te Waru, a stoud reddish-haired almost Eskimo-featured Tuhoe warrior, suddenly came upon a woman in their path. She was a handsome young chieftainess named Ripeka Kaaho, the niece of a friendly chief named Tahawera. She had a number of pet pigs, and these she was feeding with boiled potatoes, some distance from her village. It was considered ill-luck for a war-party to spare any person whom they met on their path when engaged in an expedition of this kind, even through the stray person encountered was one of their own tribe. In this case the girl belonged to the Ruatoki people—in fact, her own brother Te Tupara (“The Double-barrel Gun”) Kaaho, of the Tuhoe Tribe—he is still living at Ruatoki—was one of the foremost young warriors in the ope. Te Makarini, the leader, was the girl's brother-in-law; his wife was her sister Rora.
The war-party, after seizing the girl, took her back to Te Hurepo, near Te Pa-a-te-Kapu, and sent back word to The place where this tragedy occurred, Te Hurepo, is a curious little artificial island He maroro kokoti ihi waka-taua” (“A flying-fish crossing the bows of the war-canoe”). This figurative expression, anciently brought by the Maori ancestors from the tropic South Seas, likens to the luckless flying-fish striking the bow of a war-party. It meant that the girl must die. Thereupon she was killed with stone patu and tomahawk by two of her close relatives. This terrible deed did not content some of the savages of the ope; they must needs
pa in the swamp, just below the ancient hill fort called Te Pa-a-te-Kapu, seven miled from Whakatane, on the right hand (east) side of the road to Taneatua. It was built, say the Maoris, ten generations ago (250 years) as a place of refuge and security by the Ngati-te-Kapu, a hapu of Tuhoe, whose principal fort was on the trenched hill opposite. The land on the flat, now drained, was then a deep swamp, and this islet of refuge was formed by carrying earth in baskets from the east side of Te Pa-a-te-Kapu Hill, about a hundred yards away. The excavation in the side of the hill is still to be seen; the present road passes close under the hill-cutting, and the island, a low oval mound in the reclaimed swamp, is seen a little over a chain from the opposite side of the road. The artificial islet was surrounded by a line of fern-tree trunks and was then stockaded. In later times it was used as a cultivation plot. To this mound in the morass Ripeka was taken for execution after her capture at Te Puapua.
Continuing their march the Hauhaus laid siege to Rauporoa pa, after being balked in their first attempt to capture it by treachery. Meanwhile a special war-party (kokiri) of a hundred men, under Wirihana Koikoi, a big tattooed fellow, was despatched to attack the mill. It happened that at this juncture there were only seven or eight people in the redoubt and mill, including besides Jean and his wife and sister-in-law, a young man named Tautari and a dumb man of weak intellect named Te Mauriki—both of the Ngati-Pukeko Tribe. There were also two women, one named Maria te Ha (wife of Kaperiera) and the other Pera. Most of these people were in the redoubt, but Jean, on seeing the approach of the armed Hauhaus, remained in his mill, which he determined to defent to the utmost, while the others shut the gate of the redoubt and prepared for the hopeless task of holding it against the kokiri.
Jean possessed a good double-barrel gun and plenty of ammunition, and when firing began he gave the enemy a taste of his marksmanship. The attack was opened from the edge of a terrace on the hillside about 300 yards north of the mill. Here the Hauhaus dug a row of shallow rifle-pits; these can still be seen, though partly filled and grass-grown, on the roadside, on the right hand (west) going out from Whakatane by the main road to Taneatua. Jean was a dead shot, and he made the position there too warm for his enemy. After each shot the Hauhau snipers kept their heads up above the trench to observe the effect, and that was the Frenchman's opportunity. Firing through his loopholes he shot several Maoris, most of them, it is said, through the head. The Hauhaus then drew off into the bush and fired volleys into the mill from a higher level on the hillside. Jean was supported by Tautari and the
For two days the little garrison in the mill and the redoubt kept the Hauhaus off. The defence was so active and well sustained that the raiders imagined at first that there was a considerable number of men in the place. At last, however, when the Hauhaus ascended the near hills of the range on the eastern side of the valley, a few hundred yards from the mill, and were able to see down into the redoubt they discovered the weakness of the garrison. The attack was then pressed home. The Hauhaus skirmished up close to the walls. While some tried to set fire to a large raupo hut which occupied the middle of the redoubt, others endeavoured to scale the parapets. Jean was forced to abandon the mill, and rushed into the redoubt to join his people. For a time he defended the gateway, a narrow opening on the east side of the work; then he was shot and fell dead across the entrance which he had held with such valour. Before he fell he killed Wirihana Koikoi and another chief, Paora Taituha. Now the Hauhaus swarmed over the earth walls in through the gateway to tomahawk the hapless defenders. Two of the garrison, of whom Te Mauriki the heahea (half-witted person) was one, jumped the rear parapet and ran towards the Whakatane River and Raupora. Mauriki escaped; the other was
After the sacking and burning of the mill, Rangihiroa took his captives across the Whakatane to the leader's camp before Rauporoa pa. When it was reported to Captain Mair wrote from Tauranga (14th February, 1923): “There was a most pathetic and pitiful scene when whare.] So little Nika was tomahawked by Tu mai, e Monika!’ (‘Stand up, Monika!’) The poor girl flung her arms about her weeping sister, asking, ‘E Peti, tena e roa te whakamamaetanga?’ (‘O Betty, will the suffering be long?’) ‘Kaore,’ answered Peti, ‘he poto noa iho’ (‘No, it will be quite brief’). Then the girl said, ‘Mau e pupuri i oku ringaringa kia manawanui ai ahau’ (‘Hold you my hands that I may have courage’). Peti did so, averting her face while the terrible blow fell.”
The kokiri lost about seven killed. A few days after the fight, Captain Mair found the bodies of Wirihana Koikoi and Paora Taituha in the mill-dam.
No stone, no memorial of any kind, marks the spot defended by “John the Frenchman” with such heroic valour. In a few years, but for this record, the memory of
The well-preserved remains of the Rauporoa pa, the Ngati-Pukeko redoubt besieged by ti trees of great size. The place is surrounded by Maori and pakeha cultivations; the native villages Poroporo and Te Rewatu are near by, and the Whakatane flows past the rear of the work beneath masses of weeping-willows. Within rifle-shot on the opposite (eastern) side of the
pa is a rectangular field-work consisting of an earth parapet and a surrounding trench; the height of the scarp above the bottom of the ditch is still 7 to 8 feet, and inside the work is 4 or 5 feet high; the ditch is 4 feet wide and about the same depth. Its dimensions are about 120 yards in length (parallel with the course of the Whakatane River, immediately under its rear wall) and 55 yards in width. There are two large salients, which form flanking bastions against enfilading fire, one on the western flank, to the south of a gateway; the other is an angle near the river. Another flanking work, a bastion 8 yards on its longest alignment, projects from the opposite (south) end of the eastern face, and there is a small salient near one of the gateways facing the river. The pekerangi and kiri-tangata, the outer and inner palisades, consisting of totara posts, manuka stakes, and ti or whanake (cabbage-tree) trunks, have long since disappeared. The parapets, however, remain in an almost perfect condition. In the opening which was once the gateway facing west an enormous and many-branched whanake is growing—a cabbage-tree of great girth. This tree says Te More Takuira, the head man of Rauporoa, was originally one of the stakes of the fence—a young tree cut down, sharpened at the butt, and driven into the ground; it took root and grew. Another gateway, that facing the south, is blinded inside the entrance by a short parapet with a rifle-pit in the rear. It was this entrance that kumara or potato pits, the food stores of the garrison. On the south side, about 30 yards from the gateway, there is a shallow uneven trench running across the face of the pa and nearing it as it approaches the river. This was where the Hauhaus dug themselves in after the failure of their first effort against the fort. In the rear wall there are two openings, gateways, which gave access to the river. As a memorial of the Maori wars Rauporoa (“The High Reeds”) is of exceptional interest because of its excellent condition at a day when most of the forts of the 1860–71 period have been demolished.
Against this tribal stronghold of the loyal Ngati-Pukeko pa, however, were so credulous, or so anxious to avoid fighting, that they were ready to open the gates and admit the enemy. One of these who reposed faith in pa. He was in the act of pushing open the heavy sliding-door, fastened by wooden pegs, which formed the gate of the south side, and the advance files of the enemy were almost within the defences, when another chief, Tamihana Tahawera, who was not deceived by the flag of peace, ran to close the door. He was struggling with the foolish old man when a young Urewera warrior named Mehaka Toko-pounamu fired at him at a range of a few paces. The bullet missed Tahawera and struck the unfortunate pacifist Hori, who fell dead just inside the gateway. The door was made fast, and the baffled Hauhaus retired under fire to dig themselves in. Mehaka's shot was returned by Hirini Manuao in the pa trench; his bullet broke the staff from which the white flag was floating.
Now the Hauhaus found themselves under a heavy fire from the whole south face of the pa and the flanking bastion on the west side. The terrain was level and devoid of cover; the plain was covered to the river-bank with the Ngati-Pukeko cultivations of corn, potatoes, kumara, and taro. The only likely shelter that presented itself was a large raupo-thatch house twenty paces in front of the pa. Behind it the attackers took cover, but it was soon riddled with bullets. The rebels scooped out rifle-pits behind this whare, and secured a little head-cover. They then extended the trench eastward towards the river-bank, beginning at a point 30 yards from the palisades, and working nearer the pa as they drove it toward the Whakatane.
The attack now steadied down into a regular siege, but the Hauhaus, curiously, did not push their attack on any but the south face of the pa. Sheltered in their trench and shallow rifle-pits, they maintained a heavy fire on the Ngati-Pukeko defenders. There were a number of women in the pa, but it was not strongly garrisoned, since most of the men had gone to the coast with Hori Kawakura, a capable leader, to attend the burial of an old warrior, Te Pierieri, when the attack was delivered. On the alarm being raised in Whakatane by refugees from Rauporoa, Hori hurried up to the besieged pa, and entered it
pa had nothing but muzzle-loading single- and double-barrel guns, some of them old-fashioned flint-locks. They endeavoured to burn out the attackers who were posted behind the large whare on the south by tying burning rags to stones and throwing them on to the thatched roof, but the Hauhaus extinguished the fire. Several dead bodies of Hauhaus lay between the stockade and this house. The second Ngati Pukeko man killed was Heremaia Tautari. He was shot while standing on the parapet of the south-east angle, calling out across the river to his children, who were at that moment defending the redoubt at the Poronu flour-mill against the final rush of the Hauhaus, bidding them retreat to the pa.
Hori Kawakura's little band of fighting men, Ngati-Maumoana, formed the backbone of the defence; but, stoutly as they and their fellow tribesmen fought, their plight was hopeless, for their ammunition was failing. For two days and two nights the garrison had resisted the well-armed rebels. It was now the early morning of the third day (11th March), and although urgent messages had been sent for help there was no appearance of reinforcements.
Major Mair, R.M., at Opotiki, immediately on hearing of the invasion, despatched Captain Henry Mair with the Opotiki Rangers and Captain Travers with some Armed Constabulary—in all about eighty men. At the same time Lieutenant pa had been stormed and Ngati-Pukeko left to the savagery of E ara, e ara! Maranga, maranga! Tatua, tatua!” (“Rise, rise! Up, up with you! Gird yourselves!”) In a few minutes a force of
marae, and in an hour 130 men had crossed the Awa-a-te-Atua. At the Orini Stream, without waiting to strip, they plunged in and swam across, holding their belts and rifles above their heads with one hand. They used drift-wood from the beach to make rafts for some of their heavier equipment.
Moving rapidly across the flax swamps and the manuka flat, and pushing over the marshy plain of Otahua, near the Whakatane River, Mair now met the first of the fugitives from Rauporoa. The pa had fallen, but whether there had been a terrible massacre or not was as yet uncertain. The first Ngati-Pukeko refugee met was an old fellow named Te Noho-waka; he was running hard, in great distress. He cried out to Mair, “Kua tahuri te motu nei, kua tahuri te motu nei!” (“The island has been overturned!”) Mair's men opened their ranks to let the fugitives through. Near a raupo swamp south of Te Poroporo settlement the first of
Mair extended his men, tired after their heavy forced march, and kept raupo swamp and among the manuka. Mair advanced skirmishing up the valley until Rauporoa pa was reached. There it was discovered that there had been no heavy losses except on the part of the Hauhaus. The pa had been captured, but not until nearly all the defenders had made their escape on the north side. Only four friendlies had been killed in the attack; two of these were an old man and an old woman outside the pa.
When the Urewera attacked and looted Simpkins's store at Whakatane, amongst the spoil obtained were a number of red Garibaldi jumpers. These blouse-like garments were eagerly seized on by the Hauhaus, who uniformed themselves in them, and when on horseback resembled a body of red-coated cavalry. From the hills above Whakatane Major Mair's men were astonished to see these red-tunick'd horsemen galloping about the plain, some of them armed with swords, the bright scabbards flashing in the sun.pa, and many of the warriors got
Next day a Colonial Government steamer came into Whakatane and landed some European reinforcements, and Major William Mair with the forces from Opotiki attacked
Crossing over into the valley of the Rangitaiki, pa with three lines of timber stockading. The bush on the right—looking from the Rangitaiki—grew to within about 60 yards of the fort. When pa and the bush, but pa, and then made his escape into the mountains to Ahikereru. In one of the angles of the pa the Hauhaus killed a fine young Arawa scout, Te Tohea, whom they had captured.
AFTER EVADING THE combined European and Arawa force at Tauaroa, on the western border of the mountains that present a sierra-like wall above the plain of Kuhawaea and the Rangitaiki,
The force crossed the lake in canoes to the southern shore. One party of men, forty in number, set out in a large canoe, the “Tarake,” before the leader had given his orders for the crossing of Waikare-moana. The canoe, too deeply laden, was caught in a sudden southerly squall outside Tikitiki headland and capsized in deep water. The men reached the shore by swimming, but lost all their guns and had their ammunition spoiled.
On the southern shore pas. Others ran to Te Huke, the smaller fort. Those in the small out-settlements who were surprised by the advancing force were mercilessly killed. Many were shut up in a wool-shed, and as they were brought out one by one they were tomahawked or bayoneted.
pa consisted of strong palisades with trenches inside; from earth banquettes the garrison in the trench could fire through the interstices of the stockade on the
pa, Te Huke, was well situated on the precipitous left bank of the Mohaka River, and about 300 yards seaward of its sister fort, Hiruharama. It was unassailable except immediately in front and on a small part of the right and left flanks, and there the palisade was very solid and strong, backed by a parapet. The Huke was an ancient fort which had successfully withstood all attacks. Hiruharama had the disadvantage of being rather straggling of figure and requiring a large garrison to man its trenches.
When the alarm was given that the Hauhaus had come down on Mohaka, about a dozen able-bodied men took post in Hiruharama to protect the large number of women and children who flocked to the pa, besides some men past the active fighting age. Te Huke was occupied by a stronger garrison, though small in numbers; it consisted of the remainder of the Mohaka warriors who had not marched in the Wairoa expedition. In this pa was the Government store of ammunition, buried under the house of the native sergeant of police. From the stockades the Ngati-Pahauwera beheld the burning of the European settlers' houses on the opposite side of the river, and heard firing in the out-settlements where stragglers were being sought out and slaughtered.
Heavy fighting continued for some hours between the small garrisons and the Hauhaus on the front and flanks of the strongholds. pa fought particularly well. Boys, women, and old men kept up a steady fire and effectually swept the glacis
Discovering that the place was too strong to be carried by assault, rongo patipati, a deceitful peace; but Rutene Kiri-huruhuru, the native policeman, it is said, was persuaded to make a truce, and he and some others went out at the invitation of the Hauhaus and joined them at grog on the flat below the pa. Rutene had been at the mission college at Waerenga-a-Hika, Poverty Bay, and knew pa garrison, and fired at one of the Hauhaus. The enemy then threw off all pretence of friendship, and the massacre began. The foolish Rutene was killed, and nearly the whole of the occupants of the pa—men, women, and children—were shot down or tomahawked. Ropihana escaped by jumping over the bank on the flank facing the river, receiving a severe wound in the shoulder as he fled, and reached Hiruharama pa.
After slaying all the people they could find, the Hauhaus set fire to the place. They secured a number of guns and some ammunition, but the Government store of gunpowder was not discovered; it exploded when the house under which it was buried was burned.
pa, which was stoutly defended by the garrison firing from their rifle-pits through the narrow openings in the palisades. So the fighting went on for some hours. pakeha soldier, Trooper pa with the Maoris, shooting a Hauhau on the way.
These reinforcements saved Hiruharama. The defence was carried on with redoubled energy, and a sortie was made by some of the garrison. Sallying out from the pa, they charged the Hauhaus and drove them from their advanced rifle-pits, but the fire from the main body was so fierce that the Mohaka
pa—were continually on the alert to beat back an attack. Well the defenders knew that if the enemy once screwed up their courage to the assaulting-point they could soon have beaten down all resistance and tomahawked every soul. “I could have done for at least three with my rifle and a double-barrel gun the Maoris had brought me, if it came to a final scrimmage,” said Hill, narrating the incidents of the siege, “but there would not have been time to reload.” But the dreaded charge never came, and this mercy was undoubtedly due to the spirit infused into the defence by the fearless ex-man-of-war's-man.
Such was the position when early on Tuesday, the 12th April, the first relief expedition appeared off the mouth of the Mohaka. This was a party of fourteen armed men in the Napier lifeboat. The news of the attack had been taken to Napier by a wounded and exhausted Maori. Captain Cellem, the Harbourmaster at Napier, was in command of the lifeboat, which was manned by twelve volunteers, including some masters of vessels; with them was Dr. M. Scott, armed like the others with rifle and sixty rounds of ammunition. On arriving off the mouth of the river the crew watched the attack on Hiruharama, and saw the explosion of the gunpowder in Te Huke pa, which was on fire. Captain Cellem called for volunteers to land, in order to rescue any fugitives, when it was discovered that the blockhouse, although apparently deserted, was occupied by Hauhaus who were preparing to fire on the landing-party. Captain Cellem pulled out, and was about to sail northwards along the coast to investigate the position when the hidden Hauhaus opened a heavy fire on the boat from the blockhouse loopholes. The crew at the same time found themselves under fire from the cliff above the beach. Cellem and Scott returned the fire over the stern of the boat while the crew pulled out of range. It was now dark, and the party decided to return to Napier.
Some of the Hauhaus rode along the beach for several miles following the lifeboat and firing on it as it ran south under sail close inshore. When Napier was reached it was found that all
pa. The palisades of the fort were seen to be thick with bullets which had failed to penetrate the timber. The fighting was over.
The officer in charge of the relief expedition, Colonel Lambert, was extraordinarily lacking in military enterprise. He had a force of Constabulary and Mounted Rifles numbering over a hundred, besides the Mohaka and Wairoa natives. The Mohaka men, burning to take utu for the slaughter of their relatives, were ready to follow up the enemy, and the white troops were eager for action, but nothing would induce the cautious Lambert to move inland.
The Constabulary recovered and buried the bodies of the Lavin family and others who perished in the raid. Mrs. Lavin was lying on the ground, shot dead. Her husband lay by her side with his left arm under her as if he had been protecting her when he was killed; his revolver was in his outstretched right hand. The Lavin children, according to the veteran Armed Constabulary scout
The Hauhau camp at Ara-kanihi, six miles inland, was reconnoitred by
After enjoying themselves at horse-races on the beach at Waikare-moana, close to the Strait of Manaia, which connects the main body of the lake with the very beautiful western arm, Wairau-moana, the Hauhaus crossed in canoes to the north side, swimming the horses across the half-mile channel. At the fortified settlements Tikitiki and Whakaari, on headlands dominating the approach to the Urewera track,
Constable pa at Mohaka. His fighting career was one of extraordinary variety and adventure. A native of the famous little Devonshire town of Dawlish, he joined the Royal Navy in 1851 and saw over ten years' service as a blue-jacket. He was in H.M.S. “Leopard” at the bombardment of Sebastopol, and on returning to England from the Black Sea in 1856 he joined H.M.S. “Shannon” and went out in her to the China Station. When the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857 the “Shannon” was ordered to Calcutta, and Hill was in Captain Peel's famous Naval Brigade which took a battery of 32-pounders into the heart of India. He fought at the taking of Lucknow, where he was slightly wounded, and at Delhi, and in the desperate battles at Cawnpore, under Sir Colin Campbell. In 1860 he was in the Mediterranean in H.M.S. “Hannibal,” and with three shipmates took French leave at Palermo and enlisted, like many other British bluejackets, in Garibaldi's Army of Liberation. After a brief campaign in Italy, where he was wounded, he rejoined his ship—the desertion was overlooked, for English sympathy with Garibaldi ran high—and afterwards served in H.M.S. “Euryalus.” On coming to New Zealand in 1863 he joined Von Tempsky's No. 2 Company of the Forest Rangers and fought in many actions in Taranaki and in the Hauhau campaign on the East Coast. Later he was in Major Fraser's No. 1 Company of Military Settlers in Hawke's Bay, and then for several years in the Armed Constabulary: last of all in the submarine mining section of the New Zealand Permanent Force at Auckland. He was living at Devonport, Auckland, at the date of writing.
It was at Mohaka in 1869 that Hill met the native girl who became his wife, Harata Hinerata, who, with her three sisters—Lucy, Lizzie, and Amelia—half-castes of the Ngati-Pahauwera, took a gallant part in the defence of Te Huke pa. When
The Government blockhouse at Mohaka, from which the Hauhaus fired on the Napier lifeboat crew in April, 1869, was of rather unusual construction, being octagonal in form. It was of two storeys, with a double wall, filled in with gravel and sand, and both storeys, were loopholed. A stockade, with a ditch on the inner side, surrounded the blockhouse.
Te Tupara Kaaho, of Ruatoki, states that he was one of the Tuhoe (Urewera) men who joined
Te Rangi-tahau, of Waipahihi, Lake Taupo, was one of the leaders in the butchery of the Ngati-Pahauwera, captured at Mohaka. He had been shipped to the Chatham Islands as a prisoner after his capture at Omarunui in 1866, and fought as one of patu-okewa (or patu-kara), a sharp-edged hand-club of hard black stone. It was his practice on occasion to slay prisoners by throwing the patu. Singling out a man, perhaps sitting in a row of people in a house or on the village square, he would hurl the weapon at him with unerring aim and kill him with a blow on the temple.
I met Tahau, as he was usually called, at Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, in 1900, when he told me something of his history. He was by repute a powerful tohunga, and had been brought up from Taupo to conduct the ancient ceremony of whai-kawa, or removing the baneful spell of tapu from a carved house, a rite which a number of us witnessed. He died suddenly a few days afterwards; in popular belief he was a victim to the spells of witchcraft (makutu) directed against him by a rival tohunga who also took part in the ceremonies at Whakarewarewa, the venerable Tumutara Pio, of the Ngati-Awa Tribe. But old Pio himself did not long survive his antagonist. Tahau was a very powerful athletic fellow, with a head that may accurately be described as shaped like one of the old-fashioned round bullets; his grim features were partly tattooed. At the time of his death he was about seventy years of age.
COLONEL GEORGE WHITMORE, having transferred his Armed Constabulary field force from Taranaki to the Bay of Plenty, in April of 1869, organized a threefold expedition against the Urewera Tribe and their kin who had supplied
The difficulties, however, were considerable: the Urewera region was practically a blank on the map; the only roads were difficult foot-trails, the ancient Maori war-tracks; all supplies would have to be carried on the men's backs; and the winter was approaching with its floods and snowstorms. A rough map of the territory was made by Mr. Richmond and the Colonel from the accounts available, particularly information and a sketch-map supplied by the Rev. Mr. Preece (father of Lieutenant
It was decided that three separate columns should be used, entering the ranges at different points and meeting, if possible,
The right wing of the Matata force, under Major Roberts, marched up the valley of the Rangitaiki and encamped at Karamuramu, on the left (west) bank of the river, where a large redoubt was built; this was named Fort Galatea, after the British warship in which H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh was then visiting the colony. Here there was a convenient ford of the Rangitaiki. On the opposite side loomed the forbidding blue sierras of the outer Urewera Ranges. The right wing was composed of a hundred Armed Constabulary, with a small but very useful Corps of Guides, and about two hundred Maoris of the Arawa Tribe, under
The left wing, moving in from Whakatane, was commanded by Lieut.-Colonel St. John, and consisted of about 250 Armed Constabulary—Nos. 1, 2 (part), 4, and 8 Divisions—and a Native Contingent numbering 180, from the Ngati-Pukeko and Ngaitai Tribes, under hapus, was about fifty miles inland by way of the Whakatane River, which had
The work of the right wing will first be described. Whitmore and Roberts had a comparatively easy march for the first twelve miles, taking a trail used by Mr. Preece in former years. The route was over the hills on the proper left bank of the Whirinaki River, after crossing the Rangitaiki River at Fort Galatea. Harema pahu, or drum, at Te Pato. This pahu could be heard for a distance of several miles. Mair reached the place without opposition, and found signs that a picket had been posted in the bush on the slope below the summit on which the pahu stood, and also that a sentry had been sleeping behind a large tree; these outposts had been withdrawn shortly before the Arawa scouts' arrival. The drum or gong was a hollow totara tree, one side of which, about 60 feet in height, and reaching to within 3 feet of the ground, had been cut into the form of a long narrow tongue. The end of this tongue, when beaten with a stick or a club, gave forth a penetrating resonant cadence which filled the air with its throbbing and reverberations, carrying far over the valleys and ranges. Mair waited on the forested range at Te Pato until the main body came up. He was then given a force of Ngati-Pikiao sufficient for operations, and was sent on to take Harema pa in the rear.pa, a stockaded position occupied chiefly by the Ngati-Whare Tribe, was situated on a hill about a mile beyond the present settlement at Wai-kotikoti, Te Whaiti. The site of the pa, now densely overgrown with manuka, is seen on the left of the present road to Ruatahuna shortly after crossing the Whirinaki River and before the Okahu Gorge is entered.
Mair and his Arawa men forded the Whirinaki River about half a mile below where the Okahu River joins it at the base of the massively scarped old hill fort Umurakau, and marched up the rocky bed of the Okahu, passing under the bluffs of Umurakau, for about half a mile. Then they climbed up a steep bank and entered an old pa at Te Puhi-a-Kapu, in rear of Te Harema. An old man, a tohunga named Matiu Whatanui, was sitting in front of his hut on the brow of the hill. He fired a shot at Mair, but missed, and the officer took him prisoner, intending to save him; but Hemana Moko-nui-a-Rangi, of Maketu, fired and shot him, greatly to Mair's anger. Matiu fell, and next moment he was tomahawked by the Arawa. His wife and family were made prisoners. Curiously enough, these shots were not heard at Te Harema pa, which was not far away; a thick belt of bush (part of which is still standing) intervened between Matiu's home and the fort. The Arawa ran through this bush, Mair thinking that he had given the main body sufficient time to reach the front of it by the native track. The force was not there, and the Arawa therefore had the honour of storming the pa. Mair
pa were commanded by old Hamiora Potakurua, and numbered about eighty, half of whom were women.
The Armed Constabulary main body was in time to pursue some of the escaping Ngati-Whare, but although there was a great deal of firing not much damage was done. Hundreds of shots were fired at long range at a daring fellow named Paraone te Tuhi as he ran up a steep bare spur of Titokorangi Mountain in rear of the mission station at Ahi-kereru. Paraone turned deliberately now and again to make gestures of defiance at his fores, and made his escape untouched into the forest on the summit of the range. The Constabulary had carried in from Galatea a Coehorn mortar and some shells, but artillery was not required. The mortar was left at Ahi-kereru until the expedition returned.
After the capture of Te Harema (6th May), Colonel Whitmore and his officers made the old mission station at Ahi-kereru their headquarters. The large house, built of heart of totara in 1849 for Mr. Preece, the missionary of the district, was found in perfect order. Mr. Preece had left the place in 1853, removing to Whakatane, but visiting the place at intervals up to 1856, when he left for another district. The house and contents had been given into the charge of the native teacher Hamiora Potakurua. The missionary's son observed that the old home was undamaged, with some furniture and crockery, just as it had been left thirteen years previously. It was afterwards ascertained that when
After the capture of Te Harema, a woman named Ripeka (Rebecca), whose husband was killed in the pa, and who herself had been nursemaid in Mr. Preece's home, hearing that a son of his, who had been her potiki (child), was in the force, rushed up to Lieutenant Preece and threw herself at his feet, embracing his legs and crying in a most pathetic manner.
The column spent one night in camp at Ahi-kereru, and on the following morning (7th May) resumed the march to Ruatahuna and up the gorge of the Okahu Stream. The Corps of Guides led the way, followed by Mair and his Arawa and
Describing the march on the 7th May, the principal incident of which was an ambuscade at Manawa-hiwi, near Ngaputahi,
“When we moved off from Ahi-kereru we of the Guides were warned to look out for escapers from Te Harema. These were two or three fugitives who had made off for Ruatahuna to give warning of our approach, and some of the Maori women who had been captured at Te Harema told us to beware as we marched through the gorges. A Maori who was with us was very cautious, often taking cover behind a tree as we advanced up the Okahu ravine, and when we chaffed him about it he said meaningly, ‘Taihoa, taihoa!’ (‘Wait and see!’) We had marched very cautiously into the ranges from Galatea on our way to Ahi-kereru, and we were not allowed to fire at anything, although native birds, especially pigeons, swarmed in the bush, feeding on the miro berries. However, ‘Big Jim’ quickly made a spear and got three or four pigeons on the low branches, and we were not long in cooking and eating them. We came to a very narrow part (Manawa-hiwi) where a big landslip had come down and dammed up a part of the creek, and on the soft mud there ‘Big Jim’ observed the prints of naked feet. He was stooping to examine the marks closely, and was pointing them out with the butt of his gun to Captain Swindley, when all at once a shot came from the bush half a dozen yards away. Two or three shots followed in quick succession from our hidden foes, and ‘Big Jim’ received two bullets through the chest and lungs. Captain Swindley yelled to us to take cover, when a great volley came into us, crashing like thunder through the gorge, and Bill Ryan, a big man like the Maori, fell shot through one of his knees. He lay with his legs in the water of the creek. My brother Tom was shot through the right wrist, and another bullet struck one of the two Dean and Adams revolvers he wore slung on lanyards from the neck, crossing each other in front—we each carried two revolvers—and flattened out on the chamber, putting the revolver out of action; the blow cut his chest, although that bullet did not actually hit him. From whatever cover we could find we gave the Maoris a volley from our carbines. A dozen or so of the Hauhaus appeared and made a rush out upon us, but we took to our revolvers. They thought to dash in upon us while we were reloading our carbines. With our brace of revolvers each we fired heavily on them at close quarters and drove them back.
