FOOTNOTES:[65]Another very severe earthquake, which caused great damage to life and property and was felt on both sides of Cook Strait, occurred in January, 1855, on the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of Wellington. The sentry on guard over the ruins of Government House there, stood to attention during the height of a convulsion and cried, "All's well!"
[65]Another very severe earthquake, which caused great damage to life and property and was felt on both sides of Cook Strait, occurred in January, 1855, on the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of Wellington. The sentry on guard over the ruins of Government House there, stood to attention during the height of a convulsion and cried, "All's well!"
[65]Another very severe earthquake, which caused great damage to life and property and was felt on both sides of Cook Strait, occurred in January, 1855, on the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of Wellington. The sentry on guard over the ruins of Government House there, stood to attention during the height of a convulsion and cried, "All's well!"
CHAPTER XXI
O'ERCLOUDED SKIES
There was no session of Parliament between April, 1858, and the end of July, 1860, and the colonists were consequently justified in believing that the machinery of Government was moving smoothly throughout the Islands, and that the chief engineers required no help from their subordinates. Had they been told that they stood upon the dividing line between peace and war; had they been told that it required but one forward step in order to plunge them into a strife which should endure almost without intermission for just so many years as the peace they had enjoyed, they would have laughed in their informant's face.
From the earliest days certain tribes had maintained an attitude of reserve towards the Pakeha. If the white intruders chose to found a settlement or two on the coast and remain there, well and good; the Maori might find their presence useful commercially and for purposes of war. It was another matter when the strangers absorbed the land, divided the country into provinces, and founded not only capital cities, but numbers of smaller towns and villages aswell. If this sort of thing were to go on, the Maori might as well evacuate the island at once; for, as Heke had said to the Governor, "If you take our land, where are we to go?"
This was the view taken by the Waikato, one of the most famous and most warlike of the Maoriiwi, who about the year 1848 formed a Land League, which they strove to induce the other tribes to join. The leading principle of the League was obstinate refusal to sell land under any conditions to the Pakeha.
Confined to the Waikato alone, this movement would have been serious enough, threatening, as it did, to preserve in the midst of the Pakeha settlements numerous fierce and resolute men, opposed to the domination of Britain. When other tribes associated themselves with the founders of the League, it should have been evident that some day, and before long, white and brown must stand foot to foot to decide which was to be for ever supreme.
It mattered not to the Leaguers that the Government desired them to participate in the beneficent legislation designed on behalf of their countrymen. If they were to be governed at all, they preferred to choose the means and the way. To this end they devised a grotesque scheme, blending British institutions with the monarchical system of the ancient Jews. This done, they elected a king, called a "parliament," hoisted the flag which William the Fourth had granted to the "United Tribes of New Zealand," and inscribed it "Potatau, King of New Zealand."
Ridicule might have killed the movement, had itstopped there; but danger loomed very near when the irreconcilable chief of the "Boiling Water" tribes, Iwikau Te Heu Heu, demanded total separation between the two races, pointing to his great ancestor, the slumbering volcano, Tongariro, as the centre of a district through which no road should be made, where no white man should settle, and wherein Queen Wikitoria should not be prayed for.
Governor Browne held, notwithstanding, that "Kingism" should be allowed to die a natural death, and most unwisely repealed the Act which Sir George Grey had brought in, which prevented the sale of arms to natives. It was not until six months after this unaccountable step, by which time the Maori had acquired several thousand stand of arms, that the Governor listened to the anxious settlers and made the purchase of guns and ammunition somewhat more difficult by increasing the duty upon them. The whirlwind of the wind thus sown was to be reaped later; but the immediate result was a series of small civil strifes between different tribes during the years 1857 and 1858.
Peace was still unbroken when 1859 came in, nor did the colonists even then pay much attention to the mutterings of the Land Leaguers or the growls of the King party. Yet they were really sitting over a powder magazine, and a very small spark must at any moment cause a terrible explosion.
Before the explosion comes, let one last word be said regarding the attitude of the contending parties towards one another.
Every one knows the shocking story of the retreatof the red men before the advance of civilisation, during which deeds were done, not once, not twice, but over and over again, upon both sides which cannot be named for the horror of them. We have not always been too careful of the black man's rights in Africa, and when he has turned upon us in his despair, have smitten him hip and thigh, decimating his tribe, burning his kraal and laying waste his fields.
The Maori experienced little, indeed, of this in comparison with those others. Misunderstanding there was, and some, perhaps, were too quick to judge. Misunderstanding added to hasty judgment led to strife; but that strife, keen as it was, and bitter too, sometimes, was never a combatà outrance.
