THE OLD FRONTIER

THE STORY OF THE WAIPA VALLEY

The Early Colonization

The Soldier The War in Wai kato

The Pioneer Farm er Life on the

and Later -D ay Settlement

BY ME A G JA S COW N , FR . .S .

u lished T he Wai a os rin in and P b by p P t P t g Publishing Com pany, Limited

T e Aw am utu, N ew Zeal and

1922

PR E FA CE

This sketch of the history of the Waipa district centreing in n Te Awamutu has been written especially with a view to interesti g

the younger generation of colonists , and the now large population

m ic on both sides of the old Maori bo rder , in the unco monly dramat story of the beautiful country in which their homes are set . The original settlers to whom many of the events here described were

matters of personal knowledge are fast passing away, and a gene ration has arisen which has but a vague idea of the local history

is and of the old heroic life on the Waipa plains . The book designed to convey accurate pictures of this pioneer life and th e

successive eras of the missionary and the soldier, and to invest with a new interest for many the familiar home landscapes .

Much of the information given herein is published for the

f first time , and therefore should be of special value to students o

New Zealand history. For the story of missionary enterprise the

writer has drawn on a MS . journal written by the Rev . John

Morgan , the first civiliser of the Waipa country ; for the military

history use has been made of an exceedingly readable MS . narrati ve

Tem sk left by the celebrated Major Von p y, of the Forest Rangers.

For the rest , it has been a peculiar pleasure to the writer, as one n bred on the old A kati border, to recall scenes in a phase of life

which has passed away for ever .

Wellington , N Z ,

September, 1 922 .

CO N T E N T S

CHAPTE R I r — TO POGRAPH ICAL AND LEGENDARY nt Th r e A Th e b eautiful Waipa cou ry . e ga d n l ands of Te wamutu wh i il l o h ori rd r Th n o and R angiao a. H s f t e Ma bo e . e co e f

Kak e uk u nci en or r es ses. aori r ibes of the ai a p . A t f t M t W p

basin.

- A A CH APTE R II . TH E MI S SI ON R Y E R .

e B . s wel l r mi s iona Te I n cannibal days. R v. . Y A h the fi st s ry in A eas on h man fles i n h ao a E n th e Awamu tu . f t u h Otaw p . d of - al wars e J oh n or an omes to Te A wam tu . int er tr ib . R v. M g c u

i use ul mission wor H ow M r or an owe e oo . H s f k . M g s d th g d seed CHAPTE R III -PLOUGH AND F LOUR -MILL Mr Mor gan intr oduces Engl ish method s of ag r iculture Maor i tr ibes r o s r e T h e comin e h e become indu st i u fa m r s. g of th w eat. Lar g i ons e A wamutu R an i aowhia Kih i hi an ra u cul t vati at T , g , ki , d O kaa . “ ’ i a h r flo r - il l s s r o an r Gr ind ng the wh e t. T e fi st u m . M M r g s na na i l a e f th e wa er - mil l in a l n s t ve. C tt r o t m ny Maori sett eme t . E in h an r n n xpor t g w eat d flou to Au ckl a d. Ra g iaowh ia fl our s ent ’ t n l S ir r e r i o E g and . Geor ge G y s p act cal sympath y wi th th e

— TH E CHAPTE R IV . GOL D E N AGE BEF OR E TH E WAR n a 'i o i ’ Te Awamutu a d R angi owh a in 1 852. M r Heyw od C r ispe s de - - scri i on. A land of cor n fiel ds n rui ro s h ach pt a d f t g ve . T e pe

roves of R an iaowh i a. i si to the lar e ao r i il l a e ol d g g V t g M v g , ’ Kin Pota a H st ter i g t u . och et s v ew in 1 859 . T — CHAP E R V. J OH N GOR S T AT TE AWAMUTU ‘ a an m i s n r Mr Go rst as Magi str t e d Co m s io e . Th e educational insti ' i a Aw new e s sh d tut on t Te amutu . A spap r e tabl i ed. R ewi s rai ” on th e ih oih M oke ok e. M r r l P oi m Go st eaves Wailrato. Te r - i l a a o e Awamu tu e vi s t ed. The st c n e voyag .

— - H TE R . TH E K T 6 4 C AP VI WAI A O WAR , 1 8 3 6 Br s nd l o ial i t Figh ting on th e Waikato. iti h a Co n troops nvade h e t ar i h Waipa country . Pa erangi and Wai . T e Forest R ang er s. ’ r r t i e war i h l - t Von Tempsky s na a ve of th . B s op S e wyn at h e on Fr t . TE R - TH T R - -AO IA CHAP VII . E CAP U E OF RANGI WH ’ or summer mor nin invasion. S k r ish in Von Tempsky s st y . A g i m g h l l a e ie o ri wh ar o n through t e vi g . S ge f a Mao e. Col nel Nixo

h t D r amati eath o an ol d war r ior . er i l i l n s o . c d f H o c tt e gar r iso

annihilated.

- TH A A CHAPTE R VIII . E E NG GE MENT T HAIR INI

n il l . i el d r il l er e l Sh ar p acti on at Hai r i i H F A t y sh l s the Maori l ines. ea f t o A gr eat bayonet ch ar ge. D ef t o he Ma ri s. Wor k of th e R an s oo in an iaowh il la e Forest ger . L t g R g ia v g . Comedy at th e i o Tem sk an l Ca th ol c Ch ur ch . V n p y d an Imper ial Co onel . Th e

r e rn o Te Awa u tu . cur ious s ec a l e Th as l tu t m A p t c . ose r cal y ” Rangers h ave got al l th e l oot !

- CHAPTE R I X . TH E I NVAS I ON OF KIHIKI H I ’ B ri i r - Bowi Maniapoto s h eadq uarter s. t sh fo ce occupies Ki hikihi n i m ’ il la e. B urnin of th e cou c l h ouse Von T e k ni v g g . ps y s ght a m i ui l ess mar . r s i e on. r ch l e s s i r s e o xpedi ti A f t H k m h ng . R d ubt ’ i h i . e wa buil t at Kih ki T A mutu th e ar my s h eadquart ers. The

fi rst expedi tion to Or akau . CO NTE NTS

- B TT E OF OR AKAU CHAPTE R X . THE A L ' i r- n l Most memorabl e battl e i n New Zeal and 8 h istor y B r gadi e Ge era ' ’ Von T em sk s narra ive. ni ma ed de Car ey s expediti on. p y t A t

e Wor of th e or es R an er s. er oi sm scr iption of th e si eg . k F t g H - r r r dom . Th e l as d a . b ea fo ee of th e Maori gar r ison. t y A k f

ao nar r a ives. Th e r e l to Th e sol dier s in pur suit. M ri t p y ’ I n den of th e sie e. G ener al C ameron s m essage. ci ts g

CH APTE R XI — CAMP L I F E AT TE AWAMUT U “ t s D escri ion of cam l i e. Th e Th e tr oops in winter qu ar er . pt p f ’ - T h h ouse o eni n dance. aw er s near sol di er s wh ar es. e p g S y l i me T h e 65th a model r e imen . S o d er s beco Ra ngiaowh ia. , g t

sts oo in th e aori h or ses. The r omance of riana. capital i . L t g M A ’ - i fl e mil i i aman s h ear and h and Th e h unch back and h s ut . A t t , ’ and Ariana s scor n.

CHAPTE R XI I r — PI ONE E R L I FE ON TH E OLD FR ONTIE R wn s l l en l n ountr or der . An un no u and Peri l s of th e Ki g C y b k , h r i t ni Th e ione r Pictu re f rom t e no th s de of h e P u u . p e ’ - l i in h e n i s. The each r oves r ak sett er s l fe t e S ve t e p g of O au . A ain l h se n r e ou b s Th e mur de of Timoth ch of b ock ou s a d d t . r y l i van r a a e an h e r T Awamutu aval S ul G ve d n r of o r wa . e r . g t C y l l in - l r a ro th e out e em n s . Th e e Vol untee s. P t g s tt e t r tur n of ea h e Tawhi ao cam h n p c e. W n e ou t . T e Ki g of th e Canni bal - sl ands. Th e eace m a in d an i Kihi i I p k g ce n kih . Th e capture o ini a M h k ’ l f W at . a u i s raid on A ex andr a. Peaceful pak eha con ues o th e Kin q t f g C ountry .

— ' CHAPTE R XIII . KI H1AR OA T HE GIANT ol -Tal e of th e aor i B rder T ia ’ A F k M o . h e G nt s Gr ave at Tokanui . “ ” or i ed h il l of Th Th r F t fi s e ee Si ster s. Th e story of an in

vasion. An ar m i n ambush . Th at l h h y e b t e of W enua ou . Th e

dea h of Kiharoa. a au th e ian t M t , G t of t h e Wai r aka. E D APP N ICE S . ’ aori l ace names. Th e ca ur i M p pt e of W niata. Mr H ursth ouse s adven ur e i n th e Kin un r ’ t g Co t y . Mah uk i s r aid on Al exandr a , an d h is ca t ur e. Th e Kin i p g Countr y r a l way . T H E O L D F R O N TI E R

CHAPTER I . O O AND T P GRAPHICAL LEGENDARY .

OR landscape interest conjoined to the traditional and historic I know of no part of New Zealand more attractive than the z one along the old frontier line of the Waipa country of which Te Awam utu may be described as the

- to . metropolis day Beauty of physical configuration ,

fertility of soil , poetic Maori folklore , memories of the heroic pioneer

— days , tales of sadness and glory of the war years all these elements combine to invest the border line of the Waipa and the R oh epotae to with a singular value , above all those who have had the fortune

- to be reared on this well favoured land . The physiographic charm of the country on the north side of the Puniu and the east side of the Waipa River is produced by the gently- rolling lie of the land

- with its countless sheltered valleys and its well sunned slopes , with

- its leisurely winding streams , with here and there a small lake ; A am t n i h the old Maori garden lands of Te w u u, R a g aow ia, Kihikihi , ka - and Or a u , now covered with pakeha farms and tree groves , with fat flocks and herds , and wearing all the aspect of a comfortable countryside enriched by the tillage of two generations of white A uka i farmers . The south side of the old t line , more recently broken in from the wilderness of fern and tutu , is even more promising as c a land of fat stock and good rops , of dairy herds and meat ; and it is singularly interesting to the physiographer and the geologist . Kak e uku - Pirongia , p , the tattooed cone of Kawa , the fort scarped ” h - T ree Sisters of Tokanui , Tauranga Kohu and its neighbour

- hills , the Maunga tantari Ranges , curve sicklewise along the old

c - c time frontier, a romanti ally shaped ceinture of volcani saliencies o h ae which seem to m unt guard like giant sentries over the R o epot , just as they formed a belt of fiery lava mouths and cones in the

K k k u N a r uh remote geological past . a epu , a g u oe in miniature , is a peak to hold the eye for many a mile . I came to look on that lone mountain with very much the kind of affection in which it is held by the Maori people who live around its base , whose local folklore k and poetry enshrine many a reference to Kakepu u . The fair blue hills of boyhood ! Once upon a time when werode in daily from the other side of Kihikihi to school at Te Awamutu the uplift of Kake 8 THE O L D FRO NTIER

to puku , looming a few miles across the valley the westward , seemed an enchanted mountain , holding infinite suggestion of mystery and adventure . Pirongia is twice its altitude , building up a noble rugged

’ Kak e uku s - c western skyline , but p indigo blue one , with the crater c hollow scooped out of its top , was the peak to apture the imagina tion . On clear days as we viewed it from the Kihikihi hills every line of the deep ravines which scored its sides stood up as bold and ’ sharp as the singularly scarped terraces of Kawa s nippled hill . Kakepuku almost seemed shaped and hewn from the landscape by the hands of veritable mountain gods , so regular and symmetrical

o ou r its outline . Truly a picture mountain . More ver , it was weather k - ca glass . When Kakepu u put on his fog p, and the mists filled the

- c long dead crater of the volcano and rept down the upper slopes , the countryside knew that rain was at hand . The other mountains , such as Pirongia , might cloud themselves with mist and the sign go

’ - Kak e uku na . unheeded , but p s tohu never failed Then there is the curious nature-myth which tells how gently- rounded Kawa was

’ K k k s a epu u wife , a story told with much circumstantial detail by

- the old Maoris of the Waipa and the Puniu , a story over long to be told here with its tale of battle between the jealous Kakepuku and

- that mountain Lothario Karewa now Gannet Island , off Kawhia ; one which seems dimly to reveal the geological past of these vol ’ canl c peaks . This singular beauty of landscape setting cannot but enhance the love of one ’ s native land in those whose lives are cast within sight of the mountains and hills of the border . The Maori loved c the ountry, albeit he made comparatively little use of it , with an intensity which not many pakehas realise . There is a song of Ngati M aniapoto often chanted in the old days when a fighting column paraded in the village marae before setting out on the warpath . a The chief, f cing the parade of warriors , uplifted his taiaha and shouted as he pointed to the blue mountain looming near K 0 wkca, ko whea Ko whca tera maunga E ta mai r a m ?