“As it was now late in the afternoon we did not follow up the chase, but halted for the night on the scene of the fight. ‘Big Jim’ died in two or three hours. We sewed him up in his blanket and buried him there. The men who had ambushed us, we learned later, were reinforcements coming down to Te Harema from Ruatahuna. Pickets of Arawa Maoris were sent out for the night, twenty or twenty-five on each side of the gorge in which we were camped. They climbed the precipitous walls through the bush, cutting steps in some places with their tomahawks, and held the heights above us to protect us from a night attack. Some of the Arawa were very nervous in the bush, and every now and then during the night a shot would be fired at some shadow, followed by a whole thundering succession of shots. We would douse our fires with water from the creek at each alarm of this kind; we extinguished the fires two or three times during the night.” Statement by
In this ambuscade Sergeant Maling had a very narrow escape from death. The range at which the Hauhaus fired was so close that his face was burned by the gunpowder, and he had several bullets through his clothes. The dead scout Hemi was buried where the road now goes, and the Arawa Maoris made a fire on his grave, as if a meal had been cooked there, a native war-device for preventing the enemy discovering the body and digging it up.
The morning following the ambuscade at Manawa-hiwi Whitmore's force continued the march to Ruatahuna. The trail was extremely difficult and rough. On the 7th the Okahu Stream, running in its tree-shadowed deep ravine of cañon-like narrowness, had been crossed over fifty times. On the 8th the route, leaving the ravine, turned to the left, and led over a succession of steep ridges, densely forest-clad. By 2 o'clock in the afternoon the Guides and the Arawa at the head of the
pa at Tatahoata, and the men were Lieut.-Colonel St. John's Constabulary, who had just captured it after a sharp fight with the main body of the Urewera. Some of Whitmore's people, doubting whether St. John was in possession, imagined the men in the pa were the Hauhaus; but the commander and his staff rightly concluded that St. John had driven out the enemy. But for the delay caused by the skirmish at Manawa-hiwi the two forces would most probably have effected a junction that day (8th May), as arranged, in time to fight a combined action.
The descent of the precipitous Tahuaroa Range occupied four hours, and it was dusk when the force reached the old Oputao settlement at the foot of the mountain. Whitmore was anxious to meet St. John that night, and, leaving the column under command of Major Roberts in bivouac, he pushed on for Orangikawa. He took with him only a small party consisting of about twenty officers and men. These were Captain F. Swindley, Lieutenant Preece, and the Corps of Guides, besides a native guide, an Urewera man named Matiu. This man got nervous at one point on the bush tramp in the dark, and declared that his knowledge of the country ended there. However, “a little moral persuasion”—as Captain Preece puts it—restored his recollection of the trail. When Whitmore reached the ford of the Whakatane opposite Ruatahuna he ordered his bugler to sound the “Officers' call.” In a few moments an answering call was heard, blown by St. John's bugler, and the loud cheering by the men of that officer's column announced their pleasure and relief at the welcome sound of Whitmore's signal. The distance traversed in the dark by the small party from the right wing was about four miles, through bush in which the Hauhaus lurked. A party of Urewera actually let Whitmore and his companions pass, within a few feet, without firing; this was near the ford of the Whakatane. When the startling sound of the bugle was heard the Hauhaus in ambush imagined the whole force was close up. Whitmore reached the captured pa at Orangikawa about 10 o'clock at night. “A great cheer went
At daylight next morning (9th May) Preece, Maling, and ten of the Corps of Guides were sent off to Oputao, with instructions from Colonel Whitmore to Major Roberts to come on and join the other body; and the battle-ground at Tatahoata was the field headquarters for about a week while the surrounding
The left column under St. John had had much heavier fighting than Whitmore's force on the march into the interior. St. John's principal officers were Lieut.-Colonel James Fraser and Major William Mair, R. M.; the latter commanded the Native Contingent. The force, 425 strong (including 180 Maoris), was very heavily loaded with ammunition, biscuits, and bacon. A Constabulary veteran recalls the fact that when the march began his swag weighed 70 lb. There was no road into the interior but the river-gorge, and St. John's men, laden like packhorses, found that the easiest travelling often was in the water. The first day's march up the Whakatane, crossing the river many times, brought the column to Tunanui, about twenty miles from Opouriao. There was no sign of the enemy as yet. On the 5th the force reached Waikariwhenua, five miles up the gorge of the Waikari, a large tributary of the Whakatane, flowing in from the ranges of Maunga-pohatu. On the 6th the exceedingly difficult traverse by the Wharau Range was accomplished. This ascent, the most arduous day's work in the hard march inland, involved a climb of more than a thousand feet up a densely forested mountain-side; the ascent was necessary in order to avoid an unfordable part of the Whakatane where the river ran between high cliffs a short distance above the junction with the Waikari at Te Kuha-o-Wheterau. Descending again to the Whakatane Valley, the advance-guard of the column came suddenly down into the small village Whata-ponga, on the proper right bank of the river. Here the first shots were fired. Lieutenant kainga and surprised the few natives who inhabited it. Gundry went in pursuit of a Maori, an old man, who was running away with a little boy on his back in a shawl or blanket. He shot the boy and brought the man down wounded, and ran up and tomahawked him. Sergeant utu for my brother,” said Gundry. His young brother Fred, a lad of about fifteen, had been killed in the fight at Otautu, Taranaki, on the 13th March. Gundry was a half-caste Maori, a surveyor by profession. Another member of the column exacted utu for a slain relative, regardless of the fact that
patu, in revenge for his niece Ripeka executed by
The force camped for the night in the captured village, and next morning (7th May) continued the advance southward up the narrow valley of the Whakatane, pent in by lofty forest-blanketed ranges. About a mile above the scene of the skirmish the force
manuka-covered flat in the river-bed, and Major Mair read the burial service, under a continual fire from the Hauhaus, who were in good cover, chiefly in the bush on the eastern side of the river.
Te Tupara, of Ruatoki, says that it was a man named Waikite who singled out and shot Lieutenant White, who was leading the scouts.
The Constabulary divisions chiefly engaged in the heavy skirmishing here were Nos. 1 and 2, under Captains Withers, Scannell, and Northcroft, and part of No. 4, under Captain Travers. The force advanced up the east side of the Whakatane and encountered sharp resistance on the march up over the Hukanui Hill, a steep bush ridge abutting precipitously on the right bank of the river. Low bush, scrub, and fern covered the lower part of the hill, and the defenders were strongly posted in the forest above. A party of Constabulary was detached to outflank the enemy's left, and this operation was carried out successfully. The ascent of the range was so steep that steps had to be cut with tomahawks in places. The Urewera abandoned their position on Hukanui, and fell back in the direction of Ruatahuna. Crossing a deep wooded gully, where a small stream joined the Whakatane on the east side, they took post in Te Whenuanui's pa, a strong earthwork redoubt called Tahora, about a mile beyond the top of Hukanui. The pa occupied a commanding position on a fern ridge trending at right angles to the valley of the Whakatane.
St. John halted his men for a meal on gaining the crest of Hukanui, and then moved forward to attack the Tahora work.
pa and took
pa was a small stockaded earthwork, a miniature pa, a few yards square; it crowned a narrow part of the Tahora ridge, alongside the track. This was a highly tapu spot, for it was the grave of Mura-Kareke, the most revered ancestor of the Urewera people. The Ngaitai Maoris who formed a portion of Major Mair's contingent desecrated the grave by making an umu or earth-oven there and cooking some pork for their evening meal. This was by way of revenge for the death of one of their comrades, a young man named Maehe, who had received a mortal wound in the Paripari-Hukanui fighting. The Urewera in their turn seized an opportunity of retaliation in kind for this act of sacrilege a few days later, when, at
The column had now entered the lower part of the partly cleared valley known generally as Ruatahuna, a saucer of undulating and gully-seamed country rimmed by high wooded ranges of steep and broken contour. The advance was resumed on the morning of the 8th May, and by mid-day, after an easy march, St. John found himself close to the village Tatahoata, with its stockaded and entrenched pa Orangikawa. Mataatua Village, the present mountain headquarters of the Urewera, was passed on the right of the advance, with the Upper Whakatane a short distance away on the same flank.
The Orangikawa Captain pa, an oblong work with trench, parapet, and stockade, stood on the lower part of a long slope below the high wooded range Arai-whenua and close to Tatahoata village and cultivations; its lower end was near the steep right bank of the Manga-o-rongo Stream. It was by no means a suitable site for a pa; the only feature to recommend it as a place of defence was the close proximity of the bush. When St. John's force was reported by the scouts a portion of the garrison took up a position in the bush on the north-east of the pa, where a small watercourse came down the valley. Captain Travers, with No. pa, while Major Mair, with some of his Maoris, was sent down to the south-west end to take up a position between the Hauhau fort and the Manga-o-rongo, and intercept the natives if they attempted to escape from the rear of the place. Mair got up within
pa, who were packing up in readiness for the retreat, but he waited in vain for Travers to complete the investment of the pa. Maori outposts on the opposite side of the river saw Mair's force so disposed, and sounded a loud alarm on a pahu, or tree-drum, and on the conch-shell trumpets called pu-tatara. By these signals they conveyed a warning to their friends in the bush above and in the fort that a body of the Government men was lying in wait in rear of the pa. Captain Travers was killed while engaging the Hauhaus at the edge of the bush on his flanking advance. He fell under a volley fired at very close range, about 30 yards from the thick undergrowth. He was busy making his men take cover, but mistakenly declined to take similar care of himself, saying in answer to remonstrances, “A British officer never takes cover.” One of the principal Hauhau fighters at this point was Paraone, a Ngati-Awa and Ngaitai man. He was shot dead, some veterans say, by Captain Travers's batman.pa, on the Mataatua side, with No. 8 Division and a subdivision of No. 2, and intended to start a sap, but before the tools could be brought up the Maoris evacuated the place. In the skirmishing the Government force lost five killed and six wounded. The Maori casualties were about the same number. The garrison of the pa, covered by the fire of their people outside in the bush, escaped along the small watercourse with wooded banks on the east side of the pa, and in the dense bush which extended down the hillslopes to within a few yards of the northern and eastern flanks. They retreated through the forest to the range of Arai-whenua above, and remained there shouting defiance to the troops and sounding their doleful war-trumpets.
Captain Travers and his fallen comrades were buried on the 9th May just outside the front gateway of the pa, on the east-north-east side, facing the hills.
After the force left the district the Urewera disinterred the
(Near this pa and close to the Manga-o-rongo Stream, on the lower or Mataatua side, are the ruined earthworks of another fort: this is the Kohimarama pa, a redoubt built by Major Ropata and his Ngati-Porou in 1871.)
The united force remained at Ruatahuna until the 14th May, 1869. Several skirmishes were fought during this time. Whitmore was anxiously awaiting the arrival of Colonel Herrick's column from Waikare-moana. The Native Minister, Mr.
Pokiha, in the lead, encountered
“Before commencing the ascent of Orona Hill, which is an open fern ridge, the track is intersected by a narrow gulch perhaps 40 feet deep. This gully we had to cross by a large fallen tree in the bush; it lay across the gully, which was over 30 feet wide. I was leading, and when half-way across the log I saw a Hauhau rise up behind the big stump of the tree on the other side and take a deliberate aim at me. I could not cut for it, so I made a pretence of aiming, which evidently disconcerted him, for his bullet sang past me quite wide of the mark. We got on top of the hill without further opposition, and there was a general halt while further movements were discussed. Sub-Inspector George McDonnell with fifty or sixty of his company of Armed Constabulary went forward as directed, taking up positions on the ridge. Colonel Whitmore directed me to go forward and feel for the enemy. I called on hapu of the Ngati-Pikiao Tribe (Ngati-te-Rangiunuora) to follow me, and
kiokio ferns (Lomaria procera) which fairly overhung the track. This was at a point about 80 years from McDonnell's men. The trail ran along a deep rut on the side of the hill, which sloped steeply to the left. There must have been eighty or more of them, as I judged afterwards from the beatendown growth extending to where the trail branched. Directly we got a few yards past a tree on the left we received a volley from thirty or forty guns. A bullet cut one of Matene's ears clean off, and we were half-blinded by flame and smoke, so close was the volley. Some of the Hauhaus poked the muzzles of their breechloaders through the kiokio ferns, firing at a few paces. My Maoris were so staggered that they bolted to a man. At this moment a large piece of oily rag (the wrapping of a bullet) fell on my neck, setting fire to my shirt and making a most painful burn on my neck half as big as my hand. Then I saw the Hauhaus jumping down out of the dense mass of kiokio into the track (the trail to Waikare-moana), I suppose, 30 to 35 paces off. I jumped behind the tree I have mentioned, shouting to McDonnell to come up. To my horror my carbine jammed, and I could only whip out my revolver and empty it at the dozen or so of Hauhaus in the track. Most of them were reloading; several potted at me. Suddenly they disappeared like magic along the track. Not being supported, I immediately ran back, and McDonnell looked as if it was my ghost. My remarks were brief and appropriate.
“As for Ngati-Pikiao, seeing the stream of blood from their pet chief Matene, they set up a ghastly howl.
“Suddenly, from an eminence not more than a hundred yards way, we heard the notes of a bugle. It was Kua mate rawa i a te pakeha pahau-roa! (‘The white man with the long beard has been killed!’)—meaning me. In the ambuscade I had no doubt dropped flat, my usual trick when the flash of a gun came at close range. Then Peka shouted, ‘Kua tahia e au a Turanganui, marakerake ana; kua purumutia e au a Mohaka. Apopo ka mitikia ake ohe!’ ‘I have swept Turanganui [Poverty Bay] bare; I have swept out Mohaka. To-morrow you will be liked up!’)
“I was in a furious rage, probably I could hardly speak, so angry was I at McDonnell's failure to come to my assistance. I managed to gasp out that the Hauhaus were just along the track.
“Then a few gallant fellows got round me—toas, about twenty in all, including two or three of Te Pokiha's young relatives—and away we went at our utmost speed to engage the Hauhaus. When we reached the place where the trail branched [see X X on the sketch-map at the end of this volume] I urged them to go down there and make a detour to the left; we might thus round up the ambuscading-party and also those who had taunted us about the ‘long-bearded man’ and the massacres at Turanganui and Mohaka. My Maoris nearly all got ahead of me, and we had not gone far when they signalled back and left the track, turning slightly to the left. I could then see, down a clear little glade in the forest, seventy or eighty Hauhaus kneeling on the ground, while an elderly man, dressed in a full suit of navy blue, was addressing them in warlike terms—‘te korero o te toa.’ When we got abreast of them Henare, Arekatera, and the leaders made a sharp turn to the right up the little hill, fell on their faces, and let fly a volley—all too soon. I do not think I got a chance to fire, but dashed forward over several bodies and soon found myself in a small deep kahikatea-pine swamp, with a heavy fire coming from the enemy.
“Then came a bugle-call, and my comrades ran in highly excited. They had picked up quite a lot of delicious cooked pork, dropped by Letter from Captain Mair, 4th June, 1923.
One of Mair's soldiers conspicuous in this savage parade of enemy's heads was a youth whom the troops called “Red-head,” because of his urukehu or ruddy-tinged head of hair. He came dancing in with the head of a man he had shot at Wai-iti. This young warrior, Captain Mair relates, was Ngahere te Wiremu, of Ngati-Manawa (Rangitaiki district). In 1867, during the bush campaign inland of Tauranga against the Piri-Rakau Hauhaus, he greatly distinguished himself by his dash and fearlessness, though only fourteen years old at the time. The 12th Regiment, at Tauranga, wanted to adopt him; the soldiers called him “Ginger.” In February, 1870, when urukehu fighter Rewi, and
The scene of the skirmish in which the Hauhau heads were taken was Te Wai-iti, a valley, with a small native kainga through which the present track passes from Ruatahuna to the north shore of Waikare-moana. On the same day as
Whitmore was desirous of pushing on to Waikare-moana, a mountain and gorge march of about twenty miles, and tried to persuade the Arawa to undertake the expedition. The Maoris were by no means eager for this perilous march through a country quite unknown to them and bristling with dangers. kaanga-wai (steeped maize) and grated potatoes.
Whitmore's final decision to abandon the proposed march to Waikare-moana and to return to Fort Galatea by the way he had come was a relief to the whole force, and particularly to the experienced officers, who realized that a disaster in the mountains would have brought hundreds of recruits to
This expedition, the first European force that had ever penetrated the Urewera Country, did a great deal to dispel the mystery which had enveloped that savage region, and to demolish its reported impregnable character. For the first time its physiography became accurately known, and, despite the formidable natural obstacles, it was proved that the country was not inaccessible to white troops. The tactics of ambush in which its tribes excelled did not deter the Government forces from traversing the most forbidding country, where the gloomy gorges and the most forbidding country, where the gloomy gorges and the all-enveloping forest gave a thousand opportunities for murderous ambuscades. The plains Maoris, naturally nervous of the bush on their first expedition, saw that under skilful leadership, and given sufficient supplies, they could fight their way anywhere through the ranges. As for the Armed Constabulary, in the words written of them by Colonel Whitmore, “Six months'
Colonel Whitmore, leaving the district in charge of Lieut.-Colonel St. John, went on to Matata and thence to Wellington via Wairoa, where he consulted Colonel Herrick with regard to further operations. Whitmore was crippled with rheumatism and unfit for further active service in the field. He left orders to advance the main camp to Opepe or Taupo, concluding rightly that
Lieut.-Colonel
A change of Ministry took place, and Colonel Herrick being unable to say when he would reach his objective, the expedition was recalled. Two large boats were sunk in the lake, and one whaleboat was buried on the shore, where it was discovered by the Hauhaus soon after the force returned to Wairoa. This expedition is considered to have been the most useless ever sent against the Maoris; at the same time it was one of the most expensive. The only shots were fired by the Hauhaus (10th June), when they ambushed and killed Trooper Michael Noonan, who was carrying despatches between the lake and Wairoa.
The Armed Constabulary were transferred to Napier, whence they marched to Taupo, leaving detachments on the way to build fortified posts at Te Haroto, Runanga, and Tarawera, guarding the line of communication between the Taupo country and Napier.
On the march of Colonel Herrick's column from Wairoa to Lake Waikare-moana some good scouting-work was carried out by Mr.
After the return of Colonel Whitmore's expendition from the Urewera Country, Whitmore and his staff left Matara for Auckland in the steamer “Sturt,” as the commander wished to consult the Defence Minister, Colonel Haultain, regarding further operations. He remained in Auckland three days, then returned to Matata, and shipped No. 2 Division Armed Constabulary (under Scannell and Northcroft) round to the Wairoa district to reinforce Colonel Herrick's force at Waikare-moana. The small corps of Guides, under Sergeant Maling, was also sent. The troops were landed at Whangawehi, and marched from there to Wairoa, thence to Onepoto.
COLONEL WHITMORE, BEFORE leaving the Bay of Plenty for Wellington, had instructed Lieut.-Colonel St. John to move the headquarters camp forward from Fort Galatea to a position between the Urewera Ranges and Taupo, and indicated Opepe as a suitable point. There the Napier-Taupo track intersected the main trail from the Rangitaiki and the Urewera Country, and the strategic value of the spot was enhanced by the abundance of grass and wood. Whitmore's proposal was to make Opepe the principal inland depot for stores, which could be brought up from Napier on packhorses. But St. John delayed his preliminary expedition until it was too late, for
This detachment of cavalrymen, under Captain Moorsom and arawhata) was Te Arawhata-a-Nohomoke, about four miles above Ngahuinga; there the river is very narrow. The next footbridge, formed of three or four long manuka poles with a handrail, was thrown across
The force was guided by a Maori, who in the light of after-events is believed to have been in secret sympathy with the Hauhaus. One of the only two survivors of the detachment,
On the following day (Saturday, 5th June) the cavalrymen continued their march up the eastern side (right bank) of the Rangitaiki, and when well up the river towards Runanga they forded it again, and rode across the Kaingaroa Plain westward for Taupo. That night they reached the Opepe bush, a belt of
totara bark. The spot was about a quarter of a mile west of the junction of the tracks from Fort Galatea and Runanga to Tapuae-haruru, and was reached by a turn-off track to the right up a gully. On two sides of the village plateau there was a pumice valley, and the belt of bush was immediately in the rear. Here in the old Maori settlement Colonel St. John left his escort, instructing them to camp there, while he, Major Cumming, Captain Moorsom, and one or two others rode on to Tapuae-haruru. As for the Maori guide, he rode off in the direction of Runanga after he had watched the detachment go into camp at Opepe, and that was the last seen of him by the troopers.
Ex-Trooper
“I believe,” narrates Crosswell, “that Colonel St. John before leaving us was asked if the camp was a safe place, and he replied that we were as safe there as we would be in London. This assurance put to rest any anxiety about the Hauhaus, and we set to work to make ourselves comfortable in the whares at Opepe, after turning out our horses in a broken-down paddock at the edge of the bush. On Sunday some of us rambling about got three sheep, probably strays from one of the out-stations on the ranges to the east, and we killed them and hung them up in the camp. However, we never had the pleasure of eating them—the Maoris got them. On the following morning (Monday, 7 June) I went in search of my horse, which had strayed in the direction of Galatea, and after an unsuccessful search I returned to camp. It was raining, and I was wet through by the time I got back to the whares, so I took all my clothes off and put them to dry at a big fire which we lit in one of the smaller huts, built of ponga fern-tree trunks. In the largest whare, the door of which faced north, towards the bush, there were seven men; in another were three half-caste troopers from Tauranga, and I and the others were in the small hut.
“I had returned to the hut about an hour, and it was now
whare to talk to him; they took him for a friendly native. I heard more voices, and, getting up, was confronted at the door by two Maoris in fighting trim, with Enfield rifles capped and cocked.
“The Maoris shook hands with me, and allowed me to pass outside. I had just got up from my blanket, and had not a stitch of clothing on, as my uniform was not yet dry. I had a suspicion now that something was wrong. I did not attempt to take my arms. Passing the natives, I walked towards my comrades, most of whom were now outside the huts. Then all with one accord, realizing that the Maoris were enemies, made a rush for the shelter of the bush, which was perhaps a chain away. Not a single one of us had any arms; our carbines, revolvers, and swords were all in the huts.
“When we made the dash for the bush the Maoris did not five immediately, as they were on both sides of us, and they could not fire without endangering their own party. The instant, however, that the troopers ran the gauntlet a heavy volley was fired after us. The shooting continued as long as any of us were in sight; there were a great many shots fired. I had only time for a hasty glance about me when I realized that we were trapped, but long enough to see that the place was full of Maoris. Immediately the first volley was fired into us I took a different direction from that of the others, and dashed by myself for the bush, making to my left; they ran to the right. Bullets were poured after us; I saw them knocking up the earth all about me as I ran. As I was racing over the short distance between my hut and the belt of bush I received a skin wound; a bullet grazed my left arm, but I scarcely felt it. I plunged into the bush and made my way through it as fast as I could travel, and when I had gone four or five chains I met Trooper
“After coming out of the bush to the tussock country we lay down and rested for about ten minutes. We could hear nothing either of the Hauhaus or of our comrades. We rose and continued our flight, making for Fort Galatea, forty miles
“It was very cold, raw weather—the middle of winter—but the excitement and the speed at which we were travelling kept me from feeling it as much as I would otherwise have done in my naked condition. My feet suffered most—they were terribly cut about by the fern and the pumice track. We reached Fort Galatea at last that evening and gave the news of the attack on the camp. My feet were quite poisoned by the rough journey, and it was a long time before they were right again.
“Three more survivors straggled in long after us. Sergeant Dette and Trooper Lockwood reached Fort Galatea after spending three nights and two days on the Kaingaroa Plain. Neither of them saw the other all this time.
“When we made that dash for the bush I believe the three half-caste troopers from Tauranga were lying down in their whare, and they may have been killed there. I heard long afterwards, from a Maori in Opotiki who had been one of
“It was, of course, a most foolish and imprudent piece of work altogether. Our subaltern officer, Statement to the writer by
The first discovery of the tragedy at Opepe was made by Mr. Thomas Hallet, of Napier. He was with his brother and Mr. whares which had been fired by the Hauhaus. Then he discovered the naked bodies of two of the troopers lying between the whares and the bush. Two more bodies were found just within the edge of the bush. The surveyors turned and rode into Tapuae-haruru to inform Colonel St. John of the fate of his men. A body of Taupo Maoris from Poihipi's pa at Tapuae-haruru came out with St. John and buried the bodies of the nine men in two graves.
The cavalrymen killed were—Sergeant-Major Slattery, Troopers Ross, Lawson, McKillop (trumpeter), Cooke, H. Gill, Johnson, Bidois, and C. Poictier (Potie).
Those who escaped were—
Trooper Harry Gill was a Tauranga lad, the son of Judge Gill, of the Native Land Court. Johnson, Bidois, and Poictier were half-castes from Tauranga. The rest of the detachment were from Opotiki.
The Hauhaus stripped the dead of their uniforms, and secured the whole of the arms and equipment of the detachment—fourteen Calisher and Terry breech-loading carbines, and the same number of revolvers and swords, besides the horses and saddles. The ammunition captured was about twenty rounds per carbine. With these weapons
The most remarkable feature of the episode, probably, was the extraordinary physical endurance of Trooper Crosswell, who travelled across the desolate wind-swept Kaingaroa Plain from Opepe to Galatea, a journey of almost forty miles, in the depth of winter, in an entirely naked condition. Mr. Crosswell, who is a good example of the wiry, hardy pioneer, is still (1923) living at Opotiki.
Very shortly before the Opepe surprise two orderlies riding with despatches from Galatea to Taupo to overtake Lieut.-Colonel St. John were ambuscaded by the Hauhaus on the trail, and one of them was killed. These troopers, Donald MacDonald and Alexander Black, were hurried from Galatea soon after St. John's party had gone, with information brought in by Captain Mair's scouts that
“The troopers got off their horses and, to our surprise, retreated. Had they been Maoris or experienced soldiers they would, of course, have taken cover and skirmished up to us, for there were only three of us. I was armed with a carbine and revolver. I fired at the man who had fired at me [this was MacDonald], and my carbine-bullet struck him in the right thigh and smashed the bone. He fell, and as he lay there disabled Te Makarini shot him dead. This Makarini (McLean) was a Tuhoe man, an elder brother of Te Whakaunua, who was killed in the flight from Ngatapa. The other trooper escaped, after abandoning his horse and carbine. We took the arms and equipment and reported to Statement to the author by
Alexander Black, who left his horse and carbine and rushed down the track towards the Wheao River, succeeded in escaping to Fort Galatea.
Captain Preece, writing from Palmerston North, December, 1921, said: “We afterwards heard from the natives who were with
After the slaughter of the troopers
Lieut.-Colonel St. John immediately returned to the coast. Colonel Whitmore, in discussing these events in his book on the Maori wars, blamed St. John severely for his tardiness, for his assurance given to the escort that they had nothing to fear at Opepe and that a sentry was unnecessary, and for his conduct in withdrawing after an incident which in itself was not of great military importance, and by failure to advance at once, permitting mana.
FOR A FEW weeks in the winter and early spring of 1869 active hostilities were suspended, and pa Tapuae-haruru, on the western bank of the Waikato River at its point of exit from the lake. A little later a redoubt (which is still well preserved) was built by the Armed Constabulary on the opposite side of the Waikato; it was the nucleus of the present township of Taupo.
After Colonel Whitmore's departure for Wellington, in ill health, Colonel Harrington, with headquarters at Tauranga, was given command of the Bay of Plenty district. Harrington's first act was a grave blunder. He ordered the Armed Constabulary to abandon the redoubts at Matata, Fort Clarke, and Fort Galatea, and instructed the whole force to fall back on Tauranga, where he intended to put them through a course of drill for a few months. Lieutenant Preece had been sent to Patea with a new contingent of Ngati-Porou who had been enrolled for service in the Armed Constabulary on the West Coast. After handing the men over to Major Noake at Patea he returned to Wellington and there received instructions to go to the Bay of Plenty with Colonel Harrington.
hapu of Ngati-Porou, who was compelled by
“We had about two hundred people in our party which visited the Maori King's country. At the meeting the chief Manga (i.e., to beat the Europeans out of the Waikato).
“By the mouth of Tamati Ngapora (King Tawhiao's cousin) came the answer to the words spoken by Atua, their god, and that they would not bow down to his Atua. But when Tawaio heard of the reply he was wroth. He asked, ‘Why did you not agree with
Then, according to
“pakeha was to be in opposition to the Queen. His name was ‘Hakara Mihara,’ and he was chief of the Irish, of the French, and of the Germans! The Mataura Ngati-Porou, living on the Coromandel Peninsula, where the European mentioned had leased some native land, were the bearers of his messages. These are enemies of the Queen, and said they would join
“Later,” Wiremu continued, “pakeha mentioned. After we left Tokangamutu some few men of Ngati-Porou arrived from Mataura bringing gunpowder and percussion caps, with a message from the pakeha. kainga of Hera te Kaki. It was in consequence of the letter that the men brought the powder and caps. They were sent back again. The King and Te Hira acknowledged
By the “man of labour” Tawhiao meant
It was early in September, 1969, before active measures were taken to deal with
In September Captain St. George and Lieutenant Preece were ordered to cross Lake Taupo by canoe and co-operate with Colonel Herrick's Constabulary and the Ngati-Kahungunu at the south end. pa at Tauranga-Taupo on the east shore of the lake on the 9th September, and were attacked by
This fight at Te Pononga, in which only Maori troops were engaged, carried important consequences, for it stripped mana which he had acquired in the Taupo country, and it convinced Rewi and some of his Ngati-Maniapoto, who were awaiting the result of the battle, that the Government forces were likely to come out victors in the inland campaign. Rewi went home to Tokangamutu, and renounced all intention of assisting
Colonel McDonnell came up in time to see the end of the fighting on the Pononga Range and to congratulate St. George and Preece on their success. On the return to camp at Tokaanu it was found that No. 2 Division Armed Constabulary,
Shortly before this encounter whare near Roto-a-Ira. They were killed, mutilated with tomahawks, and thrown into a swamp, where the remains were found.
A few days were spent in scouting the enemy's position by Captain Northcroft, Lieutenant Preece with some natives, and Sergeant pa on the west and north-west sides, and McDonnell was not able to extend his force completely round the position in time, otherwise
A party of the Hauhaus took post in the edge of the bush and opened fire on the left flank of No. 2 Division as they were advancing to the assault. McDonnell detached a party to deal with them and launched the rest against the pa. Captain St. George and a force of Constabulary and friendly Maoris came at the double up the easily sloping hill on the east and rushed at the front of the work. St. George was leading on his men gallantly, charging through the short fern, when a bullet fired by
pa, said:—
“Our redoubt was a massive earthwork—it is standing there to-day—but it had one defect, which resulted in our defeat. In making the loopholes (huarahi-pu) in the sod and pumice walls, interlaid with fern, we made them straight (horizontal), and could not depress the muzzles of our guns to fire into the ditch. The Government troops, pakeha and Maori, got up under the parapets, and many of them snatched up lumps of pumice (pungapunga) and stuffed up the firing-apertures with them. We therefore could not see our nearest attackers unless we exposed ourselves over the top of the parapet.