Pakeha and Maori met and fought, slew and were slain, won or lost. Feeling now and again ran very high, the Maori smarting under a sense of loss and injustice, the Pakeha furious at some treacherous murder. Then there were reprisals. Such lamentable happenings there were; but at no time, not in the very depth of the war, existed generally that intense bitterness of spirit, that fierce racial jealousy, that consuming hatred, which distinguished the conflict between Paleface and Redskin. As the limits of the Pakeha's territory were extended, at no time did there arise such a band of bloody murderers as the "Indian Runners" of the western frontier of the United States. With these men it was an abiding principle to shoot an Indian on sight, innocent though he might be of any deed of blood. The strongest article in the creed of the Runner was,"There is only one good Injun, and that's a dead Injun."
Nothing like this wicked spirit ever animated the white community in New Zealand. One might almost say that they waged war in generous mood, and there were certainly instances of extreme generosity and high-mindedness on the Maori side. Where in the world in a campaign against "savages" has one heard of the savage calling a warning to his white foe? Yet this is what the Maori did. "Go back, Toby!" they cried to Lieutenant Phillpotts at Oheawai. "Lie down, icky-fif; we're goin' to shoot!" they frequently shouted to the soldiers of the 65th Regiment, who had somehow gained their regard. Where in the world will you hear of converted "savages," having been taught the sanctity of the Sabbath, respecting the same when at war with their instructors? Yet this is what the Maori did. Remember thepaof Ruapekapeka! Great and simple souls! What must have been their feelings when a volley from those who had taught them the holy lesson laid many of them low? There is no implication intended that the Maori were uniformly chivalrous and the Pakeha uniformly the opposite—the records of the war would never justify such,—but it ought not to be difficult for the civilised white man to be generous and chivalrous, whereas such instances as those just quoted are probably unique in the annals of war between the white and the coloured races.
The wars in New Zealand had for the most part their origin in agrarian questions, and were concludedby diplomatic negotiations. They were not—nor was it ever contemplated that they should be—wars of extermination. The Pakeha strove by means more or less legal, if not legitimate, to push the Maori from the soil on which their feet had been firmly planted for six hundred years. The old owners resented the attempt and, in some instances, the manner in which the attempt was made. When argument was exhausted, then, and then only, came the final appeal to arms, and a war resulted which has brought about lasting peace.
When the war began there were 170,000 whites in New Zealand, while the Maori population was reckoned at 32,000, of whom about 20,000 were available as fighting men. Remember, the Maori of 1859 were very different from even their immediate forebears. Cannibalism was as extinct as themoa. The intelligent natives had recognised the value of the Pakeha methods and studied them with advantage. Many possessed their own holdings, farmed their own ground, and progressed in the education which was freely offered them. There were Maori assessors in the Courts of the Superintendents, and a Maori chief was attached to the Governor's staff as adviser on purely native questions. The two races were distinctly drawn to one another about this period, and the white portion at any rate hardly looked for trouble.
What gave the colonists an added sense of security was their knowledge that the great leaders of the past were all dead, or nearing their end. Heke had died of consumption in 1850. Te Rauparaha precededhim to Reinga in 1849, being buried by his son, Thompson Rauparaha, who had been educated in England and was a lay-reader. Rangihaeata helped to bury his old friend, and followed him seven years later to the shades, having never during the whole of his seventy years abated his hatred of the Pakeha.
Rangihaeata was a man of great strength and splendid presence, and it is told that, when on one occasion he met Sir George Grey at akorero, or palaver, his costume was entirely and markedly Maori, in contrast to that of many of his countrymen, who wore blankets instead of mats, or were clothed in ordinary European dress. In reply to the Governor, Rangihaeata assumed his proudest, sternest expression, and spoke defiantly. "I want nothing of the white men," he concluded, and, with a sneer at his compatriots, "Iwear nothing of their work." Sir George smilingly indicated a peacock's feather which surmounted the chief's carefully dressed hair. "Ah! True; that is European," said Rangihaeata with vehement scorn, plucking the feather from his hair and casting it on the ground.
Of the rest of the stern warriors who had been in grips with the Pakeha, Pomare was dead, Te Tanewha was gone to join the long line of his ancestors, and Waka Nene, their reliable friend, was growing old. In the opinion of many the great past had died with the dead heroes, and was dead for ever.
It was in November, 1859, that Governor Gore Browne arrived at Taranaki and announced that, if any native had land to sell, along with a good title, he was there to buy for the Crown. A Maori namedTeira—the nearest approach he could make to "Taylor"—offered to part with six hundred acres at Waitara, and this block the Governor agreed to buy, if Teira's title were proved good. The Commissioner was satisfied as to the title; surveyors were sent to mark boundaries, and were promptly ordered off by Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake (William King), the chief of Teira's tribe, who had already declared that he would not allow the land to be sold.
Governor Browne was a soldier, and diplomacy was not for him. He at once sent a force to compel Wiremu Kingi to withdraw his opposition, and these found the Maori strongly entrenched, and quite willing to take up the gage of battle.
The Taranaki settlers retired with the soldiers to New Plymouth, and the Maori ravaged the settlement, which extended twenty miles north and south, and eight or ten inland. The fighting which followed during the ensuing months was chiefly remarkable for the first appearance of the colonial force in the field, where they then and afterwards did such good work.