Wh at is yonder mountain soaring hi gh above us

And with one voice the warriors yelled , as they burst into the feroci

‘ The ful l name of Kak e uku is Kak u -o- p ep ku Kah ur er e, or Th e Swel l ed ” eck of Kah urere. was so named near l ix en u ri e N It y s c t es ago by R akxataura, th ri es and ma i cian of th e in p t g Ta ui peopl e. Rakataura and h is wife Kah ur er e ex pl or ed all his wil d new coun r r om Kawh ia eas w t t y f t ar d and southward, aim : TO PO GR APHICAL AND LEGENDARY 9 one stamp and weapon - thrusting of the tutu- ngar ah u or peruperu dance '

’ K k uku ! Ah, tis a ep to me Ah, draw close ,

D r aw close to me, e h That I may embrac t ee, That I may hold thee to my breast A— a— ah !

A similar chant , applying to Mount Egmont , was used by the

Taranaki Maoris . In each case the mountain was regarded as a c lover , and symbolised nationality and clanship , and a referen e to it never failed as a patriotic stimulus . Now the ancient owners of the Waipa and Puniu plains are but a remnant and their tales and songs are but the faintest memory ; - c - but the old volcano gods remain , gra eful nature carved monuments , and their poetry no less than their beauty of form should inspire even the matter- of— fact pakeha with something of the Maori love and veneration for the high places of the land .

The ancient Maori story of the Waipa plains and downs , as pre

- f— served by the word o mouth historians , the old men of the tribes ,

- - is a record of land seeking , exploration , and place naming by the k chiefs who came in the Tainui canoe , and by R a ataur a the priest

c a- then a suc ession of tribal feuds and wars , raids , p buildings

- - - and pa stormings , ambush , massacre , slave taking , and man eating . That warrior tale need not be gone into here ; we take up our story of Te Awamutu with the first introduction of the pakeha interest , and in truth the place was savage and rough enough then .

- - Here and there , on the well settled lands to day, one finds relics of

’ the old cannibal era , when every tribe s hand , and often every little

’ hapu s , was against its neighbours . Round about Te Awamutu , th e even , lines of ancient trenched forts remain , particularly on n a ik the banks of the Ma g p o, where the numerous crooks and elbows of the river provided pa sites readily made formidable strongholds . aiar i A The celebrated W , a few miles from Te wam utu and a mile Pater an i from g , is an example . Another excellent S pecimen of Maori names to th e ea ur es of th e l and ca e as r a ell Th n al to f t s p th ey t v ed . e ame l uded th e sha e of Kake uku bu t in r ut h i t deser es a mor oe ical ne as or ex p p , t v e p t o , , f am l e h a of Taurf an a-Koh u Th e e l f i u p , t t g , R sting P ace o th e Mists, a beaut f l pl ace descr iption belonging to a mountain a few mi l es to th e eastward on th e south side of tne Puni u . I O THE OL D FRONTIER

mi litary engineering is an old earthwork called Tauwhare , on the

’ n ik Par ekur a Ma gap o, a mile south of Mr Harry Rhodes home stead ; this is distinguished by a series of enormously deep trenches and high parapets , on the cliffy verge of the river . These forts on

- the M angapiko belonged to the Ngati Apakur a tribe . But the

King Country, on the south side of the Puniu River, is the land

- for hill forts . Every cone , big or little , is trenched and scarped ;

- every eligible river elbow has its double or triple earthwork . Even Kak e ku on the very top of Mount pu , crowning the ancient crater

- rim , are the ruins of two fortresses of the Ngati Unu tribe . Awam utu Te was inhabited , when the first pakeha ventured

- into these parts , by the Ngati Ruru , a section of the great Waikato n i h ia tri be . R a g aow was peopled by two other large Waikato clans ,

- - n - Ngati Apaku r a and Ngati H i etu . Ngati Maniapoto held all the Puniu country and the land to the southward ; their northern out r k post was Kihikihi . The O a au district was held by the Ngati

- R aukawa and a hapu of Waikato called Ngati Koura .

” “ Th e er ms Kin oun r R oh e otae an t g C t y, p , d Aukati r equir e a l ittl e e l ana ion for th ose wh o ar e unac uai‘ n ed with h e or i in xp t q t t g of th e ph rases.

Th e Kin oun r embr acin a r i g C t y, g vast a ea of ter r tor y south of th e Puni u R i er and wes of the er ai wi h t t v t Upp W kato, t h e Tasman S ea as h e western bound ar was so cal l ed eca se th i y , b u e Maor i K ng T awh iao with h is adh er ents too r e u e h er e in 1 864 a er b ein dis ossessed ai a k f g t ft g p of W k to. F or some year s ’ Tawhi ao s h ead u ar er s wer e at Tok an amu tu cl q t g , os e to th e site of th e pr esent own of Te Kui i - . Th e name T e Kui i i s an abbr evi at ion of Te Kuititan a t t t g , meanin th e na rr owin in a si n g g , de g ation given by th e Kingites in r eference to th e conqu est of Waikato and the consequent h emlmi ng i n of th e Maori s in th e count r sou h o h i y t f t e Pun u . “ R oh e- o ae m eans a cir cul ar boundar l ine p t y , l iter al l y a boundar y r e s embl in h ead- co eri n T g a v g . h e t er m was appl ied to th e Ki ng Countr y in the ear l E i h i es b Wahanui and h is el l ow- ch i e s h y g t y f f , w en defining th e ar ea with in wh i ch no pakeha su r e s or l and -b u in or l easin woul d be er mi ed v y y g g p tt . " n ati means a l ine wh i ch ma not be assed a ront i r o t A k y p ; f e r pal e. I was a i l a rl p rt cu y appl ied by th e Ki ngites to th e north ern bor der of th e King ’ oun r th e Go ernm en C t y , v t s confiscation boundar y ; pakeh a t r espass over this l ine was forbidden. CHAPTER II .

TH E M I SSI ONAR Y E R A .

T was the Rev . B . Y . Ashwell who chose the site of the

A m t 1 . mission station at Te wa u u . This was in 83 9 He had made a missionary re connaissance of Upper Waikato W with a view to establishing a station among the savage cannibals of the district, great warriors and apparently

- 3 Ot a hao irreclaimable man eaters , and in J uly of 1 8 9 he returned to w

- to carry on the mission . Among Ngati Ruru there were some who

- had already gained an inkling of the Rongo Pai , the Good News , from native teachers , but the majority were pagan . Shortly after

- his arrival a war party of Ngati Ruru , who had been away with - u Ngati H aua and other tribes raiding the Arawa country, ret rned Puata from th e Maketu and Rotorua districts , under their chiefs and Te M okor ou . The party was laden with human flesh ; there were , as Mr Ashwell recorded , sixty pikau or flax baskets packed

- wi th the cut up remains of their slaughtered foes . Then came a

- fearful feast on cooked man (kai tangata) . Mr Ashwell induced many of Ngati - Ruru to leave Otawhao and establish a Christian pa , which was built on the ground now occupied

’ by the old mission station and the Church of St . J ohn s . Mr Ashwell ’ s establishment of the mission station at Te Awa mutu marked the end of the cannibal wars and the periodical figh t ing expeditions of Waikato in the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty dis tr icts. The grim old warrior M okor ou became a follower of the missionary, and was baptised by the name of Riwai (Levi) . Most of the people by this time had become tired of wars ; there was a general longing for a more settled state of life and a desire to obtain pakeha commodities other than weapons and munitions of war . So

Mr Ashwell soon had large and eager congregations , and his preach

- ing of the Rongo Pai fell on wi lling ears .

’ c But it was Mr Ashwell s su cessor, the Rev . J ohn Morgan , who truly civilised this Upper Waikato . Mr Ashwell had confined his teachings to the spiritual side . Mr Morgan took a more expansive view of his mission and his responsibilities . He introduced English m ethods of agriculture , brought in English fruit trees , taught the 1 2 THE O L D FRONTIER

- natives to grow wheat, and to grind it in their own water mills . He it was who by his precepts and personal example made the natives i h ia Or akau of Te Awamutu , R ang aow , Kihikihi , and a farming and

- fruit growing people , with the result that long before the Waikato War adventurous travellers to this district found to their astonish

- ment a series of eye delighting oases in the wilds , with great fields of wheat, potatoes , and maize , and dwellings arranged in neat streets and shaded by groves of peach and apple - trees each settlement with its water-driven nour- mill procured by the community and busily r nfi grinding into flour the abundant yield of the co el ds. Mr John Morgan was a missionary of the London Mission Soci

’ ety , and had had some years experience of the hazards of Christian

ising work on the Waihou , at Matamata , and at Rotorua . He and his brave wife lived in the midst of alarms , and more than once had to abandon their stations . In the most dangerous period of their life at Rotorua they had to take refuge , with the Rev. Thomas

Chapman , of Te Ngae , on Mokoia Island , in the middle of the lake . After this sort of missionary pioneering it must have been a vast relief to Mr Morgan to receive orders in 1 84 1 to take over the newly

est ablished station at Te Awamutu . Here he carried on for more than twenty years , the religious teacher and counsellor and technical

instructor for half a score of tribes in the Waipa basin . Te Mokena was in an infinite variety of ways the benefactor of his Maori flock ; never did a missionary take a more liberal view of his

duty to the native . In the later troubled days , when the war was looming and it was desirable that the Government authorities should c be informed of the exact politi al conditions among the Maoris , he kept Governor Grey correctly advised of the views and intentions in i of the K g tes, and so came to be called the watchman of the ” Waikato .

- At Wharepapa , the site of a one time large Maori village on the ik r i south side of the Puniu , a few miles from Wa e a, I heard the story ” of Mokena and the missionary grass . Here Mr Morgan had a

little native church in the days before the war, and on his travels from Te Awamutu through the Maori country he did not confine h is

sowing of the good seed to the Gospel brand . On his rides from

’ kainga to kainga he took his dog , and to the dog s neck was tied a c - - little bag filled with English lover seed and grass seed , which was

allowed to drop out a seed at a time by a tiny hole . In this way the pioneer missionary scattered s eeds of civilisa THE MI S SIONARY E R A 1 3

tion which spread over many a part of this wild countryside . To this day in some of these old villages there is a beautiful awar d that Awamu goes back to the good parson of Te tu , and to Wharepapa not many years since the natives used to go for the seed of the

mission grass , esteemed alike by Maori and pakeha for its making of pasture . ’ t h i Mokena s fame hereabouts res s more , perhaps , on s thoughtful grass -sowing for future generations and on his practical teaching of English agriculture than on his preaching of the Faith

- - to the Ngati Maniapoto and Ngati Ruru of the days before the War . CHAPTER III .

— PLOUGH AND FLOUR MILL .

N illuminating account of the growt h of agricultural enterprise among these Upper Waikato people and the position about 1 85 0 is contained in an unpublished J M or anfi" W manuscript journal written by the Rev . ohn g The missionary prefaces the narrative of the temporal side of his labours at Te Awam utu with the statement that wheat was introduced among the natives chiefly by the missionaries .