“It was I,” continued Peita, “who shot a Statement to the writer by pakeha officer as he was leading his men in a charge up to the front of the pa.” [This was Captain St. George.] “I was just behind the short parapet (parepare) covering the gateway immediately inside the entrance. My weapon was a breech-loading carbine. When the officer, rushing ahead of his men, was about twenty paces from the entrance I fired and shot him dead. It was not pa, some little distance from the kuwaha (gateway). He was sitting there surrounded by a bodyguard of women.”
Sergeant
“The first shots fired in the Porere fight were from the top of a hill just to the Roto-a-Ira side of the Wanganui. I saw the flash of a gun-barrel there, and called out, ‘We'll get a volley directly,’ and so we did, but none of us was hit. We crossed the river and skirmished up to the pa. The redoubt held by the Maoris was built of pumice, earth, and ferns, and their bullets sent the pumice from the ground around flying into our eyes. I had some good shooting there as they were retreating, running out of their gateway, into the trench, and then making for the bush. Pompey, of Wanganui, was with us; he ran around the east angle of the pa to get a better shot, and was killed between that point and the gateway. I was trying to get one fellow who wore a smoking-cap. Lying flat on the ground I got a splendid shot, and he disappeared. I don't know whether it was I or some
All the Hauhaus found in the pa when the attackers at last succeeded in rushing it were shot or bayoneted. Thirty-seven Hauhaus were buried within the walls after the fight. The Government loss was four killed and four wounded. One of the killed was Komene, an Arawa sub-chief. The two Wanganui natives who fell, Winiata Pakoro and Pape (Pompey), belonged to the Ngati-Hau Tribe, and were fighters of exceptional activity and bravery. Winiata was shot dead while firing down into the Hauhaus from the top of their own parapet. Colonel McDonnell had ordered him to come down, but Winiata, who had been firing shot after shot into the crowded pa, said, “Only one more shot,” and fired; the next moment he fell from the earthwork, shot through the heart. His brother, Tonihi, had him buried in a running stream; the watercourse was diverted, a grave was dug in the gravel, and the stream was then allowed to return to its channel. This was done lest the Taupo Hauhaus should disturb the remains of Ngati-Hau's hero. pa.
The death of Captain St. George, killed while charging up to the pa front, was a source of deep sorrow to all his friends. Major Gascoyne wrote of him, “He was brave to rashness, and the finest horseman I ever knew.” St. George and Gascoyne had both joined the Hawke's Bay squadron of the Colonial Defence Force in 1863. The gallant soldier was laid to rest on the shore of Roto-a-Ira; two years afterwards Gascoyne brought his remains out to Napier, to be interred there with military honours.
pa and who had escaped to the bush, came in a few days later and surrendered to Colonel McDonnell. The Colonel had sent him a message by one of the women prisoners warning him to leave pa and of his escape, carried off to the bush by his elders.
The pa at Te Porere, the last redoubt constructed by pa is locally known as Mahaukura; Te Porere is the general name of the district. Its earth walls and rectangular flanking-works at the angles are in nearly as good order, except that their straight lines have been softened by bushes of flax and thick growth of fern, as when the rebel leader and his musketeers built the pa in 1869. The redoubt measures about 25 yards in length by 20 in width. The flanking bastions, devised to enfilade the outer side of the high parapet, would each have held about twenty men. The walls were built of sods and pumice, interlaid with fern, and square loopholes for rifle-fire were made in the parapets and kept open with pieces of timber. These loopholes, however, had been constructed without allowing for depression, so that when the Government men lined the outer ditch the Maoris within could not hit them without exposing themselves over the top of the parapet. The parapets are 8 to 10 feet high and 5 to 6 feet thick. The gateway on the eastern side of the redoubt is cleverly covered by earth parapets or traverses just within. In the interior of the work a long grassy mound marks the grave of nearly forty of
During the next few weeks the force made numerous expeditions through the surrounding forest country toward Tuhua, West Taupo, and had some small engagements up to the middle of January 1870. Colonel Herrick had left, and Colonel McDonnell remained in command. Kepa returned to Wanganui to get more men.
Two very brave actions performed at this time by members of the native contingent are worthy of record. It was necessary to send a despatch to the Premier, Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Fox, who was at Hiruharama, on the Wanganui River. Lieutenant Preece, in charge of the Arawa and Taupo contingents after the death of Captain St. George, was instructed by Colonel McDonnell to send a native orderly with a despatch to Hiruharama, a distance of more than ninety miles, of which thirty were open to the enemy. None of the Taupo natives knew the road (or they pretended they did not), so Preece said to Te Puia (who was partly an Arawa and partly a Wanganui native), “The Colonel wants a despatch carried to Hiruharama; do you know the country?” He replied, “Yes; give me a trooper's horse, and let me take any horse I see on the way.” He faithfully carried out his instructions, and on his return got through in one day and part of one night; he had used five horses on his way there and back, picking up his troop-horse to get to camp at Tokaanu. Lieutenant Preece often
The other incident occurred when the officers were anxious to secure accurate information as to
In January
“As I approached the monument [at Turanga-moana],” he wrote, “a Maori advanced to meet me, raising his hat and saluting me as he approached. I dismounted on learning that
Mr. Firth urged
“During the conversation,” said Mr. Firth, “his followers had formed in a half-circle at his back. They were all well armed, some with short Enfields, some with breech-loaders, and one or two double-barrel fowling-pieces, all apparently in excellent order. A well-dressed woman about twenty-five years old, of a handsome but melancholy cast of countenance, sat at
News reached Colonel McDonnell at Tokaanu that Major Kepa (Kemp) te Rangihiwinui and the Upper Wanganui chief
Lieutenant Preece was sent on through the bush with an advance party to locate the enemy, and managed to surprise and capture a party of Ngati-Raukawa—local Hauhaus. They said that
Two days later (24th January, 1870), lying low by day and marching by night, the force attacked and took Tapapa pa, a village of Ngati-Raukawa, on the bush track from Rotorua and Tauranga to the Waihou and Matamata. [The place is passed on the present vehicle-road through the forest of the Mamaku-Hautere Plateau, between Rotorua and Okoroire, and north-east of Putaruru.] One man belonging to a Hauhau picket was killed. On the following day mere pounamu (greenstone club) by a man who approached from the forest. [It was ascertained afterwards from Hapurona Kohu, a chief of the Urewera, that it was he who killed the forager.] The alarm was given by the man's companions, and the fighting became general.
Te Waru, a sub-chief of the Arawa (Ngati-Whaoa hapu, of Paeroa, near Waiotapu), was
Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell, in his narrative of the Taupo-Tapapa campaign, gave the following account of this bush engagement:—
“On the evening of the 24th January I told off those who were to remain in camp, amongst whom were the Nga-Rauru. [This tribe, from Waitotara, had recently been under
“The Nga-Rauru fought well, but were thrown into disorder and retreated on our Europeans, to whom I now gave the word to ‘Make ready.’ The wife of Pehimana, a Nga-Rauru chief, mounted a high whata (food platform) and, regardless of the bullets that flew round her, waved her shawl, crying out at the top of her voice, ‘Tahuri, tahuri, E Rauru e! Riria e te iwi, riria! Ngakia to mate! Ngakia! Riria e Rauru e, riria!’ (‘Turn, turn, O Rauru! Fight on, O tribe! Fight on! Absolve yourselves from sin! Clear yourselves, fight on, fight on!’)
“The exhortation to absolve themselves was referring to their having fought against the Queen, and now they were to do their best to prove their sincere sorrow for the past. The attitude of the excited woman was a perfect picture. Not one rap did she care for the bullets. Then the Nga-Rauru rallied, and with one wild yell charged at the enemy.
“Meantime I slipped round with some of the Arawa to our left and came upon the flank of the reserve of the enemy, who were kneeling at the rear of our camp, one man of them holding a staff with
After
THE HARASSING AND indecisive character of the campaign against
kanga'd, or pronounced a curse upon, the Arawa for their unswerving adherence to the Government and their persistent pursuit of himself and his band. He had also announced that his atua would deliver them into his hand, and that he would “hew them in pieces.” It is true that his strong supporters, the Urewera, including the chiefs Te Pukenui, Te Whenuanui, Paerau, Te Ahikaiata, and others of Tuhoe, who accompanied him on this campaign, were related to the Rotorua tribes, but it is not to be supposed that any intercession on their part would have saved the Arawa from his wrath. Moreover, only a few months previously their own country had been invaded by an Arawa contingent with Colonel Whitmore's force, and their villages and cultivations had been devastated by men led by the very chiefs most nearly related to Tuhoe. Not a whare had been left standing or a potato-store unspoiled in the mountain settlements.
The rebel chieftain's movements after his attack on McDonnell's camp at Tapapa were intended to throw his pursuers off his trail and disguise his matured intention to attack Rotorua. His scheme was cleverly laid. He sent one of his chiefs with a small force off northward, and he himself made in that direction, inducing the belief, as he intended, and indeed announced, that he was making for the Ohinemuri district. After a skirmish in the forest behind Okauia he made a sudden deflection to his right,
tauarai'd, or closed to war-parties, and the trail consequently was so overgrown and jungly that rapid marching was impossible. It was night before the Arawa column reached Te Ara-piripiri, near the edge of the great forest of the Mamaku plateau above the Rotorua lake-basin, and camped at the source of the Waiteti River. No fires were lit, lest the Hauhaus should discover them. The men's supper was a pannikin of water each, with a little sugar in it, and some biscuit.
At daylight next morning (7th February) the march was resumed, and Captain Mair writes as follows (22nd February, 1923) in reference to the share of the Tuhourangi Tribe in the day's work:— “The Tuhourangi made straight for Pari-karangi to protect their women and children there, and had they tried to cut off en route. Had
The enemy now lit large fires all along the edge of the forest between the upper Utuhina Stream and the settlements on the Tihi-o-Tonga, destroying the Arawa houses and crops. Mair, rushing on with the most active of his men, got up to the Utuhina soon after midday, and, running on in advance toward Pukeroa Hill, where the Maharo Redoubt stood, met the chiefs Petera te Pukuatua, taiahas; and he joined Mair, who fired the first shot near the spot where the Rotorua Presbyterian Church now stands. Then the leader dashed at the Hauhaus, who had turned to retreat. Tohe outstripped his officer in his eagerness to engage the enemy, and Mair had to call him back.
The enemy column now hastily retreated southward over the hill on the west side of the Hemo Gorge, passing through a bush called Te Karaka, on the summit of the ridge which trends along to the Tihi-o-Tonga. They then crossed the Puarenga Stream and followed up the valley parallel with the Wai-korowhiti. From here they struck in to the south side of the Waitaruna Stream and traversed a long level wiwi-covered valley called Te Wai-a-Urewera, which leads down into the Tahuna-a-Tara River. Thence they retreated across the Kapenga Plain and over some rough ground to the base of Tumunui Mountain. All this way they were hotly pursued by the gallant little band of Arawa led by Mair, who sometimes found himself so far in advance that only two or three of his men could come to his support. The black-bearded chieftain galloped about the plain in advance, shouting to his followers and waving his revolver. He wore a grey shirt, riding trousers, and high boots, and a bandit-like hat. In high contrast were his soldiery—a half-naked body of savages, whose brown skins glistened in the warm sunshine as if they had been oiled. They had that day killed a number of pigs, and many of them had greased their bodies well with pork-fat in anticipation of a running fight through the clinging fern and manuka. The clothing worn was in most cases a shawl or piece of blanket or a flax mat round the waist. Each man wore cartridge-belts—some had three or four—buckled round him; some were armed with revolvers as well as breech-loading rifles, carbines, or single- and double-barrel shot-guns. The first Hauhaus killed in the pursuit were shot east of the Puarenga, just after passing the Hemo Gorge; some distance farther on one or two more were killed, and near Ngapuketurua (opposite
The scene of the Ngapuketurua or Te Kauaka encounter, where a track from the ridge to the creek descends a steep bare ridge between two of the hollows mentioned, can be seen from the main road, less than 200 yards away. A short distance eastward the ridge rises to a height of about 300 feet, crowned by an ancient trenched and walled pa: this is called Kuharua. Just below it on the north two small spurs slope down and converge, and enclose a kind of saucer with steep sides. Below, again, there is a narrow gorge called Whaowhaotaha, its sides covered thickly with tutu and fern; through this gorge runs a small tributary of the Wai-taruna. Near a waterfall here Mair and his men two days afterwards found Te Kaka nursing his shattered jaw. Above this spot the main road runs along the winding valley known to the old Maoris as Te Mania-ia-tote. On the left are the slopes of Owhinau plantation, golden with young larches. The upper
After the repulse on the ridge above Te Kauaka—in this sharp affair Mair fired eleven shots—the Hauhaus turned to the right and made direct for the shelter of Tumunui Mountain, across the plain and valleys of Te Kapenga, passing about three miles on the south side of the Pakaraka native settlement. The pursuit continued relentlessly, Mair running ahead of his men and firing whenever a good chance offered. He had twenty-five or thirty men here, as opposed to at least double that number in
The final scene in the day's battle was near the great masses of grey volcanic rock fallen among the fern and manuka on the precipitous western side of Tumunui, the volcanic square-cut pile, with its cliffs and forests, which can be seen well from the main road to Waiotapu after passing the old kainga and remnant of bush on the tableland at Pakaraka. Under the cover of rock and scrub wiwi grass, let him come to within fifteen paces and fired. The bullet struck the half-caste in the right hip and passed out at the left, smashing the bones. He lay there after being deprived of his revolver, with which he attempted to shoot Mair, and a little later manuka on their left (south). Mair advanced with a few men, and presently found himself under a heavy fire from
The Hauhaus, after travelling hastily up the forested gully on the north of Tumunui, retreated direct for the Kaingaroa and the Urewera Country. Crossing the Waikorua Valley (Earthquake Flat) and passing the Pareheru bush, they took a trail on the north side of Maunga-kakaramea (the sharp-topped height called Rainbow Mountain), and camped for the night on the northern side of Lake Okaro. Mair, after a visit to his camp for food and ammunition, followed the Hauhaus up in the night, and at 2 o'clock in the morning he found their camp. He had only nine men with him. Creeping up as near as he could to the camp, he gave them a volley. The Hauhaus fled in confusion, leaving behind them some guns and many swags of clothing and food.
Mair had sixty rounds of ammunition in his pouches when the day's action began. When it ended he had only two cartridges left. His war-path uniform consisted of woollen shirt, blue tunic, knickerbockers, long stockings, and a short waist-shawl, Maori fashion. He had marvellous escapes from death in the close-range fighting, but his only wounds were lacerated legs from the hard run through the fern and manuka. For this day's good work he received his captaincy and (in 1886) the decoration of the New Zealand Cross for personal valour in the field.
About twenty Hauhaus were shot in the running fight. On the Arawa side
The big half-caste manuka twigs, which he fastened on top of his swag. It was probably the only living thing he loved. When Mair ran up to take his revolver from him, the dog ran at him and bit him in defence of his master.
The Arawa displayed great satisfaction at the death of
Two days after the fight Mair and his men discovered the wounded Hauhau chief
Among the Hauhaus wounded at the Kauaka, opposite Owhinau, was Kewene, an old soldier-of-fortune of the Ngati-Porou Tribe, from Mataura, on the Coromandel Peninsula. He had been
pa. Mair shot out one of his eyes.
Following up the enemy's trail on the 10th February Mair took a small party of men across country to the Okaro and Rerewhakaitu Lakes, and finding that the tracks of
This decisive defeat of
An incident of the rebels' retreat to the Rangitaiki was a highly plucky exploit on the part of a man of the Ngati-Manawa Tribe named Tiwha te Rangi-kaheke, who with his wife, Hera Peka, was living at Motumako. When
The month of March, 1870, saw a new policy initiated in the field operations against
After
The country between Rotorua and Tumunui Mountain over which Captain wiwi grass fifty years ago, were now densely overgrown with manuka and high fern, and the old tracks were in places impenetrable. The route of Mair's chase of the Hauhaus is parallel with the present main road from Rotorua Town to Waiotapu, and at one point, opposite Owhinau Hill, in the State forest reserve, it closely impinges on the road, from which it is separated only by the Wai-taruna Stream. As we rode along, picking our way through the scrub and crossing swampy gullies, Captain Mair pointed out the spots where he and his men from time to time dropped some of the Hauhau rearguard, where ambuscades were laid, where desperate rushes were made by
The Kapenga tableland over which we travelled along the old fighting-trail, a gully-seamed broken plateau, is covered with a thick growth of manuka and monoao shrubs, tutu, and fern, with many ti or cabbage trees and tall flax in the gullies and swamps. Another shrub growing in abundance is the handsome flowering-plant called by the Maoris hukihuki-raho, because of the obstruction it offers to travellers on foot. In olden days the Kapenga Plain was celebrated for its special quality of harakeke (flax), much used in making strong, tough ihupuni, or war-mats, which were worn as a kind of armour in hand-to-hand battles. At the time of the fight in 1870 its clothing of vegetation on the open parts was chiefly wiwi grass and fern.
(See sketch-map and Captain Mair's narrative in Appendices.)
THE SECOND MILITARY expedition to Lake Waikare-moana (May and June 1870) was a purely native one, a contingent of about three hundred strong with a few white officers. Major hapus of the Ngati-Kahungunu Tribe inhabiting the Wairoa district from Te Mahia to Mohaka. They were under the command of Mr. Edward Hamlin, Government interpreter, of Napier (afterwards Resident Magistrate at Maketu, Bay of Plenty), and Lieutenant J.W. Witty, formerly of the Hawke's Bay Military Settlers, second in command, while each hapu had its own chief, subordinate to the European leaders. Dr. M. Scott, of the Wairoa, accompanied the force as medical officer. Mr. Large joined it as a volunteer with the Ngaietu hapu, which took a leading part in the operations. The force was encamped on the border of a small lake named Kiri-o-Pukai, separated from Waikare-moana by a narrow ridge. The Maoris had already raised a small boat buried by Colonel Herrick at Onepoto, which had escaped the search of the Hauhaus, but the other one—a whaleboat sunk near Onepoto—the Hauhaus had found, and daily paraded before their foes on the lake. In order to provide additional means of transport Hamlin's force made two canoes out of large white-pine trees, and these were hauled over the ridge and launched on Waikare-moana, with the object of crossing the north-east arm, Whanganui-a-Parua. The chiefs Paora Apatu, Hamana Tiakiwai, and Toha were opposed to any forward movement of that kind, and urged the natives to go back to Wairoa, and not court disaster by attempting to cross the lake in winter. Mr. Hamlin, who was a forcible Maori speaker, always silenced these croakers. Nevertheless,
One day the Hauhaus in their flotilla of canoes and the whaleboat sallied out from the beach below Matuahu pa and made for the middle of the lake. Mr.
On the 21st May an armed party of Ngaietu volunteers, under the command of Mr. Large and accompanied by the chief Peneamine, went out scouting in a canoe around the shore of
“Cautiously coasting along the inequalities of the shore, with their rifles loaded and ready to hand, the canoe-men achieve the distance to the end of the bight without incident, when suddenly, near a small cultivation and a whare or two, they sight two Urewera men scouting, like themselves, in a canoe. Chase is given, but the Hauhaus paddle frantically for the shore, and the chance of drawing the first blood will be lost if they once gain the bush-clad strand. Peneamine resolves upon a long shot, and with a word, steadying the canoe, adjusts his rifle-sight and fires. One Maori drops listlessly over the side of the canoe and remains there; the other jumps overboard, reaches the shore, and seeks safety in the bush, whither it would not be prudent to follow him. A cry of triumph rises from the perpetrators of the apparently cowardly but absolutely necessary deed. As the first blood had been shed on the right side, the omens are propitious, and they exultingly shout ‘Mate rawa!’ (‘Quite dead!rsquo;) as they cautiously land and inspect the corpse and canoe, and proceed to visit the whares, carefully, however, leaving a sufficient guard on the canoes, and advancing with rifles cocked, bated breath, and that stealthy yet quick pace which was particularly noticeable in the after-skirmishing of this sub-tribe. They do not find much loot, however—some £2, with a beautifully bound English prayer-book, a gun or two, and other miscellaneous articles; only one gun, a dead man, and two paddles remain in the canoe. Rather disappointed as to the spoils, but jubilant in the first success, they return to camp, and that evening the war-dance echoes and re-echoes over the lake-waters, responded to by the firing of musketry, braying of horns, and derisive yells from the Hauhau villages.”
The next day (22nd May) two Hauhaus came off from Matuahu in a canoe under a flag of truce, and, lying off the camp at Onepoto, opened negotiations with the Government side. In response to a demand for surrender they replied that they would hold a consultation at their pa and report the result next day. All this, however, was only a ruse to gain time or to reconnoitre Hamlin's position, for shortly afterwards the outlying scouts reported the passage of eight canoes, four of them very large ones, and the whaleboat, all fully manned, from Tikitiki to Matuahu, and thence to Ohiringi, on the south side of the lake, thus menacing the rear of the Government position and the communications with Wairoa. Lieutenant Witty counted twenty-five men in one canoe, and the whole detachment was probably
The principal men of the native force were very much averse to crossing the lake and attacking the Hauhau positions. However, the officers contrived by stratagem to get the better of the chiefs. “Our leaders,” writes Major Large, “gave out that on the morrow we were going foraging for food amongst the plantations on the Wairoa side of the lake; but we took care that none but the best men were of the party, which was under the command of Lieutenant Witty. Having launched our two canoes and the dinghy, we started round the east side of the lake in the direction of Whanganui-a-Parua, the north-east end. On reaching the prominent headland Matakitaki we made a dash for the opposite shore. It was a race and I and three Ngaietu men—Pine Pape, Teira Morutu, and Hirini Kereru—in the dinghy were the first to land in the enemy territory, closely followed by the others in the canoes. By great good fortune the Hauhaus did not anticipate that we would cross at that place, and were not there to oppose our landing, otherwise they might have inflicted heavy loss on us before we got to the shore. On landing we advanced in skirmishing order through the bush with which that side of the lake was covered, going in the direction of Matuahu, a well-fortified pa, on a headland. We met with no opposition till we got to an old clearing named Taumataua, when we received a rattling volley from the top of a cliff commanding it. However, it did little damage, as we had cover. Lieutenant Witty soon had the Hauhaus outflanked, and we drove them back. Here we camped, and sent the canoes and boat across to Onepoto for reinforcements and supplies, and our surgeon, Dr. Scott, arrived. The following day the Hauhaus attacked us again, but we repulsed them. Amongst their casualties was the chief Enoka, who was killed. The day following we advanced in force on Matuahu, the great stronghold of the enemy, which we found evacuated.”
The contingent spent over a month at Matuahu, where the whole force concentrated. A small party of the Waikare-moana Hauhaus, under Hona te Makarini and Hori Wharerangi, came in under a flag of truce and surrendered. They reported that some of their people had perished in the snows of Huiarau, the mountain-range between Waikare-moana and Ruatahuna, in retiring from the Government force.
The following song was composed and sung by the Ngati-Kahungunu friendly Maoris as an accompaniment to a haka taparahi danced at Tikitiki pa, on the northern shore of Lake Waikare-moana, after the capture of the Hauhau strongholds when
Taku WhakatakaririKi nga upoko-kohuaO Ngati-MatewaiI huri atu raKi te Hauhau—e!Pehi ra waiho te KawanaTu ana tono atuKia Kite ia i nga wai-Ko pikopikoO Waikare ra!Toia tu ana taku haereKi te whakawhitianga ki Whakaari,Te mauri aroha tiakiNa taku pa i Tikitiki.Ko wai ra kai roto?Ko koe na, Hori.E tapu ra koe.Ka whana atu auKa haere ki te rapaI taku hara ia Te Kooti,
Great is my anger at those cursed ones of Ngati-Matewai who have turned them to the Hauhaus. Leave them to the Governor standing there, waiting to see the many-armed waters of the sea of Waikare. Pull away! Here we go crossing the lake to Whakaaripa. Jealously, lovingly, this ourpais guarded at Tikitiki. Who is within? ‘Tis Hori! Thou'rt sacred now, safe from our guns. I go in chase of him who led the tribes to war,Te Kooti , with whom Te Waru fled. They're flying now, flying for life, by mountain-peak and cliff, by deep-hidden waters, and through the snowy wilderness.
“Now we were in the enemy's country,” narrated Major Large, ”our forward movements in force were retarded by the want of proper means of transport, as we had still only our two canoes and the dinghy; this small boat had been damaged. So a number of our young bloods, weary of our somewhat long period of inactivity, conceived the idea of making a dash to the head of the western inlet at Mahungarerewai and capturing the big canoes and whaleboat from the Hauhaus encamped there. So choosing a dark night, they filled the two dugouts with as many men as they would carry, and, without consulting the leaders, quietly started up the inlet. I was the only white man they took with them. We surprised the Hauhaus, who offered no resistance, and we came back in the morning in triumph to Matuahu with four or five large canoes and the whaleboat.
morehu (remnants of a slaughtered tribe) left to tell the tale. This I found out afterwards when I was at Ruatahuna with Ngati-Porou.”
The force now had abundant means of transport, and made raids to the Wairau and Marau branches of Waikare-moana. Parties visited all the settlements round the borders of the lake, destroying whares, canoes, and other property of the Hauhaus, and bringing away the food, in retaliation for the forays on the coast settlements.
After this short and successful campaign, conducted under winter conditions, the native contingent returned to the Wairoa and dispersed to their homes. Later an Armed Constabulary station was garrisoned at Onepoto and remained an outpost of importance until the final flight of
The captured Hauhau position at Matuahu was described as follows in an account written by Dr. Scott shortly after the war:—
“Matuahu, pa, and retreated in boats and canoes to the opposite headland and settlement, Tikitiki.
“The Matuahu Village, including runanga house, a large and spacious building elaborately carved and embellished, consisted of from fifteen to twenty houses of various kinds, mostly of the wharepuni type, but in many instances of a kind peculiar to the lake denizens and the inhabitants of the cold mountainous Urewera Country. These subterranean abodes were usually built under a projective bank in the side of a declivity, or were otherwise heavily earthed over, and possessed no means of ventilation other than that afforded by a sliding door of small dimensions, impossible to enter except in a stooping position. No windows, of course, enlightened these troglodytic dwellings, to which the Urewera resort during the stormy winter months. The much-vaunted fortifications—so formidable in aspect from the other side of the lake—simply did not exist in their apparently efficient defensive completeness, resolving themselves mostly into the natural sharply defined contour of the edge of the rocky cape, or, at most, hollow-ways, banks, and rudimentary earthworks evidently thrown up by the wily Urewera more with a view to affect the vision of spectators from the other side than for actual military use.
“Snugly ensconced in one of these recesses hollowed out in the bank, and affording from the parapet formed by the excavations a wide view of the opposing pa of Tikitiki and of the neighbouring arms and inlets. I found the officers of the expedition and the Armed Constabulary orderlies. They had rigged a tent, consisting of the united oil-sheets of the party (seven in number), fastened securely to the parapet and stretching to a sapling of corresponding length secured to two stout uprights in front, thus forming a tolerably comfortable domicile and defensive earthwork combined. In front blazed a large fire of logs, while scattered over the peninsula burned numerous other fires indicating the bivouacs of the many sections of tribes and hapus of which the field force was composed. The
“Morning dawned, and with it broke upon us one of those violent winter storms for which Waikare-moana is notorious, the sleet and rainladen gusts of wind rushing down the ravines of the mountain-ranges with tremendous force and literally tearing up the surging lake-waters, hurling them against the cliffs and high into the air, while the whole surface of the moana was whitened with foam. Under such circumstances marine communication with Onepoto and Sergeant Monahan (in charge of supplies) was quite impossible, and as overland communication was equally out of the question, I speedily obtained some enlightenment as to the ways and means of our officer's mess. The fare was ample, though without much variety, and the cuisine an unvarying success, inasmuch as it was impossible for it to be otherwise. The rations consisted of potatoes (ex preterea nihil), or, as Mr.
“But fortunately the storms of mountainous regions, though extremely violent, are usually of short duration. We were not long in relieving Sergeant Monahan and Messrs. Davis and Banks of their charge—three hundred sheep and other provisions for the force. The Maoris, after refreshing the inner man after their manner for a day or two, began to think (stimulated as usual by their European leaders) of further aggressive movements. An assault by lake and land on Tikitiki was being organized, when the display of a flag of truce on that promontory signified a desire on the part of the Urewera to treat for peace. Consequently, on the 16th June, 1870, while two heavily armed canoes were kept under the shadow of our headland, fully on the alert and prepared to dart out and across the lake if any treachery was manifested, Mr. Hamlin crossed over to Tikitiki, meeting there the three Urewera chiefs Te Makarini, Moko-nui-a Rangi, and Hori Wharerangi. After an amicable conference the chiefs departed for Ruatahuna bearing the Government ultimatum of unconditional surrender to Paerau, Te Whenuanui, and the Urewera there assembled.”
While the negotiations were going on, the Government force explored all the arms and inlets of the lake by boat and canoe, and the various overland tracks were noted for future use if necessary. Immense quantities of potatoes—one estimate was a sufficient amount to sustain a thousand men for fifteen months or more—were destroyed by the native parties. More than a hundred cultivations were destroyed by process of breaking down the fences and turning up the potatoes to the frost. The whares in all the villages were looted and burned; indeed, the whole lake-shore was devastated.
It was towards the end of June that Mr. Large's secret expedition to Mahungarerewai and Hereheretaua, at the head of the northern outlet of the lake, revealed the fact that the enemy had all gone inland to Ruatahuna, leaving their large canoes and whaleboat at the landing-place at Hereheretaua.
Colonel Herrick's futile expedition to Waikare-moana is 1869 cost £42,000. Hamlin and Witty's native force, which subjugated the Hauhaus of the lake district, incurred an expense of only £3,000.
THE FOREST WHICH clothes with its dark-green blanket the steep slopes of Maunga-pohatu, the “Rocky Mountain” in the heart of the Urewera Country, is a mysterious, gloomy place. Day is semi-darkness in the tree-shadowed depths of the ravines which scar the mountain-sides, so thick is the screen of leaves and so closely do the boughs of the native pines and beeches interlace themselves overhead. Streamers of grey and white moss in many places drape the ancient trees; these pendulous mosses, hanging there in the silences, look like rows of Druid beards, and the half-light heightens the fancy. Underneath the foot there are dense beds of ferns, and, except where the narrow horse-tracks or foot-trails wind up the valleys and over the ridges, the jungly undergrowth needs work with tomahawk or slasher. The castellated limestone ridges of Maunga-pohatu are seldom free from mists or rain-clouds; the old Maoris say it is the tapu which has clung to the Rocky Mountain for centuries, enveloping the sacred burial-mountain of the Urewera from the profaning gaze and tread of the invader, and particularly the white invader. Even to-day in the summer it is a rough place and hard to travel; in winter it is often snow-bound. Yet the Colonial Government forces campaigned over this inhospitable country in winter as well as in summer in the war-days of 1870–71. They were Maori forces, with but three or four white officers, and they spent months in penetrating these almost trackless wilds, always in danger of sudden ambuscade by the Urewera hillmen, whose gorges and forests were their chief defences. Colonel Whitmore's campaign of 1869 did not touch the Rocky Mountain; it was left for a purely native expedition, with one European officer, to break for the first time the tapu of Maunga-pohatu.