For most obvious reasons—were they known—the writer would be the last to disparage the regular forces; but they were hampered by method, and the bush fighting of the Maori was a style of warfare to which they were quite unused. Not a few, without intending disrespect to the regular forces, strongly hold that, had the conduct of military operations been left to McDonnell, Von Tempsky, Whitmore, Atkinson, and a few others, they, with their militia and volunteers, would have brought the war to a successful close in half the time, at half the cost, andwith infinitely less loss to their own side. For these fought the Maori in the Maori style, and the natives feared these men, who knew them and the bush, with a fear they never felt for the redcoats, whom, in their queer way, they often expressed themselves sorry to be obliged to shoot.
One example will show the difference in method. General Cameron, a man of great experience—elsewhere—and proved courage, one day in 1865 marched from Whanganui with drums beating, colours flying, and bands playing, at the head of as gallant a company of regulars and volunteers as ever went out to war. After a march of fifteen miles they came to the lake of Nukumaru, five miles from the rebelpaof Wereroa, and here the General gave orders to encamp.
At this, Major Witchell, who was in command of the military train, most of his men being mounted colonials, rode up and said, with a salute, "General, don't you think that we are rather too near the bush?"
General Cameron glanced towards the bush, distant half a mile, the interval being covered with hightoë-toë, a grass something like that called "pampas," and replied, "Do you imagine, Major, that any number of natives would dare to attack two thousand of Her Majesty's troops?"
The Major thought it very likely; but he could say no more. He was confident that there were Maori in the bush, and the high grass offered excellent cover to such skilled guerilla. He probably realised also how much depended upon his own initiative, for, though he ordered his men to dismount, he bade them not offsaddle.
Suddenly the roar of musketry broke out, and thetoë-toëwas violently agitated as the Maori, still unseen, dodged hither and thither. That one discharge accounted for sixteen men, among them Adjutant-General Johnston, a capable officer; but, thanks to Major Witchell, that was the sum of the disaster.
"Mount!" he shouted, and his men, riding as they knew how to ride, chased the Maori back into the bush, save thirty-six who lay dead among the grass to balance the account of the sixteen. How narrow was the General's own escape is shown by the fact that a Maori was shot hard by his tent, in the centre of the camp. It was not until he had allowed himself to be surprised again next day and lost five more men that General Cameron concluded that the bush was too close, and that the Maori would actually attack two thousand of Her Majesty's troops.
This incident belonged to a later stage of the war. We are still with the troops in Taranaki, in the autumn of 1860, when General Pratt, who had arrived to take command, was about to besiege one of the Maori strongholds in the orthodox manner.
Before this could be done, a truce was negotiated by the Christian Waikato chief, Wiremu Tamihana Te Whaharoa (William Thompson), who represented the King faction. Waikato had sent a contingent to the aid of Taranaki—in the old days it would have been very different—although they had no personal interest in the dispute; but these had been repulsedwith loss, and it was then that Tamihana suggested a truce. This was in May, 1861, fourteen months after the Governor's soldiers had marched against Wiremu Kingi.
charge
Major Witchell's charge at Nukumaru
Men were everywhere satisfied that nothing more would come of this year of skirmishing, and few, if any, regarded it as preliminary to a long and dreadful war. Things fell again into their places; three new provinces—Hawke's Bay or Napier, Marlborough and Southland—were added to the rest, the Bank of New Zealand was incorporated, and only those within the innermost circle knew that underneath the seeming calm was deep-rooted unrest.
But so it was. Governor Browne demanded, very much in the imperative mood, the submission of all concerned in the late rising, and a general oath of allegiance to the Crown. The Maori said neither yea nor nay; they simply did nothing. Whereon the Governor, wroth at their contumacy, declared his intention to invade Waikato and bring the insolent rebels to their knees. It is hard to see how one who has never taken an oath of allegiance can be a rebel; but that may pass.
The colonists who heard the Governor's fulmination could not believe their ears, called his attention to the state of unpreparedness throughout the colony, and urged that to invade Waikato would be to invite an alliance of the sympathisers with that powerful tribe against the British. But the Governor had the power, believed that he had the means, and reiterated his determination.
At this critical juncture Britain intervened togive her youngest child breathing time. Sir George Grey, Governor of Cape Colony, was instructed to proceed to New Zealand, and there resume the reins of government; and, when Governor Browne understood this, he held his hand, much to the relief of the colonists.
For the next two years Governor Sir George Grey tried by every means short of war to bring about a peaceful solution of the difficulty which had arisen out of the Waitara block of land. He had the powerful aid of Bishop Selwyn; but all was useless, for the Waikato declined to submit the question to arbitration. And then the face of the situation was suddenly changed, and the natives placed entirely in the wrong.