The Ven . Archdeacon Williams encouraged its cultivation in his ”

as . district of Waiapu , East Co t It was small in quantity, said Mr c Morgan , for it was contained in a sto king , but it was sown and r - e sown , and at the present time the increase from the little seed contained in a stocking is being sent by the natives to the

Auckland market . Much is also ground by the Maoris in steel mills for their own use . Sho rtly after the formation of the Otawh ao (Te Awamutu ) ’ “ station , the missionary s story continued , in consequence of the difficulty of obtaining supplies of flour from the coast I procure 'd some seed wheat . After the reaping of the first crop I sent Punga R an ia wh ia rehu , of g o , a few quarts of seed . This he sowed and

- reaped . The second year he had a good sized field . Other nati ves

now desired to share in the benefit , and the applications for seed became so numerous that I could not supply them all , and many obtained seed from Kawhia and Aotea (West Coast) , where wheat had been introduced either by the Wesleyan missionaries or the settlers . an i h i As a large quantity of wheat was now grown at R g aow a, and the natives had not purchased steel mills , I recommended them

- to erect a water mill . At the request of Kimi Hori , I went to the 1 4 millwright who was then building a mill at Aotea . In March , 8 6, the millwright arrived , and I drew up a contract for the erection of 2 a mill at a cost of £ 00, not including the carriage of timber,

building of the mill dam , and the formation of the watercourse , all of which were performed by the natives themselves . Seven men

‘ . our nal l en to the wri er M r rl ail r l nd ai a u . MS j t t by E . E a e V e, of B oad a s, W ot p PLO UGH AND FL O URMIL L I 5

s £ 50 were set to work , the natives promising to pay the fir t instal s i ed ment with in a very short time . In tead of leav ng imm iately for i Auckland with pigs to raise the requ red amount , they began to take up their potatoes and then the kumara to store them for winter

use . They then promised to leave for town as soon as the crops were sec ured . An invitation , however , arrived from Maketu , and i h c the entire tribe left R ang aow ia to pa rtake of a feast at that pla e , n the millwright threatening to give up the contract . O their return o they accepted a second invitati n , and went to another distant vil c lage . It was with the greatest diffi ulty that I now detained the millwright . In this manner four months passed away . The mill c wright demanded compensati on for loss of time , and a hief agreed 20 c to give him a piece of land of about 0 acres , but for whi h no

Government grant has as yet been made . Still the natives delayed . The required sum was large for a tribe of New Zealander s a to raise . The Aotea mill was now useless , and many feared th t n ia h ia s this (R a g ow ) would also be a failure , and there were everal Eu ropeans who had come up to trade in pigs who from interest ed motives freely gave their opinion that the whole scheme woul d fail .

In this way two months passed away, and it required many personal

R an ia wh i — fir visits to g o a st , to persuade the millwright , who was several times on the point of leaving , to remain , and , secondly, to urge the natives to take their pigs to town . At length they started . £ 0 In a few weeks the 5 was raised , and paid into my hands to be paid to the millwright . After this I had no more trouble . The work went forward while the money was being collected , and the last a £ 0 inst lment of 5 being paid into my hands , I had the pleasure of handing it to the millwright the day the work was completed . - r - This water driven flou mill , it may be explained here , was i Peka eka- bu lt at p rau , the lower part of the swampy valley between R an ia h i Hairini Hill and g ow a, through which a watercourse flows M an ik a o . toward the g p Here a dam was constructed , and a lagoon

- was formed ; the water collected here turned the mill wheel . c Later, another mill was constru ted , on the watercourse called -o- Te Rua Tawhiwhi , on the eastern side of R angiaowh ia village . c r -m Mr Morgan , ontinuing his story of the new fl ou ills , wrote The R angiaowh ia mill was not completed before other tribes e became jealous and wish d for mills . I drew up two more contracts ,

- one for the erection of a mill at Maunga tautari , and the other at Otawh ao t 1 0 1 , at the cos respectively of £ 1 and £ 20, not including 1 6 THE OLD FRONTIER

native labour . Both of these mills have been erected . A new n iaowh ia difficulty now arose at R a g , that of finding a miller to take charge of the mill . In the arrangement I experienced more vexa tions and difficulty than in the erection of the mills . There was a person ready to take charge , but the natives , not knowing the value

. of European labour, refused to give him a proper remuneration

One old chief offered one quart of wheat per day ! At length , after

. O i two months , this knotty point was settled n the follow ng day the miller commenced work . In the year 1 84 8 the natives of Rangi aowhia took down some flour to Auckland , which they sold for about

' s £ 70. The neighbouring tribe , seeing the benefit likely to arise

. On as from the erection of mills , b egan earnestly to desire them e w 3 1 contracted for at Kawhia , and the sum of about £ 5 has been paid on account . About 1 850 a contract was entered into for the erection M oh oa nui O t mi l at o [near torohanga] , on the Waipa , of the larges l yet built, at a cost of £ 3 00. The natives of Kawhia are anxious for a the erection of a second mill , and the natives t Whatawhata and Kir ikir ir n a two other villages on the Waipa , and of oa and Mau g pa, on the Waikato , and also Matamata , propose to erect mills ; at I i n several of these places the fu nds are be g collected .

Wheat is very extensively grown in the Waikato di strict . At n ia h i R a g ow a the wheat fields cover about 4 50 acres of land . I have also introduced barley and oats at that place . Many of the people s at various village are now forming orchards , and they possess u many h ndreds of trees budded or grafted by themselves , consisting of peach , apple , pear, plum , quince , and almond ; also gooseberry bushes in abundance . For flowers or ornamental trees they have t no aste ; as they do not bear fruit , it is , in their opinion , loss of ” time to cultivate them .

i in The missionary, concluding his nterest g narrative , described a visit paid to the district by Sir George Grey, Governor .

t His Excellency, wrote the missionary, spent half a day a R an iaowh ia g , and expressed himself much pleased with the progress of the natives at that place . He visited the mill , which was working at the time . Two bags of flour were presented to him for Her Majesty h the ! ueen , and they a ve since been for warded to London . The Gover nor has since that time presented the R angiaowh ia natives a with pair of fine horses, a dray and harness , and a plough and harness . He also requested me to engage a far m servant to instr uct

PLOI IGH AND FL O UR MIL L 1 7

’ the natives in the use of the plough , etc . The value of the flour sent down this year from R angiaowh ia and now ready for the

Auckland market may be estimated at about £ 3 3 0. Of this sum £ 240 upward of was , or will be , spent in the purchase of horses , drays , and ploughs . Each little tribe is now endeavouring to procure a plough and a pair of horses , and the people expect during the next year to have at least ten ploughs at work . The rapid advancement in cultivation is the fruit of Sir George Grey’ s kind present to intro duce the plough at those places . One of the chiefs at R angiaowh ia has erected a small boarded house . He has also several cows , one of which he generally milks in the morning .

Such is the story of the very practical missionary work in this district . Te Mokena truly tamed th e people ; old cannibals fol lowed the plough and spent days in discussing the Auckland market prices of wheat and flour . Distant white communities , too , came to depend largely on the Maori farmers of the Upper Waikato for their breadstuffs ; and when the great gold rushes began in California and

- 2 Victoria , in 1 849 5 , the cargoes of New Zealand produce sent to far- away San Francisco and to Melbourne often contained shipments

- from R angi aowh ia and other Maori farm villages .

‘Th e ol man Po - a a e H i f i or we d u p t t uih , o Te Kopua, told th e wr ter : Bef e rocur ed E ur o ean l ou h s e made w oden on e w s im dr awn p p p g w o es, and th se er e omet es by men— K0 te tangata te h oiIho tuatah i (Man was th e fi rst Pou-patate al so said th at wh en wh eat-gr owing was at its h eight on th e ai a be or e th e war hi W p , f , s peopl e r eceived as much as ten or el even shill ings a u sh el for th e wh eat b i n th e Auckl and market. B CHAPTER IV . E TH E GOLDEN AGE BEFORE TH WAR .

HE period from about 1 84 5 to 1 860 was the era of peaceful progress and industry among Waikato and Ngati - Mania

- poto . It was not until the latter year that the outbreak

of the Taranaki War , the forerunner of that in Waikato , W interrupted the new and profitable era Of wheat- growing and fl ou r - milling and the pleasures of the annual canoeing ex pe ditions down the Waipa and Waikato to the city markets .

’ These farm - settlements Of Morgan s making were in what may 1 85 2 c be called their zenith of prosperity in the year , when pri es for produce were high . In February of that year a visit was paid to Te Awam utu and R angiaowh ia by a party of travellers from Auck n h u n a d land and O e g , among whom was young Heywoo Crispe , later

- i m n a well known Mauku settler and volunteer r fie a . Describing long afterwards this memorable Waikato expedition , Mr Cri spe c said , after narrating that the anoe voyage ended at Te Rore , on the Waipa I can well remember the first sight we got in the distance of

’ the steeple of the church at the Rev . Mr Morgan s mi ssion station

Awamu u at Te t , for some of the party were getting a bit tired when it came into sight , and it seemed to put new life into them . The n h natives at R a giaow ia had made preparations for a goodly party,

’ as they had two days racing in hand . They allotted to us a large , - c newly ere ted whare , the floor being covered with native mats , and it was on them that we indulged in sweet sleep . Th ere was a line c n i h i c of whares ere ted on the crown of R a g aow a Hill , from whi h c we ould obtain a fine view of the surrounding country , and it all

c . had a grand appearan e in our eyes _There was a long grove of c f large pea h trees and very fine fruit on them . Such a waste O fruit n it seemed to us , but of course they were of no value there . O e never sees such trees of peaches now . We , the Europeans , must be the cause by the importation of pests from other countries . A large portionof the ground round the hill was carrying a very good crop

of wheat , for the Maoris believed in that as a crop , and they used to

- convert it into flour at the various fl our mills they had . It was of a very good quality, and some of the Waikato mills had a name for

1 8 THE GOLDEN A GE BEFORE THE WAR 1 9

the flour they produced , a good deal of which was put on the Auck d land market , being taken own the Waikato , via Waiuku and One hunga . It had taken our canoe party about three weeks to reach

’ this our journey s end , but there was no iron horse then by which , ’ to make a rapid journey . Now it is only part of a day s journey to get to the same spot . n i i We spent several days in our camp on the R a g aowh a Hill , taking walks and viewing the country . We attended the races , r d d which afi o e some good sport , all being managed by the natives ,

- assisted by some pakeha Maoris of the neighbourhood . They were

- white men living a Maori life . Some of them had been well brought u p young men , rather wild perhaps , who had drifted away from home and had taken up an idle life among the natives , getting regular remittances from their people at Home . “ The Maoris provided all their pakeha fri ends with a most excellent meal on the ground , and peaches galore , as well as horses i to ride . We rode some distance round to v ew the country, the Maori

fl r - ou mills , and cultivation . There were a lot of good cattle and horses about, and the crops of wheat and patches of potatoes were

n . particularly good , although no bo edust was used in those days The Roman Catholics had a very nice place of worship at R angi ao whia , where regular worship was conducted . There were mission t s ations all up the Waikato and Waipa Rivers in those days , and ” as far as Te Awamutu . Everywhere the Maoris of those days showed the travellers on ’ their six weeks trip the greatest hospitality . On the canoe voyage th e pakehas called in here and there at native settlements and got a supply of pork , potatoes , and peaches . When the aged Potatau te Wh er owh er o was made Maori King ( 1 858) there were great gatherings at Ngaruawah ia and Rangi

i — aowh a. At the latter place the Europeans in the district the mis

— sion people , the traders , and artisans were invited to the festivities . The abundance of food at R angiaowh ia was probably the reason why that large village of Ngati - Apakur a was selected as one of the prin ci al - i p gathering places of the Waikato in 1 858 60. R angi aowh a in those days was a beautiful place , with its comfortable thatched e houses , shaded by groves of peach and apple tre s , dotted along the - m a crown of a gently ping hill , among the fields of whe t, maize ,

- r . n potatoes , and kumara , and its flou mills in the valley O the most commanding mound was the Roman Catholic Church in fr ont of 20 THE O L D FRO NTIER

’ Hoani Papita s home ; a few hundred yards to the south was the c English Church , locally greatly admired be ause of its large stained

. glass window, sent out from England by Bishop Selwyn The Maori

- congregations have vanished long ago , and the pre war whare karakia are used by the white settlers . w A pioneer colonist , Mrs B . A . Crispe , widow of the late Hey ood

Cri spe , the only survivor of the Europeans who witnessed the R an iaowh ia 1 858 gathering , recalls some of the scenes in the g of ,

’ when she was a girl at school at Mr Morgan s mission station at P tatau Te Awamutu . She describes the venerable o as a feeble old man with his face completely tattooed ; he wore a long black coat and a dark cloth cap with a gold band round it . Mrs Crispe has memories of the Upper Waikato district as it Kin ite was toward the end of the Fifties , before the g war had de stroyed the prosperous agricultural life of the Maoris , who then constituted the whole population of the interior with the exception of a few missionaries and their families and several traders and

- other pakeha Maoris . Mrs Crispe , who was the daughter of Mr M el l s op; a pioneer settler of the Mauku district , was taken up by

’ her father to the Rev . John Morgan s mission station at Te Awa

— in h mutu those days usually called Otaw ao, after the old pa . She e was then a young girl , and she was placed with the Morgans to b educated ; schooling for children was a difficult problem with the

c - ba k blocks settlers in those days . All communication with the

Waikato and Waipa country was carried on by canoe , for there were no roads into the interior until the troops opened up the country th e l l in Waikato War . In about 1 85 8 the M e sops embarked at Wai uku and passed through the narrow and crooked Awaroa Creek in ko a a c p p , or small anoes , the only craft which could navigate this stream , connecting the Manukau harbour with the Waikato River.