A Ngati-Porou contingent, about three hundred and seventy strong, marching from Poverty Bay in February, 1870, via the Ngatapa Valley and the Ruakituri, was well in the heart of the Urewera forests by the second week in March, tramping its way slowly up the wooded slopes that led to Maunga-pohatu. Major
pikau, or swags, held supplies of biscuit, bacon, sugar, and tea.
Porter was shawl-kilted, like his Maoris; he carried a swag on his shoulders, and was armed with a Terry carbine with gunstock; round his neck, by a lanyard, sailor-fashion, he wore a Colt's six-chamber revolver. With him he had a guide, spy, and bodyguard, a Maori named Hori Niania, a Hauhau whom he had captured at Te Reinga some time previously, and who now proved a reliable and useful guide. It was this man who described to Porter the situation and defences of the strongholds on the sides of the Rocky Mountain. On the 12th March the Government war-party, weary with the long march, had camped in the forest close to a Hauhau pa, which, however, they could not yet see. They did not dare light a camp-fire, for fear of their advance being detected by pa stood on a tongue of land at the junction of the two steep-banked mountain-streams. It was a stockaded village, and its front and sides were so well palisaded that it would not be an easy place to storm. At the rear of the pa the mountain rose steeply, and the forest grew close up to it; it was named Horoeka, which is the native name of the lancewood, because of the abundance of that small tree in the vicinity. Higher up the range, and more to the west, were the Urewera villages te Kakari and Toreatai. In the “Lancewood” pa dwelt the principal families of the Ngati-Kowhatu (the “Tribe of the Rocks”). Toreatai was the capital and citadel of the savage Ngati-Huri, whose chief was Hetaraka. Ngati-Huri belonged to Maunga-pohatu, but Ngati-Kowhatu was an Upper Wairoa tribe; the principal chief was Te Rakiroa, an old-time rebel. Both tribes were strong supporters of
“You attack Horoeka,” said Ropata to Captain Porter; “I shall push on to Toreatai. I leave you pa.”
When the old Maori soldier had moved off with his column Porter made his disposition of the division under his command. He determined, after again questioning Hori Niania, to attack the stockade from the rear. It was a rough and difficult march in the darkness through the dense bush and across the watercourses. Porter guided the force by compass. At last the column came out near the place where the two streams, as described by Hori Niania, made junction. Dimly looming there, Porter saw the sharp-topped palisade of timber that surrounded the village. The glimmer of a fire could be seen, and voices were heard.
As Porter had previously arranged, he took the rear of the pa himself, with a hundred Aowera men, intending to make the assault as soon as daylight came. The other hundred, under
“Go down the creek-bed,” he instructed Henare; “have your men ready when you hear us charge in, but don't fire a shot or make the slightest noise until then, or you'll spoil it all.”
With the utmost caution, the force surrounded the Hauhau position. Just before daylight the cordon was complete, and Porter and his immediate followers crouched behind some logs close to the rear gateway of the stockade.
As the dawn began to creep over the sleeping forest Porter suddenly saw a figure before him. It was an old Maori woman
The woman, scenting danger, stopped and looked intently into the dim forest, and cast a suspicious gaze all around. She turned to go again, and then, looking quickly back over her shoulder, she saw Porter in the act of rising from the ground.
The old woman gave a startled cry, but next moment, at Porter's shout, “Me kokiri!” (“Charge!”) the Government men
wahine in their rush, dashed in through the open gateway. Porter called, “Hangaia te ngutu o te pu ki nga whare!” (“Thrust the muzzles of your guns into the houses!”) The woman's cry had apparently not alarmed the camp, for the people were talking in a large meeting-house which stood on one side of the marae, or village square, and there was not a soul out-of-doors but the one old woman. On the opposite side of the square to the large whare were a number of small huts, half-buried in the earth and roofed with totara bark.
Porter rushed to the meeting-house, and his men thrust their rifle-muzzles into the door and window. All the houses were similarly covered. It was a complete surprise for Ngati-Kowhatu.
“Come out!” Porter shouted. “Come out, all of you, or I'll fire into you! Pass your guns out first and come out!”
There was a vociferous babble of voices within. Ngati-Kowhatu were boiling with anger and chagrin. They had all been listening to an oration by a notorious Hauhau from the Bay of Plenty, one Iharaira (“Israel”), who had arrived in the pa the previous day; he was one of the murderers of Bennett White at Waiotahe in 1867. “Israel” had been narrating his deeds and glorifying
The people sullenly filed out from the wharepuni, passing out their guns, butt first, as they came. All the force was now in the pa, and as the captured villagers fell in on the marae they were surrounded by armed guards. Porter himself took charge of Iharaira, who surrendered a fine greenstone mere which he had been carrying under his flax mat. [This trophy Porter returned to its owner a few days later, in token of trust, when that rebel was sent on a diplomatic mission to the headquarters of the Urewera. Iharaira vanished, mere and all, and that was the last that was heard of him.] Rakiroa, it was found, was away with
The Tribe of the Rocks would have fired upon Porter and his followers had they had but a few moments' warning. But too well they knew what would be their fate if they attempted resistance now. There were ninety-three prisoners, about half of whom were women and children. Few of them had any European clothing; most of them wore rough Maori mats: a shaggy-headed, rude clan of the mountains.
Just as Porter had assembled and disarmed the bushmen of Horoeka heavy volley-firing was heard. It came from far up the foggy ranges, in the direction of Ngati-Huri's villages. Ropata was engaged in a severe fight. The volleys rolled thunderously through the mountain-gorges. Then the firing suddenly ceased.
Captain Porter decided to march his prisoners through the bush and join Ropata at Toreatai. It was an undertaking attended with considerable risk, but he guarded against that as far as was possible. “You must walk in front of me,” he said to Iharaira, “and be very careful or you'll have a bullet through your head.” Each of the other prisoners he placed in front of a Ngati-Porou man so that in the event of any trouble the rebels could quickly be shot.
“Now,” he said to his prisoners when the column stood ready to march, “listen to me. We are not going to kill you if you behave yourselves and march quietly. But if any of you gives trouble or attempts to escape, that one will be shot.”
Horoeka was left deserted. One of the prisoners guided the column. All the mountain villages had been alarmed by this time, and the Urewera had taken to the bush. From ridge to ridge their sulky war-horns (conch-shells) and pu-tatara, or wooden trumpets, echoed. But they did not attack his column; and so that afternoon the two divisions met. Ropata had had a sharp fight and lost one of his men killed (Pene Kerekere) before driving the enemy out of their position at Te Kakari, which he was now engaged in strengthening with parapets in anticipation of an attack by the bushmen.
Ropata went on next day to Tauaki pa, where a prisoner was taken, and sent out sortie-parties, who ascended Maunga-Pohatu and scouted the rugged country in pursuit of Ngati-Huri. It was then decided to march out down the Waimana and meet Kepa and his Wanganui Contingent, who were supposed to be in that direction. Ropata also intended to attack Tamaikowha on the Lower Waimana.
Ngati-Porou had a harassing march out toward the Waimana, for they were attacked flank and rear by the Urewera. Porter commanded the advance-guard, while Ropata took charge of the rear-guard, which had most of the fighting. Several men were hit, but none seriously. The Urewera ceased to worry their foes when Ngati-Porou had crossed a ridge at Tawhana which divided them from the Waimana headwaters.
Some stragglers of Ngati-Tama were met on the Upper Waimana, and they reported that Kepa had visited Tauwharemanuka and made peace with Tamaikowha. This by no means pleased Ropata, who would have dealt with the savage chief of Ngai-Tama in a very different fashion.
The leaders met Tamaikowha at his kainga and learned from him that pa high up in the gorge of the Waioeka River. Ngati-Porou marched out to Ohiwa, where Kepa was found encamped with some of his Ngati-Hau; the rest were at Opotiki. The Nga-Rauru, from Waitotara, who had fought so well at Tapapa were included in Kepa's force.
Ropata went on to Opotiki, while Kepa and pa, where most of the Hauhaus were. The murderer, Kereopa, was there, but escaped in the confusion. The action was short and sharp. Nineteen men of the rebel band were killed, including a number of prisoners summarily executed on the river-bank. One of those killed was old Hakaraia, a notorious Hauhau leader belonging to the Ngai-te-Rangi, Piri-Rakau, and Ngati-Raukawa
pa, and over a hundred Hauhaus were made prisoners. Ropata and Porter and their Ngati-Porou now arrived from Opotiki, having marched for many miles up the bed of the Waioeka River, camping one night in the gorge. A short distance below the Maraetahi settlements they drove back a picket guarding a narrow part of the gorge. Maraetahi pa was then assaulted and taken.
The Government parties lost no men in these operations. The combined force, numbering now six hundred and seventy men, marched back to Opotiki, whence the Wanganui Contingent
Major Pitt and Captain Richardson, of the A.C. force, and Captain Porter, hurried up to Tolago Bay with a small party of volunteers, and were joined by the Hauiti. This composite body marched at once on
The search for hapus and prevent them joining hapus for this purpose, and arranged to set out on the march early in the new year. Meanwhile, on the western side of the ranges the newly enrolled Arawa Contingent, under Captains Mair and Preece, was scouting the borders of the Urewera in search of
The operations of the Arawa Constabulary will be described in the next chapter.
TOWARDS THE END of March, 1870, Captain
From the 6th April, 1870, onward Captains Mair and Preece led their Arawa companies in a number of expeditions on the borders of the Urewera Country, and had a few unimportant skirmishes with the enemy in different places. On the 17th April a Ngati-Whare man named Paraone te Tuhi, and four others who had been in one of the skirmishes, came in under a
When Major Kepa and his Wanganui Contingent advanced from Ohiwa up the Waimana River, Tamaikowha, the Urewera chief of Waimana, who had been the leading spirit in the rebellion in the Opotiki country in 1867 and 1868, met Kepa and made peace. He declared that he had never joined
“Lieut.-Colonel St. John was induced by the chief Tamehana Tahawera, of Ngati-Pukeko, and Wi Maihi pa of the Urewera chief Rakuraku, on Ohiwa Harbour. Both the chiefs mentioned had had relatives killed by pa. I was ahead on the track leading up to the village with two Whakatohea scouts. Suddenly an old man appeared and came right up to us; he had a calabash in his hand, and was going down to a spring for water. He passed on, and Tamehana Tahawera led him down the track, and before we could prevent the deed he had killed the old man
patu. It was a deliberate murder; it was Tahawera's way of obtaining revenge for the murder of his niece Ripeka on the Whakatane in 1869. Tamaikowha and his party, hearing the noise made by our people, retreated from the pa down a cliff into the Nukuhou River, seaward of the present road. The old man killed was Tepene, father of Tamaikowha; and, as Tamaikowha had already made peace with the Government, the expedition was a mistake. It was simply a scheme by the two friendly chiefs to make use of the Government forces and secure revenge for their family losses. St. John shortly afterwards was removed from the command of the Opotiki district.”
In July, 1870, Captain Rushton, who was acting intelligence officer and scout at Opotiki, hearing that some of the Whakatohea Tribe were in communication with pa, which surrendered at once, and led the people off as prisoners. After taking the tribe inland
This ended the war against the Urewera, although a small section of them from Maunga-pohatu under Te Whiu were still out with
Te Waru Tamatea and his tribe of Wairoa (H.B.) natives, who dared not show themselves in the Wairoa district on account
The Urewera mountain tribes were now growing weary of allowing themselves to be used by the rebel leader. Early in May 1870 Captain Preece heard that the Urewera chiefs Paerau te Rangi-kaitipuake and Te Whenuanui, of Ruatahuna, were inclined to break away from
On one of the many expeditions made by Captains Mair and Preece during the latter part of 1870, scouring the western borderland of the Urewera, they intercepted a party of
From April, 1870, to April 1871, Mair and Preece with their respective contingents patrolled the country from Te Teko as far as Heruiwi, and through the bush from Waiohau to Horomanga and Ahi-kereru, keeping in constant touch with the Armed
On the 27th May, 1871, Captains Mair and Preece started from Fort Galatea on their first expedition after mere pounamu at Tapapa in January, 1870. He was the chief of the first Urewera who surrendered in April, 1870. Hapurona was a man of great influence with the Urewera, and could be trusted to give reliable information. The passage through the country was not without risk of opposition from the more irreconcilable members of this wild hill tribe. Indeed, before Mair and Preece left Ruatahuna they received a defiant message from Kereru te Pukenui, a chief who occupied the Whakatane Valley below Ruatahuna, warning them not to return or they might get into trouble; this man's influence extended as far as Maunga-pohatu.
After leaving Ruatahuna the first march was over the Huiarau Range, and thence through rugged country and down the river-bed to Hereheretaua, on the northern shore of Waikare-moana. The officers had previously sent an Urewera native with a message to Hona te Makarini, the chief who had surrendered to Mr. Hamlin in the latter part of the previous year, bidding him have canoes to take the Arawa over to his settlement and to be ready to meet them. The canoes were provided, and Preece, having crossed to Waitohi, sent them back for Captain Mair and his men. On the following day the two commanders took the men over to Tikitiki, Te Makarini's settlement. Captain Mair remained there, while Captain Preece, Sergeant Bluett, and
Now Mair and Preece, taking with them Hapurona Kohi, who proved very useful as a guide, crossed the lake to the Whanganui-a-Parua arm and marched for Maunga-pohatu. After a very laborious journey they surrounded the settlement Te Kakari. This was the place where Ropata had had an engagement in 1870, losing one man killed. It was a strong position, about two miles west of Maunga-pohatu peak, which was separated from it by a deep ravine in which a tributary of the Waimana flowed. The forest grew close up to the pa on the south-east side. The force crept up to the palisade surrounding Te Kakari Village one afternoon in dull overcast weather, and Mair entered the place unobserved and called on the people to lay down their arms and have no fear. Hapurona told the natives that the Government had no quarrel with any but pa; most of the young fighting-men were away in the direction of Opotiki. The inhabitants of Te Kakari made an attempt to retreat, but found each gateway blocked by the Arawa. The surprise was complete; submission was the only course, and the Arawa made them their unwilling hosts. It was discovered too late that Kereopa had been in the pa, but escaped from an unguarded side when the place was entered. The force remained at Te Kakari next day (19th June), and on the following morning marched on to Tauaki, a pa several miles below Te Kakari. There they met the notable warrior Tamaikowha, with some seventy of his tribe. Tamaikowha received the force in a very friendly manner; Major Mair's diplomatic visit to him the previous year had had the effect of allaying his anger over the slaying of his father, Tepene. Peace was cemented with the assembled people; in the symbolic phrase of the Urewera, the tatau pounamu, the greenstone door, was erected—an expression for a lasting peace.
The two commanders had intended pushing on from Maunga-pohatu to the forests of Te Wera, at the head of the Waioeka and Hangaroa Rivers, where pa, on the high range, and from there to Te Whakaumu, where the track to Te Wera branches off, thence to Tawhana, at the junction of the Tauranga and Tawhana Streams, which form the Waimana Valley. The next point reached was Tauwhare-manuka, in the gorge of the Waimana, where Tamaikowha had built a large meeting-house. It had been named “Runanga” to commemorate the making of peace, but he, with grim humour, renamed it “Tepene,” after his father, who had been killed at Whakarae. A long march down the river, which was crossed forty-two times, took the force into the Lower Waimana. On the 26th June the Arawa arrived at Opotiki, and after another march in bad weather reached their headquarters at Te Teko on the 2nd July.
The force had been over a month going through the most rugged terrain in the North Island of New Zealand, and although Mair and Preece had not achieved much in the way of fighting, they had shown the Urewera that they could get through their country in the depth of winter. After-events proved that it was fortunate they did not go to Te Wera, for
THE THIRD EXPEDITION of Ngati-Porou to the Urewera Country, under Major korero with the savage chieftain of Ngai-Tama, who, as usual, made truculent speeches but ended the meeting with expressions of friendship, the united force marched into the ranges again, and at Tawhana and Te Kakari met the principal chiefs of the Urewera, who had declared that they would not allow booted feet to pass the boundaries of Maunga-pohatu. Ropata discovered that
At Wairoa Lieutenant (afterwards Major)
“The Ngati-Porou were accustomed to take two or three week's rations with them when they went into the back country, and it was a sight to see their immense swags of food, clothes, and ammunition. I had to do likewise and carry a heavy pikau on my back. We had literally to be beasts of burden, for no horses, or even mules, could go through the country we were to traverse—high forest-clad ranges, with precipitous gorges and creeks, containing deep pools alternating with rapids and falls. Beyond the strip of occupied country next to the coast there were no tracks, and we had to force our way through high fern, scrub, or bush as best we could.
“We first went up the Wairoa River to Mangaaruhe, thence across the Orewha Ranges, descending to the Ruakituri River—a branch of the Wairoa—at Erepeti, where our advanced guard captured one of aruhe (fern-root), which when roasted and beaten is not unpalatable to a hungry man; tawa berries, with a turpentine flavour, not nice; and whinau berries. The whinau (or hinau) pulp is of a floury nature when separated from the kernels by pounding; it was made into a sort of bread (called by the Urewera te whatu-nui-a-Rua), and when eaten with fat pork it was fairly nutritious, though coarse. Then there was the mamaku fern-tree, the pith of which when cooked in a native oven and flavoured with wild honey is not bad, though it has no strength in it. A rather good bush vegetable is the pikopiko, the curled shoots of the mauku fern. The natives have long given up the use of these bush foods; but we had on several expeditions to eat them or starve, and when we were on short commons we always had a raging appetite; in fact, we even enjoyed being roused up at night to munch a piece of boar's hide an inch thick when it had been boiled long enough for us to get our teeth through it. Our hunters who operated in the rear of the column caught many pigs, principally in the fern country.
“As we were disappointed at not finding kaka parrots. In one of the songs composed by the Ngati-Porou descriptive of our wanderings in the primeval forest this incident is alluded to as follows: He mokai kaka ka rangona te ngete-ngetetanga (The chattering of a pet kaka parrot was heard). We crossed the Makaretu, then went down the Whare-kopae, and out by the Waipaoa to Turanganui (Gisborne), where we rested and enjoyed good living after our hardships.”
The white officers in these expeditions observed many primitive customs among the Urewera people. Particularly interesting were the various devices by which the mountain tribes captured the birds of their forest-covered country. Major Large, describing these bird-taking methods, said: “The waka-kereru was perhaps the most common. This was simply a wooden trough filled with water, round the sides of which snares were fixed. These were tied up in the trees frequented by the native pigeon, and caught many when they came to drink. Then, there was the tutu-kaka. A handy tree was chosen, the small upper branches of which were cut short. On these were fixed perches, called mutu-kaka—carved, as a rule—on which rested loops of string arranged in such a way that when pulled taut by a man hidden in a leafy screen underneath they caught by the leg any unwary kaka that happened to light on the perch. A decoy bird served to entice his fellows. Smaller birds were killed with a long stick switched along a pole stuck in the ground at an angle of 45 degrees. A decoy bird was fastened to the upper end of this pole to attract the birds by its calls.”
In the chase after
“Wading in the water so much, crossing and recrossing creeks and rivers, we found the rapaki, or waist-shawl, infinitely superior
ahi poporo, being slips of rimu-bark bound in a bundle, like shingles, and lit on top. It burnt steadily downwards till there was nothing left, diffusing a generous warmth all round.”
The fourth expedition of Ngati-Porou, starting from Poverty Bay in June 1871, was divided into four companies of fifty men, each of which could work independently if necessary. The leaders were Ropata, Porter, hinau berries, pounded up—a food hard to digest. The weather was wet and wintry—it was now the middle of June—and three men were lost in the bush and died from cold and exhaustion. The inhospitable recesses of Te Wera were again searched, but
After resting there and obtaining supplies the force once more entered upon the toilsome chase. A hundred men under Ropata marched for the southern and western sides of Waikare-moana, while Captain Porter and Lieutenant Large with 150 men marched in the other direction, going up the Ruakituri and then striking towards Maunga-pohatu. Porter and Large were engaged on that march during August, when they were overtaken by Captain Preece, who gave the news of an engagement with
ON THE 17th July, 1871, a telegram was received by Captain Preece at Te Teko stating that
In spite of the weather, which continued very bad, the Arawa were kept constantly busy. Captain Mair started with twelve men to scout the ranges southward towards Runanga stockade, where Captain
Mair and Preece started at once, making for Pareranui through the bush. They had about eighty men. Besides the officers there were only three Europeans in the contingent—Sergeant H. P. Bluett and two buglers, Crimmins and Kelly. The Whirinaki River (a tributary of the Rangitaiki) was flooded, and they had great difficulty in crossing, but in the open country of the Whirinaki they found good marching for about five miles. They then took to the bush again, up the Okahu Gorge, and camped at Manawahiwi. The next day they marched over the ranges to Oputao, in the Ruatahuna Valley, and thence to Whatakoko, where they camped. A message was sent to Paerau te Rangi-kaitipuake telling him to keep his people together for fear
There were no canoes there, although a telegram had been sent to Wairoa before they started that canoes were to await the arrival of the force. Consequently the Arawa had to cut their way through the bush skirting the lake, over very rough country, to Mahungarerewai, where they fired guns to attract the attention of Te Makarini's people at Tikitiki. No other course was open to them. It was impossible to get farther round the lake owing to the nature of the country; they had, therefore, to take the risk that
On the 4th August two men arrived at the camp in a small boat with a letter from Captain G. McDonnell. Captain Mair remained in camp, and Captain Preece went in the boat to arrange with Major Cumming for rations. He was unable to get to Onepoto owing to the heavy sea on the lake, and remained at Te Makarini's pa at Tikitiki for the night. Early next morning he crossed to Major Comming at Onepoto, secured three day's rations, and arrived at Captain Mair's camp to find his people nearly starving. Next day the force moved across in canoes to the Whanganui-a-Parua, where ten men were left to guard the canoes, and the contingent started through the bush to the range from
Thinking it likely that
Ki nga Kawanatanga katoa.
E HOA ma, he kupu tenei naku kia koutou, me mutu te whawhai i au, notemea kei toku nohoanga ano au e noho ana, kei te puihi, engari ka puta au ki te moana, whaia. Ko tenei mahi kohuru a koutou me te kiore te kete ana ki te hamuti, me whakarere he whai na koutou i au. Tonoa mai he tangata kia haere atu au ki waho na tatou riri ai; ka pai.
He kapu ke tenei, ko taku mahara ko te maunga-rongo te oranga ko te mahi kai hoki. Kati, kei te whakarite ahau i enei mahara kia oti. E hoa ma, ko tena mahara a tatou ko te riri kaore ano i tae mai ki au, engari ka tata ahau te whakarite ia koutou mahara, engari kia tupato kei ki koutou kaore. Heoi ano.
E hoa ma, i tonoa atu e au aku tamariki ki te kawe i taku pukapuka whakahoki mo koutou, tahuri ana koutou te whawhai. Kati, kauaka hei haku ki to koutou matenga. Ko aua tamariki hoki ko Hata Tipoki ko Epiha Puairangi, ko Patoromu, ko Ruru, he tamariki ena i tohia ki te tohi o Tu, i whangaia ki te whatu-nui-a-Rua. He tamariki hoki e whakaaro nui ana ki te whenua. Heoi ano. Ki te kino koutou ki ena korero, me aha? Mo koutou mo koutou ano ia.
Na to koutou hoa riri, Na Te Turuki.
[TRANSLATION]
To all Government men.
SIRS,—This is a word of mine to you. You must give up chasing me about, because I am dwelling in my own abiding-place, the bush. But if I come out to the coast, then pursue me. This murderous purpose of yours in pursuing me is like a rat roasting in dung; you must give it up. Send a man to tell me to come out to you in the open where we can fight. That would be fair.
This is another word: My thought is that in the maintenance of peace and in the cultivation of food is safety. I am trying to carry out these thoughts and to accomplish them. Sirs, that idea of yours that we shouldfight has not come to me yet; but I am about to adopt your idea, so beware. Do not say it will not be. That is all.
Sirs, I sent to you some of my young men to carry my letter warning you, and you attacked them. Cease then, to complain about your own killed. These young men, Hata Tipoki, Epiha Puairangi, Patoromu, and Ruru, were young men consecrated by the rites of Tu [the God of War] and fed with the bread of Rua [made ofhinauberries]. They were young men who loved their country. That is all. If you dislike these words, what does it matter? All the worse for you.
From your enemy, Te Turuki.
The force camped for the night, but, not wishing to attract the attention of the enemy, did not light fires until 9 o'clock, and then only with dry supplejack to boil tea. On the following morning Mair and Preece went forward with forty men without swags and came to an old village a few miles from Erepeti, on the Ruakituri River. They struck back into the bush where they heard a dog bark, but, not finding it, kept along the bush parallel with the track. Traces of people who had been pig-hunting were found.
On the following day Captain Preece went out with Sergeant Bluett and thirty men. They climbed the Matakuhia Range, and, after crossing several gullies, at length struck the enemy's trail, which they followed until they found his camp. It seemed to have been abandoned three days earlier. The trail appeared to go down towards Papuni, but scattered again. On a very high point on the Matakuhia Range they came to an ancient Maori pa, with massive earthworks and large carved posts; large beech trees were growing in and around the fortress. The men returned to camp, and the following day Captains Mair and Preece decided to go back to Onepoto for a fresh supply of rations, and to follow the course that they first thought of as the only means of overtaking the enemy—namely, to start from Whanganui-a-Parua and work across country in rear of the Matakuhia Range towards the Waipaoa River. On the 13th August they drew ten days' rations from Major Cumming at Onepoto, intending to get across the lake next day; but the sea was too high, and they were obliged to make their way round the lake through wildly broken country. They then struck through the trackless bush, guided by compass and cutting their way, till they reached a high table-land where there was no undergrowth, and travelling was easier. Heavy snow fell, and it was necessary to camp early and prepare wood for fires at night, as it was unsafe to light them in daytime. It was very difficult to get a fire in that mountain-
Next morning it was still snowing heavily when the force, travelling along the high ridge in a north-westerly direction, reached its highest point, and obtained a comprehensive view of the valley of the Waipaoa (a tributary of the Ruakituri). Two of the keenest men, Huta and Rokoroko, called out from a tree-top, to the great delight of the force, that they saw smoke some miles down the valley. Mair and Preece joined their scouts in the tree, and, sure enough, the faintest spiral of bluish smoke could be seen rising amidst a hundred almost similar mists. Taking careful compass bearings, they made as straight for the smoke as the very rough country would permit. The men had to cut across sharp spurs, and in two places to lower themselves down with vines.
About four hours' travelling brought the force to the proper right bank of the Waipaoa, a noisy, rocky torrent which increased in size as they followed down its course; it was, moreover, in heavy flood through the recent heavy fall of snow and rain. At last
Coming to a small rivulet entering from the right-hand side, Mair noticed the water was quite muddy, and asked the natives the meaning. “Wild pigs,” said they, “rooting.” “Pigs would never root or enter water with snow lying deep,” Mair answered.
The pursuing force halted, and Captain Mair, taking piko piko, the young curling fronds of the fern asplenium (or Aspidium Richardi), to get rid of the hairy scales. [The pikopiko when prepared is a vegetable much like asparagus.]
Mair and his man, carbines in hand, got up to within a few yards unobserved, the noise of the falling water drowning any sound of their footsteps. They found it was a woman, clothed in only short shaggy flax waist and shoulder mats. Mair told her to keep quite and not to fear. He recognized her as Mere Maihi, the wife of an officer stationed at Opotiki; she had been carried off with the Whakatohea Tribe when
As the evening was closing in, Mair and Preece decided to surround the camp at once, if possible; so, detailing thirty men to guard the baggage, and leaving behind everything that would make a noise, such as pannikins, the attackers moved on quickly, guided by the woman. It was found impossible to cross the river, as it was in high flood, so the only course was a frontal attack. The enemy's position was almost surrounded by water and a high bank, and a strong fence made of kaponga (fern-tree trunks). Within were some large whares of kaponga stems. The place evidently had been used formerly as a place of refuge. A small waterfall came over a bluff at the right, forming a deep ditch or moat, about 8 feet wide. The noise of falling water enabled the attackers to approach close up to the gateway.
Captain Mair, closely followed by his faithful Arawa soldier Te Korowhiti, took a running leap and jumped the broad ditch. Immediately he landed he shot a man who was on sentry duty just inside the gateway. This Hauhau (Patara te Whata, as was afterwards discovered) turned and was in the act of putting a percussion cap, which he had taken from his vest pocket, on his Calisher and Terry carbine when Mair killed him at a few paces distance. Into the pa came the Arawa, with Preece at their head; a few had leaped the ditch, but most of them, finding the jump too great, had to scramble up the slippery bank. Mair rushed straight on, reloading as he ran; Preece turned to the left and saw two Maoris coming out of one of the large whares. One of them was
Most of the Hauhaus in the camp had bolted for the river at the first shot. Mair saw a very tall man near him running for the butt of a large fallen rimu tree. In another instant the Maori would have reached cover and have had his white foe in the open at fifteen paces distance. Mair took a running shot at him, aiming low. The Maori jumping over a log at the moment, the bullet hit him in the left leg and smashed the knee-cap. Mair gave him into the charge of Sergeant Huta, who took him to the large whare, where the few prisoners taken were placed under a guard. Meanwhile pa, aimed for the middle of
The sharp encounter lasted only a few moments. Three Hauhaus were killed and several wounded. The pursuers found considerable difficulty in crossing the river, but contrived to reach the other side on a fallen tree. They could not go very far, as night was falling, and the buglers were ordered to sound the recall.
Had not most of
The women and the wounded prisoner, who was found to be a notorious deperado named whares; a side of this house was pulled down and a large fire lighted to keep them in full view. Another fire was made by the deep pool, and after many trials the body of the third man killed was brought up out of the river. It was that of a big, highly tattooed man whom Preece at once recognized as a chief of Waikari (near Mohaka) named Paora te Wakahoehoe. He had been mailman between Wairoa and Napier, and joined the Hauhaus at Omarunui the day before the fight there in 1866. This was the man sent by Te Waru to mere called “Tawatahi,” and accompanied by Te Waru's daughter Te Mauikco; the understanding was that the acceptance of pa.
It was a wild camp scene when darkness fell. The fires illumined the snow-covered battle-ground in the forest and the figures of the shawl-kilted Arawa moving about the thatched huts in the captured pa. The victors found, on searching the whares and examining the prisoners, that they had captured
After the evening meal Captain Mair was told that
Kneeling down by “Kapene, ka mate koe!” (“Captain, you'll be killed! ”) and threw himself upon the Hauhau. That ungrateful miscreant, thrusting his right arm under Mair's, was in the act of drawing a long knife which he wore in a sheath under his left arm. He jerked viciously at the knife in an effort to stab Mair, but the cross-bar of the haft was caught in the sheath, made of closely woven whitau flax-fibre. The sergeant of the guard placed the muzzle of his carbine against Wi's head, while Mair threw himself backward out of reach. The knife was taken from
The Arawa soldiers were furious at this treacherous attempt and begged that Heretaunga be shot immediately. In the meantime the women prisoners had informed Captain Preece of the dangerous character of the prisoner. The two women, Mere Maihi and Maora Irirangi, described
It was ascertained from the prisoners that patu-kai or “kill food”—hunting the wild pig and spearing and snaring Kaka parrot and pigeon. They had dogs which they had cleverly trained to hunt silently and catch wild pigs without uttering a bark.