The district of Tataraimaka, fifteen miles south of New Plymouth, had been for fifteen years in undisputed possession of European settlers, even the Maori admitting their title to be good. The natives had ravaged this block during the trouble of 1860-1861 and, as they now refused to withdraw from it, Sir George Grey cut the knot of the difficulty by declaring his intention to abandon all claim to the Waitara block and to drive the Taranaki tribes out of Tataraimaka. Sir George never allowed "I dare not" to "wait upon I would," and the military were soon on their way.
Confident of the support of the Waikato, the men of Taranaki sent to the king's headquarters for instructions. The answer came back at once, sternly laconic: "Begin your shooting!"
An escort party were ambushed on the 4th ofMay, 1863, and the Taranaki began their shooting by murdering—for war was not declared—Lieutenant Tragett, Dr. Hope, and five soldiers of the 57th Regiment. Apart from this, the Waikato showed their determination to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Taranaki tribes and force a contest.
Only a month earlier Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Gorst, resident magistrate in the heart of the Waikato country, had been expelled by the leaders, and the printing-press whence he had issued literature opposed to Kingism seized. The Waikato had a press of their own, which had been presented to them by the Emperor of Austria, and they issued a news-sheet which they calledHokioi, after a fabulous bird of great power. Mr. Gorst, on his side, published thePihohoi, which is the name of a tiny lark; and, as the principles of "The Lark" were dead against Kingism, the king's men suppressed the paper with an alacrity worthy of Russian censors.
The King party immediately after this came into direct conflict with Sir George Grey himself. Marching in force to a spot on the lower Waikato upon which Sir George proposed to build a court-house and police barracks, the malcontents hurled all the ready-fitted timbers into the river, declaring the district outside British jurisdiction.
After this exhibition of power and determination, the Waikato despatched war-runners in all directions to rouse the Maori and inspire them to "drive the Pakeha Rat into the sea." The runners carried a circular letter exhorting the natives to "sweep out their yard" and to remember the nationalwhakatauki,or motto, "Me mate te tangata me mate mo te whenua" (the death of the warrior is to die for the land). "We will sweep out our yard," went on the letter, and concluded with a line from a stirring war-song, well known throughout the North Island: "Grasp firm your weapons! Strike! Fire!"
Though skirmishing was going on, neither side actually admitted being at war; but Auckland itself being threatened, General Cameron was hurriedly called north with every available man of his command.
A glance at the map will show that the Waikato river makes a bend where the Maungatawhiri creek falls into it, and then pursues a course almost due west to the sea. At this junction, some forty miles south of Auckland, and east of the river's mouth, was the frontier line of the defiant Waikato. The King tribes had long ago said that the crossing of this line would be regarded by them as a belligerent act, and when General Cameron, on the 13th of July, 1863, led his troops across it, the Waikato war began without any more formal notice.
CHAPTER XXII
THE QUEEN MOVES
First blood was to the Maori on the 17th of July at Koheroa, near that rectangular bend just referred to which the Waikato river makes towards the sea. The tribesmen had cleverly divided into two columns, one of which swung round through the dense forest on the Wairoa ranges and attacked the British rear, where they forced an escort of the Royal Irish under Captain Ring to retire with the loss of one killed and four wounded. A sharper fight, later in the day, left the advantage once more with the British.
Colonel Austin was in command of the advance post at Koheroa, General Cameron occupying a redoubt on the ranges overlooking the river. The colonel, observing large masses of natives gathering on the ranges to his front, immediately advanced in skirmishing order. The enemy retired towards the Maramarua creek in their rear, but, when two miles had been covered in a running fight, suddenly made a stand in a very difficult position, which they had already fortified with breastworks and rifle-pits, and which, from the nature of the ground, it was impossible to turn.
So terrific a volley was poured upon a detachment of the 14th, which had never till then been under fire, that for all their pluck the lads wavered. General Cameron had just arrived to take command and, seeing the unsteadiness of the leading files, ran to the front, twenty paces in advance of all, and stood there, a mark for every bullet, cheering on his men. British soldiers never yet failed to answer a call like that. The slight hesitation disappeared in a moment, and the men rushed forward and drove the enemy out of their pits at the point of the bayonet. The pursuit was maintained for five miles, the Maori making defiant stands at one prepared position after another—much as the Boers used to do at a later period,—but they were finally driven into headlong flight, with a loss of between sixty and eighty.
The colonists were greatly disappointed when, instead of following up his victory, General Cameron sat down at Wangamirino creek and watched the rebels while they strongly fortified Meri-Meri, three miles distant, making no attempt to dislodge them. Alleging that his transport service must be thoroughly organised, General Cameron remained where he was until the end of October, and all through the long weeks over a thousand horses panted and strained, dragging the heavy commissariat waggons along the forty-mile metalled road between Auckland and the Waikato. The transport service ran grave risk of traps and ambuscades, but, as no vessels suitable for river navigation were available, the military stores could be sent by no other way.
