On the 20th, Colonel Whitmore assumed command in Poverty Bay. He had volunteered his services, and they had been accepted by his friend the Defence Minister, Colonel Haultain. Very little was known of Whitmore in Poverty Bay at the time of his first arrival. He brought with him considerable reinforcements, sufficient to have crushed Te Kooti, if well directed.
The first thing done by Colonel Whitmore, was to announce that he would capture Te Kooti in twenty-four hours; his next was to heap the foulest abuse upon every settler and native with whom he came in contact. Having thus paved the way for a great success, he proceeded to the front. In rather less than a month, he had advanced about ten miles further inland than Biggs had done in two days. On the 8th August, he was beaten by Te Kooti at Ruakiture. Seeing some of his men fall, Colonel Whitmore retreated, leaving his wounded to the mercy of the enemy. He afterwards asserted they had been killed; but, subsequently, the bones of Captain Carr were found on a hill nigh half-a-mile from where he fell. He was a gentle, brave officer, much beloved, and had distinguished himself whilst serving in the Imperial Army; and it is sad to reflect that such a man should have survived, perhaps for days, to find himself helpless and deserted by his commanding officer.
Major Fraser and his men are said to have remained at Ruakiture fighting with Te Kooti for several hours after Whitmore’s retreat from the field, and, it is believed, would have beaten and captured the enemy if he had been properly supported.
In the meantime, two expeditions started from the Wairoa to co-operate with Whitmore. Both failed; one through the cowardice of the natives, the other by reason of contradictory orders from Colonel Whitmore. Those expeditions were headed by Captain Richardson, a brave and able officer, who did good service in Mr. M‘Lean’s East Coast campaign of 1865.
Colonel Whitmore, in his after despatches, claimed to have driven “the enemy from his first position”—in short, he had won a victory. He also stated the enemy had “suffered severely.” He should have said it was our side suffered severely: what the enemy suffered was impossible for him to tell, because he did not wait to see. Such misrepresentations can deceive no one who looks below the surface. At a later date, we find Colonel Whitmore, after he had been beaten in fair fight on the West Coast, and had left eleven wounded men to fall into Titokowaru’s hands, stating that those men were “missing;” though it afterwards came out that nine of the eleven were taken into Tito’s pa and cooked! Colonel Whitmore left Poverty Bay after his defeat, all the forces were withdrawn, and Te Kooti retired to Puketapu, about forty-five miles inland of Poverty Bay, having lost eight or nine men in the two engagements, and carried with him his accumulated plunder.
[CHAPTER VI.]
STATE OF POVERTY BAY IN NOVEMBER, 1868 — DISAFFECTION — SPIES — SETTLERS CONSIDER STATE OF AFFAIRS — MEMORIAL — REDOUBT — SCOUTS — ENEMY’S APPROACH — NIGHT PATROLS — BIGGS NOT WARNED BY MINISTERS — RICHMOND IS WARNED — REFLECTIONS.
By the withdrawal of all the forces, Poverty Bay was left in a precarious state. No one could tell when the victorious enemy would return to avenge the repeated attacks made by us upon the ex-prisoners. Whitmore’s conduct had exasperated the friendly natives, and increased the disaffection of the quondam Hauhaus, who very well knew that Whitmore had been defeated, notwithstanding his assertions to the contrary. Spies began to visit Te Kooti, and there were few arms in the district. Moreover, a large proportion of the able-bodied European population, alarmed at the threatening aspect of affairs, began to leave the district. By-and-by, Ministers, influenced it is believed by Whitmore’s asseverations, withdrew Fraser’s troop from the Wairoa, in spite of Messrs. McLean and Ormond’s urgent repeated protests. Thus the important East Coast settlements, by the infatuation of Ministers, were left a prey to Te Kooti.