The force camped in the captured village the next day and night, as it was snowing and raining, and after two days' hard marching got out of the bush into the fern country. Their camp was made in an old potato cultivation; this helped the rations out, as the men were again getting short of food. The officers had made arrangements with Major Cumming at Waikare-moana to send a party with packhorses and supplies along the open country towards Whataroa, as they knew they should have to make for that district, and, seeing fires in that direction, a corporal and nine men were sent to meet the party and advise them of the main body's whereabouts. In the meantime, as the men had had a very hard time, Mair and Preece determined to communicate if possible with Major Ropata and Captain Porter, who were believed to be in the vicinity of Te Papuni with the Ngati-Porou contingent, and set them on
It was decided that Captain Preece with forty men should make a forced march up the Ruakituri River and endeavour to overtake them. He knew the country well, having been through it during the fighting in 1865 and 1868. Heavy rain prevented him getting away before the 22nd, and he was again delayed on the 24th at Erepeti by flood. The party crossed the Ruakituri by felling a tree and bridging the river at a narrow place, and had a hard march over the hills by Colonel Whitmore's track of 1868. Then, cutting a track to avoid the flooded river, they met seven sick men of Ngati-Porou, who reported that Major Ropata and Captain Porter were ahead. On the morning of the 25th August Preece reached Papuni. Leaving Sergeant Bluett in charge of half the men there, Captain Preece with twenty men pushed on and caught up to Ngati-Porou on top of a range nine miles from Papuni. Ngati-Porou had just found the trail of one man; it led into a larger track, which they were following up slowly. After reporting the Waipaoa engagement to Captain Porter, and telling him that he thought
On the 27th August Captains Mair and Preece marched for the Wairoa, taking the arms they had captured from the enemy, also the native women and children, and by evening reached Omaruhakeke (the place where Captain Hussey was killed on Christmas Day, 1865). On the 28th they marched into Wairoa, after having been constantly on the move from the 17th July, carrying their supplies on their backs. The force remained at Wairoa waiting for a steamer, the weather being very bad, until the 2nd September, when instructions were received to march for Whangawehi, at the Mahia, and ship in the Government steamer “Luna” for Whakatane. Captains Mair and Preece reached their respective camps at Te Teko and Kaiteriria on the 8th and 9th September. They had travelled some of the wildest country in the Island, amid snow and flooded rivers, and often suffering severely from want of food. But their exertions had a most beneficial and far-reaching effect, for they showed the disaffected natives that their rugged and almost inaccessible country would no longer, even in winter, prove a safe refuge. The Government force's greatest difficulty was the obsolete weapon with which they were armed, a heavy muzzle-loading rifle, whereas the enemy had many breech-loaders—carbines captured at the Chatham Islands or in the field.
When the contingent was at the Wairoa the local natives, hearing that the captured greenstone mere “Tawatahi” was in
On the 22nd September, 1871, Captains Mair and Preece started from Fort Galatea on another Urewera expedition, taking the trail up the Horomanga Gorge. Their way lay over rough country to Omaruteangi, on the Whakatane River, one of Kereru te Pukenui's settlements. There they were met by Paerau te Rangi-kaitipuake, Te Whenuanui, and other Urewera chiefs, but not by Kereru, who continued hostile. On the 26th they received a letter from Te Purewa, the old chief at Maungapohatu, saying that he had found pa at Te Kakari. On the 30th September Mair sent word that he had found a trail leading towards Ruatahuna or Waikare-moana, and Sergeant Bluett came in with his party and reported that Hemi Kakitu and twenty men of Tamaikowha's tribe had joined in the pursuit of their own accord. The commanders now spread their men out in three parties to follow up the trail, Captain Mair moving by Tatahoata with the main body. One day two camps were passed.
When Preece's force reached Tatahoata it was learned that a trail had been found at Paterangi, inland of Ahi-kereru, and that Captain Mair had started by the ordinary track with thirty men and intended to sleep at Tarapounamu. Within an hour Preece's party was off once more, and reached the Tahuaroa Range that night. On the following morning Preece made an excellent march over the ranges to the foot of Pukiore, where he
Heavy rain set in, and the force had trouble in crossing the Whirinaki River. Captain Mair went with his company by way of Te Tapiri, and Captain Preece struck through the bush by an old track. At Ohihape he found a trail, but it was old. After following it for some time one of his men caught sight of a Maori, but his tracks were lost, though a place was found where
The weather continued very bad for several days, and the men had so little food that they could not move from the Rangitaiki. Starting again for the bush on the 10th October in very cold weather with snow and hail, they soon found a trail of
On the 17th October news was received that Hemi Kakitu (an ex-Hauhau) had attacked
Scouting-parties were sent out right and left. Sergeant Huta, finding traces of three men, for several days scoured the bush at the back of Ahi-kereru and towards the head of the Okahu Stream, but came on no more signs of the rebels. On the 24th October some of the scouts returned and reported a trail up the Okahu Valley leading towards Te Weraiti. It was followed for three days beyond Weraiti, in rear of Ruatahuna. The force met the Ngai-Tama warrior
Heavy rain set in and lasted several days, and the column was obliged to make for Ahi-kereru once more. Mair returned to his camp at Kaiteriria with his men. Preece, starting again from the head of the Whirinaki Valley, crossed the ranges at the head of the Ngamate and Okahu Streams, and the dividing range above the source of the Waiau River. The heavy rains, the flooded streams, and the shortness of food made it risky for the men to remain in the bush, so Preece marched back to Ahi-kereru, and on the 4th November went out to the plains and returned to Te Teko, leaving some men at Fort Galatea. On the 22nd November news reached him that Major Ropata and Captain Porter had been to Ruatahuna and had captured Kereopa, who was being sent out to Wairoa, Hawke's Bay.
A YOUNG MAORI in shirt and waist-shawl, with a tomahawk stuck in his flax girdle, was perched like a monkey in the branches of a tawai tree, 50 feet above the ground, far up the slopes of the lofty wooded mountain-range called Tikitiki-o-Rotari, in the heart of the Urewera Country. He made an eye-survey of the wild country around, then quickly parted the branches immediately above him and shouted,—
“Smoke—I can see smoke over there, lying on the tree-tops.”
“Where is it?” came a voice, in Maori, from the shadowy ground below.
“There, over to the west—not far—perhaps three miles, perhaps four.”
“Come down quickly and point me out the direction of the smoke.”
The Maori scout descended, dropping from bough to bough with the agility of a wild cat. Reaching the mossy ground he picked up his carbine, and stood before his captain, surrounded by an eager company of Maoris, armed like himself with carbine and tomahawk, and bearing heavy pikau, or swags. The tall, bearded leader, Captain Porter, and his companion, Lieutenant
The tree-climber pointed to the west, indicating the spot where he had seen the smoke, and Captain Porter took a bearing by prismatic compass. The place was on a spur of the Maungapohatu Ranges. The order to march was given, and in a few moments the column of a hundred Ngati-Porou friendlies was moving smartly along the wooded mountain-side, animated by the prospect of a speedy fight.
It was nearly three weeks since Porter's column had marched
Now there was no doubt that the smoke reported by the scout was from
Travelling quickly through the bush until he considered he must be close up to the smoke-betrayed camp, Porter ordered a halt, and sent two men forward to scout and discover what they could of the position of the Hauhaus and their probable strength. In a very short time the young warriors returned and reported that it was indeed totara bark in the middle of the clearing—an old Urewera potato plantation—and this they believed, from what they could see, was occupied by wharau, or lean-to's of saplings and bark, scattered about the clearing; on the edges of the cleared ground were masses of fallen timber.
Porter determined to surround the camp and attack at day-light next morning. It was now dusk, and it would be useless assaulting the place in the night-time.
It was a long, cold night, and the half-stripped Ngati-Porou, crouching in the bush, shivered and crept close to each other for warmth, and thought regretfully of the warm clothing they had left in their camp half a mile in the rear. At last the foggy day began to break. With the first faint glimmer of light Porter sent his men out, extending either wing so as to surround the camp. toa of Ngati-Porou—and Lieutenant Large were to surround the other side and upper end of the cultivations so as to prevent chevaux-de-frise. The greatest caution was observed, for the crackling of a branch would be enough to arouse the light-sleeping Hauhaus. Dim figures crept through the bush, and the white commander and his own men lay, tensely waiting, behind some logs at the lower end of the clearing, commanding the bark hut in which
Suddenly the bark of a dog was heard, and Porter feared that he was discovered. A voice—it was whare. “What's that dog barking at?” he asked.
“Aua!” (“I don't know”) replied a woman, who emerged from the whare to gather firewood. “There is no one about.”
“Light the fires,” called
At this order the women in the camp began to get the fires ready for the morning meal. Although Porter did not know it at the moment, the party in ambush had already been discovered by one of tawhiti-kiore, or rat-traps made of supplejack, set along a run for the now-extinct native rat—an article of Maori diet—which led up towards the hills. This alert fellow detected figures moving in the bush, and realized instantly that a Government force was stealthily surrounding the place. To have uttered a sound then would have been fatal; so he turned and made his way silently towards the camp to give the alarm to his chief, when the silence of the bush was suddenly shattered by a gunshot. One of the force had fired without orders; the culprit's identity was never definitely established, but it was strongly suspected that a man who was related to
Then what a hubbub there was of yelling Hauhaus and screaming women and cracking carbines! Shaggy-haired fellows, some stark naked, some with scarcely any clothing but rough flax shoulder-mats, raced for the bush; others returned the fire of Porter and his men as they came charging into the camp. Ngati-Porou charged from the front and the two flanks, firing as they ran, and, indeed, their firing was so indiscriminate that there was a danger of their own party suffering by the cross-fire. Ruka and Large rushed on and outran all the rest of their party in the pursuit, but in vain, for
That wily warrior had snatched up his carbine at the first shot. Divining on the instant that the front of his hut would be covered by his enemy, he broke out through the bark covering at the back near the edge of a steep bank. Leaping behind a tree, he shouted to his followers that it was Ngati-Porou who were up on them. “Save yourselves!” he cried. The next moment, with bullets whistling about him, he jumped down the bank and disappeared in the forest like a flash, with several of his bodyguard following him. Meanwhile the Hauhaus went down before carbine and tomahawk in the smoky clearing. Ten were killed and a number were taken prisoners; amongst the captives was one of whare; his guide, Hori Niania, a recently captured Hauhau, told him it was Oriwia.
There were hand-to-hand combats with gun-butt and tomahawk, and Ngati-Porou came out victors in each. Among the men captured in the chase was a ruffian whose face was as savage and ugly as his character—one Wi Wehi-kore, of which the English is “Fearless William.” He had amongst other deeds murdered his own wife and children, because, as he explained, they were an encumbrance to him in the bush. “Shoot him!” was the order, and a Ngati-Porou bullet gave him the despatch he deserved.
The scene of Porter's engagement was Te Hapua, also called Ruahapu; the date was the 1st September 1871. Porter and his hundred of Ngati-Porou, burying the dead, and gathering their prisoners together, resumed their march, and that night camped in the deserted clearing, Opokere, on the wooded range above, only half satisfied with their morning's work, good as it had been. It was very bleak weather and heavy snow began to fall. Next morning it was impossible to move on, and the force was snowed in at the Opokere camp for some days. Porter told Large and Ruka that he would mention them in despatches for the active part they had taken in the attack and pursuit of the fugitives.
Among the Urewera Hauhaus in this fight was
Major
“Te Hapua was a bush clearing, containing whares and potato plantations, on the side of a forest-clad range; higher up was Opokere, on a branch range of Maunga-pohatu. The trees around the edge of the clearing had been felled with their heads outwards, forming a kind of cheval-de-frise very difficult to penetrate.
“Foot of plan: Captain Porter and his men were on this side, at the bottom of the clearing, where a track led to the camp. It was said that it was one of the ex-Hauhaus who accompanied the party that fired the treacherous shot which alarmed the camp and gave
“The right side was the position assigned by Captain Porter to Ruka Aratapu and myself, and the figure marks the point which we had reached when the treacherous shot was fired that alarmed the camp. Ruka and I, with some of our party, raced up the hill through the tangled and matted vegetation as fast as we could to intercept
“The left flank was the position assigned to
“From the upper end of the clearing a track led to Opokere, a branch range of Maunga-pohatu.
“It had been arranged that when Ruka and I got to the top of the clearing Ruka was to call out to the Hauhaus to surrender, as they were surrounded. But the premature shot spoiled all our plans, and our arduous pursuit and hardships and the careful scheme to surround the position were all in vain. It was a bitter disappointment.”
Major Ropata in the meantime had travelled west and north from the Wairoa, working up into the almost unknown Waiau country, an unpeopled region of ranges, gorges, and forests to the west of Waikare-moana. Reaching the lake he visited some settlements, captured a few Hauhaus, and crossed by canoe to Onepoto, where the Armed Constabulary redoubt stood. Marching from there to Orewha and Pounui he was compelled to halt through sickness, and remained ill in his camp in the forest during September. His men became anxious to return to Gisborne, and made an amo (litter) for the purpose of carrying their sick chief out. He refused to be moved or to abandon his mission, and sent a hundred men out for supplies of food. By the time they returned Ropata was better, and at the end of the first week in October he was able to resume his march. He decided to go to Maunga-pohatu and join Captain Porter, who he knew would be anxiously waiting him in that district. Following Porter's route he reached the Tauaki pa, where he inquired of the Urewera the whereabouts of the other contingent. He was informed that Porter had been out to Opotiki (for supplies) since the fight at Te Hapua, and was now at Maunga-pohatu.
pa, and earthwork redoubt with strong stockade, which the combined columns speedily built. The purpose of this pa was to guard the district and enable a watchful eye to be kept on the actions of any Hauhaus in the neighbourhood. It was garrisoned by a strong detachment of Porter's Ngati-Porou. The fort was named Kohi-tau (“Gather the years”), an allusion to the length of time the contingents had been in search of Kereopa and hapus they gradually came in until about four hundred were assembled at the principal Ruatahuna settlement. After war-dances (peruperu) and ceremonial speeches on each side, Ngati-Porou and the Urewera established friendly relations, which were never broken. All the chiefs of the Urewera or Tuhoe were now at Ruatahuna; the principal men were Paerau, Te Whenuanui, Te Haunui, Tutakangahau, Te Purewa, Hataraka, and Te Puehu. The last-named man, hitherto a bitter foe to the pakeha, announced that
pa at Tatahoata (captured in 1869). The pa was given the name Kohi-marama (“Gather the months”), carrying a reference similar to that bestowed upon the fortification at Maunga-pohatu.
The Urewera, seeing that Ngati-Porou were determined to remain in the mountains until their mission was accomplished, now made efforts to catch the two outlaws. A small party under Hemi Kakitu went out in search of
Ropata now set himself the task of catching Kereopa, keeping his arrangements secret from the Urewera lest some warning should reach the wanted man. Three detachments were quietly despatched down the valley under cover of night in the direction of Ohaua-te-rangi, a large settlement of the Ngati-Rongokarae clan, on the Whakatane, about seven miles below Mataatua kainga. toas against the Europeans and was anxious to atone for his recent rebellion (“kia murua te hara,” as Ropata phrased it), accompanied one of the detachments, or kokiri. One of these kokiri, consisting of thirty men led by Matiu Kahawai, followed the bed of the Whakatane River. The second kokiri, twenty men, went down the track on the east or right bank of the river; and the third, twenty men commanded by Erueti Rena, marched down the west bank, a difficult traverse because of the steep and broken character of the country immediately above the Whakatane on that side. Ropata, who remained with the main body at the camp close to Tatahoata, gave instructions that if either of the kokiri succeeded in capturing Kereopa two volleys should be fired as a signal to the others. Te Whiu, marching with the centre detachment down the river-bed, led the kokiri to one of the small kaingas, called Te Roau. The village was
whares. As he reached the village he announced loudly the arrival of the Ngati-Porou. Kereopa was in one of the huts, and hearing Te Whiu's shout he rushed to the front of the whare.
He ran out in an attempt to escape, but the war-party had encircled the huts, and Te Whiu, who was reputedly the fastest runner in his tribe, seized him and brought him down before he could use his weapons. Kereopa was armed with a loaded gun and a kope or horse-pistol.
When Kereopa was secured two thundering volleys went up from the guns of the kokiri in announcement of the capture of the desperado who for six years had evaded all the efforts of the Government to bring him to justice. The united force of seventy
peruperu.
Kereopa was guarded closely in the Kohi-marama Redoubt while arrangements were made to take him out to the coast. Meanwhile the chief Kereru came in with sixty of his tribe and had a friendly meeting with Ngati-Porou. Captain Porter and seventy men set out for Waikare-moana across the ranges, taking the prisoner for surrender to the civil power. Kereopa informed his captors that he knew when he stood in the pulpit in Mr Volkner's church and swallowed the missionary's eyes that he would meet with misfortune, because one of them stuck in his throat; it was a tohu aitua, an evil omen. Major Large, who was with the escort, said:. “Every time we rested on the way to Wairoa Kereopa would exclaim, ‘Kaore oku hara, kore rawa, kore rawa’ (Emphatically, ‘I have not sinned’), meaning that what he had done was in accordance with the Maori custom in war-time.” Arriving at Mahunga-rerewai, on the northern shore of Waikare-moana, Porter and his party took canoe across the lake to Onepoto, whence they marched to Wairoa. From there twenty men escorted the prisoner by steamer to Napier, where Porter had the relief and satisfaction of handing him over to the police. The reward of £1,000 offered by the Government for Kereopa's arrest was paid over to Porter, who returned to the Urewera Country, and the money was distributed among Ngati-Porou at Kohimarama Redoubt. The officer's share was £25 each, and the rest of the force concerned in the capture received £10 per man. As for Kereopa the Eye-eater, he was tried for his crimes—after an unsuccessful attempt at suicide with a razor—and was convicted and hanged.
Ropata now had all the Urewera assembled at Ruatahuna, and addressed them in a final speech of advice and warning. “Farewell, the Urewera,” he said. “The Government has made peace with you, and has required you to withdraw your thoughts
At the close of the speech the British flag hoisted at the redoubt was given over to Kereru te Pukenui in token of the establishment of peace and loyalty among the Urewera. The garrison at the Maunga-pohatu fort having been withdrawn, Ropata and Captain Porter and all their Ngati-Porou marched out to the coast by way of the Whakatane Valley, and were returned to the East Coast by steamer in December of 1871.
AS THE SUMMER drew on the conditions of bush travel improved, and in December, 1871, the search for
A month passed quietly by, and on the 18th January, 1872, Captains Mair and Preece made an expedition up the Horomanga Gorge, following a rumour that
On the 31st January, 1872, Captain Preece with Sergeant Bluett and forty men left Ahi-kereru, travelling by the trail used in the previous October, then through rough rocky country, cautiously following the bed of the Upper Waiau River. On
kakapo (night-parrot or ground-parrot) and the kiore maori (the indigenous rat), considered by the natives a great delicacy.
After visiting the deserted camp which Sergeant Raimona had found, the searchers on the following day found the tracks of a man and a dog, and then came on a plantation of potatoes. For two days the tracks were followed, and a new camp only two days old was discovered, but the clues then were lost. Striking Sergeant Raimona's trail, Preece and his men now
On the morning of the 13th February Captain Preece sent out parties scouting right and left. One of them returned with news that they had found a trail and a camp seven days old. The heavy and long-continued rains had made the Waiau too high to cross, but Preece marched early the following day and passed three more camps. He then sent Sergeant Bluett along the Mangaone Stream (a tributary of the Waiau), and Sergeant Huta up a small creek where a camp was found with the fires still quite warm. The occupants had only recently left the place, so Huta was despatched to cut them off and Bluett was recalled.
The Maori trail was now followed by a party of about twenty men under Captain Preece for seven miles to the mouth of the Mangaone; the main body was left to come up with the swags. Preece and Bluett and their chase-party, marching very rapidly, at last caught up with the fugitives for whom they had been searching so long. From the top of the high, wooded bank of the Mangaone they caught sight of about twenty Hauhaus scrambling up the steep cliff on the opposite side of the gorge. One of them was
In the meantime Sergeant Huta and some men had got down through the bush and were climbing the cliff on the other side. After the fruitless firing Preece followed him with the rest of the party. Climbing the cliff they followed the fugitives at their utmost speed, and had a running skirmish for about two miles across wooded ridges, but with no result, and Preece and his score of men had to abandon the chase. This was the last time
The Arawa were becoming exhausted, having had nothing to eat except a mouthful of biscuit and water; a few of the party had apples, and these somewhat allayed their thirst. On returning to the Mangaone the Arawa found the enemy's camp in the bush across the river; they had left all their food there in their haste to escape, and the Government Maoris at last had a satisfying meal. The rest of the party came in with the swags after Preece had established himself in camp about 8 o'clock in the evening.
That night a sentry thought he heard some one moving in the bush. He fired and turned out the guard, but nothing could be found. Captain Preece thought it might have been one of the enemy's dogs, which sometimes got separated from their masters when out pig-hunting. But more than a month later he learned that Anaru Matete, one of
The spot where this encounter took place on the Mangaone is about eight miles south of Lake Waikare-moana.
Had Captain Preece's men been armed with the Snider instead of the Terry carbine—a poor weapon for that kind of fighting—they should have been able to reap the benefit of their long toil; but it was not until the 2nd April that the force was served out with the Snider rifles, for which the commander had repeatedly applied for a long time in vain. It was exasperating for Preece and Mair to know that the Armed Constabulary in camp at Taupo and elsewhere on the plains were armed with
Captain Preece followed the enemy's trail to Whataroa, near Onepoto, where Captain Ferris took it up. The Arawa remained at the lake a few days to rest after their long and trying marches and then returned to the Rangitaiki Plains. They arrived at Fort Galatea on the 26th February, after having been a month constantly travelling, for the greater part through trackless country.
Both Captain Preece and Captain Ferris continued to follow
Working from the Opotiki side, Captain Letter from Captain Rushton, of Kutarere, Ohiwa, 1st July, 1923. Captain Rushton added: “I saw
The chase after
On the 10th May, 1872, Captain Preece left the Waikare-moana and marched southward towards Te Hoe River, a tributary of the Mohaka, over the ground he had travelled in February. Precipitous cliffs about 300 feet high were encountered of the upper part of the proper left bank of Te Hoe Stream, and the men could find no means of descending them, so Preece had to work down towards Ngatapa [not to be confused with the Ngatapa which was the scene of the siege of 1869]. This Ngatapa was an old Maori fortress on the junction of Te Hoe and Mohaka Rivers near Maunga-haruru, where
“Captain Ferris,” said Captain Preece, “deserved great credit for the persistent way in which he had followed the trail, from the time we handed it over to him at Whataroa, through to Te Reinga and the bush country at the back of Nuhaka, where
Captains Mair and Preece worked well together. There was never any question of seniority between them; they consulted one another on every detail, and jointly served their country with zeal and loyalty in a very trying time, giving every assistance and information to other officers who were operating against
In the safety of the King Country, chiefly at Tokangamutu and Otewa,
So ended, in 1872, the Maori campaigns which began on the Waitara in 1860—a war that at one period necessitated the employment of more than ten thousand troops, and which was brought to a close by native contingents with a few European officers. From war on the grand scale under Imperial generals, with horse, foot, and artillery, and elaborate transport arrangements, the operations had gradually been reduced to a kind of guerrilla warfare in which the men carried all their supplies on their backs and fought the hostile bands in the Maori manner, tracking them through the forests and practising the bush-fighting tactics of surprise and ambuscade.
For eleven years almost continuously the North Island was disturbed by war and alarms, and the expenditure incurred remained a heavy load upon the resources of the young colony. The loss of life was heavy in some of the engagements and sieges—in particular Rangiriri, Orakau, the
ALTHOUGH THE YEAR 1872 saw the last of the fighting expeditions against the rebel Maoris, it was by no means the last of the anxious times on the borderland of the native territory. In Waikato, in the Taupo country, and in Taranaki there was still material for racial trouble. The Maori King, Tawhiao, and hundreds of his armed followers had their quarters in the Ngati-Maniapoto country, a few miles south of the Puniu River, the frontier of the confiscated lands, and for many years after the war they plotted and planned the reconquest of the Waikato. It was not until 1881 that they finally renounced their hopes and abandoned their policy of sullen self-isolation.
Moreover, for nearly ten years after pakeha. The more thoughtful men among the Kingites had no desire for another war, but there was a large and dangerous element quite ready for raid and plunder had a leader presented himself. Fortunately, the fanatic Mahuki came on the scene some years too late to do much mischief.
Alarms and war-rumours were frequent in Waikato during the period 1870–75. The Kingites strictly enforced their Mr. Shortly before Purukutu committed this deed a Maori named Te Wao, who was ditching for About the same time the old aukati—that is, they forbade pakeha intrusion on the Maori side of the frontier line. White settlers on friendly terms with the Maoris frequently crossed the Puniu in quest of strayed stock, to traffic with the natives for pigs, and so on, but Government officials and land-seekers were discouraged with tupara and tomahawk. In 1870 Mr. Richard Todd, a Government surveyor, was shot on the slopes of Mount Pirongia, not far from the township of Alexandra (now Pirongia). A more alarming tragedy, a murder
aukati line. The three were David Jones (a stockman), Charles Rodgers, and korari stick (flax-stalk), and was taken to the Kuiti district. “The slayers of Timoti (Timothy),” said the old man Tu Tamua Takerei, of Parawera, “intended to lay the heart before Tepaea, or Tiaho, the Maori Queen, but she disapproved of their actions, so the trophy was not presented to her. The taking of a human heart was an ancient custom of the Maori; it was the practice to offer it up to Tu and Uenuku, the gods of war.”pakeha whom they had decided to kill, and to preserve the head by smoke-drying it. The old man did not want to go, but he was compelled to carry out Purukutu's wishes, and when the labourer ngarara, a lizard. The natives usually hold lizards in great dread, and this act of eating a ngarara was a prelude to some deed of desperation. The murder on the frontier followed. The Maoris had first killed one or two cattle and driven others off the disputed land—for which Purukutu had never received his rightful share of payment—and as this protest had no effect they decided to kill a man.tohunga Hopa te Rangianini, of Ngati-Matakore, came in across the frontier from Tokanui, and told Mr. Kay that there was going to be great trouble and he did not desire to be concerned in it, so he stayed at Kay's until peace prevailed once more on the border.
This act of savagery—the last instance of decapitation and taking the heart of a foe which occurred in New Zealand—was a revival of barbarous practices that thoroughly shocked and alarmed the European settlers, and indeed, the whole colony, and it was at first regarded at the inevitable prelude to another war.
The Government made arrangements for the better defence of the Upper Waikato border, reinforced the Armed Constabulary, and sent Mr. tutua,” a nobody; the object of their wrath was really Mr. Walker. The excitement on the frontier was heightened by an attempt to kill pakeha land was intended.
Several years later another aukati-line tragedy excited the Kingites, but did not affect the settlements. This was the killing of Moffatt, a white man who had lived with the Maoris on the Upper Wanganui and who had manufactured a coarse gunpowder for them during the wars. After repeated warnings, he returned to the King Country to prospect for gold, it was said. He was waylaid by a party of Taumarunui natives at Matapuna—close to the present town of Taumarunui—and was shot. This deed was carried out at the behest of Wahanui, in pursuance of the policy to preserve the aukati inviolate.
The final assurance of peace in Waikato came in a dramatic manner. On the 11th July, 1881, Tawhiao, escorted by between five hundred and six hundred men, many of them armed, came
“Yes,” replied Major Mair, “it is clear to me. I call to mind the words that Tawhiao uttered at Tomotomo-waka (Te Kopua) that there would be no more fighting. This is the day that we all have been waiting for. We know now that there will be no more trouble.”
Thereafter Maori and pakeha fraternized, and the frontier settlers rejoiced at the final decision for peace. Tawhiao and his followers made a kind of triumphal progress through the Waikato, spending a week at Kihikihi, where the Kingite warriors encamped around
But the Kingite chiefs, desiring to assure the Government of their earnestness for peace, declined to take back their guns. “No,” said Wahanui, “we have given them up; you must keep them. But we will accept your gun in token of the peace between us.”
Although peace had formally been made between Tawhiao and the Government, there arose now and again certain elements of disagreement. The principal dispute concerned the opening-up of Kawhia Harbour to pakeha shipping and traders. Kawhia had been closed to white enterprise since 1863, and after twenty years of isolation it was decided by the Government in 1883 that the time had come when this fine harbour and the fertile land around it should be made free to the pakeha. A small area of land at Pouwewe—the present township of Kawhia—was bought for a village-site, and Captain Fairchild, of the Government steamer “Hinemoa,” erected guiding-beacons at the heads and
pa—commanding the township-site, and materials for a small blockhouse were landed. This was the last defensible post established against the Maoris. Later the garrison was reduced to seventy-nine men, and these were withdrawn when the Maoris accepted the new order of things. The beacons were re-erected, and the last retreat of Kingism was laid open for the trafficking white man.
The story of Parihaka, the one-time famous home of
The history of Parihaka and the Waimate Plains is a sad record of mutual misunderstanding and of Government harshness and blundering. For ten years the Crown had virtually ceased to exercise any right of ownership over the nominally confiscated land beyond the Wai-ngongoro River, and had tacitly acquiesced in the return of the ex-rebels to the land; in fact, an area of 70,000 acres of the confiscated territory had specifically been returned to them. The natives, fortified in the belief that the confiscation had been abandoned, cultivated large areas of these lands. Then, to their dismay, Government surveyors were sent to cut up parts of the land for settlement. The Maoris stopped the surveys in protest, and endeavoured to ascertain the exact intentions of the Government of the day, but this was no easy task. Road-lines were taken through Maori cultivations in spite of protests; one was put through the crops of
The key to the Government's brusque policy in Taranaki is to be found in a minute to Cabinet written on the 22nd May, 1878, by the Hon. Mr. Macandrew. This document made it clear that the survey of the plains was begun because the Government was anxious to market the land. Mr. Macandrew wrote regretting that the Government had been so remiss in putting the land on the market. “My belief,” he frankly said, “is that it will place in the Treasury half a million sterling.” If the land had been ready it would have placed the Crown in funds to a very large extent, as purchasers were waiting. And so, even before the Maori reserves had been marked out, the Government hurried off advertisements to Australia offering the choice lands of the Waimate Plains to selectors.
By the year 1879 Parihaka had grown into a little republic, with
One of the farms on which the Maori ploughmen set their teams to work was that of Mr.