In the Waikato they transferred to a large canoe , about sixty feet long, well loaded with goods from Auckland for the mission station and the Maori settlements . Their Maori crew paddled them up to

Te Rore , on the Waipa ; the voyage occupied three days . Two nights were spent in camp on the Waikato banks ; the third day was spent in working up the Waipa River from its junction wi th the Waikato a at Ng ru awah ia. From Te Rore the party rode across the plain to m Awa utu . Te Here Mrs Crispe spent two years at school . The farming missionary had succeeded in giving the wilds of

Awamutu - Te a thoroughly settled and home like appearance , with THE GOLDEN AGE BEFO RE THE WAR 2 1

wheat fields enclosed by hedges of hawthorn . The wheat grown by the natives in the R angiaowh ia- Te Awam u tu district was ground at

n . the mills , bagged , a d sent down to the white settlements for sale ’ The fl our - bags were sewn by the native girls in Mrs Morgan s sewing class at the mission boarding school ; and when the flour was being

- ground there would be sewing bees at the mills , where the girls stitched up the bags as they were filled . The flour was carted in bullock drays to Te Rore , where it was loaded into canoes . The cargoes were paddled down the Waipa and Waikato , along the n h n Awaroa to Waiuku , there loaded into a cutter for O e u ga, and

finally carted across the isthmus to Auckland town , a journey of over

“ n i h i - a hundred miles from the R a g aow a water mills . The Maoris c would invest the proceeds in lothes , blankets , tea , sugar, and all kinds of European goods , and then begin their homeward journey .

Time was no object in those golden years , and a marketing party from R angiaowh ia and Te Awamu tu would sometimes spend several c weeks on the trip , returning with pakeha ommodities to delight the hearts of their families and endless tales of all the sights they had seen in the distant town . An incident of the visits to R angiaowh ia over sixty years ago is recalled by Mrs Crispe . She and the Morgan girls noticed a peach tree loaded with great white korako in an enclosure near the English

Church , and presently they were enjoying a feast of fruit . A Maori woman came up to them in great alarm and told them that they must not touch the peaches ; the tree was tapu , and she was afraid that the fruit would kill them as it assuredly would have killed any

Maori who ate it . It often happened that the choicest fruit trees were under the ban of tapu for some reas on , such as the recent death of the owner .

’ In front of Mr Morgan s mission house at Te Awam utu there

— was a row of almond trees . These almonds so seldom seen in a

New Zealand orchard now— were widely distributed among the

natives ; hence the remarkably large trees , up to about thirty feet

in height , which grew on the old Maori cultivations at Or akau and

elsewhere , and survived long after the land had been confiscated by

the Crown and settled by white farmers .

Dr Ferdinand von Hochstetter , the famous Austrian geologist ,

on his expedition through the interior of the North Island in 1 859, admired the settled aspect of Te Awam utu and the neighbouring

country . He made an ascent of Mount Kakepuku, setting out from 2 2 THE OLD FRO NTIER

’ t the Rev . Alexander Reid s Wesleyan mission s ation at Te Kopua , and from the summit viewed the valley of the Waipa : The beauti

- c R an iaowh ia Otawh ao ful , richly cultivated ountry about g and lay spread out before us like a map . I counted ten small lakes and ponds scattered about the plains . The church steeples of three places were seen rising from among orchards and fields . Verily I could ” hardly realise that I was in the interior of New Zealand .

o - Now the scene has vastly changed . A far more richly cultivated country than that which the wandering geologist saw in 1 859 stretches in all directions , and the railway engine trails the smoke

’ Kak e k s banner of the pakeha past pu u foot , between him and his

’ - h hill wife Kawa . But some relics of H oc stetter s day remain . The picture - like spires of the English mission church at Te Awamutu and the English and Roman Catholi c Churches at R angiaowh ia still

- - rise above the tree groves , heaven pointing fingers that carry a

’ suggestion of antiquity all too rare in man s work in New Zealand .

24 THE O LD FRO NTIER was simmering in the Waikato that Mr John Gorst— as he was then— was induced by the Government to undertake the difficult task of staying the growing tide of anti -pakeha agitation and of diverting the energies of the Kingite tribes to peaceful industries and crafts . He came several years too late . The institutions and the measure of home rule which Sir George Grey offered to the Kingites in 1 863 o nly to have them rejected would have met with a cordial a cceptance had they been put forward five or six year s e previously . But Grey was in South Africa then , and his predec ssor,

- Governor Gore Browne , and his advisers went from blunder to ’ blunder in their determination to stifle the natives legitimate desire

- for local self government . 1 0 Mr John Gorst arrived at Auckland from England in 86 , ts and, being a young man of brilliant University attainmen , he attracted the attention and friendship of Bishop Selwyn , Sir

George Grey, and other notable people of the day . It was

Mr (afterwards Sir William) Fox, then Premier of the Colony, who determined to establish him as resident magistrate in the Upper

Waikato , and a house was procured for him at Te Tomo , about half a mile from the centre of the present town of Te Awam utu . (Te Tomo is now marked by an acacia grove in a field south of Te m Awa utu, near the Kihikihi Road . ) This establishment was built on thirty acres of grass land which had been sold to the Crown many years before the war began . Here Mr Gorst set up his home in the beginning of 1 861 ; later he removed to the mission house opposite the church . During the first part of his residence in Te Awam utu district Mr Gorst was a magistrate and a kind of intelligence officer for the

Government . During the latter part he was styled Commissioner of Upper Waikato , and lived at the mission station in charge of a technical school and hospital . In the early period, as Gorst nar in ’ rated after years , he was rather the officer of Mr Fox s Ministry than of the Government . He was a magistrate , but as a matter of fact his jurisdiction was derided by the Maoris , and he found none ” except a few pakehas to Obey him . The Maori from the first , he said, refused to consent to my exercising any kind of authority

. T m h n among them Even his great friend Wiremu a e a a, though c anxious to re eive advice and instruction , objected to the admission into the Kingite district of a magistrate who received his author ity fr om th e ! ueen.

r m a . 1906 F o photo , ]

THE I T H R GH ON . SIR JOHN E GORST (D ied 1916) Beatti c , THE LAST CANOE VOYAGE

“ ’ D S ' r n r i n the T an r-te-w x at N ar u awah i a D e em er 6th 1906 John Go r st a d p a ty g g , c b ,

THE RE B E ’ M O T T O KAITOTEHE K TO R ER V. . Y . ASHW LL S ISSI N S A I N , , WAI A IV

r e is a - n th l ank of the W aika i e T au ri . T i i u The sxte of this Dr e war missio n station was o e eft b to , oppos t pi h s p ct th 65 th e im en who was k m a e r l r the war in L ieu . af er war l nel . . Ba e e . s etch d sho t y befo e 1863 , by t ( t ds Co o ) H S t s of R g t

’ ‘ JOHN GORS I AT TE A WAMUTU 2 5

In 1 862- 63 Mr Gorst was rather the officer of Sir George Grey ’ than of the Ministry (then Mr Domett s) . The Church Mission - u estate of about 200 acres , with school buildings and dwelling ho se , D e r i was lent to the Governor for Maori educational purposes . sc b ing the establishment then formed , Gorst wrote and Everyone in the school was clothed, lodged , fed in plain but wholesome and civilised style . Clothes and bedding were regu m larl y inspected and kept scru pulously clean . A school aster was appointed , who taught reading , writing, and arithmetic to all , and besides this each young man was employed for five hours daily in one of the various mechanical trades carried out within the school . n Thus each had an opportunity, not only of acquiri g a sound ele mentary education , but of fitting himself to gain a livelihood by practising some handicraft taught at the school . The trades carried on were those of carpenter, blacksmith , wheelwright, shoemaker, tailor, and , later on , printer . A few were employed in agriculture and in tending cattle and sheep upon the school estate, some as regular occupations and others as an occasional change from indoor employment . English ar tisans employed as teachers were chiefly men who had been living in the neighbourhood and were fam iliar with the Maoris and their language . Most had previously been exercising their trades for the benefit of the district , and the only difference was that they were now more systematically at work and were instru cting native apprentices . The Maoris of the district had therefore to resort to the Government establishment for the repair of their ploughs and carts and for their shoes and clothes . The demand for all these services was far greater than the supply, so there was a prospect of being able to supply a great number of

Maori apprentices in every department wi th certain profit . Even m h n E ewi and Ta e a a themselves visited the school . The latter extended his patronage so far as to be measured for a pair of trousers , for which he paid 1 in advance , but Te O r ior i intercepted them on their way to Matamata , and was so charmed with the fit that he refused to part with them , and told Tamehana he would ” agree to take them as a present. c t The s hool establishment cer ainly did very useful work , and thus far was appreciated by the Maoris ; but they could never forget that Gorst was a Government official . It was presently decided by the Government that a native h os pital should be erected on an ar ea of Crown land about thr ee 26 THE O L D FRONTIER

quarters of a mile from Te Awamutu . The position of Medical Commissioner of the Waikato was offered to and accepted by the h n n u a . Rev . A . Purchas , of O e g At the same time Sir George Grey sanctioned the establishment of a Maori newspaper to reply to the ” Kin ite N ar uawah ia . . . H okioi , the g print issued at g Mr E J von D adel sz en" (afterwards Registrar - General of New Zealand) was ’ appointed printer ; he had learned the trade on Bishop Selwyn s

- printing press in Auckland .

A press and type were bought in Sydney, and set up in Te

Awam u tu early in 1 863 . This was the beginning of the end for Mr

’ Gor st s establishment . The Government Maori newspaper was called Te Pihoihoi M okemoke i Runga i te Tuamni The Lonely Lark on the House

— top the Maori having no word for sparrow) , and it set about briskly replying to the Kingite propaganda of Te H okioi e Rere Atu Na The Soaring War Bird which was edited and printed

by Patara te Tuhi , afterwards a great friend of Sir J ohn Gorst . The first number of the Pihoihoi was published at Te Awamutu zu d 1 63 on February, 8 , and was widely distributed over Waikato , Kin i arousing intense interest among the g tes. The copy for the first issue was revised by Sir George Grey

himself, and was published under his authority. It contained an article which greatly excited the resentment of R ewi and the more Kin i truculent section of the g te natives . The article was entitled , “ ” The Evil of the King Movement , and it criticised a letter from

Tawh iao— r M a ta r M h u al eh King o tu e a ( et s ) , as he was then gener

— c 62 c ally known to the Governor , dated 8th De ember , 1 8 , whi h had H ki i been printed in the o o , and which inquired what evil had

been done by the King and on what account he was blamed . The Pihoihoi gave an answer to these inquiries from the pakeha ’ Government point of view ; Gor st s leader was translated into force ful and idiomatic Maori by Miss Ashwell , daughter of the missionary Kaitoteh e i at , opposite Taupiri . The strong c riticism of the King te ’ aspirations quickly provoked action among Mr Gor st s neighbours ,

- who asked , Why is this troublesome printing press allowed in our midst ? ” Only five numbers of the Pihoihoi were printed before

R e i - the indignant w intervened with his war party . The coup planned by Ngati - Maniapoto in the tribal council

- - house Hui te Rangiora at Kihikihi was executed on 24th March ,

‘D i n ed in Welli gton, 1 922.

28 ~ THE OLD . FRONTIER al l owed us to enter and take our clothes from the little bedroom at i i the back . They did not attempt to touch anyth ng in the ma n

building . In the evening they stationed their soldiers all round the ’ h house . About 8 o clock , Mr Gorst , Mr W ite , and Mr Mainwaring of th e arrived . There was some talk setting fire to place , and one

- to or two fir e sticks were brought, but they determined not do it

i b r . in the end . A good many guns were loaded w th all , but none fi ed - ffi A great many slept in the printing o ce that night . During th e Ori or i one remainder of the afternoon , Taati , Patene , and Te on n r side , a d the leaders of the soldiers on the other, talked a g eat deal e R ewi rs in the road . William King [Wir mu Kingi] , , and a few othe stayed some distance off, and gave their orders from there . The

— . E . . mail box , etc . , were also taken , with the mail money J von

D adel sz en.