The General at last considered himself ready toadvance; but first very properly reconnoitred Meri-Meri in one of the iron-screened steamers which the Governor had sent him. Then, on the 31st of October, he moved forward over six hundred men, left them in position, and returned for another detachment with which to attack the Maori fortification both front and rear. But when he arrived with detachment number two, there were no Maori there to fight. They had abandoned Meri-Meri under the very eyes of detachment number one, instead of remaining, as they clearly ought to have done, to be surrounded. It was as well; for Meri-Meri was very strongly entrenched, and great loss of life must have attended an assault.
The Maori rarely fought as they were expected to fight, and, as in the case of the Boers, theirpersonnelwas constantly changing, some of them going home, and others, who had so far done no fighting, taking their places. After the evacuation of Meri-Meri, a considerable number withdrew temporarily from the field, while the rest, reinforced by a fresh contingent, set to work to fortify Rangiriri, twelve miles higher up the Waikato.
Against this General Cameron advanced on the 20th of November with a land force of eight hundred men, five hundred more on board two river steamers, two Armstrong guns and two gunboats, whose duty it would be to pitch shell into thepafrom their position on the river. The fort, trenched and pitted, had a formidable look; but the Maori had for once omitted to leave open a way of escape in their rear,and, besides, they were numerically too weak to defend the long line of fortification.
From three o'clock until five that afternoon the gunners poured shot and shell into the entrenchments at a range of six hundred yards, and then the troops, led by the gallant 65th, drove the enemy from the trenches into a central redoubt, which defied all efforts to take it. The men of the red and white roses swung raging back to make way for a contingent of the Royal Artillery and, when these, too, were beaten off, Commander Mayne of H.M.S.Eclipsetwice in succession led his jolly tars against the impregnable redoubt. Not even they could succeed, and night closed in on the combatants, putting an end to the slaughter, and leaving the Maori still in possession.
All night long the sappers laboured at a trench, and all night long the Maori within the redoubt kept up a terrific howling, flinging challenges, and occasionally something more practical, at the besiegers; but, when morning dawned, there stood on the fatal parapet a chief of note, and asked for an interpreter. In a few moments one hundred and eighty-three warriors and one hundred and seventy-five stand of arms were surrendered to General Cameron.
The mistakes of Oheawai were repeated at Rangiriri, and the wonder is that the troops got off as cheaply as they did; a fact only to be accounted for by the numerical weakness of the Maori. These knew well the courage of the men arrayed against them; but the desperate valour with which theydefended their works helped to convince the British General that they, too, were foemen not to be despised.
The battle of Rangiriri had this great advantage, that it opened the gorge of Taupiri, where disaster might well have overtaken the troops, had the Maori been in a position to defend it. As it was, General Cameron was able to push forward, and on the 6th of December to occupy Ngaruawahia, where King Matutaere had established his headquarters, and where his father, old Potatau, was buried. Matutaere had not waited for General Cameron and, unduly fearful of desecration, had carried away with him the mouldering remains of the old king. One thing he had left behind, as being too heavy for a flying column, and that was a flagstaff of most exalted height, from the peak of which his royal standard had lately floated. The standard was gone, but the flagstaff had not been cut down, and the Union Jack soon proclaimed to any watching Waikato that the first game of the rubber had been won by the British.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE BLACK KNIGHT GIVES CHECK
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, entrenchedthemselves 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 thepa; 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 menhors de combat, while on the other side of thepathe 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 orderto evacuate thepa, 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 thepa. 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 AucklandSouthern Crosswrote 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 andTi-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 "GatePa." 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.
The position had been completely invested, and the bombardment opened on the morning of the28th of April, 1864. The Maori lay grimly silent behind their defences while our great guns banged and boomed, belching their storm of shot and shell at—emptiness! The cunning foe had planted their standard one hundred yards in rear of theirpa, while the besiegers fondly imagined it to be placed in the centre. For two hours the waste of ammunition went on before the mistake was discovered; but, even when the great guns roared furiously at the redoubt, as if wroth at the saturnine jest played upon them, the Maori made no sign; so that none could tell whether they were lying close, like scared rabbits in their burrows, or whether—though this was not likely—they had already stolen away and escaped.
The afternoon was advanced when, with their reserves well up, the troops poured through a wide breach in an angle of the redoubt. They met with little opposition, and those on the plain actually believed thepato be taken.
Not so. In the very moment of victory occurred one of those inexplicable panics which, rarely enough, seize the most seasoned troops; the positions were reversed in an instant, and the Maori masters of the situation.
As the troops dashed cheering through the breach, the Maori attempted to slip out at the rear of thepa; but, seeing the men of the 65th, the whole mass of them surged back and came face to face with the foremost of those who had entered from the front. These, startled at sight of so many savage foes rushing furiously upon them, pressedupon their comrades, who in turn faltered, and the troops in another moment turned and ran, shouting, "They are there in thousands!"