Soon after this a Royal Commission, consisting of Sir The West Coast Commissioners in their report to the Governor, 15th March, 1880, wrote:— “We believe that if he [ The basis of
The dispute now assumed a new aspect. A party of forty to fifty men, styled the morehu, or “survivors,” marched out from Parihaka almost daily, each man carrying a tree-branch, and on arriving at the road where it entered the cultivation on the south side continued to march along the line, reciting an
The Government surveyed a portion of the Parihaka Block, seaward of the new road, for sale and settlement, as recommended by the Royal Commission. The natives were to be given reserves, but they were not informed where these reserves were or exactly what provision was being made for them. The sight of the surveyors at work created an impression among the Maoris that their lands would soon pass from them, and they resolved to make one last protest against the confiscation. They began to fence and make cultivations on parts of the areas surveyed for sale. The Armed Constabulary pulled down the fences. Mr. Hursthouse, engineer in charge of the roadworks, was instructed to make Parihaka his headquarters, and to assist
By this time (October, 1881) Taranaki was a great armed camp. Redoubts with tall watch-towers studded the face of the land; loopholed blockhouses stood on commanding hills; Armed Constabulary tents whitened the plains. The devious political history of the hour which led up to the invasion of Parihaka need not be entered into here.
Under Mr. Bryce's personal direction, early on the morning of Saturday, 5th November, 1881, the Volunteers and Armed Constabulary moved off from the Rahotu and Pungarehu camps and marched for Parihaka, under the command of Lieut-Colonel Roberts, N.Z.C. The Volunteers mustered 959 strong and the Constabulary 630. As the maori town was approached the various units were told off for their positions in surrounding the place. Most of the Volunteers were sent to occupy the small
marae unarmed, quietly waiting the coming of the troops. The only demonstration was made by the young children, who held a skipping-rope across the path and chanted a song to the pakeha soldiers.
Mr. Butler, the Native Minister's Secretary, advanced and read the Riot Act—which must have seemed a grim kind of joke to any Maoris who understood it—and the Government Proclamation to
History has vindicated the grey old man of Parihaka; we know now how to balance his virtues against his eccentricities and delusions, and to give to him his rightful place in New Zealand's story as the one man who prevented Taranaki becoming a battlefield again in 1881. His patient, strife-hating character stands out in strong contrast to the harsh, overbearing attitude of
An estimate of
“…Those who are capable of taking an impartial view of the whole case and can admit the full right of the Maori to strive by all fair means to retain his old free mode of life and enough of his primeval wilderness of fern and forest to enjoy it in, will find in
“Notwithstanding this rooted preference for the old Maori ways of life and his dread of their disturbance by the intrusion of European settlers,
“As regards the practical result of
In the King Country lived atua and a worker of miracles. His headquarters were at Tokangamutu, close to the present town of Te Kuiti. The old rebel was anxious for peaceful relations with the Government, and at last, in 1883, Mr. Bryce, Native Minister, met him at Manga-o-rongo, some fifteen miles from Kihikihi, shook hands with him and announced an amnesty for all those who made war on the Government. This arrangement was made possible by the passing of an amnesty Act, the final step in the restoration of friendship between pakeha and Maori.
The last years of kainga at Otewa, on the Upper Waipa, to Tauranga, the Upper Thames, Rotorua, or other native districts. His bodyguard was always armed; his immediate guardians were his two wives, who carried loaded revolvers in their blouses.
In 1889
The Armed Constabulary Field Force remained in existence until 1885, and that year saw also the end of the occupation of redoubts on the frontier. Officered by a splendid set of frontier soldiers the Force had been the mainstay of the colony's defences during the dark years of the last war. Its semi-civil foundation did not prevent it carrying through regular campaigns with success in wild, almost impregnable country.
The North-west Mounted Police of Canada is perhaps the frontier body which in organization most nearly resembles our Field Force of 1868–85, but the New Zealand Armed Constabulary had infinitely more fighting. For a long time after the close of our wars the Constabulary were engaged in patrol and garrison duty on the borders of the pakeha-settled country. This generation perhaps scarcely realizes the conditions in many farming districts in the North Island up to the beginning of the “eighties.” Hauhau incursions were still threatened, and a chain of redoubts and block-houses, each manned by a detachment of blue-uniformed Armed Constabulary, guarded the pale between settlers and Kingites in the Upper Waikato. These little forts were meant for business, and, though they were never attacked, they frequently sheltered the wives and children of settlers at night up to the year 1873. The blockhouses were modelled on those built by the backwoods settlers in America for defence against the Indians; they were of two storeys, the upper storey projecting about 3 feet over the lower one all round. The redoubts were substantial works, with deep trench and tall earth parapets enclosing the barrack-rooms. Far in the back country the traveller or the land-seeker of those days would see a tall flagstaff flying the British ensign in front of
manuka-palisaded blockhouse or ditched and ramparted redoubt, the sign that the pakeha law kept an armed watch on the still glowering natives. The farthest south blockhouse on the Waikato frontier was that at Orakau, overlooking the farmsteads of one or two pioneer settlers. One of the most important strategic posts of those times, up to the early “eighties,” was Taupo, on the shore of the great central lake, and there were stockades and redoubts on the Taupo-Napier Road and on either side of the Urewera Country, garrisoned by men who were none the less smart soldiers because they spent much of their time in cutting roads for the settlers and bridging rivers and helping to lay telegraph-lines.
The palmy days of the Armed Constabulary perhaps were those of the later field operations in Taranaki. The Waimate Plains were alive with war preparations in 1879–81, and many a New Zealander then obtained his first experience of military life under campaigning conditions. A little later came the settled conditions that led to the general disbandment of a force which served New Zealand very well in its time and generation for well-nigh a score of years. Some of the Armed Constabulary were drafted to Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton, to help in building the forts for harbour defence under the scheme initiated by Sir
Minor Maori troubles and a tribal rising necessitated small military expeditions up to about the closing years of the nineteenth century. In April, 1895, the Urewera and Ngati-Whare Tribes turned back two Government survey-parties who had begun a triangulation survey of the so far unmapped Urewera mountain territory, and seized their instruments. One party, Mr. J. Phillip's, was stopped at Te Whaiti by Ngati-Whare; the other, Mr. Foster's, at Waiohau, between Ruatoki and Galatea. The fact was that the Government's intention to survey and road the Urewera Country had not been explained properly to the tribes, who naturally viewed with disfavour and apprehension the arrival of the The present writer accompanied this expedition as correspondent and also that to Waima, Hokianga, in 1898.kai-ruri with his theodolite, the forerunner of pakeha encroachment and settlement. The Government considered it necessary to make a show of military force, and a detachment of the Permanent Artillery at Auckland, numbering between forty and fifty, armed with carbines and revolvers, was despatched to Whakatane and Ruatoki. Police-Inspector Hickson and Lieutenant (now Colonel) marae. It was an ominous reception. No call of welcome; not a word from the sullen mountain-men squatting there glowering at us. When at last they did speak their speeches were decidedly hostile. They wanted no surveyors in their country; they did not see any necessity for mapping it; they feared some of their land might be taken to pay for the survey. We found, afterwards, that many of the younger men were ready and eager to fight; and practically every man had a gun and ammunition, although they did not parade their arms before us.
However, patience and diplomacy worked wonders with the “new-caught sullen” Urewera. Mr.
Similarly, at Te Whaiti, the Ngati-Whare in the end were won over to the side of progress. A covering-party of the Permanent Force was stationed at Te Whaiti for some weeks, for the protection of the surveyors, but its services were not needed. The survey went on, and there went on also the strategic road through the heart of the Urewera Country, destined to link up with the Waikare-moana side. Suspicious, inimical as these mountain-dwellers were, fearful of the pakeha's intrusion, which meant loss of independence, loss of land, they soon came to look with a friendly eye on the new-comers, and even to welcome the new road that slowly pierced the gorges and forests of their rugged country. It was the first stage in the breaking-down of the long isolation which had kept the Urewera people a tribe apart, conservative in the extreme, clinging to the old Maori ways of life.
More serious was an expedition three years later, this time to Rawene and Waima, in the Hokianga district. It was curious that this part of New Zealand, one of the first homes of pioneer white settlement, should be the scene of a determined rising against pakeha authority. The chief trouble-maker was pakeha mind. One was the objection of the natives to the dog-tax levied by the Hokianga County Council; and there was objection, too, to the native-land legislation. Toia excited the tribe by his night seances; he professed to be a spiritualistic medium, and he practised the ancient tohunga's trick of whiowhio, or whistling, in calling down the spirits of the dead, who were supposed to speak to the assembled people in a ghostly whistling voice. He so worked on the superstitions and the warlike instinct of the Mahurehure that they were soon ready for armed revolt against the pakeha, and there were threatening demonstrations against Rawene Township. The result was that the Government despatched a column of the Permanent Force, 120 strong, with two Nordenfeldt field-guns and two Maxims, to the theatre of danger. Lieut.-Colonel Newall, a
Colonel Newall, on the 5th May, 1898, marched his force in over the hills to the Waima Valley, some twelve miles. The two Maxim machine guns were taken over a rather difficult road. The route ascended the Puke-o-te-Hau Range and wound through a tract of bush, with a deep gully on the right-hand side and wooded hills on the left. Here there was an extremely narrow escape from a disastrous ambuscade. Seventy or eighty men and youths of the Mahurehure were posted in the fern and bush in cunningly selected positions commanding the road; all were armed, some with rifles, most of them with double-barrel guns. Not a sign of a Maori could we see as we entered the bush; nevertheless they were there within a few yards of us. Suddenly, as our rearguard wound into the bush, two shots were fired over our heads—a tupara loaded with ball.
“Now we're in for it!” said Mr. John Webster (the veteran settler of Opononi and old-time comrade of Judge Maning), alongside whom I was riding. Every one expected a storm of lead from the bush, and had it come our column marching in close order along the road would have suffered heavily. But not another shot was fired, and soon we learned the reason. A Maori came galloping along the road shouting out to the hidden men in the bush not to fire. When he was stopped he was found to be a messenger from kainga with one of the friendly chiefs and witnessed a scene of tense excitement when
So ends the long story of the Maori wars and the final military expeditions that cover the period from 1845 to the closing years of the nineteenth century—a story in which both races may find much matter for pride as well as food for regret, for if the conflicts were born in most instances of mutual misunderstandings and political blundering, the trial of strength developed to the full the virtues of courage and fortitude and self-sacrifice on both sides. Pakeha and Maori are now knit in such close bonds of friendship that they can contemplate without a trace of the olden enmities the long-drawn struggles of other years, and find a mutual satisfaction in the thought that the military traditions of the pioneer period have left appreciable lasting impression on the New Zealand national type. One thing only was needed to cement for ever the union of the races, and that opportunity the Great War brought. Maori soldiers fought and died by the side of their pakeha fellow-New Zealanders; descendants of
“Some accepted it in faith, others in wilfulness and bitterness. Some thought it true; others that it might be useful. Some men separated themselves from their missionaries in perfect calmness and quietness. One of the chiefs of Opotiki informed Bishop Williams of his conversion to the new creed in these words: ‘Bishop, many years ago we received the faith from you; now we return it to you, for there has been found a new and precious thing by which we shall keep our land.’ (‘Kua kitea tetahi taonga hou a mau ai to matou whenua.’)
“A common feeling united fanatical believers with cool politicians who believed nothing, but who keep up the fervour of their brethren by false reports of miracles wrought at Taranaki and of great loss sustained by our troops. The new religion combined men of every sort, from the ferocity of Kereopa to perfect inoffensiveness—some of the best as well as some of the worst of the race. It was accepted as the religion of all who were no longer willing to accept religion at the hands of the pakeha. As in all times of national ferment the fiercer and more determined natures got the lead.”
After discussing the war on the East Coast,
“The practical fact with which we have to deal is this: The old feeling of distrust and exasperation towards our Government has been strong enough to lead thoughtful men, incapable of being parties to such acts, to join the Hauhau cause even after the commission of the great crime at Opotiki. This is our real difficulty, the same in kind as ever, but greater in degree. I believe that this feeling is more wide and deeply spread than at any time. I believe there are now many who are convinced that we are determined, even by fraud and violence, to get possession of their land and force our dominion upon men who have never consented to it. Many, therefore, on their part determine to hold their own as best they may, and are content to sacrifice their lives in the contest. The state of the case is this: We have put too great a pressure upon these people—more than they can bear, more than we can continue to exert; we have driven many of the natives into a state of determined resistance, bordering upon desperation; we have brought upon ourselves the necessity of bearing burdens beyond our strength.”
Sergeant-Major
“On the 6th April, 1864, when the news of the slaughter of Captain Lloyd and his men reached us in New Plymouth, my company of the 57th Regiment was immediately ordered to parade and march out to Oakura and
Major-General Chute, in a despatch dated 15th January, 1866, reporting his operations in South Taranaki after the storming of Otapawa pa, wrote:—
“On the evening of the 14th January I directed the Native Contingent to ascertain the position of Ketemarae, and instructed them to remain near it during the night and to send me information which would enable me to move against it early on the following morning. The force as below [three 6-pounder guns, 510 Imperial troops, 40 Forest Rangers, and 150 Native Contingent] marched at 4.15 a.m. this day and, proceeding over the plains in a northerly direction for two miles, came in front of a line of stockading and earthwork, flanked on either side by bush, and extending across the main track leading into the clearing in which Ketemarae is situated. The position was carried without opposition, though it had evidently been the intention of the rebels to defend it, for we found provisions, and fires still alight within the work. I can only account for their not availing themselves of so formidable a position for opposing our advance by attributing it to the dispiriting effect of their severe loss at Otapawa. The force then advanced on Ketemarae itself, which is about a mile within this entrenchment, and consisted of four palisaded pas in echelon, enclosing a large number of whares; these were all burnt, and as far as practicable the cultivations destroyed.”
The Forest Rangers and Native Contingent then searched the bush about Ketemarae, destroyed some villages, and fought small parties of Maoris; twenty-one Hauhaus were reported killed.
The 57th Regiment, after its hard campaigning in Taranaki, was transferred to the Waikato in 1866, with headquarters at Te Awamutu. Companies of the Regiment were also stationed at Ngaruawahia and Te Rore for some months, until the corps received orders to return to England.
The famous regiment (the “Diehards”) is still in existence as the First Middlesex. It well maintained its ancient reputation in the Great War, when from first to last it recruited forty battalions.
A correction is necessary in the narrative of the fighting between the friendlies and Kereopa's Hauhaus at Te Tapiri on the western border of the Urewera Country, 1865 (Chapter 8, pages 84–95). Later information from survivors shows that all the casualties among the Maoris on the Government side during the expedition were sustained in the attack on Te Tuahu-a-te-Atua hill-fort (Te Taumata) and the fighting which followed that morning, as described in the narrative. None of the friendlies was killed in the previous fighting at the stream between Te Tapiri and Hinamoki. The three men decapitated by Kereopa's warriors (page 89) fell in the Tuahu-a-te-Atua battle. The list of those killed is: Eru te Urutaia, Tamehana te Wiremu, Hohepa Matataia, Rorerika, Katu Ririapu Poia, and Hemi Tamehana Anaru. The first four belonged to the Ngati-Manawa Tribe, the other two to the Ngati-Rangitihi clan of the Arawa. The eye-eating by Kereopa at the niu and the attacks on the friendlies’ redoubts followed this battle.
At the beginning of the Hauhau troubles in the Ngati-Porou territory, near the East Cape, the chief pa at Tikitiki and fall back on Te Hatepe, close to the coast.
In the attack on Pa-kairomiromi (early in August) Major Fraser's life was saved by Private Wilford. This man killed a Maori who was aiming a blow at Fraser's head with a long-handled tomahawk. Wilford received a bullet-wound in the wrist.
Captain Deighton, R.M., was in the engagement at Pa-kairomiromi. He returned to Wairoa during August. Mr.
Captain Preece writes: “I think it was about the 20th September, 1865, that Captain Deighton left Napier for Waiapu again (his second trip to Waiapu) in H.M.S. ‘Brisk.’ The ‘Brisk’ also took up Captain Westrup and Lieutenant Ross, with fifty or sixty of Von Tempsky's Forest Rangers, and sixty of the Colonial Defence Force. The C.D.F. were landed at Poverty Bay on the following morning (Sunday). A fatigue-party of Rangers was landed and assisted the others to build a redoubt (commenced by Lieutenant Wilson and twenty-five C.D.F.), about where the Farmers’ Freezing-works now stand at Gisborne. It was completed with the assistance of friendly natives before we sailed. We landed at Waiapu on the following morning, and attacked Pukemaire pa at dawn next day.”
Describing the attack on Pukemaire (3rd October, 1865), Captain Preece writes: “Just after we opened fire in front of the pa we saw Ropata and Hotene's men crossing the Waiapu River from the Tuparoa side, as had been arranged by Captain Deighton and Lieutenant Biggs the previous day. Biggs and his Hawke's Bay volunteers then worked round under the bank to a flanking angle at the rear of the pa. Here they were joined by Ropata and Hotene. A sortie was made from the pa by the Hauhaus, holding up their hands to drive the bullets away, but a number of them fell, and the rest got back quickly into the fort. The flanking angle was attacked; we worked up to it with a sap. A man named Hemi Tapeka cut the bush-vines which fastened the palisading of the angle, and killed a man inside the work. We were fighting the enemy from their own works, and should undoubtedly have taken the place had not the heavy rain flooded the streams and prevented Lieutenant Gascoyne reaching the foot of the pa with provisions and ammunition. The order to retire was given at 5 p.m. The rebels did not follow us up. The creeks which we crossed the previous night had become mountain torrents. We had difficulty in crossing on our way back to Hatepe, which we reached at 8 p.m. One man died from exhaustion.
“At the second attack on Pukemaire (9th October) it was intended to sap up to the position we had left, put a mine underneath, and blow it up. Supplejack gabions had been prepared for the sap. But the Hauhaus had abandoned the pa.”
After the capture of Hungahunga-toroa pa (near the East Cape) and the surrender of Ngati-Porou, sixteen ringleaders, including Karanama te
Captain Hussey and 100 men, Taranaki Military Settlers, arrived from Opotiki just too late to take part in the Hungahunga-toroa expedition. Captain Hussey was killed in the engagement at Omaru-hakeke, Upper Wairoa, on Christmas Day, 1865.
Soon after the dispersal of the Hauhaus at Puraku pa, Tarukenga (1867), Lieutenat kaingas. Native Commissioner
Taking a party of about a hundred Arawa, Mair scouted up to the bush above the Waiteti Stream, to the north-west of Tarukenga. One cold night he came upon the secret camp of the bush people at a place known as Te Ara-piripiri (“The track through the burrs”), about a mile and a half from Tarukenga, near where the present road from Rotorua to Okoroire enters the bush. Close to the edge of the bush, not long before daylight, Mair, in advance of his men, as was his wont, suddenly found traces of habitation and smelt smoke. He passed along the word for half of his men to lie down outside the refugees’ camp, and stealthily worked round to the other side of the position with the old chief Aperaniko Parakiri (of Ngati-Manawa) and fifty men, in order to come into the camp by the rear. This operation had almost been completed, just as the faint dawning of day, when a dog barked in the hidden kainga. That was enough for the light sleepers of the bush people. The next moment there was a rush like a drove of sheep (said Captain Mair), and off the Ngati-Rangiwewehi dashed for the shelter of the forest, naked just as they sprang from their mat couches in the closely packed whares. Mair and Aperaniko ran along a track seeking to stay the rush. A tree-trunk barred the way. Mair, making to pass this tree, heard a metallic snap on the left-hand side of the bole. He leaped round the tree, rifle ready, and in the dim light ran up against the muzzle of a long single-barrel gun just as another snap was heard. He flung himself on the man behind the gun and overpowered him. The prisoner was a young fellow named Te Raho Atua. He had
pakeha, but each time his gun missed fire. This Mair found, was due to the fact that for want of percussion caps the Maori had used match-heads, cut of and inserted in eyelets, as was the common native fashion when caps ran short, and this bush contrivance failed to detonate.
The expedition was successful in so far that a score or so of prisoners were taken, but the greater number escaped into the bush. However, the desired object was attained, for communication was opened up in order to induce Ngati-Rangiwewehi to come in and make amends for their defection. As for the fighting-men among the prisoners, they were very much relieved at being able to join their kinsmen once more, and they promptly were enlisted in Mair's fighting force.
It appears from official despatches, 1867–68, that the proposed repatriation of the Hauhau prisoners held in exile on Chatham Island was delayed on the representations of Major
When the Government redoubt at Waitangi (an earthwork 52 feet square) was seized the guard was taken unaware, as the Maoris who went into the post pretended that they were carrying out some fatigue duty. When the alarm was at last given Captain Thomas ran from his house to the redoubt, calling out to some of his men that the prisoners were seizing the place. He was thrown down and bound by five or six Maoris. When the settlers’ places were raided twenty-nine males were tied up.
An incident of the search of the European residents’ houses was the presence of mind displayed by a quick-witted woman, Mrs. Isabella Alexander, a widow, who kept a small public-house in the Waitangi settlement. When the alarm was given that the Maoris were looting the place she ran for a bag of gold she had, and dropped it into a kettle boiling on the fire. Next moment armed Hauhaus entered and demanded her money. She went into the bar and produced £35, which she gave them, saying it was all the money she had. “They said it was very little,” Mrs. Alexander narrated, “and I said the men [the military guard] had not got their pay yet.” The widow thus saved her gold, about 300 sovereigns.
The total number of the prisoners who escaped in the “Rifleman,” as given by Captain Thomas in his report, was 298, including women and children. This is considerably in excess of the number given by most narrators, but probably the children (seventy-one) had not been taken into account. The official despatches of 1866–68 are not very satisfactory as to statistics of the Maori prisoners, and Captain Thomas's report is the only one which places the number at nearly three hundred all told.
The only prisoners who elected to remain at Waitangi when the “Rifleman” sailed were three men and a woman. One of these men was a negro named Robert Simmonds, who had been one of the rebels taken at Hungahunga-toroa pa, East Cape, in 1865.
Colonel Whitmore wrote as follows of the retreat from Moturoa, West Coast, in 1868:—
“The enemy pressed us very hard, dashing in with tomahawks whenever men fell, but recoiling always from the determined front shown and the terrible rapidity with which our breech-loaders enabled the men to fire. On these occasions, which were many along our whole front, the men stood up and fired volley after volley such as I had never before heard in bush fighting. Their resolution may be judged from the fact that the enemy had once seized a man and were tomahawking him, when the man rushed back and rescued him. He is savagely wounded, but he has not one gunshot-wound about him.”
Captain
Captain Preece mentions that when the force abandoned the camp at Moumahaki he was sent out with a small party to take a sick man to Wairoa (now the Town of Waverley), where he handed him over to Captain Hawes, in charge of the settlers’ redoubt. This man was William Lingard, who had been awarded the New Zealand Cross for his gallantry at Tauranga-ika [see account under heading “The New Zealand Cross,” in Appendices.]
Finding the Moumahaki bush region in such a state through the floods, Colonel Whitmore decided to move the force northward by the open country and make for the Patea, as
Major
Statements obtained from Maoris by Major Mair, R.M., at Opotiki, showed that Mr. Robert Pitcairn, surveyor, was killed by pa, and hearing that there was a pakeha surveyor camped on Uretara he gave orders that he should be killed, and told off a party of men, four of whom were escapees from Chatham Island, to carry out the deed.
The Maoris went across to the island in a canoe, and one of them, Netana (Nathan) Whakaari, was sent to reconnoitre Pitcairn's camp. He returned with the information that the kai-ruri was not at home (he was out shooting kuaka). The party waited in ambush until Pitcairn returned.
On the treacherous persuasion of a woman who was Pitcairn's house-keeper, the surveyor gave up his gun to Hemi Kakitu (a Hauhau who afterwards turned to the Government side). Thereupon a Maori—some natives said it was Rangiaho—tomahawked him.
At Waimana in 1921 I questioned the old warrior
On the expedition to Ohiwa
Captain Preece, who was a Staff officer with Colonel Whitmore in 1869, gives the following details of Whitmore's arrangements for the invasion of the Urewera Country after the close of active operations on the West Coast early in 1869:—
“When we got out of the bush after the Ngaere expedition in Taranaki in March, 1869, Colonel Whitmore decided to move through to Waitara, and thence to Auckland, to begin preparations for the expedition against
“Colonel St. John moved with about half the force by the mountain-track from Ketemarae to Mataitawa (Chute's track of 1866), and thence to Waitara, while Colonel Whitmore with headquarters and the remainder of the Constabulary went round to New Plymouth by the coast route. On the latter route we had to make a road as we went along for the transport drays, so progress was necessarily slow. Early on the fourth day we reached New Plymouth, where Major Stapp was in command. After consultation with him Colonel Whitmore went on to Waitara. Colonel St. John's column joined us there. They had met with no opposition on the bush march, and only found one straggler.
“While we were at Waitara waiting, Colonel Whitmore made a demonstration at Mokau Heads in the steamer ‘Sturt,’ in order to ascertain whether the Ngati-Maniapoto had a stronghold there. As they did not show fight we left them alone.
“Colonel Whitmore, leaving the West Coast under Colonel Lyon and a sufficient Armed Constabulary force, including No. 9 Division, now moved the rest of the Constabulary to the Bay of Plenty. The ‘Sturt’ took part of the force from Waitara, under Whitmore's personal command, and landed the men at Onehunga, whence they marched to Auckland, shipping from there to Tauranga by the ‘Lord Worsley’ the same night. The ‘St Kilda’ went round the North Cape with part of the force from Waitara, under Lieut.-Colonel St. John. The ‘Sturt’ returned from Onehunga to Waitara to ship another portion of St. John's force, and took this detachment round via the North Cape and the Bay of Islands to Whakatane, from which place Colonel Whitmore had arranged St. John's column was to march on Ruatahuna when plans were completed for a combined movement. Our force under the Colonel's command camped at The Mount, Tauranga Heads, for a few days to make arrangements for transport services and give the men a rest, and also to allow time for St. John's force to get round the North Cape. We then marched down the coast to Matata. Whitmore would not let the men go to Tauranga Township, as we had had some trouble keeping them in hand when passing through Auckland.
“The Colonel had to make arrangements with Colonel Harrington at Tauranga to provide transport service, and with Civil Commissioner
“The Hon.
“The friendly Arawa were organized with the assistance of Mr. Clarke, who accompanied the expedition throughout. All these arrangements took time. Colonel Whitmore also had to visit Whakatane to confer with Colonel St. John, so as to ensure the working of the two columns in concert. Major Mair was in charge of the Whakatane natives and of the Ngaitai under the loyal chief
“Leaving this post in charge of an officer he moved the force on to Te Karamuramu, where he established Fort Galatea, a redoubt named after the British warship conveying the Duke of Edinburgh to the colonies. From there the Urewera expedition was carried out successfully. The one weak
“This summary of the preparations shows the great amount of detail which the colonel had to attend to in organizing the Urewera expedition and co-ordinating the work of the columns. He was a great man in planning a campaign, and personally went into the smallest detail.”
Colonel Whitmore in his despatches gave high praise to the Armed Constabulary in the Urewera expedition. “I find it difficult to say,” he wrote from Fort Galatea, “without fear of being thought to show partiality, how admirably our men have behaved throughout. Living on potatoes [at Ruatahuna], labouring under heavy packs, with their clothes torn to rags and their boots destroyed, their cheerfulness and ready obedience at all times cannot be too highly praised. Poor fellows who were bleeding in their feet, who had had hardly a days' rest since November last, and, in spite of the quantity of clothes they have purchased since then, can scarcely muster a sound garment amongst them, were yet ready and anxious to face the Huiarau snow-covered heights, and to risk possible starvation or a long retreat, from the moment they heard of my wish to go to Waikare. Toiling up the precipitous hills, or wading in the beds of the slaty rivers, they could always keep up with and continue the march longer than the Maoris. Moreover, during the whole expedition they did not waste a single round of ammunition or throw away one shot when keeping sentry in the bush. If there was anything to be done they were at once ready; and when no duty was required from them they roamed about the country foraging, destroying crops, burning kaingas, and seeking the enemy's scouts in their several hiding-places in the vicinity. The officers have all done their duty extremely well, and carried the same loads and fared the same as the men.”
Major kainga next morning—thence to the Horomanga Gorge and out to Kuhawaea and the Rangitaiki. Mair stated that his Arawa did not do very well in the mountains: they were afraid of the country. However, in later expeditions the Arawa enlisted as a constabulary force under Captains
In July, 1869, when Lieutenant Preece was with Colonel Whitmore at Wellington after the return from the Urewera expedition, the steamer “St. Kilda” arrived from the East Coast with one hundred or one hundred and twenty Ngati-Porou men under Hati te Houkamau (a young chief from Hicks Bay),
After Lieutenant Preece had handed the men over there was a parade, and a curious incident occurred when the parade was dismissed. A man of No. 9 Division, Armed Constabulary (Ngati-Porou), stepped out and advanced with outstretched hands to the spot where the officers were standing; with them was Colonel Thomson, a retired Imperial officer. The Maori cried, “Aue! Ko Tamihana!” Surprised at the man's recognition, Colonel Thompson said, addressing Sub-Inspector Ferris, that there must be a mistake. But the Maori said, “You are Tamihana; you were in the 58th at Rua-pekapeka.” Then he explained that he had been taken prisoner on the East Coast by the Ngapuhi, as a boy, and carried up to the Bay of Islands. He was with Tamati Waka's friendlies in Heke's War (1845–46), and after many years returned to his tribe. He remembered “Tamihana” at the siege of Rua-pekapeka.
“This is an extraordinary recognition,” said Colonel Thomson. “At the Bay of Islands I was a young ensign with black whiskers, and generally in uniform. Now I am an old man with a grey beard, and in mufti, and yet this Maori knows me at first sight.”
When Armed Constabulary posts were established in the Taupo district in 1869 a number of fortified stations were erected to protect the line of communication with Napier across the plains and the lofty ranges intervening, a distance of nearly one hundred miles. At Opepe, twelve miles from Taupo, a strong timber stockade was constructed. At Runanga, about thirty-six miles from Taupo, a stockade was built on a hill overlooking the Waipunga and Runanga Streams. There was a sheep-station there. The fort was built in 1869 by No. 2 Division Armed Constabulary, under Sub-Inspector aka-vines and kareao (supplejack) in the native manner. The main posts were large timbers, and saplings were set between them. Inside the stockade a trench was dug, and the earth and sods were heaped up against the fence, which was loopholed at the ground-level. There were flanking bastions at two diagonally opposite angles of the work. The one weak feature of the post was its distance from water. Its position was on the edge of the bush.
The next post was that at Tarawera (forty-eight miles from Taupo and fifty miles from Napier). The site is near the present hotel. This strong stockade had a one-storey loopholed blockhouse in two of the angles; these blockhouses were constructed of thick logs, roofs as well as walls, for protection from bullets fired from the higher hills.
At Te Haroto (fifty-four miles from Taupo), near the kainga of the Ngati-Hineuru Tribe, a blockhouse had been erected earlier than the posts already mentioned. This post was a square building with an upper storey projecting 2 feet or 3 feet over the lower. A deep well was dug inside the blockhouse. The position was a commanding one, with a panorama of the mountainous country for many miles around. A mile away is the highest
At Titiokura, on the Maunga-haruru Range, a stockade was built in a prominent position, about 2,450 feet above sea-level, and about thirty miles from Napier.
