* * * * *
In the area of the South Pacific there had been little employment for the army except as the national police. No resistance had been offered to our occupation of the islands in the Southern Seas, with the sole exception of New Zealand. The war that broke out here was remarkable for the great courage shown by the natives, and for the stubborn resistance offered to the troops engaged in what were lightly called rebellions. In such campaigns there could be no very connected plan. It was essentially bush fighting, against isolated bodies or tribal headquarters, very skilfully entrenched and stockaded.
It began in 1847, three years after the island had been declared a British colony, and arose from the gradual colonisation of the territory and the occupation of the tribal lands. This was contrary to the national feelings of the Maoris, and was bitterly resented. The country was much wooded, and the natives warlike and cannibal. Like all such contests, the wars were prolonged and embittered. The first one lasted more or less from 1849 to 1856, and from time to time kept fully employed the 58th, 65th, 98th, and 99th Regiments of the line.
The second continued from 1860 until 1869, and employed at intervals no less than thirteen regiments of the line, which, therefore, bear “New Zealand” on their colours; and afforded many opportunities for distinguished bravery, which gained Colonel M’Neill, Doctors Manley and Temple, Lieutenant Pickard, Sergeant M’Kenna, Sergeant-major Lucas, Ensign Down, and Drummer Stagpoole the honour of the Victoria Cross. The regiments referred to are the 12th, 14th, 18th, 40th, 43rd, 50th, 57th, 58th, 65th, 68th, 70th, 96th, and 99th, and at one time there were altogether some 25,000 men under arms, of which 10,000 were regulars; while, on the other hand, the enemy are said never to have been able to muster for battle at one time more than 600 men! The positions selected for defence were, as a rule, well chosen, and protected with well-constructed rifle-pits, and they communicated with each other by fire signals by night, and steam produced by pouring water on heated stones, by day. The general plan of operation was necessarily dislocated. As districts were cleared of the enemy, so redoubts were made and garrisoned to hold in awe the land.
The fighting was at times terribly severe, well sustained, and at times chivalric. At Rangiriri, where the British loss was 15 officers and 117 men killed and wounded of the 40th, 65th, 12th, and 14th Regiments, the Maoris surrendered, and at once fraternised with their late opponents, and in a speech said, “We fought you at Koheroa, and fought you well; we fought you at Rangiriri, and fought you well, and now we are friends for ever, for ever, for ever.” Similarly, at the “Gate Pah” the enemy had entrenched himself, and threatened the station of Tauranga; so the garrison was reinforced by the 68th and detachments of the 12th, 14th, 43rd, and 65th Regiments, with a force of marines and bluejackets, with nine guns and six mortars, and advanced to drive the Maoris from their strongly-entrenched position. The flanks rested on marshes, and “on the highest point of the neck the Maoris had constructed an oblong redoubt, well palisaded and surrounded by a strong post and rail fence—a formidable obstacle to an advancing column, and difficult to destroy with artillery; the interval between the side faces of the redoubt and the swamps was defended by an entrenched line of rifle-pits.”
This will give a fair type of the Maori method of defence, and is sufficient evidence of a natural military eye for ground.
The attack was checked at first with heavy loss, and the enemy escaped during the night. On the field were left 14 officers killed and wounded, and 97 non-commissioned officers and men. For when the stormers entered the work, the enemy had concealed themselves in subterranean hollows or casemates, which both protected them from the artillery fire and hid them from view, and from this cover close and heavy volleys were fired by a concealed adversary at a range where every shot told. The sudden panic so created spread to the supports, and hence the disaster which fell so heavily on the gallant “fighting 43rd.”
The desultory fighting continued until the Maoris were exhausted, and a better understanding between native customs and European methods has led to prolonged peace.
* * * * *
Many improvements had been made in the army during the years comprising the period under review. Rifled artillery had entirely superseded smooth-bores after the Franco-Austrian campaign of 1859. The Enfield rifle was converted into the breech-loading “Snider” soon after the value of the new mechanism had been proved in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866; but even as late as the China War many of the Indian regiments were still armed with the old flint “firelock” or “Brown Bess.” The Act of 1867 had been passed, making the length of army service twelve years, with power of re-engaging for twenty-one years for pension. An effort was made to create a reserve.