’ - Kin ites The printing press , the g bete noir, was carried out , with all the type , reams of paper , and printed copies of the fifth ” la number of the Pihoihoi , and the whole p nt was loaded on to bul lock drays and carted off to Kihikihi . Nothing else , however, was taken ; some private belongings , such as boxes of clothes , were scrupulously returned as soon as it was discovered that they wer e

- not part of the printing plant . Then the leader of th e war party surrounded the mission buildings with a cordon of sentries , and

’ awaited Mr Gor st s return . The Maoris camped on the road and in

- the adjacent field opposite the church , and their watch fires blazed as evening came down.

Mr Gorst rode in after dark , and was permitted to pass un molested . A message was sent in to him that if he refused to go away in the morning he would be shot . Resistance was impossible , for although the youths in the school establishment declared that they would stand by Te Kohi there were no arms , and in any

’ case a conflict could only have ended in the victory of Rewi s veterans of the Taranaki war and in the slaughter of the Gover n ment people . Next morning there were scenes of intense excitement on th e gathering road between the mission station and the chur ch where

. rs the present main road runs Mr Go t was ordered to depart . He replied that nothing would induce him to leave his post but or de rs i from the Governor . R ew for his part declared that he and h is men would not stir from th e S pot until his object was aecom plished. JOHN GORST 'AT TE Am 599

r . . Pr esently, through the inte vention of the Rev A Reid , the R ewi Wesleyan missionary at Te Kopua , , at a personal interview wi n wi th Mr Gorst , agreed to thdraw his ien and give the Com missioner three weeks in which to communicate with Sir George

Grey . R ewi then in a speech gave his reasons for raiding the s station . The Governor, he aid , had shown himself hostile to the Maori King movement and had been ceaseless in his machinations

against the confederati on of the tribes . Sir George Grey had begun

to make a military road to the Waikato , and finally at Taupiri he had made a speech in which he said he would dig around the King

until he fell . They looked round to see where the spades were

at work , and they saw Te Kohi they were resolved to have no

digging of that kind in Waikato , and so they had determined to

remove him from the land of the Maori .

’ rs s R ewi then , at Mr Go t invitation , went into the house and wrote the following letter for transmission to the Governor

(T ransl ation)

Te Awamutu ,

Mar ch 2 5 , 1 863 . Fr iend Governor Gr ey “ Gree in Thi s i m wor d to ou M r or s h as been il l ed has t g . s y y . G t k [ Th se r m m en who h h a n wa h e r ess . e a e suffer ed] thr oug me. I ve take a y t p y — too h med w ns. Th e e of h is is to e el M r or s so k i t eig ty , ar ith gu obj ct t xp G t, that h e may r eturn to town; i t is on account of th e gr eat t roubl e occasioned b h is ein sen h er e o s a and il u s an al so on a count of our y b g t t t y begu e , d c y ‘ ’ wor ds h al l i t si n n d l al l . iend e M r , I s d g at h e des, a d your ki g om wi l f Fr , tak

Gorst back to th e t own; d o not l eave h im to s tay with m e a t T e Awamutu . E nou h i f ou sa h e s to h l l i o n e il r g ; y y i stay, e wi d e. E n ugh ; se d spe d y your l ette to e ch hi m in hr ee wee s I t is ended f t t k . . “ r m r i n F o your f e d, “ ' F r om RE WI MANI APOTO .

Mr Gorst also wrote a letter, informing Sir George Grey of the occurrences , and saying that the natives had beaten him utterly, and that R ewi said if the Governor left him it would be to certain

. ff death The letters were sent o to the Governor, who was then

in . h Taranaki W ile an answer was awaited , Wiremu Tam eh ana s came to see Mr Gor t , and sorrowful ly told him that he and others

- of the friendly disposed party could not protect him now . Th e ’ Governor did not answer Rewi s letter, but sent instructions to Mr Gorst that in the event of there being any danger whatever to life he was to return at once to Auckland , with the other Europeans in the employment of the Government . As th e Upper Waikato was now inflamed with the war feeli ng, 30 THE OLD FRONTIER

Mr Gorst realised that the evacuation of Te Awamutu was the only

1 8 h 1 863 . possible course . He left the station on t April , It was more than forty years before he set eyes again on the olden scene of his labours for the Maori . The after- history of the Pihoihoi M ok em oke press has been c cleared up by dint of many inquiries . Pra tically the whole of the ’ plant was restored to the Government after Mr Gorst s departure . It was placed in a canoe and taken down the Waipa and Waikato to Te I ar oa, just below the mouth of the Mangatawhiri River , near

Mercer ; there Mr Andrew Kay— later of Or akau— had a trading store . The press and other material were handed over to Mr Kay, c who sent word to the Government , and arts were sent to take it r to Auckland . The press was afterwards used for a time in p inting ” c the Government Gazette . A legend gained curren y, and was c - repeated by writer after writer, each opying his equally ill informed Kin ites predecessor, that the g melted the type into bullets to use in the war . The fact , however, is that the plant was returned to the Government very nearly complete . Sir John Gorst told me ( 1 906) that some of Rewi ’ s young men helped themselves to a little c c of the type as uriosities , but there ould have been very little H k i i ” missing in that way . As for the o o press , the Ngati M aniapoto informed me that it was taken up from Ngaruawah ia

- to Te Kopua for safe keeping when the war began , and there it was lying , rusted and broken , when I last heard of it ; some of the scattered type was now and again ploughed up on the bank of the Waipa .

r - - Sir John Gorst , e visiting New Zealand after forty three years , Awam r set foot once more in Te utu on 3 d December, 1 906, and renewed his acquaintance with some of his old native pupils and travelled over the old familiar ground . He was welcomed with immense enthusiasm by pakeha and Maori alike , and there was a peculiarly pathetic touch in the speeches made by the few Maori

survivors of the old regime in Waikato . Sir J ohn , with Miss Gorst ,

. B ocket visited Captain D t, one of the original military settlers of

R an iaowh ia - g , who o ccupied the historic mission house . He went

- through the old buildings and the well remembered church . Then , with a large party, he visited Mr Andrew Kay at his farm at Otau a ’ tabanga , and t lked over the old Waikato days ; and on the day s n i h i drive passed over the battlefields of Hairini , R a g aow a, and “ r ka O a u . At a great gathering at Te Awam utu to welcome Te JOHN GORST AT TE A WAMUTU 3 1

Tu Kohi one of the speakers was the veteran potahi , one of th e

’ heroes of the Or akau defence ; he had been a member of Apor o s

- h e in 1 war party which invaded t Government station 863 . Ngati M aniapoto greeted with a quite extraordinary enthusiasm the dis tinguish ed manuh iri whom they had driven from their midst in e the days of the racial quarrels , now happily buri d for ever. There was more than a touch of the poetic in the farewell

hi t i A am ut to Te Ko and his daughter at the railway s at on , Te w u, when the venerable man bade good- bye for ever to his friends old n c N h and new . Two pretty ative girls , Vi toria and ga uja Kahu

’ r k k — n Hughes , daughte s of William Hughes , of Ka epu u o e of Mr

’ Gor st s old pupils at the mission sta tion before the debacle of 1 863

— stood hand- ih - hand on the platfor m and sang very sweetly parting waiata

H oki hoki tonu ma i

Te wairua a Te Kohi .

Ki tenei kid — cc - ii !

' Ka hun koe i Te Amamul a

’ Xc tahun whakamw i

Mokemoke rar e a te m oha— cc— ii

Ka eke ki ter eina,

‘ Mokemoke t: rare a te aua hi— ee- iz

Ki a te pine o te roha , Ki te pine e kor e nei e waikur a— cc— ii

( Tr ansl ation )

R et ur n r e ur n th e s ir i i , t , p t of Te Koh To gr eet m e once agai n I n th e sh ad ow l an am y d of dre s.

Wh en you l ook your l ast on Te Awamutu end bac our l ove to s S k y u ,

’ To th e l onel y ones you ne er will see again

And as th e rail wa bear s o far y y u away , 0 backwar d tur n you r gaze ; ike th e smoke ha backwar d d ri s— ah m e ! L t t ft ,

ar ewel l a. F , fond far ewel l !

We will pi n you both to our h ear ts Wi h th e in o l t p f ove, Th e pin th at wi l l never r ust ! It was a pathetic little song with something of the sentiment ’ breathed in Tom Moore s beautiful old Irish melod y 3 2 TH E O L D FRONTIER

As slow our ship her foamy track nd wa e n Against the wi s cl avi g , H er tr embl ing pennant stil l looked back ’ To that dear isle twas l eaving .

So loth we part fr om all we love, F rom al l the l inks that bind us; ’ 50 tur n our hearts, where er we rave, ’ To those we ve left behind as.

THE LAST CANOE VOYAGE .

’ ” Koh i s Of a picturesque quality, too , was Te passage to r Auckland down the Waikato River . It had been ar anged with

— n Ta h iao - Mahuta , the King of Waikato so of w that Sir John h i should be taken down the river from Ngar uawah ia to Waa , near

Huntly, by Maori canoe , passing the scenes once familiar to him in his before -the -war journeyings and reviving memories of the primi tive old days . Ngar u awah ia in his era in the Waikato was the

- capital of the Maori King, and no craft but dug out canoes floated on the great river . It was a glorious summer morning when Sir John Gorst and his daughter and their party embarked at the green ” - - - 0 delta in a fine , roomy, white pine canoe , the Tangi te Kiwi , 7 feet in length , with a crew of fifteen Maori paddlers , for the voyage down the Waikato to Waah i . The sun drove away the early - k mists , and the bush clad range of the H a arimata stood up and ” took the morning, high above the willows that fringed the low banks of the shining river . Down the long curving reaches the big waka swept with the powerful current aiding the paddles , and the canoe captain , old Hori te Ngongo , standing amidships , gave

‘ the time to his crew with voice and gesture , now and again breaking

’ into a high chanted song of the ancient days . One of Hori s songs 1 863 was peculiarly appropriate , for it had been composed in with special reference to Gorst and the Mangatawhiri River, the frontier

- - line of those days . Thus chanted old Hori , the kai hau tu , in a long drawn high song to which the paddlers kept time as they dipped and lifted their blades

Koia e Te Kohi _ , P a M an w i ur u i gata h ri, K a uta a i na w i p o pokohi i, Kia whata tau

n wa l E I na .

In this waiata the Commissioner of Waikato was requested to

O LO L W D DY B 50th e men C NE A , C R gi t YD CAPTAI N H C ' R ER (This vet eran soldier w as affectionately c alled by

l . er ( a . . er a er Co . his m en O l d C pt H C Ryd , f th of H R Ryd Te Awam u tu was a m a er the 40th e of , p y st of R gi m en and w as a ne at Te Awam u tu 1863-7) t st tio d ,

S I R GEORGE GREY GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN (F r om a photog r aph abou t 1860) (Fi r st Bishop of New Zealand)

34 THE O L D FRO NTIER

ah i and paddling that day as they swept down far ahead of us to Wa ,

- - - their old kai hau tu yelling himself hoarse with his boat songs . It was a perfect picture of old Maoridom revived , bringing once more

’ to the honoured guest s mind the romantic and adventurous scenes in the days before the war, when hundreds of canoes , large and o small , made lively this n ble waterway ; the days before ever a

’ - pakeha steamboat s paddle wheel startled the Waikato . And after the great welcome chants of the powhiri at the ” m W aah i crowded arae of , Te Kohi gripped hands once again

- with the venerable and benevolent looking veteran Patara te Tuhi , the chivalrous Kingite who edited and printed the H ok ioi at Nga a h ia ru wa in the Sixties , and who , when Mr Gorst had been ejected

A am u — from Te w ut , gave him shelter one night the ironical humour “ of fate — in the raupo -thatched printing-office of the rebel War ” Bird . CHAPTER V I .

TH E WAIKATO WAR .

We br oke a King and we built a r oad ’ d A cour thouse stands where the reg ment goe , ’ And the r iver s cleanwher e the r aw blood flowed,

When the Widow give the party.

- Barr ack Room Ballads.

HE eviction of Mr Gorst from Te Awamutu served to

precipitate the Waikato War, but in truth a conflict had

be come inevitable . There was a widespread feeling that

th e time had come for a racial trial of strength , and the conflict was due as much to the aggressive policy of the Government and the anti - Maori tone of the newspapers and the politicians as to the martial preparations of the Kingites. The construction of the military road and the establishment of military posts in obvious readiness for an advance into the Waikato confirmed the natives in their belief that the Government meant to

- force a way into the interior and shatter their home rule plans . ’ The first definite act of war was Lieutenant- General Cameron s despatch of troops across the frontier, the Mangatawhiri River, on 1 2 h t J uly, 1 863 .