Undaunted by this terrible sight, the reserves dashed up to encourage their dismayed comrades, but to no purpose. The Maori, momentarily inactive from sheer astonishment, recovered and poured a disastrous fire upon the mob of struggling men, twenty-seven of whom were killed and sixty-six wounded.
It is useless to try to explain away this unhappy incident. It is enough to say that the men of the 43rd Regiment two months later atoned for their behaviour, and wiped out their defeat by utterly routing the Maori at Te Ranga, where the position was not at all unlike that at the GatePa.
Despite the fact that there were now arrayed against them some ten thousand British regulars, and five thousand colonial troops, the Maori made no overtures of surrender—save for a few at Tauranga. Instead, they withdrew from the Waikato plain, as well as from those parts occupied by the soldiers, and joined forces with the Whanganui rebels in the fastnesses of the latter's country, where they were able to indulge in their favourite bush-fighting and guerilla warfare. Here, too, their resistance was strengthened by the growth of a shocking superstition, which bred in them a fanatical hate, and lent to their methods a brutality never previously exhibited in their conflicts with the Pakeha.
Another development which strongly influencedthe remainder of the war occurred about the time when the operations at Tauranga were brought to a close. Until the early part of 1864 the Colonial Forces had played a subordinate part in the war—not from choice—though their conduct had been invariably deserving of the highest praise. The time was now at hand when they were to become principals instead of supernumeraries, and by their own strenuous efforts bring about the end of a struggle which General Cameron had more than once frankly despaired of finishing.
"The nature of the country forbids the idea of a decisive blow being struck in the Whanganui district," he once wrote to Sir George Grey, "and if Her Majesty's troops are to be detained in the colony until one is struck, I confess I see no prospect of their leaving New Zealand."
No doubt General Cameron was right in considering the country indicated as probably the most difficult in New Zealand in which to engage in military operations; but, even in the more accessible Waikato plains, he had not conducted the war with that dash which the colonists knew to be necessary for the speedy subjugation of the natives. Even the Maori considered him slow and, notwithstanding his personal courage, contemptuously styled him "the sea-gull with the broken wing," because of his tendency to avoid the bush and encamp upon or near the shore. Lastly, his Fabian policy had cost the colony an enormous sum, and the British Government, irritated by the expense of its generous response to the colony's appeal for aid, now demanded£40 per head per annum for all soldiers kept in New Zealand at the request of the Colonial Government, after the 1st of January, 1865. The answer of the colony to this was to beg the Home Government to remove the Imperial troops to the last man, declaring the colony ready and able to undertake its own defence.
This "self-relying" policy of the Weld Ministry relieved the colonists of a great burden; for the poll-tax was to be paid only for soldiers remaining at the request of the New Zealand Government. Furthermore, the relations between Sir George Grey and General Cameron had for long been none too cordial, and one thing added to another brought about the departure of some of the British regiments.
To put the matter in a nutshell, the Governor asked the soldier to dare and do more than the latter believed he could accomplish with the troops at his disposal; so he refused point blank. The Governor thereupon dared and did on his own initiative, and proved the soldier wrong.
Here is an outstanding example. After General Cameron had been surprised at Nukumaru,[67]he passed on up the coast, leaving unreduced the strong Wereroapa, which was occupied in force by the Maori. His reason, given to the Governor, was that he had only fifteen hundred troops with him, and to attack the fort with less than two thousand would be to court disaster. When five hundred friendly Whanganui natives offered to take thepa, the General sneered at their offer as "mere bounce" and,further, insisted that the Governor knew it to be "mere bounce."
The Governor's reply was to collect a mixed force of five hundred men, including three hundred of the "bouncing" friendlies, and borrow two hundred regulars from General Waddy for moral support. With these he marched upon thepaabout which such a pother had been raised. The Queen's troops, who were not allowed to fight—though the enemy did not know that—acted as a camp guard, while the colonials and friendlies worked by a circuitous and very difficult route to the rear of thepa. Here they took a strong redoubt, which commanded the fort, and captured fifty Maori on their way to join the garrison. All this was effected without the loss of a man, and the enemy, seeing themselves, as they supposed, surrounded, evacuated thepaby the front. Had the regulars been allowed to fight, the hostile force must have been annihilated; but, much to their astonishment, they were allowed to walk off unopposed. The numerically insignificant contingent of colonials and friendlies entered thepanext day, having accomplished in two days, under the Governor's eye, that which the commander-in-chief had for six months declared to be impossible of accomplishment with less than two thousand regulars. Perhaps, however, he was right.
As one result of this constant friction and of General Cameron's representations to the British Government, there remained in the colony in 1865 only five regiments, and these were employed in guarding the districts which had been reduced.After March, 1865, the Colonial Forces for the most part conducted the war in their own way; but it would be absurd to deny that, but for the regulars who remained, the conquered tribes would have reassembled and obliged the war to be fought over again, or necessitated an increase in the strength of the colonials proportional to that of the Imperial troops withdrawn. As it was, while the regulars stood on guard, the colonials fought their fight unhampered by reviving sedition—fought and, as we shall see, conquered.