In July, 1870, Lieutenant (now Captain) pa, expecting the wavering Whakatohea to follow him and attack the Opotiki settlement.
Immediately Rushton heard of the arrival of Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell's Constabulary and native force at Ohiwa (20th July), by the steamer “Luna,” he rode through to Ohiwa and suggested to McDonnell that an attempt should be made to get the Whakatohea away before pa, but too late to make the expected addition to his fighting force. For this prompt and skilful foiling of the enemy Rushton was promoted to Captain and received a letter of thanks from the Government.
Captain Preece gives the following history of the American repeater which
“
Mr. George Bailey, of Harwood Street, Hamilton, writes:—
“In the year 1873, in the Waikato, outside the Town of Cambridge, the estates of Monavale and Roto-o-rangi were under the joint management of E. B. Walker and Richard Parker. manuka fascines for making a crossing over a swamp, to facilitate an entrance to a native leasehold property adjoining the Monavale-Roto-o-rangi property on the eastern side, known as the Pukekura Block. One day while this work was in progress the late Richard Parker and a man named Lloyd were carting the manuka in a dray, and, nearing the locality where Sullivan and Jones were working, they observed that the tea-billy was upturned on the fire, things were in general disorder, and Sullivan and Jones were missing. As there had been rumours that treacherous natives were about, Parker feared that they might have attacked Sullivan and Jones. After unloading the dray he and Lloyd decided to hasten back up the hill and look round for the missing men. While returning along the track an armed native emerged from the fern on the hillside. He aimed at Parker, but his gun missed fire. Parker and Lloyd, being unarmed, made a hurried retreat to the homestead and reported to Cambridge. In the afternoon of the same day a number of volunteers were called out to make a search, and Sullivan's body, beheaded, was found at the head of a gully, in the manuka, where he had apparently run to escape the attacking Maoris. Jones evaded the Maoris and escaped. The Maori credited with killing Sullivan was Purukutu. He claimed interest in the lands in that locality. His sister, Maraea Whakatutu, had a share in the Pukekura lands, and lived there for many years afterwards.”
Hiroki shot McLean, against whom he had a grievance, when the latter was working on the survey of the Moumahaki Block, in the Waitotara district, in 1878. Scouts were sent out from Hawera in pursuit of him, and one of them, William Williams, fired at and wounded him, but Hiroki escaped to Parihaka. When that native town was occupied by the troops on the 5th November, 1881, Hiroki was captured, and was tried, convicted, and hanged.
Mr. James Robson, of Wellington (late of “Whitiora,” Stratford), who is a pioneer of sawmilling in the Upper Hutt Valley and in Taranaki, thus describes the later critical period on the Taranaki frontier and the building of the redoubt at Normanby settlement:—
“I started the first sawmill at Ketemarae soon after the close of kainga of Ketemarae was about a mile from the
pakeha and Maori created a crisis that threatened to end in a renewal of the war. A redoubt was built at Normanby in 1879 by the men of the district. We were supplied with Enfield rifles by the Government, and Mr. Frank Brett, formerly a sergeant in the Armed Constabulary, a tall athletic frontiersman, was elected captain of the settler volunteers. There were then, I suppose, about fifty men in and around the Ketemarae district. An old Maori friend, Katene Tu-whakaruru, warned Mrs. Robson and me, about the beginning of 1881, that there would be serious trouble, and told me we should go into the redoubt every night. We spent two or three days in the redoubt at the height of the alarms. Captain Brett sent out patrols at night along the road, and we did regular sentry duty. However, at the mill we had six men with rifles, and we could have put up a fight there if attacked. I had a valuable engine at the mill, and, fearing that the place might be burned down by the Maoris if fighting began, we hauled it with bullocks very nearly a mile and a half, to within close range of the redoubt.”
The Normanby Redoubt, long since demolished, stood on the spot where the monument to the soldiers in the Maori wars stands to-day in the Domain, close to the railway-station. It was a rectangular work with trench and high parapet, flanked for an enfilading fire along the ditch. At intervals there were regular gaps or embrasures in the top of the sod wall for two or three men who could stand and deliver fire if attacked. The defenders could just see over the parapet at these intervals. The ditch, not very deep, was crossed by a plank; later by a drawbridge. Inside, near the entrance, a timber watch-tower for the sentry by day was built when the Armed Constabulary came to garrison the post. In the middle of the redoubt was a building, a rough shed-like place, of sawn timber, for the shelter of the men and their families at night. The redoubt earthwork was built by volunteer labour, but carpenters were paid for putting up the large shed and the other timber-work. Happily the redoubt was never needed for actual defence, and before the middle “eighties” Taranaki had settled down to permanent peace.
The redoubt at Manaia, on the Waimate Plains, was the best-designed of the later Armed Constabulary posts constructed in Taranaki. It was built on a gentle elevation above the Waiokura Stream; the spot is now the Manaia town park. The earthworks are still standing, with the flanking blockhouses. The redoubt measures, on the outer edge of the trench, 35 paces by 30 paces; the parapet is 6 feet thick and 5 feet above the inside level of the work. On the west side, where the ground falls steeply to the stream, the scarp of the parapet is from 15 to 20 feet in height; on the other side 10 to 12 feet above the bottom of the ditch. At two of the diagonally opposite angles there are flanking bastions, timber blockhouses 12 feet square, iron-roofed, with double walls, originally filled in with gravel to make them bullet-proof. These blockhouses are loopholed and enfilade the ditch. There are four loopholes on each side of the blockhouses, arranged in two tiers, 2 feet and 4 feet 6 inches above the ground. These loopholes were very carefully made by the Armed Constabulary carpenters; they measure on the inside 7 inches by 5 inches, narrowing to about 3 inches by 2½ inches on the outside; the depth (thickness of the double wall) is about 8 inches. The loopholes are closed by sliding wooden shutters. At the seaward flank of the redoubt, surmounting the trench-bridge and entrance, there was a timber watch-tower 35 feet high, ascended by a
The small blockhouses, the last remaining in Taranaki, deserve better care; they are in danger of decay and fire, because of the thick fern and other vegetation growing around them and in the trench. The interior of the work has been converted into lawns and flower-plots by the Manaia town authorities, but the earthwork and the well-constructed bastion blockhouses are neglected. Manaia is fortunate in possessing so interesting a specimen of the frontier forts, long since razed in most other parts, and the works are worthy of some pains to preserve them as an historical monument.
The principal source of danger in Parihaka, Taranaki, 1879–81, was the chief Te Whetu (“The Star”), who, unlike his superiors tohunga Kia tupato,” said Tautahi; “beware of him; he is a toa, and wishes to fight.” Te Whetu was a young man and a firebrand, and Captain Gudgeon, realizing that his counsels were likely to provoke a conflict, in spite of the intense desire of
The late Colonel
“When affairs became critical on the Waimate Plains I was sent for, like Northcroft on the Bench, to leave my farm at Pukearuhe and take charge of 120 Armed Constabulary for Parihaka. Lieut.-Colonel Roberts was in command of the whole force. Although the older Maoris in Parihaka were anxious for peace, there were many young men in the place who wished to fight, and the danger was that one of these would precipitate a battle by firing a shot. When we marched on Parihaka on the 5th November, 1881, their attitude of passive resistance and patient obedience to pakeha, and the old man calmly continued his monotonous drone.
“I was the first to enter the Maori town with my company. I found my only obstacle was the youthful feminine element. There were skipping-parties of girls on the road. When I came to the first set of girls I asked them to move, but they took no notice. I took hold of one end of the skipping-rope, and the girl at the other end pulled it away so quickly that it burnt my hands. At last, to make a way for my men, I tackled one of the rope-holders. She was a fat, substantial young woman, and it was all I could do to lift her up and carry her to one side of road. She made not the slightest resistance, but I was glad to drop the buxom wench. My men were all grinning at the spectacle of their captain carrying the big girl off. I marched them in at once through the gap and we were in the village. There were six hundred women and children there, and our reception was perfectly peaceful. We drafted all the women and children out on to a hillside after the arrest of meres.”
Mr. John Webster, of Opononi, Hokianga, who accompanied the troops on the march to Waima (1898), had an uncommonly eventful career. Before coming to New Zealand in 1840 he had fought blacks on the overland trail in New South Wales. After
The following Press cable message is a further illustration of the widespread fanatic faith in supernatural defence against an enemy's bullets, described in Chapter 1:—
“Manila,
“Twenty-four Moro religious fanatics on the Island of Pata (Philippine Islands) were killed by the island Constabulary when the former initiated an attack. It is reported that the Moros were told by a priest that they were immune from the effects of bullets.”
The remarkable skill displayed by the Maoris in the construction of their stockaded entrenchments is particularly well illustrated in a description and plans of a field fortification at Manutahi, in North Taranaki, furnished by Mr. George F. Robinson, of Leinster Road, Christchurch, who was for many years Government Road Engineer in Taranaki. This Manutahi should not be confused with a place of the same name in South Taranaki, where a redoubt (see plan, page 181) was built during the Hauhau wars. Writing under date 21st May, 1923, Mr. Robinson gave the following account of a venturesome expedition by a small party of unarmed settler volunteers which resulted in the discovery of the pa described, built during the first Taranaki War:—
“When the Waitara War began I was a young settler on the Bell Block, about four miles from New Plymouth, and the farmers of our settlement built a blockhouse (see pages 165–166, Vol I) on a hill overlooking the open part of the district. Within the boundaries of the block was a native village, Paraiti, and we settlers knew every Maori there. Beyond the block to the northward was another native village, Ninia, and inland from this and near the edge of the bush was the Kaipakopako kainga. We knew most of the native inhabitants well. Then came the war. By February, 1861, the Maoris, the Imperial troops, and the settlers were all heartily sick of the fighting. Peace was finally arranged in March of that year. On the Sunday following the making of peace (which was settled on a Thursday or Friday) seven of us young settlers stole away from the Bell Block post—discipline being somewhat relaxed—without arms. Our objective was a peach-orchard which we knew existed at Kaipakopako; the peaches there were especially delicious. We left the blockhouse at about 9 a.m., arrived at the orchard (about three miles away) before 10.30, satisfied our craving, and then decided to make our way to Sentry Hill, about a mile and a half northward. We followed the native track, crossed the Mangaoraka Stream, and climbed the hill; the whole distance was through heavy fern and scrub (excepting at the stream,
pa) was also in fern. This we trod down, and then lay in the sun. About noon one of the party stood up, but at once dropped down again, saying, ‘There's a Maori coming along the track from Manutahi.’ Peering through the fern we saw a Maori lad walking towards us. When about 200 yards away he saw one of our heads and stopped, but on our showing ourselves and calling to him, telling him who we were, he came on and up the hill. He was a Paraiti Maori, and knew most of us. He told us the Paraiti, Ninia, and Kaipakopako Maoris all lived on the slopes of Mataitawa ridge, three or four miles farther inland, and asked us to go with him and see them. We looked at each
“About Sentry Hill and for some distance inland the country was covered with fern and tutu, 6 to 8 feet high, excepting where the track had been beaten down; we soon, however, came to where the forest commenced. At first it was about 100 yards away on each side, then gradually narrowed like an inverted V, until after travelling about a mile from Sentry Hill we came to the dense bush. On our left was a gully in which ran a small stream, all in the bush, and on our right and front the heavy bush extended for many miles. Across the point of the V (near about where Lepperton Railway-station now stands) was a fighting pa, the strongest I have ever seen. The front palisading reached across from bush to bush, perhaps 100 to 120 feet in length, the ends being carried well into the bush and blocked and screened with branches and native briar (tataramoa). The supports of the front palisade (as also the others) were of tree-boles about 12 inches in diameter, sunk deeply and firmly into the ground about 10 feet apart and projecting above the ground to a height of 12 to 14 feet. To these were lashed horizontally, with supplejack and rata-vine, at heights of about 3 feet 6 inches and 10 feet from the ground, heavy split rails (the Maoris before the war possessed axes, saws, wedges, spades &c.), and to these, vertically and fairly close together, were lashed other split rails, the tops about the height of the posts, and the butts reaching to about 1 foot above the ground. Behind this palisading was a trench 8 feet deep by 10 feet wide at the top and 6 feet wide at the bottom; behind this again was a second palisade similar in design and strength to the front one. Behind this, firing galleries or passages had been dug parallel with the front. The galleries were about 5 feet deep by 3 feet wide—not dug in one straight line, but with blocks or traverses about every 20 feet to provide against the effect of a bursting shell. These galleries were roofed over with logs on which were placed saplings and fern, well trampled down. The whole was covered with the earth from the trenches and galleries; this covering was from 3 to 4 feet deep. The front galleries or firing-trenches extended the full length of the pa. Loopholes were left under the log covering (about on a level with the outer front) through which the Maoris could fire on the advancing foe without themselves being seen or being in danger. From the firing-galleries passages went back to a central passage in the pa (covered in the same manner as the others), which in turn led by a covered way to the gully and stream in the bush, by which passage the Maoris could escape in case of defeat, or could be reinforced during the fighting. The sides and rear of the pa had single palisading only, inside the trench, as the Maoris did not expect any assualt on those sides. In front of the pa for a distance of about 300 yards all fern had been broken down or removed; so for that distance no cover was afforded the advancing enemy and the defenders could see them, and fire at them from the loopholes. The twelve months' war experience had taught the Maoris two things: (1) That the military always made frontal attacks; (2) that no soldier would willingly enter the bush, or could make his way through it should he be taken there, being easily entangled amongst the dense scrub and the supplejacks and other vines. The heaviest field-gun used by the troops at that time was the 24 lb. howitzer, throwing solid shot or shell. Either of these striking the vertical palisading would simply cut the piece struck, and, as it was tied in three places, the ends would swing back again, leaving the palisade
pa, and was taken closer. Should a shot strike the palisading, the effect would be as I have described. Should the aim be low, and the ball strike the ground in front of the pa, it would ricochet over it. The chances were more than a hundred to one against a ball or shell entering a loophole through which the Maoris fired; they were screened by the two palisades, though the vertical rails, not coming within a foot of the ground, did not obstruct the Maoris' view of the enemy nor interfere with their firing. Assuming the outer palisade was broken down, the assaulting-party would have to face the trench and inner palisade, and were these overcome and the enemy get into the pa, they would see nothing but a bare earth surface. The Maoris could not be got at, but would escape by the covered way into the gully and bush, where they would not be followed. The only effective way of dealing with such forts was by the use of heavy Coehorn mortars, which threw a shell at a high angle, descending vertically after describing a parabolic curve. Up to the date of this pa, however, such guns were not available.
“The pa I have described was built towards the end of 1860. It was never fully occupied, and when we saw it in March, 1861, it had been abandoned and partly dismantled. About three years after the events I have decribed the district we travelled over was occupied by the Hauhaus, and all signs of the pa were obliterated. We were curious to know why the fort had been built at such an enormous cost of material and labour and then abandoned, and learned later that the three sections or hapus of Maoris I have mentioned (Paraiti, Ninia, and Kaipakopako), having been driven from their homes, had taken refuge near Mataitawa, where they made new whares and cultivations, and the pa was built across the then only known track leading to their new homes. The tide of war having drifted to other districts, they thought the pa was no longer needed, and it was therefore abandoned.
“Having well examined the fortification above and below, under the guidance of the Maori boy, we followed him by the escape track across the gully and stream, then along through the bush to the Waiongona Stream, which we forded, and so on to the foot of Mataitawa Hill (just beyond Manutahi), where we found the Paraiti people's settlement. The Maoris were startled at our appearance, not knowing our numbers or how we came there, but our guide calling out the explanation, they rushed forward to welcome us in the good old Maori way, shouting, laughing, crying, all but embracing us. We stayed with them about half an hour, and then moved on and up the hill to a plateau, where we found the Ninia natives. A messenger having warned them of our approach, we received from them the same riotous welcome. After staying awhile we moved on to the Kaipakopako settlement, accompanied by a bodyguard of excitable chatty friends, and were again cordially welcomed by hundreds of our old friends and recent foes, who anxiously inquired as to who were killed or wounded amongst those they knew at Bell Block, and told us of their own fatalities. They showed no signs of rancour or ill feeling. I was talking to a chief when suddenly he opened the blanket he had around him and showed me his right arm: it had been shot through the elbow, the bone broken, and, being badly set, the arm had withered and was useless. He told me he was shot at Puke-ta-kauere, and on my saying I was present at that engagement he explained how he received his wound. The troops having retired from the battlefield and returned to Waitara, the natives (who were left in possession) hunted about amongst the high fern
“As we had about eight miles to travel by the nearest route to get back to the Bell Block post, and as the sun was nearing the horizon, we had to say good-bye to our friends and hurry back, so as to get through the bush before dark. We reached the blockhouse before 9 p.m. in time to answer to our names at roll-call. Our party consisted of the following young men besides myself: Thomas Kelly (afterwards M.H.R. and M.L.C.), his brother John Kelly (afterwards Captain in the New Zealand Militia), William Rundle and his brother Richard Rundle, George Bertrand (afterwards in Von Tempsky's force), Harry Morrison (afterwards Captain in the Armed Constabulary). All of us but young Morrison (who had arrived from England in 1860) had lived and farmed on the Bell Block for several years. Two beside myself are still living—William Rundle (now over ninety-four years of age), of New Plymouth, and G. Bertrand (aged eighty-two), of Urenui.”
In September, 1864, Colonel Warre, with a force of Regulars and Militia, advanced on Mataitawa and captured a stockaded pa at Manutahi, which blocked the way. (See page 28.) It is uncertain whether this was the original Manutahi pa renovated and somewhat altered in design, or whether it was a new field-work constructed on a different site.
The surveyors engaged in cutting up the South Taranaki confiscated lands for settlement, 1866–68, carried on their work under adventurous and often very perilous conditions. It was remarked of the surveyors that they really performed the duty of outlying pickets to the troops garrisoning the frontier redoubts. The following are extracts from the private journal kept by the late Mr. S. Percy Smith, F.R.G.S., ex-Surveyor General, when he, as a district surveyor in Taranaki, was employed in laying out roads and surveying sections for townships and military settlements between the Wai-ngongoro and the Waitotara. With Mr. Smith at this period were his fellow-surveyors, Messrs. G. W. Williams, C. A. Wray, and F. Wilson, each in charge of a party.
19th April, 1866 (at New Plymouth).—Getting ready for Patea, for the survey. Received from the Militia officer five tents and ten revolvers, &c., for the men. Many people think we are running a great risk by going to such a dangerous place as Patea.
7th June (Camp at Kakaramea).—Upon coming into camp we found that Captain Newland's Company of Patea Rangers had arrived to furnish us with covering-parties.
14th June.—Rode with Mr. Carrington, Major McDonnell, and troopers to choose sites for blockhouses. First went to a hill inland of Kakaramea, where a good site was chosen, as was also the site of the township for military settlers. This is Colonel Haultain's idea of putting the town near the bush. Will it ever be a town? We shall see. We then rode to another hill, near the old settlement of Manutahi, which was also selected. Here we discovered fresh traces of the Hauhaus, and a place where they had been lying in wait. We then returned to camp.
15th June.—Rode with Mr. Carrington and McDonnell to Wai-ngongoro After passing Manawapou we went over a most beautiful country for ten miles—very level, and a great deal of grass, especially near the sea. We were most hospitably received by Captain Dawson and the other officers of the 18th quartered there.
16th June (Wai-ngongoro).—This is one of the nicest posts in this part of the country. One redoubt is situated on the southern bank of the river, and on top of the cliff overhanging the sea. The other is on the northern side of a rise commanding a beautiful view of the plains around here, dotted with “hostile” cattle and horses and backed by Mount Egmont, which on this clear frosty morning looked superb. At 12 we started back for Kakaramea and got on all well as far as the Waihi Stream, some three miles from the Wai-ngongoro. Here Lieutenant Wirihana, of the Native Contingent, advised us to ride on, in case of the Hauhaus being about. My horse, being very fresh, would insist upon keeping about 40 yards ahead of the rest. As we reached the point where the Ketemarae Road turns off from the General's road along which we were travelling I heard Wirihana call out something to me which I did not catch at first, but tried to pull up my horse; this after a time I succeeded in doing. I then saw that they all had stopped, and I heard them call out “Hauhaus,” and they pointed behind me. I turned my head towards a clump of flax-bushes and then saw a lot of Hauhaus about 40 yards from me rising up out of the fern, and at the same instant they poured in a volley at us. Of
18th June.—Rode into Patea first thing to see Mr. Carrington. The rebels have written in to say that they are about to commence “slaying the pakeha” again. Returned and commenced laying out township. Always take out covering-party now.
7th July.—A Hauhau boy captured the other day was sent back and came in again to-day with letters from Te Ranga-o-te-whenua, one written in English (or rather Irish), telling the commanding officer to put a stop to the surveys or the surveyors will be killed.
9th July.—About 130 more military settlers arrived from Opotiki, on the east coast, to be stationed here. Surely they have enough men to furnish us more covering-parties now.
19th July.—Have been principally in the bush lately cutting out sections, roads, &c., but get on very slowly, as I often have to work three parties in one, as the Militia can only supply one covering-party of twenty men for my three parties. To-day cut one road through the township (Kakaramea) towards Manawapou through the bush—beautiful level country and open bush. The covering-parties come to great grief generally in the bush. Don't think they would be of much use if attacked.
20th July.—Explored across Von Tempsky's Gorge for road, but only discovered a pretty waterfall. Afterwards found a good crossing and carried the road from the township to the top of “Gentle Annie.” Find it is a beautiful place; old cultivations surrounded with ngaio trees. Covering-parties came to great grief coming home a short-cut across the mouth of the gorge.
21st July.—Traversing the Patea until stopped by an impassable cliff. Left the covering-party on a hill all day. Discovered fresh signs of the rebels having been down here in canoes.
23rd July.—Ross's Rangers left for Manawapou preparatory to the whole force leaving. I understand that Major McDonnell has instructions to “go in” at the Hauhaus.
27th July.—Captain Newland having sent down three carts, we packed up and left for Kakaramea at 12 for Manawapou, and I am not sorry to leave the place either.
28th July.—The men all refused to go out to work as they consider it too dangerous with only a covering-party of twenty men. Several of our men have left and joined the Military Settlers.
1st August.—Have been doing nothing all this time. This evening the Major goes out with some two hundred men to attack the rebels. Most of our men go also.
2nd August.—Expedition returned. They spent a very cold night, and at daylight rushed and took a village called Pokaikai, killing some
whare where there were a lot of rebels. Lots of guns brought back.
4th August.—Last night an expedition consisting of two hundred men went out to attack a supposed stronghold at Manutahi. Williams, Wray, and I accompanied them. We marched all night through beautiful country, but found nothing of the rebels except some fresh signs and the cavalry horses which strayed away a few days since.
6th August.—Got to work again after a fortnight's idleness, cutting out sections inland of the redoubt. The force moves on again soon to a place called “The Round Bush” (near Hawera). That will suit us capitally as a camp.
7th August.—Went out with McDonnell and the Native Contingent to meet the Hauhaus of the Pakakohe section, who have after their thrashing at Pokaikai expressed a wish for peace. We met about thirty of them at Ohangai, a beautiful old pa between the Tawhiti and the Tangahoe Streams. It is the same place that we spent our Sunday at on our return from the Taupo journey (1858). The Hauhaus appear a miserable lot of dirty-looking wretches. They brought in their arms and took the oath, but, strange to say, McDonnell allowed them to keep their arms. I think he is wrong. However, I suppose he knows best. They had a 70th rifle amongst them, and a Military Train carbine.
14th August.—Some mounted rebels came down to Waihi and fired into the military convoy, but did no damage.
16th August.—Traversing the Tawhiti (near Hawera); very bad cutting. Newland went to-day to swear in some of the rebels at Meremere, but left them their arms. What a farce it is!
28th August.—Cutting on the main road to Ketemarae Road. Here two rebels galloped down and fired at us, but at such a distance that they did no harm.
30th August.—Carried on the main road to the Waihi Stream. Fired into again, but at such a distance as to do no harm. It appears that they keep two videttes there always.
31st August.—Wray, whilst out, suddenly saw two natives ride in to within 80 yards of his party and deliberately fire into him. They returned the fire, when the rebels quietly rode off.
1st September.—Traversing the Tawiti not far from Keteonetea, the Hauhaus came down and fired at us at 500 yards and kept it up for some time. The Native Contingent doubled out to our relief, when the covering-party mistook them for rebels and fired into them, but luckily without effect.
14th September.—Having completed all the work about here (Hawera district)—eighty allotments—we removed camp to Ketemarae, as the new camp is called, though not where the pa of that name used to be. Skirmishes going on all day at the edge of the bush between our men out hunting and the natives.
23rd September.—The Hauhaus laid a successful ambush to-day for the bread-cart coming from Hawera. They rushed into it, killed one of the troopers, and got some of the bread. We could see some of the affair from the redoubt. Newland turned out and exchanged shots with them, then sent down and put Captain Smith, commanding at Hawera, under arrest for sending up only three troopers as an escort. The man's name was Haggerty; he was most brutally tomahawked.
25th September.—The Native Contingent had a skirmish with the Hauhaus near the scene of the ambush on Sunday. They killed and cut up one man.
28th September.—Saw some Hauhaus on the north side of the Wai-ngongoro when at work. Wright, who went down to the river to bring up some meat killed yesterday, saw some and fired at them; they ran.
2nd October.—Men off pay yesterday and to-day. Refused to go out without covering-parties. McDonnell returned this morning after attacking a village last night on the north side of the Wai-ngongoro called Pungarehu. They rushed the place at dawn, and had a tough fight of it before the place was burnt and the inhabitants killed. The Hauhaus from a neighbouring village came down, it is said, to the number of a hundred and tried to surround our people, who, after some time, were obliged to retire with the wounded, the Hauhaus following them up to the edge of the bush. Two of our men went out with the expedition—Wright and Allen. The former, while trying to save a wounded man, was shot in the knee, and, poor fellow, died soon after reaching Wai-ngongoro. Another man, Green, who had lately left us to join the Wanganui Rangers, was shot whilst trying to carry Wright, and died soon after. The farrier-major of the cavalry, Duff, a most plucky fellow, was shot at the beginning of the affair. Three were killed; Cornet Hirtzel wounded, and Spencer, volunteer attached to the Native Contingent, and two other men wounded. The Hauhaus lost killed thirty-five, and nine prisoners, several of whom are wounded. Surely this ought to make them give in, although our people had to retreat. This is their most severe loss for a very long time.
3rd October.—All hands went down to the Wai-ngongoro to bury poor Wright. The three dead men were all buried with military honours in the little graveyard [Ohawe] used by the soldiers on the southern side of the river. Our men carried Wright to his last resting-place.
8th October.—Morrison's Company of Taranaki Military Settlers arrived here from New Plymouth to reinforce the Major. Some of them are left at Hawera.
17th October.—Doing nothing all day. The men would not go out to go on with the work. Some Hauhaus came in (to give themselves up); only a few, however. At 8 p.m. McDonnell started with all the men in camp for Keteonetea.
18th October.—The expedition returned which started out last night. It appears they attacked the village of Oraukawa, but owing to the mismanagement of one of the subalterns it was a failure, so far. They succeeded in killing four Hauhaus and in bringing in one wretched old woman a prisoner. She seemed awfully frightened as she came up to the redoubt, no doubt thinking she was going to be killed. The Native Contingent always makes an immense fuss returning from an expedition, with war-dances and songs. Our men succeeded in shooting two bullocks, which will keep us in meat for some time, but our other stores are nearly out, and the difficulty of getting anything up from Patea here is tremendous. We have to trust entirely to the Government convoys, and they have as much as they can do in supplying the forces.
19th October.—Captain Newland went out last night with a considerable force to try Keteonetea again; left at 10.30 and returned this morning. The natives were on the alert, however. Captain McDonnell was leading with the best of the Contingent through a patch of bush where it was as dark as Erebus, when a Hauhau sentry jumped up close to him and fired, sending the ball right through his thigh. Firing also commenced on their right and front, so Newland thought it best to retire, which he did, the Hauhaus following to the edge of the bush. It is said that two or three Hauhaus were killed, but it is not known for certain. Winiata, the celebrated toa of the Contingent, killed the man who shot McDonnell, who, it is said, will not be able to take the field for many months.
20th October.—Doing nothing all day, as we could not obtain a covering-party. Sir
21st October (Sunday).—Ten kupapas, or allies, arrived in camp to-day from Wanganui. As they came near the three clumps of trees—which, by the way, is a very favourite place for ambushes—we saw from the redoubt about sixty Hauhaus creeping up to intercept them. A party was sent out and drove them back. It is thought they knew of the Governor's arrival in the district and thought to catch him.
23rd October.—His Excellency Sir moa-bones. He succeeded, I believe, in getting a good many on the sandy neck of land on the south side of the mouth of the river. Sir George sent for me soon after his arrival, and I had a long talk with him about the surveys. He proposes to raise a corps of Guides, composed of the natives who have given in, to be under the direction and for the protection of surveyors. If the natives will go, it will do very well.
27th October.—McDonnell took out a lot of men and brought in part of the mill in Ketemarae clearing. They exchanged shots with the Hauhaus, but nothing more came of it. Three hundred and twenty men of the 18th Royal Irish marched into camp from Wai-ngongoro and Manawapou, under Major Rocke, who takes command of the post of course. I don't think McDonnell likes it. It looks as if the Governor was going to pitch into the Hauhaus, massing all these men here. The Governor and staff came up also and pitched their tents near the 18th.
29th October.—Sir
28th November (At Ketemarae).—It is reported that the Waikatos have arrived at Pungarehu with the intention of “eating up” the pakeha. No Hauhaus have been seen here for some time. It is supposed that they have gone a long way inland to get out of the road of the troops. There are none but colonial troops at this post now, the 18th having retired to their own posts, and have taken up a new one about two miles from here towards Keteonetea. They (the soldiers) are to give us covering-parties now.
30th November.—Moved over to Turuturu-mokai and camped close to the redoubt.
1st December.—Major Noblett (in charge of the redoubt) told me that the natives are coming about again—that the friendly natives of Matangarara have seen their fires in the bush.
9th December.—We have been laying out roads in the country lying inland of the Tawhiti and inland as far as Mangemange. This is a most beautiful country. The bush contains no end of lovely little clearings with quantities of fruit-trees. There are constant reports that the Hauhaus have returned, so that perhaps we may meet some of them. I hope not, however, for some of the soldiers would come to grief. They make most excellent fellows for covering-parties. They are not afraid of getting wet nor of going first through the high fern; and, best of all, they do not grumble as those wretched Rangers do. Besides, it is as good as a play to hear the extraordinary comical tales they are always spinning to each other in the richest brogue. Some of them sometimes take a billhook from the men and go on working for a change. I was through this country in 1858, on
pa there used to be there but a few posts and acres of clover. I saw
1st January, 1867 (at Camp Turuturu).—Engaged in cutting up sections inland of the Tawhiti Stream. For the last few days we have observed a very large fire away inland, some miles apparently, and the friendly natives tell me that it is the Hauhaus burning some large swamps which exist in that direction and which are called Te Ngaere. In all probability they are the same places that are to be seen from the top of Mount Egmont. The Hauhaus, having been driven from this neighbourhood by the troops, have retired there, where they have some plantations.