H uir m Te a a, with a body of Waikato , barred the way with r ifle- K h 1 pits on the o er oa ridge , near Mercer, and on 7th July the

first engagement took place . The troops under Cameron charged in i the Maori position with the bayonet , and the K g tes were driven out with the loss of their leader and about thirty others. Numerous skirmishes followed in the South Auckland country on the northern side of the Mangatawhiri ; the Lower Waikato and Wairoa and ’ Hauraki war- parties carried gun and tomahawk into their enemy s country, following their favourite tactics of ambuscade and plunder .

There were many bush fights , in which the Forest Rangers and the

Forest Rifle Volunteers , as well as Imperial troops and militia , were engaged . The three principal fortified posts of the Kingites in the early stages of the war were Paparata , Meremere , and Puk ekawa. These positions were designed to stop the southward progress of the troops a and en ble the Maoris to levy war on the frontier settlements. 36 THE O L D FRO NTIER

Puk ekawa is the beautiful round green hill on the west side of the great elbow of the Waikato , where the river bends westward below Mercer ; anciently a fortified pa of the Ngati - Tam aoh o stood on its -M ania oto summit . When the Waikato War began the Ngati p came down the river in their canoes and selected it as their headquarters , and from Puk ek awa as a convenient base they made raids on Patu

Cam er ontown . mahoe , Mauku , , and other frontier districts They e expected to be atta cked there , and entrenched themselv s , but General Cameron did not carry the war to the west side of the

Waikato . Presently the arrival of gunboats specially adapted for the river war enabled Cameron to ou tfl ank and capture the strongholds on c N aruawah ia the east bank of the Waikato and to o cupy g , the Maori

’ King s headquarters , unopposed . His only serious check was at

Rangiriri , where in disastrous frontal attacks the Imperial naval and military forces sustained heavy casualties— 4 7 dead and 85 1 wounded . The pa surrendered next day, and 83 prisoners were c taken . The Lower Waikato was onquered , and the General with his steam flotilla shifted the army to the Waikato -Waipa delta for the final blows to the Kingite cause .

' PATE R AN GI AND WAI AR I .

- ni t Falling back from pa to pa , Waikato and Ngati Ma apo o at last concentrated their forces in the great series of entrenchments P ik ik Pa r an i n i e at op o, te g , and R a g at a, defensive works intended to block the march of the Imperial and Colonial troops on the prin i al Kin i i h c c p g te cultivations and food stores at R ang aow ia . The hief fortification was Pater angi ; the traces of this elaborate system of ’ earthworks can be seen to - day close to Mr Harry Rhodes farmhouse P on ater angi Hill .

’ General Cameron s headquarters were at Te Rore , on the Waipa , and there he camped for several weeks early in 1 864 . The principal engagement during this period of waiting— for Pater angi was too

c — W aiar i strong for frontal atta k was a lively skirmish at , on the M an a ik o g p River . Forty Maoris fell that day ( 1 4th February,

and six British soldiers lost their lives . Waiar i - Here , at , that free roving and adventurous colonial corps the Forest Rangers had their first taste of sharp fighting in the Waipa country . We shall hear a good deal of those Rangers in the succeeding chapters . There were two companies of them , each THE WAIKATO WAR 37

fifty strong . No . 1 Company was commanded by Captain William

— — Jackson afterwards Major Jackson and M . H . R . for Waipa and Tem sk No . 2 Company by Captain G . F . Von p y, who as Major of

- - - Ar med Constabulary fell in the bush battle of Te Ngutu o te Manu , in Taranaki , in 1 868 . The Rangers were armed with Terry and

- c fi e- Cal i sh er breech loading arbines and v shot revolvers , and Von

’ - Tempsky s men also used bowie knives , made in Auckland from a

- pattern supplied by him , somewhat on the mod el of the bowie knife of Arkansas and Texan fame . The Rangers at W aiar i were ordered to clear the Maoris out of

- the scru b which covered the old pa in the river loop . They dived in i into the thickets , and soon killed or dispersed the K g te warriors , and then covered the retreat of the main body of troops to Te Rore

’ and Colonel Waddy s advanced camp . The Rangers enjoyed the work so much that it was difficult to get them home to camp at Te

Rore for their tea . The British dead and wounded had been removed , and as many as possible of the Maori dead were brought across to n ik the north bank of th e M a gap o. General Cameron had ridden up from the main camp at Te Rore in time to witness the defeat of the

W aiar i . Maoris in The Rangers , covering the return of the troops , came under a heavy fire in front and from both flanks , and returned it with coolness and accuracy from the cover of the manuka and

' ’ A veteran corporal of No . 1 Company (Jackson s ) r ecal l s Col onel

’ Havelock s ire at the indifference of the frontiersmen to the bugle “ ” calls . It was getting dusk , he says , and still all our Rangers had not come out of the scrub , and we could hear their carbines

- cracking in reply to the heavy banging of the double barrel guns .

J c . Captain a kson was standing alongside Colonel Havelock, A . D . C

— the son of the famous hero of the Indian Mutiny— who asked why the Rangers had not returned . J ackso n replied in his blunt

’ ’ fashion that he didn t know ; he supposed they d come out when

they had finished their job . The Retire was sounded again , but still our fellows kept popping away in the dusk . At last , Colonel

Havelock , swearing that he would turn out the 4 oth Regiment and

fire on the Rangers if they did not obey orders , called up all the buglers that could be found and told them to sound the Retire all together . Presently our boys came out of the manuka and joined

’ us , as pleased as kings with their afternoon s hot work . A very few of th ose hard-figh ting Rangers are left to recall th e 38 THE OLD FRO NTIER

— incidents of a vanished phase of New Zealand life . Some like

— Major Jackson settled down to pioneer farming , but for others the warpath had attractions irresistible , and long after the battle of

Or akau many of the young veterans strapped on their fighting gear ” again and followed old Von to Wanganui and Taranaki to do

‘ battle against the H auh au s. The corps ceased to bear its distinctive name ; most of its members returned to their sections of land in the military settlements on the confiscated Waikato land ; some joined T m sk H auhau the Armed Constabulary . And when Von e p y fell to a bullet before the stockade of Te Ngutu- o- te - Manu it was a young

- — 63 64 J . . ofli cer who had been his subaltern in 1 8 , M Roberts now

— Colonel , and holder of the New Zealand Cross for valour who coolly and competently ex tracted the rearguard after a terrible night in

’ T m sk s the forest of death . He had learnt his work well in Von e p y practical school in many a scout and in many a skirmish in a country where the name of the Forest Rangers is already 'but a dim

- legend , so quickly has the work of nation making marched in New

Zealand .

Tem sk - Von p y was a clever artist in water colours , and had a gift of writing animated narrative . He wrote a journal of events n covering his service in the Waikato War, and his story of the fighti g R an iaowh ia Or ak u at g , Hairini , and a will be given in the chapters

’ which follow . His account has the merit of being a participant s c dire t description of the engagements ; moreover, it now sees print “ for the first tim efi Among the notable figures of that day whom Von Tempsky describes in his journal was Bishop George Augustus Selwyn . There

- is a word vignette of the great Bishop , riding unostentatiously with

a - the rmy , his old pack horse ambling along laden with his tent and simple camp gear . What comfort the wounded and sick de

m s . rived from his presence may be imagined , wrote Von Te p ky O ften have I followed with my eye his fine , manly figure wending its way on errands for the good of others ; and the study of that

’ man s character, strongly impressed in a face where hard work has

- stamped its signet on high bred features , would yield materials for

’ an epic poem . How that man s being has clung to a preconceived idea of his work in this country ! How every fibre of his existence has wrapped itself round that one object , the improvement of the

! Th e or i inal MS n r r ati e n an r na l in on g . a v is i th e Al ex de Tur bul l Libr ar y, Wel gt . rable in his race . There perfect char CHAPTER VI I .

0

THE CAPTURE OF R ANGI A OWH I A .

HE first British soldiers to reach Te Awam u tu marched in

zl 1 4 . s early on the morning of st February, 86 Thi was

’ c outflanked General Cameron s for e , which the Maori defences at Pater angi and R angiatea in a surprise night c o march , and invaded the hief source of fo d supplies

R angiaowh ia— the decisive strategic movement in the Waikato

War. ’ The following is Von Tempsky s MS . narrative of the night

’ march and the morning s hot work at R angiaowh ia : 1 4 o On 20th February , 8 6 , the bugle at headquarters , Te R re

‘ ’ camp , sounded , Come for orders . Everyone , almost , knew what these orders were going to be ; and great excitement consequently e prevailed . The orders were that about half of the troops were to b

h i . under arms , in heavy marching order, at half past ten t at n ght l Th e rest , with the luggage and so forth , were to fo low in the day

a . s th e time , leaving sufficient garrison for Te Rore At half pa t ten dense columns of our force were drawn up in silence near hea d quarters . No bugle had sounded ; the tents were to remain standing , and the cover of a moonless night was to hide our circumvention of the wily foe . I had the honour to command the advanced guard , composed of my Rangers and 1 00 men of the 65th under Lieutenant c Tabuteau . Next followed the Defen e Force under Colonel Nixon ,

’ and the Mounted Artillery, doing troopers service , under Lieutenant

c . h Rait , an a tive and energetic officer The rest of the 65t , 7oth , some s0th estru of the , and other detachments followed , W pp, with No . 1

Company, Forest Rangers , bringing up the rear, as Captain Jackson had not yet returned from Auckland . As far as Waiar i the road

c . enabled us to mar h in fours Thence , however , Indian file had to be the order of the march . The importance of our red oubt at Walari a its bec me now apparent to me , as existence there served to mask n our sta rt . O that point alone was discovery from Pater angi to be

. O c f apprehended n e past it , our detour o the fern ridges made us c nearly safe until we ame close on to Te Awamutu . Mr James -c d Edwards ( half aste guide ) ro e ahead of us , Captain Gr eaves , of f 0th h is the sta f ( 7 ) by side , and a better combination of local know 40

MAJOR WILLIAM JACKSON

M aJor Jackson was a you ng settler at Pap aku r a when he took com m and th r n er i n th r h e e a 1863 . er serv m r u u e Wa W a e of Fo st R g s Aft g th o gho t ik ato , ' e le at H air i m an a rw r or m an ear he m m an e s tt d d fte a ds at Kihikihi . F y y s co d d the Te Awam tu v r n w for the u a al V lu e r I n th e ei e he as M H . R . C y o t e s . ghti s Wai a el r a p ecto te. M PSKY M R . von TE AJO G . F

l a T u -o-te-M anu T ar ana i 1868 (Kil ed t e Ngu t , k ,

TH E CAPTURE O F RA NGIA OW H IA 4 1

i ledge and military sagacity never led troops on a d fficult march . w c The high fern had to be trodden do n , prin ipally by the adva nced

guard , but we were used to it and knew that honour of position had to be paid for . Ridge after ridge was passed , now and then a gully, but never very steep , so that packhorses and even bullock drays ” could easily follow our tracks on the morrow .