FOOTNOTES:[66]See p. 55.[67]See p. 233.
[66]See p. 55.
[66]See p. 55.
[67]See p. 233.
[67]See p. 233.
CHAPTER XXIV
PAI MARIRE,[68]OR THE HAUHAU SECT
The early months of the year 1864 saw the first appearance of the fanatical sect of thePai Marire, or Hauhau. Various opinions exist as to its cause of origin, but no member of it has put his own views on record for the benefit of posterity. Some believe that the sect was founded as a deliberate attempt to strengthen the weakening attachment of the natives to the national cause, by giving them the powerful bond of a common religion—so to call it. Others maintain that the inception of the movement was in a madman's brain, and that it was used for political purposes only when it was perceived how readily the more ignorant and superstitious of the Maori accepted it. Lastly, not a few insist that such a religious development was the natural outcome of instilling half-a-dozen views of Christianity into the receptive brain of an intelligent race, able and accustomed to think for themselves. These last argue that, when the Maori had listened to (in order of sequence) the Anglican, Wesleyan, Baptist, and Catholic versions of the "faith once delivered," thevarious contentions became so jumbled up in some minds that their owners began to study the Bible for themselves. The result of the research of some of the less enlightened was the formation of a "religion" which was a grotesque blend of Judaism, Paganism, and elementary Christianity (very little of this last) which was used as a means to an end by those who utterly scorned it—the end being the destruction of British supremacy.
The author of the creed, one Te Ua, does indeed seem to have been a mild-mannered lunatic. He broke out rather violently about the time of a shipwreck on the Taranaki coast, and, while tied and bound for the good of the community, indulged in a madman's dream which he subsequently proclaimed as a "revelation."
Having managed to free himself, Te Ua declared that the archangels Michael and Gabriel, together with many spirits, had landed from the wreck and given him power to burst his bonds. His companions, finding this story hard to believe, again secured Te Ua, and this time with a chain. No use. With an effort of that strength which sometimes appears in the insane, Te Ua snapped the chain and leaped at a bound into the position of a seer.
Te Ua's muddled brain recalling something of the story of Abraham and Isaac, he went out and began to break his son's legs in obedience to a divine command to kill the youth. He was presently stopped by Gabriel, who restored the boy whole and sound to his father, and gave the latter orders to assemble all believers round aniu, or sacred pole. Groupedthere in a circle, they must dance, apostrophise the Trinity, sing hymns and what not, in return for which, those found worthy—note the saving clause—should receive the gift of tongues and be invulnerable in battle. While praying, dancing or fighting, the sectaries were constantly to ejaculate the syllables "Hauhau," forming a word supposed to mean the wind (hau), by which the angels were wafted from the wreck when first they communicated with the great Te Ua.
Te Ua was not long in making converts to his strange faith; and on the 4th of April, 1864, a body of them fell upon a detachment of the 57th and military settlers, who were destroying crops in the Kaitaka ranges. Captain Lloyd, who was in command, fought most bravely when cut off from his men, and died fighting. His body and the bodies of seven other white men were discovered a few days later, all minus the heads, which had been carried away. No one knew what to make of this innovation; but it was afterwards ascertained that Captain Lloyd's head had been preserved after the Maori fashion, and was being carried throughout the North Island, and exhibited to tribe after tribe as the medium through which God would occasionally speak to his people.
frenzy
The frenzy of the Hauhau. The Incantation
The tribes were also informed that legions of angels would some day appear and assist the Hauhau to annihilate the Pakeha. Once that degenerate lot had been got rid of, the angels would escort from heaven an entirely new brand of men, who should teach the Maori all the Europeans knew, and more.Unconsciously prophetic, the final promise in this farrago of nonsense was that all Maori who fulfilled certain conditions should be instantly endowed with power to understand and speak the English language. The new men were evidently to resemble the Briton!
Notwithstanding its blasphemous absurdities, thePai Mariresect gained so many converts, and spread so far and fast, that it seemed at one time as if all the Maori in the North Island would rebel. It is well, however, to keep in mind that many of those who followed the prophet's drum did so for their own purposes, and privately mocked at his uninspired ravings.
The wonder is that the new faith did not immediately wither away; for the Hauhau lost at the very outset so many killed and wounded at Sentry Hill, near Taranaki, that all conceit as to their invulnerability should have been driven out of them. Among the dead was a prominent sub-prophet, Hepanaia, and the story was circulated and believed that the reverse was wholly due to this man's faulty behaviour—a very convenient way of accounting for the non-fulfilment of the archangel's promises.
Wishful to counterbalance the effect of this defeat, the Hauhau determined to attack Whanganui. The prophet Matene (Martin) sent a conciliatory message to the Whanganui tribe of Ngati-Hau, and with a number of disaffected Waikato swept down the river in war-canoes, intent to wipe out the settlement and the town.
