New Zealand

by Reginald Horsley

Shortly before the occupation of Ngaruawahia the New Zealand Settlements Act was passed, giving the Governor power to confiscate the lands of insurgent Maori, the Imperial Government having relinquished control of native affairs. These were now entirely in the hands of the colonists, and it was hoped that their knowledge of the requirements of the Maori, together with the success which had attended General Cameron's arms, would combine to bring about lasting peace.

There was, indeed, talk of peace between Sir George Grey and Wiremu Tamihana; but it came to nothing, and the Maori meanwhile threw up fortifications at Pikopiko and Paterangi, on the Waipa, a branch of the Waikato. Dislodged thence, and severely handled in a skirmish on the Mangapiko river, in which Captain Heaphy of the New Zealand forces gained the Victoria Cross, the Maori, commanded by their great fighting chief, Rewi, were again defeated at Rangiaohia. This was late in February, 1864, and the Waikato, undismayed at their numerous disasters, entrenched themselves at Orakau, in the heavily-wooded Taranaki country.

Orakau was unusually strong, and General Carey, with great judgment, completely surrounded it before opening his attack. Even so, he fell at dawn on the 30th of March into the old mistake of attempting to storm the impregnable. After three unsuccessful assaults by regulars and colonials, the General determined to approach the defences by the less costly, if slower method of sap and trench. All was ready by the 2nd of April, and the Armstrong guns soon silenced the enemy's fire, while the soldiers managed to burn no less than 48,000 rounds of ammunition.

General Cameron at this stage very humanely ordered a parley, as there were many women and children within the pa; but to his summons to surrender the Waikato sent back the defiant answer, "This is the word of the Maori: We will fight for ever and ever and ever!" (Ka whawhai tonu; Ake, Ake, Ake!) "Send out the women and children," urged General Cameron. "No; the women also will fight for their country," was the heroic response, and the General had no choice but to order the troops to assault.

The first men up, some twenty in number, led by Captain Hertford of the Colonial Force, were received with a volley which put the captain and ten of his men hors de combat, while on the other side of the pa the 65th had no better success. But the Maori were worn out with the three days' struggle; they had lost heavily, and Rewi now gave the order to evacuate the pa, which was, it will be remembered, completely invested.

How the Maori managed to escape has never been satisfactorily explained. In the words of an eye-witness, "a solid column of Maori, the women, children and great chiefs in the centre, marched out as cool and steady as if they had been going to church." A double line of the 40th Regiment lay on the side the defenders chose for their escape, the first under a bank sheltering them from the fire from the pa. It is almost incredible that, before any one had gathered the significance of what was going on, the Maori jumped over the heads of the first line, and walked through the second line.

The war correspondent of the Auckland Southern Cross wrote of this extraordinary happening: "The cry was heard that the rebels were escaping, and a scene baffling description ensued. General Cameron, Brigadier-General Carey, aides and gallant colonels of the staff were rushing about to warn and gather men from the sap.... This occupied minutes, and all this time not a man of the 40th appears to have seen the Maori, who must have jumped over the heads of the soldiers lining the road cut out of the steep embankment, and so passed into the swamp and Ti-tree scrub, wounding two or three of the 40th as a remembrance of their passing."

The Maori must have escaped unharmed, had it not been for a small corps of colonial cavalry, who, led by Captains Jackson and Von Tempsky, worked round the scrub and inflicted great loss upon the natives as they emerged. Owing to the blunder, Rewi escaped along with numbers of his countrymen.

The scene was now suddenly shifted to the Tauranga district on the east, in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Plenty. The Maori here had nothing to do with the quarrel, but emissaries from the Waikato had constantly approached them, and many of the tribes were deeply disaffected. No great distance separated the two districts; Wiremu Tamihana owned considerable land in the Tauranga country, and, it was well known, the Tauranga men had materially helped their western neighbours. Fortunately, the Arawa tribes, which had an immemorial feud with the Waikato,[66] took our side and, led by Captain McDonnell of the Colonial Forces, defeated the tribes of the Rawhiti at Maketu. A week later this initial success was forgotten in view of the disaster which overtook the British at Tauranga.

General Cameron had towards the end of April transferred his headquarters to Tauranga, and established himself with two thousand men before a strong fortification of the enemy, which is remembered as the "Gate Pa." This fort was built upon a neck of land which fell away on each side to a swamp. On the summit of the neck the chief redoubt had been constructed and, flanking it, were lines of rifle-pits and shelters, covered with wattle or earth, rendering the place almost impregnable.