’ At dawn (to summarise Von T em psky s story) the troops neared

Te Awam utu . It was known that at the entrance , by the pass , there was situated an old pa . It was not known whether it was now ocon pied or had b een put into repair . The Rangers scouted on ahead Aw m and found it empty . The co cks at Te a utu mission station were c now crowing , and the steeple of the hurch came into sight . Bishop h i s Selwyn , and Mr Mainwaring as aide , galloped along ahead to the mission station , whose native inhabitants were under a theo ” n i cratic flag Of truce . The column pushed on to R a g aowh ia . The young troopers of the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry now dashed forward in advance to their first serious work . n i h ia Tem sk R a g aow , narrated Von p y, came soon into sight with a blue ridge of mountains at the back, its straggling houses c c c between pea h groves rowning ultivated ridges , with two pro minent churches at a short distance from one another . Kahikatea forests straggled up to the village , here and there , and when we approached it nearer a succession of ridges with some swamp inter vening showed us that we had been somewhat deceived in the dis c c tance . The rapid crack , ra k of revolvers and carbines announced to us now that the troopers had not forgotten their spurs in getting

- ahead of us . We listened eagerly for the sound of double barrel guns , and that sound also was soon heard . So the conflict had com m enced , and that idea lifted our feet with the power O f galvanism . c We probably got there onsiderably ahead of the main body, but our blood was up , and we wanted to support our troopers in the arduous task of riding through streets lined with houses whence a desperate

foe might have great advantage over mounted men . When , how c ever, we got nearer to the thi k of the firing, a mounted civilian , with some artillery troopers , met me and said that in that direction there was nothing for us to do ; if we wanted to see a good body of c men we should go to the Catholi Church , which was crammed full f O . armed Maoris I at once took his advice , particularly as I had heard but few double - barrels lately in the d irection Of the Defence

o . I n 1 00 65th C rps extended order, with of the Regiment in support, 4 2 THE OLD FRO NTIER

we advanced past several rows of deserted whares , from which , c however, now and then some balls whistled past us . The hurch being our main O bject , we paid no attention to these minor matters . I sent Lieutenant Roberts with some men round the right flank of the church , and our circle gradually drew closer . I could see already some black heads at the windows— but of a sudden a white

flag went up . ’ ’ Very well , lads , I thought , then I shall take you prisoner . ’ We advanced still nearer . Roberts signal announced to me that the church was surrounded when I heard Captain Greaves ’ voice calling to me from !the rear “ ‘ The General does not want you to press the Maoris any

? ’ Not take them prisoner , even C‘ 6 , N0 0

i" i" t I obeyed , though I was fast consuming my

tongue by merciless mastication . But honour is due to the order of

a man like General Cameron , so I ordered my men OE and marched ! to where the firing still continued . The two churches lay more towards the left flank of the

village . The firing continued more to our right near the centre of

- the village . As we approached that point we got a few long range f shots from distant whares , but took no notice O them .

In passing a boarded house , however , one more like the

building of a European than a Maori , two shots were rapidly fired

at us from its verandah . I did not believe my eyes when I saw there a woman coolly sitting on the verandah and hiding a still smoki ng

- double barrel underneath it . She was decently dressed in the semi

European style adopted by influential Maoris . She was oldish , and

- not very fair to look at , particularly as her time worn features were

bent into one concentrated expression of hatred— such a hatred as

J ohnson revered and you read of oc casionally in Ol d plays .

I went up to her and had the gun taken away, looking at her l a l the time , not knowing whether I should laugh or feel pathetic c the coolness , the ugliness , and re kless hatred of this specimen of

Maoridom puzzling my choice of sentiment exceedingly . I thought

of passing on , just with a warning for future good behaviour, when

‘Later in th e day the R anger s h ad a ski rmish with armed Maori s who occ ied the a holi h ur ch an r o h o it e a s n in ha up C t c C , d d ve t em ut of , th n ti ve fi d g t t - the wall s were not bul l et proof . TH E CAPTURE O F R ANGI A OW H IA 43

some ofli cer s shouted to me that the old wretch had also fired at 65th d them , wounded a man of the , and been warne already , and

that I had better take her prisoner .

Reluctantly I gave her in charge of one of my men , but

’ a ccompanied the order with a Freemason s sign which my man

understood , the result of which was that the woman afterwards

quietly slipped away unnoticed . Just as we started again we heard another couple of shots

from the same house , and now thinking that some men might be

inside I had the house surrounded . c Just as Roberts got to the ba k part , another fairy burst from fl eetness its door , and , running with the of a deer , dropped her gun

just in time to have her sex recognised and respected . I was glad n that her fl eet ess saved me from another female responsibility, and

proceeded onward .

I met Captain Bower , Adjutant of the Defence Corps , one of

the Six Hundred at Balaklava . He looked fearfully excited , and

hurriedly told me that Colonel Nixon had just been shot , and that

the bullet had gone through his lung . T m sk c Von e p y, des ribing what he then saw, says that a circle of soldiers of all regiments surrounded at some distance a nearly solitary whare with a very narrow and low door ; in the open door 5 h way lay the body of a soldier of the 6 t , shot through the head . A constant firing of rifles into the house was carried on with little

- fir e regard to the effects of cross , and the narrator formed his men

- in a half circle , in the safe radius of the dead angle of the

house . It seemed that after the house had been first surrounded M D nn l l . c o e Colonel Nixon sent Lieut T . and Mr Mair , the inter

preter, to ask the Maoris in it to surrender , assuring them of good treatment . A volley was the concise answer . Then the firing into

the house c ommenced , but as the floor was below the level of the

outside ground the Maoris were comparatively secure for some time . Then Of a sudden an excited trooper of the Defence Corps dis

mounted and dashed , sword and revolver in hand , into the whare . i Some qu ck shots were heard , and nothing more was seen or heard h of him . A man of the 65t rushed forward to ascertain the fate of d the trooper , but , being covered and hampere by his roll of blankets and other paraphernalia , he stuck in the door and was shot in the head . The firing into the whare now became a perfect cannonade , and even Colonel Nixon could not abstain from firing with his r e 44 TH E O LD FRONTIER

volver at the open door . Stepping incautiously from behind the u corner of a neighbouring whare , he received a b llet, fired from that open door . Tem sk When we arrived , resumes Von p y, some neighbour ing whares had been set fire to with the view to communicating the

- s fire to the all dreaded one . But somehow thi seemed to me an o uncertain process , and unfair . So , lo king round at my nearest men ,

’ w . I said , We ill rush the whare , boys

’ ! c w ! Aye ! Rush it , rush it was e hoed , and with one For ard about a dozen of u s were round the door in an instant . Sergeant and Carron had got ahead of me , had poked his head into the low doorway . I stood impatiently behind him , just on one side of the to 65th door, thinking that we ought take the body of the man out of the way first . Carron then drew back his head and said to me

’ There is only one dead man inside , sir .

I could not quite understand this , though I could see that it was pitch dark inside , and so Carron might have been mistaken .

At this moment Corporal Alexander , of the Defence Corps , had pushed his way between myself and Carron , and , squatting down c o in the low doorway, commen ed t arrange his carbine for taking

— I aim , evidently puzzled by the darkness urging him either to make room for us or jump in .

- c A double barrel thunders , dis harged from the interior of the

’ house , a bullet knocks through Alexander s brain , and he drops backward . The doorway was now completely chocked with the two bodies . My men dragged away Alexander, and , after firing five shots of my revolver quickly into the corner from which I had heard the th last report , I dragged the 65 man out of the door myself . At that

— moment , also , one of my men got shot in the hip a fine young

J . fellow , ohn Ballender He staggered forward and dropped , never

d — more to rise , though he lingere for months in hospital . ( Note A

Canadian by birth , by profession a surgeon , he served as a private with me . An excellent shot , and brave to a fault . I had known H him first at Mauku . is comrades have erected a handsome marble

’ slab over his grave at ! ueen s Red oubt . ) I now debated within myself whether the rush might not be c renewed , as the door was lear now ; but I saw that my men , even , had had enough of it, and were pointing significantly and triumph

46 THE O L D FRONTIER that much of this unyielding desperate disposition is based upon one of the worst if the strongest features in Maori character . After the fall of the house there remained nothing to do at

h i . R angiaow a The General , fearing the results of straggling in c such a rambling , extensive ommunity as this , together with the presumed absence of water in the most important military points , decided on returning to Te Awam utu . On our way to Te Awam utu I had occasion to Observe the peculiar insensibility to wounds in Maoris ; the same that I had previously observed in North American Indians . I had seen an

immense , brawny Maori lying on the ground covered with blood ,

C . Dr . Mouat , V . , of the Staff , attending him with his usual skill and celerity. I thought that kindly attention but thrown away, for the b Maori had a sabre cut over the head , a revolver ullet in his mouth , a shot through the liver , and a sabre cut over the back . He was m carried in a stretcher half way to Te Awa utu , when he insisted on getting out, and walked the remainder of the way . I saw him the following day in hospital , sitting up among the female prisoners , chatting in such an unconcerned way and with such equanimity of expression in his features that I doubted the evidence of my eyes that this could be the same man I had seen on the previous day with four wounds each of which would have prostrated for some time a

European .

. 1 . A veteran of No Company of Forest Rangers , Mr Wm Johns , of Auckland ( formerly of Te Rahu) , gives the followi ng account of his experiences at R angiaowh ia

About a dozen whares were burned in the village . The fight extended from the head of the swamp , where Colonel Nixon was shot , right up to the Catholic Church , whence we drove the Maoris over the crest into the swamps , next the native racecourse . Some shots were fired at us from the English Church ; some Maoris were inside the building . It was an openskirmish from then right along . There were not more than 200 Maoris altogether in R angiaowh ia that day; but they fought well , and had plenty of ammunition . t Af er one of our fellows had been shot , my commanding officer said to me , Corporal take two men and see if there are any Maoris in the whare there , pointing to a house about twenty yards away . I posted the two men outside and stooped to enter the house , which was sunk in the ground , with a low entrance . As I entered I was felled by a terrific blow on the side of the neck, but deflected some TH E CAPTURE O F R A NGI AO W H I A 47

what by the edge of the doorway . I lay there stunned for some m c mo ents , and when I re overed I saw a Maori weapon , a long taiaha , Ol d ’ lying beside me . [It is now in the Colonists Museum in Auck land ; a small piece was nicked ou t of the blade of it by the door way edge ] My men told me that the inmates of the whare had escaped by bursting through the thatch at the back , and got clear away . It was a very narrow escape for me , and I took the taiaha as a memento of it . I took no further share in the fight that day, but I was able ” to march back to Te Awamutu . CHAPTER V III . T TH E ENGAGEMENT A HAIRINI .

22nd 1 864— i N the afternoon of February , the day follow ng

the capture of R angiaowh ia— the British and Colonial c f forces were involved in a mu h sharper af air, a heavy

— engagement in which all three arms horse , foot , and

— artillery were used . This was the battle of Hairini Hill , a steep elevation about half way between Te Awam utu and Rangi aowh ia ; the name has since been transferred mistakenly to Rangi c aowh ia village . The present road follows exa tly the military route of 1 864 . Here the Maoris wh o came pouring out of Pater angi imme diatel y they discovered that their works had been outfl ank ed had

hastily fortified themselves , burning to avenge the surprise capture of R angiaowh ia and the killing of their comrades . An incident of

’ the day s work was a sabre charge by the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry ; this was one of the very few oc casions on which cavalry charges were practicable in the Maori Wars . ’ Von Tem psky wrote the following narrative of his Rangers

’ share in the afternoon s fighting : 1 ’ A m t At last about o clock orders came (to Te wa u u camp) ,

s and away went the Ranger . I had received no order relative to c c c my position or further operations ; so , al ulating to ommit any a errors on the safe side , I hurried my men past as many det chments c as I ould , and got them well in front by the time we had reached a commanding fern ridge , on which line of battle was formed . The firing had been going on already for some time between our skir mi h r s e s . and the Maoris . I could now see their position plainly There is a considerable rise just at the entrance to R angi aowh ia' proper ; the first considerable whares are on that hill ; the brow of c w the same was rowned ith a long stake fence , ditch , and low parapet , having been the common enclosure of a large field . It had r been strengthened during the night and morning , and a very e spectabl e length of line of black heads was bobbing up and down

. o bil l behind it A swamp was at the f ot of this , the main road avoiding it and turning more to our right flank . The right flank of the Maoris was covered by a still more impassable swamp [ Peka 48

THE ENGAGEMENT AT HAIRINI 49

- o i peka rau] , so that their left flank was the nly po nt needing much o c defence , a dense forest on that side giving them als ontingent advantages . “ h The bot , under their brave old Colonel Waddy, and the

Defence Cavalry Corps , under Captain Walmsley, as staunch an officer as ever put spurs to a horse , were on our extreme right ; and fi were destined to do the work of that day, General Cameron and Sta personally superintending this particular work . h c We saw the 5 ot fix bayonets , and as they advan ed on the

’ c main road the Maoris commenced a perfe t feu d enfer and I , look i ing in vain for directions , led my men against the r ght flank of the Maori s . We had to cross several little gullies and rises ; at each place affording the least shelter I breathed my men for a moment , and then dashed them again over the next exposed space . Three severe instalments of a lead shower rattled , thumped , and whistled round us ; each time I put the men under shelter till the shower passed , and then rushed on again . As yet I had seen only one of my men hit . As we got into the swamp we just saw the gleam of the bayonets of the 50th close upon the left flank of the Maoris . We heard the British cheer, echoed it , and rushed on to the right of the