7th January.—The Waikato who arrived a short time since at Pungarehu are said to be disgusted at the people here because they won't fight, and are going back.
11th January.—Went out with Wray to the place where the natives stopped him on the 7th. It was just at Taumaha, the place where we all went with McDonnell one night when we recovered the cavalry horses. We had not gone very far when several natives came up and insisted upon our stopping, as we were not on our land—which, by the way, we were. After a great deal of talk we agreed to refer the matter to the Major. We then adjourned with the natives to the village they are building at Taumaha, where we partook of potatoes and pumpkins. This is a most beautiful little spot, a clearing in the high scrub and bush, surrounded by and divided by belts of beautiful ngaio trees; under these the natives are building their huts, and they look very pretty indeed. On returning to camp I reported our stoppage to McDonnell, who rode up at once, and we then went on to Paraone's whare, and had a long talk with him and other natives. It ended in their promishing not to interrupt us again.
11th February.—Could not get a covering-party today, so both survey-parties went out together and cut line back into the bush. At 2 p.m. we got into a pretty little clearing, where our dogs were driven in by some native dogs. It being such an unusual thing for native dogs to show so much pluck, we imagined there might be some Hauhaus about, so left for camp.
14th February.—Went back to Turuturu-mokai. I hear from the friendly natives that it was very lucky for us we did retire on the 11th when we heard the dogs barking, as a Hauhau has since come in who says that they saw us just as we disappeared into the bush. Good job we did not get a volley.
19th February.—Out in the bush. A large covering-party to-day under command of Lieutenant Chapman.
20th February.—Took my party and traversed up the Tawhiti in the forest. Covering-party under Lieutenant Haines, 18th Regiment (Royal Irish). Wilson with covering-party from Ketemarae went up to the mill and traversed down. At about 4 o'clock we were very near each other. Our dogs got hold of a pig a little ahead of the party. The Native Contingent, who were with Wilson's party, immediately they heard the dogs dashed off through the bush in a tremendous fright, fancying the Hauhaus were upon them, and were only prevented from going right home by Lieutenant Gudgeon, after they had got some distance. This shows how much they are to be depended on.
26th February.—In cutting a line a little inland of Keteonetea to-day I came across a strong fortification built right across the path inland, but so that forces coming along the track would never know of its existence
karaka trees. It is along this path that the 18th Regiment (Royal Irish) went when they took Tirotiro-moana. From the account of those who accompanied the expedition it would appear that they had some exceedingly bad country to cross, and in the forest, too; but the soldiers appear to have been able to get along quite as well as the Militia and the Native Contingent. It had always been supposed, until General Chute's march behind Mount Egmont proved the contrary, that British troops could not get along in the bush, but from what I have seen of them—and I have had plenty of opportunities of seeing them in every description of rough country lately—they are every bit as good as the Military Settlers who formed part of the column which took Opotiki under Major Brassey, and who were supposed to be (at least by themselves) very excellent bushmen. I must say that I like the 18th very much, and that my respect for the soldier has considerably increased lately. I have had these men out with me, wet through all day long and forced to push their way through heavy fern and scrub, encumbered by their heavy rifles, bayonets, and cartouche-boxes, and not a grumble to be heard.
20th March (at Manutahi).—All hands are engaged in cutting up the land for Jonas's and Ross's companies [military settlers]. I took two parties and encamped for a few days between Otoki and the Hingahape. One of William's men set fire to the country some time during the great gale, and it has made a clean sweep of everything and extended some miles inland. It is a very good thing, as otherwise this country would be almost impenetrable owing to the dense character of the scrub. The Maoris are furious about it. They say it has burnt their houses and cultivations, but I think they are disgusted because it has opened up a road by which their settlements may be reached by troops. There is a nice lot of rascals congregated a little way inland at a place called Whakamara.
23rd March.—Returned to Manutahi. I met a native to-day just as I was leaving off who told me the people would not allow us to go on with the survey. I hope we are not going to have any trouble with them. Colonel Gorton returned to Wanganui yesterday, having been relieved by Colonel Lepper. They are getting up two companies of Militia to protect this district, as the 18th will soon leave and the Military Settlers will soon be off pay. I believe they get men readily at 2s. 6d. per diem.
29th March.—Returned to headquarters camp at Manutahi, having been stopped by the natives several times. They seem determined not to allow the survey to go on. I hardly like going up so near Whakamara when they offer so much opposition, as they could so easily cut us off, and I think there are plenty of men at that place who would be only too glad to do it, but they won't so long as Paraone and the Mokoia people live where they are. Reported the matter to Mr. Richmond.
24th April.—Was stopped again to-day by the natives of Whakamara. I don't know when this part of the survey will be finished. I expect some of us will come to grief yet.
29th April (at Wanganui).—Saw Mr. Parris, who gave me letters of instructions from Mr. Richmond to carry on the survey of the block between the Whenuakura and the Waitotara for Nos. 8 and 10 Taranaki Military Settlers and the Patea Rangers. This is good news for them, as it is a very fine district, and much nearer Wanganui than the north side of the Wai-ngongoro, where they expected to get their lands.
2nd May.—Rode on (from Kakaramea) to Manutahi, and thence accompanied Messrs. Parris and Booth to see Paraone, who informed us that the Hauhaus of Whakamara would turn us back if we attempt to
11th May.—Hearing that all the Hauhaus were holding a meeting at Putahi relative to the new survey, I determined to take the opportunity to finish a line that was very much needed near Whakamara. Wray and I went out there and luckily finished it without interruption.
15th May (at Kakaramea).—Moved from our tattered tents to a house inside the redoubt, which is a deal more comfortable. Mr. Booth held a meeting of natives at Hukatere (on the Patea River) to-day. They informed him that they would offer every obstacle to the prosecution of the survey. This is a nice state of affairs, truly! The matter has been referred to Wellington, so we may have to wait a month before we can get to work.
Lieut.-Colonel pa or village. Hirtzel never hesitated, but sprang over the fence, followed by Captain Northcroft, whilst heavy volleys were being fired into our small band by the strong rebel reinforcements, who came from distant villages farther in the forest to assist the belligerent tribes. Thus Duff was rescued, but Hirtzel got severely wounded in the shoulder. I recommended this brave officer for the Cross for his devotion, but no notice was taken for it. Again, at Turuturu-mokai Redoubt, when attacked by Ngati-Ruanui, Connor of the Army Constabulary, now a messenger in the Government Buildings, formerly a 57th man, was recommended by me for the Cross for his bravery in defending his wounded comrades who were lying helpless at the mercy of the foe, who knew none. Connor and one or two others could have got away, as some did, but they elected to risk death at their posts rather than desert the wounded. A Committee of Parliament some two or three years since investigated this case and did its duty by recommending Connor. No notice was taken of this either. Major Scannell I also recommended for his heroic devotion on the retreat from Te Ngutu, to which many owe their lives. This was also ignored. Private James Shanagan, serious wounded in the act of trying to rescue Major Von Tempsky, is also entitled to the Cross; I would recommend him, but it would be useless. And last, but by no means least, Sir pa in 1865. Sir George should receive the Cross and be made Chancellor of the Order. If exception is taken because Sir
Of those mentioned by Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell, Captain Northcroft received the New Zealand Cross many years later—in fact, some forty years after the events in which he earned it.
The first award of the New Zealand Cross was that made to Trooper William Lingard, of Bryce's Kai-iwi Cavalry, Wanganui, in 1869. Mr. Lingard (died in Wellington, 1922) was born in Country Clare, Ireland; he was the son of an Imperial officer who had fought at Waterloo. Lingard was intended for the Army, but he came out to New Zealand in 1863 to try his fortune. He served in the Auckland Militia during the Waikato War, and followed a farmer's life in the Wanganui and Waitotara districts. He was a trooper in the Alexandra Lancers, a troop formed about 1865, and afterwards in the Kai-iwi Cavalry (Captain pa, inland from Nukumaru, in 1869, that he won the decoration of the New Zealand Cross by an act of great gallantry.
Four troopers of the Cavalry rode up to the front of the pa one day in order to ascertain whether there were any Maoris in the stockade, as the place seemed unusually silent. These cavalrymen were Troop Sergeant-Major George Maxwell, Troopers pa and galloped past the palisade. Suddenly a heavy fire was opened on them, and Maxwell was shot. He stuck to his saddle until he had ridden about a hundred yards from the stockade before he fell. Troopers George Small and Allan Campbell galloped forward and recovered his body under heavy fire. At the same time the horses of both the Wright Brothers were shot down about a chain from the palisading. pa. Henry Wright's horse did not fall until pa. A few moment later he returned leading a Maori horse (looted from a settler) which had been tethered to a tutu bush; he cut the line with his sword. After assisting Wright to mount this horse the two troopers rode down the hill and safely rejoined their corps. Undoubtedly, had it not been for Lingard's courage and alacrity, combined with good horsemanship, Trooper Wright would have been tomahawked. The rescue was performed under a heavy fire at close quarters, and Lingard well deserved the New Zealand Cross bestowed upon him on the recommendation of Colonel Whitmore.
Lingard was soon afterwards put in charge of a small party of scouts organized by Colonel Whitmore; he was invalided at Patea, and Sergeant (later Captain)
Sergeant Arthur Wakefield Carkeek received the New Zealand Cross in 1870 on the recommendation of Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell. On the 7th February 1870, while the force under the command of Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell was serving in the Patetere country,
Mr.
At that time Mr. Strong lived a considerable distance from the Turanganui landing-place; his home was near the Patutahi crossing of the Waipaoa River. On the same side of the river there was another settler, Mr. James Wyllie, who had incurred the special displeasure of
Had Major Biggs taken the settlers' warning, Mr. Strong declares, the Hauhaus would have been heard and seen when they started to cross the Patutahi at the wide, shingly ford, and all the Europeans would have been warned in time.
Another fatal blunder was the failure to erect a fortification at Mata-whero. It was proposed in October, 1868, to construct a redoubt in the middle of that farming area, and the loyal Maoris agreed to supply and erect palisades if the Europeans would assist in the work of construction. However, the authorities did not approve of the erection of a redoubt there, and so nothing was done to provide a place of refuge for the settlers and their families in case of an attack.
Several conflicting accounts have been given by the Ngati-Maniapoto natives of Mokau regarding the massacre at the Pukearuhe Redoubt, White Cliffs, North Taranaki, in 1869. The most reliable narrative appears to be the confession of a half-caste named Henare Piripi, which follows. Captain Messenger, who was in command of the Pukearuhe Armed Constabulary station for many years after the raid, made every endeavour to obtain an accurate statement from the Maori side, and reported to Lieut.-Colonel Roberts, then commanding the Armed Constabulary, at Opunake.
Hone Wetere te Rerenga, the leader of the Mokau war-party, made a statement in 1882, but his version of the massacre is not reliable. Captain Messenger, writing from New Plymouth, 14th July, 1882, to Lieut.-Colonel Roberts, said:—
“I have the honour to report for your information that during a recent visit to the Mokau district I gained the following information with regard to the murder of the Rev.
“Te Rerenga (Te Wetere), who was the leader of the war-party on that occasion, stated to Sergeant J. Gilbert, who was with me, that it was his intention shortly to visit Wellington for the purpose of ‘turning Queen's evidence’ if the Government would hold him harmless. He then stated that Mr. Whiteley's horse was first shot, he (Te Wetere) being at the time in a whare near; that he ran out on hearing the shots and saw Mr. Whiteley standing unhurt; that he told him to go back, which Mr. Whiteley refused to do, saying, ‘I must first see what bad work you have been doing here.’ One of the party then fired a double-barrel gun and missed. Mr. Whiteley then knelt down to pray, when Colburn [David Cockburn], the white man who is now living at Mokau, called out, ‘Shoot him! Dead men tell no tales!’ A volley was fired, which killed Mr. Whiteley instantly.
“Te Rerenga gave the names of the whole party who fired—Colburn (the white man), Philps (a half-caste), Ben, Titokorangi, and other natives. Te Rerenga stated that when he found he was powerless to prevent the murder he turned away so that he should not see it.
“Whilst at Mokau I heard that Colburn intended shortly moving into the interior.”
[Wetere's accusation against the white man David Cockburn was, I believe, false. Cockburn had been a private in a company of Military Settlers stationed at Pukearuhe in 1865, and he deserted to the natives and lived a pakeha-Maori life in the Mokau district for many years. When going up the Mokau River by canoe in 1905 I saw the old man at the Wai-ngarongaro coal-mines, twenty miles from the heads, and he told me of his life among the Maoris. He declared that he was inland of the Mokau at the time of the Pukearuhe massacre. He always strenuously denied any share in the expedition to the White Cliffs, and his denial was, I think, the truth.—J.C.]
Captain Messenger, writing from Pukearuhe Station, 11th September, 1882 to Lieut-Colonel Roberts, commanding the district, Opunake, forwarded the following document signed by Henare Piripi (a half-caste),
“Mokau,
“To whom it may concern:
“Confession of Henry Phillip [or Phillips] taken before John Shore, of Mokau, and Thomas Atkin Poole, of the same place. The undermentioned statement is given voluntarily by me respecting the massacre at Pukearuhe in 1869. I, Henry Phillip, on the day of the massacre came from Urenui with three more natives. Captain Messenger put us across the Mimi River in a canoe or punt. I with the other natives came as far as the Parininihi Hill [White Cliffs]. We met Te Wetere and a party of about fifteen natives. When we met them Titokorangi asked the party where they were going and what they were going to do. Te Wetere announced they were going on to kill the whole of the Europeans at Pukearuhe. Titokorangi said, ‘You had better not,’ and advised them to go back. Te Wetere said, ‘I won't go back, and I will not allow you to go back,’ alluding to Titokorangi, myself, and the other two natives, who names are Richmon ——, and Johnny Pihama. They forced us to go back, at the same time asking us how many men there were at the camp. We were compelled to go with them to save our own lives, Wetere compelling me to go back to interpret for him. We all went on to the creek at the foot of the hill. They left their guns there in charge of some of the natives. Te Wetere, Tukerau [Takirau], Te Oro, Torton [or Turton, in Maori Tatana], Manuel and myself went up to the blockhouse. When we got in front of the blockhouse Te Wetere told me to call the men out, that he (Wetere) wanted to see them.
“The two men that were in the blockhouse came out and shook hands with the natives and with me. After shaking hands the men asked what the natives wanted with them. Wetere told me to tell them he wanted them to go on the beach to look at some pigs. The two men were glad when they heard the natives had brought up some pigs, at the same time asking Wetere, through me, if they had any peaches. Wetere told me to say ‘Yes.’ Then the men went down accompanied by three natives—Tukerau [Takirau], Ben, and Manuel. I watched them to the bend of the road, and as soon as they got to the bend I saw Tukerau strike one of the Europeans with his taiaha. He hit him behind the head, and he fell dead on the spot. The other European, seeing his mate fall, turned round, holding up his arms for protection. Manuel struck him with a long-handled tomahawk, striking him on the head or forehead, at the same time breaking the handle of the tomahawk with the blow. Then Ben hit him with the taiaha, and the man fell.
“At the same time Wetere sent two men to the Captain's (Lieutenant Gascoigne's) house to see if he was there or not. The men returned telling Wetere Captain Gascoigne and his wife and family were not in. Torton [Tatana] and Te Oro were the two men sent. Then Wetere sent one of them to the beach to tell the whole of the natives to come to the camp and bring their guns with them, and they all came up. Wetere then told them to go and break open the Captain's house, which they did, and took away a rifle and ammunition, and a revolver and ammunition. Wetere told them to leave the rest until their work was done. They then went on to the front to keep a lookout for the Captain. We were not long waiting when he came with his wife and children—I think three children, the Captain carrying one in his arms. He came close up to us and he said to me, ‘Hallo, are you back again?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He shook hands with Ben and Te Ho [? Te Oro], then he went straight on for his house,
taiaha. When near his house Ben struck him behind the head. He fell forward on his face and never moved after. Te Ho then took up the firewood-axe belonging to the camp and struck him on the head with the sharp side, cutting the head in halves. Manuel then followed the child, and with a short-handled tomahawk cut the top of the child's head clean off. Manuel and Te Oro then went into a parapet where Mrs. Gascoigne and, I think, two children were hiding. When Manuel and Te Oro came back to where Te Wetere and myself were seated Wetere asked them if they had killed the woman. They replied, ‘Yes, and the children too.’ Wetere then said, ‘Ka pai.’ Te Wetere then said, ‘We can now take all the things out of the house and divide them amongst us,’ which they did, Wetere claiming the revolver, watch, and opera-glass. Te Wetere gave me a clean white shirt, six boxes of matches, and a new pack of playing-cards.
“While dividing the plunder they saw some one coming on horseback at a distance. Wetere then said, ‘Whether it is a white man or a native we must kill him.’ He sent five men on to watch. Te Oro sang out, ‘It is a white man,’ Te Wetere answering, saying to let him come. Mr. Whiteley, the minister, then rode up to the natives. I at the time was about 30 yards from them. I was on the bastion. Tanui fired the first shot, the horse falling at once. As soon as the horse fell, Te Oro, Torton, Manuel Hawpoe (?) fired at Mr. Whiteley and he fell dead. As soon as he fell I saw Tanui take the vest and watch from him. Soon after this we left, Manuel taking a horse with him. We left two men behind, named Daniel and Ben. Wetere told them to burn the houses before they left. When we got into the creek after the massacre Torton, having two guns, gave me one, which was a rifle, telling me it was too heavy for him to carry.
(Signed) “Henare Piripi
“Witnesses: John Shore, Thomas A. Poole.”
Shore, in a note accompanying this statement, said that he had given Piripi his word of honour that Captain Messenger would not divulge his confession until the necessary time came. “If anything does move the Government,” Shore added, “I wish you would give him timely warning, as it would endanger him to the greatest extent here, for I am sure you must know as well as myself that the scoundrel Wetere would just as soon have him put out of the way as not, to save himself. So I entirely depend on you giving us the necessary information. The statement referred to is, I believe, the honest truth, as it was given with a good will, unasked for.”
Wetere te Rerenga was in fear of retribution or punishment by the Government until 1883, when a general amnesty was proclaimed for all who had taken part in the wars against the Queen's authority. In 1878 and following years he assisted Mr.
Wetere died at the Mokau in 1889.
Captain
“After engaging manuka along a low ridge, held up my advance for several minutes. Then they retired, carrying a wounded man; we heard afterwards that his name was Hohepa, and that he died three days later up the Horomanga Gorge, and was buried at Tutaepukepuke, in the Urewera Mountains. The second stand was made by the Maoris at a spot where my brother Major Mair three days later found a man dead, a very tall fellow. Farther on another ambuscade was laid, and we were held up some time. A little later I saw a wounded man being carried off on horseback.
“The principal skirmish occurred on the fern ridge opposite Owhinau Mountain (six miles from Rotorua). About seventy Hauhaus lined the reserve slope of the ridge in almost a semicircle; this ridge sloped abruptly about 100 feet to the stream below (alongside the present Rotorua—Waiotapu Road). My men, with myself and a seventeen-year-old lad, Kokiri!’ (‘Charge!’) He fired both barrels of his double-barrel gun. I fired point-blank, and he fell face forward; his lower jaw was blown away. How long I could have held them I cannot say, when five of my men—Taekata, Tokoihi, Whakatau, Wehi-peihana, and Te Tupara—went round the shoulder of the hill and took the enemy in flank. The rear-guard, having gained 300 or 400 yards start for their main body, rapidly withdrew, dragging off five or six bodies. Some of these they hurled 50 feet or more down the hill into two small quaking morasses [see narrative in Chapter 35], where they lie to this day.
“I was at least 30 yards ahead of my small body of men when I found myself in that ambuscade. Then it was that my plucky lad
“My brother found four bodies of Hauhaus on top of the hill where this fight took place. The man who fired his tupara at me was
“A long chase followed across the undulating country (Kapenga and the rear of Pakaraka) and it must have been close on 7 p.m. when I and three men—Rewi Rangiamio,
“We got back to the camp at Kaiteriria, dead-beat, at about 9 p.m. There I got some food, refilled my ammunition-pouches, and got some fresh men of Ngati-Rangitihi and others—Huta Tangihia, Hohepa, Rakorako, gallant old
“I am pretty confident my tally in the day's fighting was no fewer than eight men. Out of fifty-eight shots, I don't remember ever pulling trigger without aiming at something, though often they were disappearing targets. It is quite wonderful how a man, fired at point-blank at 40 yards, can avoid being hit by instantaneously dropping to the ground. I had practised what is called the unsportsmanlike but very necessary trick of ‘ducking,’ and I was an adept at it or I should not be alive now. It would not be much use nowadays with smokeless powder and bullet-velocity more than double, but with slow powder there was always a bright flash and a huge puff of smoke, particularly when Maori powder of inferior quality was being used against one.
“As for the slain desperado whanake (cabbage-tree) and left it there. Two years afterwards the Ngati-Pahauwera Tribe, of Mohaka (Hawke's Bay),
tohunga to take away the bones of their ito, their detested enemy. From the bones were made fish-hooks, poria-kaka (leg-rings for pet parrots), charms, and even a flute from the bone of the right arm. [This is now in the Auckland Museum.] Such was the Mohaka tribe's mode of revenge on their arch-foe
“
“I must make it clear why the Tuhourangi and Ngati-Rangitihi failed to join in the fight on the 7th. I had sent them an urgent mounted messenger telling them to hurry along the straight track from Parikarangi and lie across
“I was in fear that when the enemy retreated after the main skirmish on the ridge that he would still dash down on Kaiteriria to the left, but he was deterred by seeing old Te Araki and Hohepa appearing right across the track to the village, with their ‘old guard’ of twelve men. This had the effect of deflecting
“Some years after the war, when I met
This remarkable flag was taken from
Captain Mair gives a description and sketch of this flag. It was a long pennant or streamer of bright-red silk; the emblems were worked on this ground in white silk—the young moon, a cross, a star, a mountain (representing Aotearoa or New Zealand), and a bleeding heart, symbolizing the sufferings of the Maori nation. The flag was 52 feet in length, representing the number of weeks in the year, and was about 4 feet in the hoist, tapering to a fine point. It was made by the Roman Catholic nuns in the mission school at Meeanee, Hawke's Bay, for the friendly chiefs of the Ngati-Kahungunu Tribe, but fell into
It is curious to recall the fact that there was a time when it was suggested that Sikhs should be used against the Maoris. The resources of the colony were strained to their utmost in the final wars of 1869–70 and in the maintenance of large Armed Constabulary and Maori field forces, and, although the services of Imperial troops had been discontinued for some years, it was proposed to apply for them again if they were available. The Hon.
Lord Napier informed the Commissioners at this interview that they could not hope to induce the Indian authorities to allow of volunteering from the Gurkha regiments (of which there were only four), nor could they succeed themselves in raising a true Gurkha force of trained men, in the face of the obstacles against their leaving India. As regarded a Sikh regiment, they might without difficulty raise a corps of two thousand trained men or even more; for various reasons it would be expedient first to obtain the concurrence of the Home Government in the proposal. Though Lord Napier did not think obstacles would be interposed by the Indian Government, under fair conditions of service, against the enrolment of Sikhs, he expressed great repugnance to the suggestion of employing the Indian race against the Maori, and strongly advised the Commissioners not to resort to enlistment in India at all, but to engage European soldiers, and these only in England, on the ground that an Indian force would be found in every respect inferior to a European, and cost very nearly if not quite as much in the field, besides the ultimate expense of its return to India. The end of it all was that the New Zealand Government carried on the final campaign against
Major
“Our first main camp (marked 1 on map) in the expedition of 1870 was on the east side of the small lake called Roto-kiri-o-Pukai (near Raekahu Mountain, 2,421 feet). In the bush on the west side of the lake two large kahikatea (white-pine) trees were felled, and canoes were made; these hewn-out craft and the dinghy made by Herrick's men the previous year were used in expeditions on the lake. About the first of these expeditions was that across the Whanganui-a-Parua branch of the lake from Motakitaki to Te Mara-o-te-Atua (“The Garden of the Gods”) (2).
“The middle of the lake, as indicated on the map (3), was the scene of the engagement between the Hauhaus in their war-canoes and the whaleboat they had found (one of those built in 1869) and a party of the Government natives, led by me (then Acting-Lieutenant), in the two new kakikatea canoes and the dinghy.
“Our shooting was too good for the Hauhaus, whom we chased back under the shelter of their pa at Matuahu; casualties unknown. They apparently had intended to land a force at Ohiringa, on the steep shore below the Panekiri Range, and then work round to the rear of our camp at Onepoto, as they did during Herrick's time the previous year, when they shot Trooper Noonan, engaged in despatch duty between Onepoto and Wairoa.
“Soon after our engagement on the lake our picked fighting-men, under Lieutenant Witty, started on a foraging raid which culminated in our defeat of the Hauhaus. We landed at Te Mara-o-te-Atua and fell into an ambush laid by the enemy. In this affair we had a few men wounded but none killed. We drove the Maoris out of their position at Taumataua (marked 4 on map). They returned on the following day and attacked us again, when their fighting-chief Enoka was killed; he was left in our hands when they retreated, having, it was reported, suffered other casualties. At any rate they were so disheartened at our success that when we rushed the Matuahu pa (5) on the following day we found it deserted.
“The number 6 near the head of the northern arm, not far from the canoe landing-place at Hereheretau, indicates the scene of our most successful surprise expedition from our new main camp in the captured Matuaha pa. Setting out at 3 o'clock one morning in the two canoes and the dinghy, we went high up the northern inlet and captured the Hauhau village on a foreland. We took the inmates prisoners without a fight, and also captured a number of fine canoes and the whaleboat, which we took home in triumph to Matuahu. This enterprise gave us the complete command of the lake.
“Matuahu was a roughly palisaded pa on the low headland running into the lake; rather a good position, as it commanded the north inlet. Tikitiki, on the opposite side of the entrance to this arm, was occupied as a Constabulary post for a short time in 1871. There were settlements all the way up the inlet on both sides. At Pukehuia (7) there was a large tribal meeting-house, which we burned down before we left.”
Major Large died at Auckland in July, 1923.
A close examination of the remains of Turuturu-mokai Redoubt, near Hawera, the scene of the fight of the 12th July, 1868 (Chapter 21), shows that the fieldwork was not exactly equilateral in figure. The two flanks most plainly traceable, the western and southern sides, measure respectively 15 paces and 14 paces, exclusive of the flanking bastion at the north-west angle, which has an exterior measurement, in the ditch, of about 20 paces. The interior measurement on the long face, from the inner end of the bastion to its side facing the present road, is about 25 paces. Compass bearings show that the Tawhiti Road, which intersects the south-east angle of the work, runs north-north-east and south-south-west.
Long after the wars shots were again fired in the heart of the Urewera Country (1916). This was an unfortunate affray arising out of the arrest of kainga which he called the “New Jerusalem,” at Maunga-pohatu. He had seven wives, a privilege for which he took Biblical sanction, and he wore his hair long in imitation of the Israelites. Rua obtained great influence not only over the Urewera, but over other tribes in the neighbourhood and as far away as Rotorua and Gisborne. His flouting of the law when an attempt was made to arrest him led to an armed police expedition in 1916. Commissioner John Cullen and a force of between fifty and sixty men, twenty of whom were armed with rifles and the rest with revolvers, went in from Rotorua via Te Whaiti and Ruatahuna, and marched into the Maunga-pohatu settlement on Sunday, 2nd April. Rua attempted to evade arrest, and when he was seized some of his people opened fire on the police with rifles and shot-guns. A lively skirmish followed, lasting for about half an hour. One of Rua's sons and another Maori were shot dead, and four constables were wounded. The Maori resistance, however, was not premeditated; otherwise, Rua's men, had they been so minded, could have successfully ambuscaded the force in many places on the bush track between Ruatahuna and Maunga-pohatu. They took to their arms on impulse when they saw their prophet and “Messiah” felled and handcuffed.
Rua was tried in Auckland on the charge of resistance to the police and was sentenced to imprisonment. On his release he behaved admirably by assisting the Government to raise recruits for the Maori Pioneer Battalion in the Great War.
Mr. Star under the heading “Lest We Forget.” His appeals in the cause of those who had helped to make the country fit for white settlement were warmly supported by Mr.
John Finlays are needed in other parts of the North Island. The soldiers' graves in most districts have been attended to carefully by the Department of Internal Affairs and its enthusiastic officer Miss Statham, but there are still unmarked places where soldiers were buried on the battlefields.
Equally important is the duty of indicating in some conspicuous way the sites of notable battlefields, and also the graves, where they can be located, of the gallant Maoris in such places as Orakau. The following are the principal battlefields requiring attention, a duty devolving in the first place on the local residents; public roads in every case pass through or alongside the old fortifications:—
Puketapu pa, Lake Omapere; Rua-pekapeka; No. 3 Redoubt, Pa; Sentry Hill, Taranaki; Moturoa (near Waverley, West Coast). At these places and numerous others a wayside cross or other memorial is desirable in order to indicate the sites.
In the Ngapuhi country, North Auckland, the Maoris set a chivalrous example to the pakeha in the care of their antagonists' graves. At Ohaeawai, near Kaikohe (see Vol. I), a monument to the Imperial soldiers who fell there stands in the Maoris church cemetery which occupies the site of the fortification of 1845. Governor Sir pa as a cemetery. The Governor continued: “When the Bishop of Auckland shall have consecrated this new burial ground the Maoris intend to remove into it the remains of our soldiers who now lie in unmarked graves in the neighbouring forest, and to erect a monument over them; so that, as an aged chief, formerly conspicuous among our enemies, said to me, ‘The brave warriors of both races, the white skin and the brown, now that all strife between them is forgotten, may sleep side by side until the end of the world.’
“I question,” the Governor concluded, “if there be a more touching episode in the annals of the warfare of even civilized nations in either ancient or modern times.” (Appendices to Journal of the House of Representatives, 1871.)
In the following chronological list of the principal engagements, sieges, and skirmishes in the campaign against the Hauhau Maoris from the early part of 1864 to 1872, the casualty figures in most cases are taken from official returns, checked by reference to survivors of the wars. Over 120 engagements are given here; of some there is no official record, and despatches did not always give the Maori casualties correctly. It was often difficult to estimate the natives' losses owing to their practice of carrying off the dead. It is impossible to state the Maori wounded with any degree of accuracy, hence the figures in that column are given in only a few cases. Numerous petty skirmishes are omitted from this list. (For engagements and casualties from 1845 to 1864 see Appendices to Volume I.)
Page 64.—Mangamingi Stream, shown in the plan of Otapawa, on the Tangahoe River, should be “Mangemange”.
A comprehensive index has been complied by the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, and may be consulted there.
R. E. OWEN, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND—1956 2,000/5/51–1695 H