But the Ngati-Hau, being friendly to the Pakeha, made alliance with the Ngati-Apa, and paddled up-stream to meet the advancing Hauhau. They were three hundred, and the prophet checked his advance at sight of them. A parley ensued, one side demanding, the other refusing, permission to pass down the river. Matene threatening violence, the Ngati-Hau challenged him to make good his bold words, and it was presently arranged that the two companies should meet next morning on the island of Moutoa—scene of many a fight—and decide the question by ordeal of battle. It was agreed that neither party should ambush or surprise the other, and the Hauhau landed at dawn on Moutoa to find the Ngati-Hau awaiting them.
The Whanganui, with mistaken generosity, opposed only a hundred of their number to one hundred and thirty Hauhau. They were divided into an advanced guard of fifty men, and an equal number in support, while the remainder stood upon the river bank as spectators. The vanguard, under Tamihana Te Aewa, was subdivided into three parties, each headed by a fighting chief, Riwai Tawhitorangi, Hemi Nape, and Kereti, while the chief, Haimona, led the supports.
Matene and his Hauhau, uttering their harsh, barking howl, were allowed to land and form up unopposed, when they immediately began their incantations, howling fragments of Scripture and making passes after the manner of a hypnotist. The Whanganui, convinced of the invulnerability of their foe, waited until the latter, still incanting, had advanced within thirty paces, and then fired. Not one Hauhau fell.
At this moment a Christian Maori rushed in between the two parties and beseeched them not to fight. As he stood there, the Hauhau returned a volley; the mediator fell dead and, worse still, so did Riwai, Kereti, and several others. The vanguard began to retreat, shouting, "It is absurd to fire at those who cannot be wounded," and only Hemi Nape stood firm, giving back shot for shot, and bringing down more than one of the "invulnerables." To him rushed Tamihana Te Aewa, forcing forward a few whom he had been able to rally; but, even as they reached his side, Hemi Nape fell dead.
Then Tamihana roared his battle-cry, and with histuparashot two grinning Hauhau, whose spirits plunged so suddenly into the waters of Reinga that their bodies knew not of their departure, but ran on for several paces ere they realised their condition and fell. A third half halted, amazed at the extraordinary sight, and him Tamihana brained with the stock of his empty gun, sending him with a splash into the dark waters after his comrades. A fourth came at him, howling like a wild dog; but Tamihana seized a spear and drove it so deep into the man's heart, that even his great strength could not withdraw it. And while he tugged and wrenched, lo! a bullet shattered his arm, and a fifth Hauhau rushed upon him to slay him. But Tamihana, stooping swiftly, caught up Hemi Nape's gun and, swinging it round his head with one hand, smote his enemy such a blow that the man's skull cracked like an egg-shell, and his brains gushed out. Truly, the guardian of the portals of Reinga had no timethat day to close them while Tamihana was at work.
Yet more might Tamihana have slain; but, even as he slew, single-handed, his fifth man, he fell to the ground with a broken knee.
By this time, those who ran had come to the tail of the island, whence, looking back, they saw their chief upon the ground, and the Hauhau rushing up to finish him. Then was Haimona Hiroti shame-smitten and, driving his spear into the earth, he cried aloud, "I go no farther! Back with me, all who would not live with shame upon their faces!" And twenty brave men followed Haimona, and all together they charged home, some calling upon Atua for aid, and some invoking the Christians' God. But the Hauhau, having only one god to cry to, became struck with fear, and in their turn broke and fled to their canoes. Few there were who reached them, so mightily did Haimona Hiroti and his score smite, and so many did they slay; but some ran very fast, and these escaped, taking no thought of those behind.
Then Matene, their prophet, finding himself abandoned, cast himself into the river and swam for the bank opposite to that whereon the men of Ngati-Hau and others were gathered, watching the fight and shouting lustily.
Up to the very head of the island charged Haimona Hiroti, seeking still to slay. But not one was left. Then, when he saw the swimmer and knew him for Matene, Haimona cried aloud to Te Moro, "See! there swims your fish!" and thrust his bonemereinto his hand. And Te Moro plungedinto the stream and, swimming very fast, overtook the "fish" before he reached the bank and seized him by the hair, which he wore long, after the manner of the Hauhau. Then Matene turned in the water and, making passes in the air with his hands, barked at Te Moro, "Hauhau! Hauhau! Hau! Hau! Hau!" as is the way with these people. But Te Moro, swimming round him, drew back his head and smote him with the bonemereonly one blow; but it was enough.
Then Te Moro swam back and, having laid Matene at Haimona's feet, offered him his bonemere. But Haimona said, "Keep it"; and Te Moro very gladly kept it, for there were two notches in it where it had suffered owing to the thickness of Matene's skull. And, when Te Moro's children's children shall show themereto their children and tell the tale of it, should any doubt, there will the notches be to prove that their ancestor slew Matene, and with that very weapon.