- position , where I also saw a peach grove that might be of use to us . f O a sudden , while panting up the hillside , with an upper stratum of lead travelling over our heads towards our friends we had left behind us , I saw that long black line of heads waver . I heard confused cries and shouts presaging disorder— and lo ! — it fl ed - broke and some to the right , where I saw the Defence Corps after them ; and some to the left ; to these we lent our company . Maoris have a natural afli nity to swamp ; there is a strong am ph ibi ous tendency in the brown man . Ducks are no more at home in the swamps than Maoris . Only in this instance the being at home was extended perhaps beyond the wish of many by our carbines . So soon as we had reached t h e peach- grove which commanded the swamp to our left , we had a fine play upon the greater part of the i Maoris who were try ng to make their escape . I had some soldiers 7oth wi of the th me who seduced by the example of my men , had i followed my fortunes fa thfully that day . They were , however, despatched back to their regiment by the arrival of Colonel Carey of the Staff. D so TH E O L D FRO NTIER

Some skirmishers still lurked between us and that part Of R angiaowh ia where the two churches stood ; so we took ou r way in

that direction , getting now and then a sight of a Maori and a hearing o Of their bullets . I was just directing one of my f remost skirmishers c c to aim at a figure of a man whi h I ould see behind a bush , when something struck me in the attitude as being nerveless like that of o a wounded man . I gave the w rd to stop firing, and , surrounding en n the Maori carefully, as some sham being dead and th blaze i to

c . you , then approa hed him Resting on his right elbow, his back c against a stump , the left leg stret hed from him with a large pool e c u of blood around it , the Maori survey d our approa h witho t a start

c c . or a movement of a mus le in his fa e , even Now, let me tell you that my men in the day of battle are not very confidence- inspiring objects to look at . What with dust , smoke , their wild dress , their f armament , and faces wild with excitement o the hour, a man would be quite justified in hesitating to trust his life altogether to their

- keeping, not being able to see the golden sub str atum of that des

er ado . p exterior A calm , steady, almost indifferent look was fixed h on me by the dark eye of the Maori . I made to im a gesture of nfi l friendship , and proceeded to examine his wound . An E e d bullet o had shattered his left leg bel w the calf , and he was rapidly bleeding

- to death . A boot lace twisted under the knee had to do duty as a ’ n tourniquet , and the Maori s shirt had to supply the bandages . O e of ou r men who spoke a little Maori told him we would come back for him , and left him with water and some rum ; the latter he refused taking . I had an idea that as the Catholic Church had proved once an

- asylum to the Maori , it might be occupied the same way to day . I

- was determined to be beforehand with the Staff to day at least , and

‘ - pushed on by short cut . Everything seemed quiet about the neigh

bour h ood . c c c The hur h door was lo ked , but as it might have been c c lo ked from the inside I had a arbine pointed into the lock , which - o pass key pr ved to fit our requirements . I entered the church , found

- it empty, turned my men out again , and r e fastened the door to the best of my ability . f Colonel Carey, of the Sta f , then arrived , and gave me orders to guard the adjoining dwelling- house of the priest and permit no one to enter it . My men had by my permission gone to plunder the nearest whares . Their whole plunder was then put into the veran ’ dah of the priest s house , and , putting a sentry over it, I dispersed

52 THE OLD FR ONTIER

I have since heard that our entry into Te Awamutu created c c not only admiration but envy, loot being su h a scarce arti le in this war that even Commodore Wiseman could not help saying to ’ a friend of mine , Those rascally Rangers have got all the loot . In former days the Naval Brigade generally got ahead of the soldiers s in that business , but now the agility of the Ranger had put the

- long armed J ack Tar into the shade .

In dismissing my men that evening , I could not but testify to

c . 1 their gallant conduct, parti ularly No Company, under Lieutenant c c W estrupp, who had followed me when I went a onsiderable pa e , and when my own men , being in high fern , could not keep up with me . General Cameron , in acknowledging the good behaviour of the men , had another ration of rum served out to them that night , so that at the camp - fir e our battles were fought over again with even ” more gusto and less risk .

- — Another old timer, an ex Ranger in the Waikato , thus described to the present writer that triumphal march back from R angiao whia

We had found great stores of potatoes , pigs , and fowls lying P r n i ready to be carted to the big pa at ate a g . The stuff was stacked here and there along the middle o f the village between the two churches . When we marched back to Te Awam utu that night one ou r J of fellows , ohnny Reddy, was leading , or rather driving, a pig by a rope . As we came near the mission station gate at Te Awamutu we saw General Cameron standing there with Bishop Selwyn . Reddy

’ c alled out , Make way for the Maori prisoner ! The General ordered , !’ Arrest that man But Johnny dropped his rope , left the pig , and bolted . All the same , he had a fair whack of that porker for his supper . o The R yal Navy men , as a veteran recalls , did not come home

- from the battle quite empty handed , for when they haul ed their six- pounder fiel d- piece in that evening it was loaded with Maori pigs and potatoes .

’ d c The ay s asualties numbered two soldiers killed , one of the C Defence Force avalry mortally wounded , and fifteen others

c h . wounded , in luding Ensign Doveton , of the 5 ot The Maoris lost b a out a score killed , beside many wounded , some of whom were captured and treated in the field hospital at Te Awam utu .

T H E R AN I AOWH I A BLOOKH U E G O S .

A veteran Forest Ranger (Mr Wm . Johns , of Auckland) says " THE ENGAGEMENT ATflH AI RINI 5 - 3 }

an ia h ia About 1 870 the R g ow blockhouse , designed exactly ka like that at Or a u , was built close to where the Hairini school

- now stands . It was constructed of four inch planks . We used it as a refuge place in the panic times . Being doubtful of its strength , I proposed to my fellow- settlers one day that I would test whether

- it was really bullet proof . We all went out, and with an E nfiel d rifle at fifty yards I put a bullet not only through the front wall of

- four inch planks but also nearly through the rear wall . Then I took one O f the solid plugs of the fl oor - loopholes in the overhanging upper storey, a piece of timber seven inches thick , set it up , and drilled it through with a bul let . We decided that we could not stay

- in the blockhouse , as it would only be a death trap in case of attack ; so we represented its condition to Major J ackson , our commanding

ffi - o cer. Then the blockhouse was made really bullet proof by giving a it a pl nk lining and filling the intervening space , four inches or ” so , wi th sand and gravel .

CHAPTER I X .

TH E INVASION OF KIHIKIHI .

WI MANI APOTO ’S E headquarters were at Kihikihi , three A m tu miles from Te wa u , and General Cameron made no

delay in paying his adversary a military call . R ewi had not fought at Hairini ; the fact is that he was a more

- sagacious soldier than most of his fellow countrymen , and perceived the impossibility of making a successful stand at such a vulnerable spot . No doubt he fully realised that with the bloodless fall of Pater angi the pakeha conquest of the Waipa was practically complet e . 1 64 On 23 r d February, 8 , a mixed force of troops marched from

Te Awamutu , and without resistance entered the large village of

Kihikihi , an attractive sight with its cultivations of root and grain

- i crops and its peach and apple orchards . The Ngati M an apoto retired to the Puniu River wi thout firing a shot . After burning the large carved council- house (which stood at the south end of the present township) and destroying the tall m Awa utu . flagstaff , the force returned to Te The troops were now well established in encampments around the mission station , and several redoubts were soon built . The principal redoubt , occupied 1 4- 5 by Imperial troops during 86 6 , was built in the middle of the fli ce h present town , in rear of the post o , as shown on t e plan here given . The site of this earthwork can still be traced , although it is

' intersected by a road . There were also British garrisons in occu P k i i patiou of i opiko, Pater angi , and R ang aowh a. The soldiers in the various camps revelled in an abundance of fruit and potatoes , and the horses of the cavalry and field artillery throve on the maize that grew in every settlement . A few days after the first expedition to Kihikihi a scouting party of the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry brought news that the

Maoris had returned to the neighbourhood of the settlement . It was decided , therefore , that a redoubt should be built at Kihikihi , and an expedition m ade a start from Te Awam utu before daylight

- n one morning , in an attempt to surprise Ngati M a iapoto. Colonel

Waddy, of the 5 0th , was in command . The two companies of Forest n Ra gers composed the advance guard . 55 56 TH E O L D FRONTIER

k Von Temps y, describing this expedition , wrote

As we approached Kihikihi I went somewhat in advance , and seeing some Maoris near a bush adjoining the village , we gave

f c . u chase , and sent word back to that e fe t We skirmished thro gh

- some maize fiel ds, with a dense bush to our left , to which bush I gave a wide berth . But we could not get well at them as they had

. the start of us , and we were suddenly brought up by a swamp We skirmished with them across the swamp , but got little good out of i it . I saw them retreating into some distant whares , and mak ng themselves quite comfortable proving to me thereby that they were

i t . now supported , and that the r position was s rong As we found f m the swamp altogether impassable without making a detour O iles ,

I returned , having formed , however, my plan already to look after these gentlemen . That night I entered the bush which I had skirted the previous day, thinking of heading the swamp by these means , and surprising the whares . We had a fearful march of it . It was a kahikatea bush , with swamp inside , and night to add to the difficulties . However, i we persevered , and by the time t was morning we were opposite the whares . With one Hurrah we rushed across the Open space on to one , then to the other, whare , but found both empty and everything in them smashed to atoms— to the very cats of the

- domicile . The houses belonged to Mr Gage , a half caste , who had not joined the Maori cause . While my men were overhauling the premises for anything n useful , I surveyed the neighbourhood , and saw that between us a d the bush , which formed a perfect bight around us , there was still ano ther swamp to cross if we wanted to get into the bush . Also , I saw that if there were any Maoris lurking there we presented a fair target for their pleasure , without even the chance of retaliation .

At that moment Sergeant Carron , who had been sniffing around with his usual acuteness , reported to me that there were

Maoris in the bush . This decided me in relinquishing my position at once , as we could do no harm to our antagonists if th ey per sisted in remaining in the bush . I had hardly drawn my men down the knoll on which the dwelling- house stood when down came a volley over the heads of the last men disappearing behind the hill . I took up a better position within 3 00 yards of it, where logs and fern gave good cover to the ground in our favour . But the Maoris would no more cross that swamp in front of us than we woul d in front of

TH E INVASION OF KIHIKIHI 57

r fi r them ; so , looking at one another w athfully, and shaking a gu ” ative fist , we parted at last without much harm done to either side . The redoubt now built on the highest part of the Kihikihi vi llage (the spot is just behind the present police station) was garrisoned by Imperial troops for a time , and then by Waikato Militia . In the 1 883 Seventies , and , in fact , until about , it was occupied by the

Armed Constabulary . Unfortunately it was demolished in the s l e Eighties by the town mop , who did not realise the value of this large and picturesquely- set earthwork as a place of future historic interest .

The Forest Rangers now camped at Kihikihi for some time . n 1 864 Or akau O 29th February, , the first expedition was made to m village . Von Te psky, describing this bit of work , wrote r ka Th e Maoris at O a u kept hanging about, irresolute what to c r ifl e- do , till we saw them commen ing to dig pits , and then it was high time to give them notice to quit . Colonel Waddy mustered his whole strength , and away we went under the firm impression that we would have a warm afternoon of it . The Forest Rangers were in the advance . There was much scru b on each side of the road , and we had also orders to break down any fence that might impede the action of the cavalry . We had broken down one or two across our road already, when the Maoris commenced with some desultory shots at cannon range . But suddenly I saw a peculiar sort of fence

— across the road a stake fence bound with new flax , therefore a new

— work a rising bank behind it , wi th a suspicious look about the crown . ’ Listen , men , I said . We must make one broad rush at that

— - — plac e one long , strong , all together push and that fence must ’ go down . Then up the bank like lightning . “ — Thus arranged thus it was done . With a cheer a wave of

— sprightly fellows dashed against that fence . Down it went up the

- bank we flew . There were the masked r ifl e pits just dug and just

- deserted . They had stuck Sprigs and branches of tea tree into the

- - newly thrown up earth to hide the presence of those pits .

Thence we entered the village , still with considerable pre caution , as we would not believe that the Maoris would make no resistance whatever, particularly in such broken ground as the village , straggling amongst gullies and ridges covered with peach groves , afforded . Thus , however, it was . We went right through

- the village , and seeing the fugitives in the far off distance making 58 OLD FRONTIER

n for old pa [probably Otautah a ga] , I chase , but soon recalled , as the orders of Colonel Waddy were to confine himself strictly to Orakau . The next time I entered that village a few weeks after we did not complain about the reluctance of fighting in the ” Maoris. CHAPTER X.

TH E BATTLE OF ORAKAU .

And how can man die better

Than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods ?

’ H z La orat us ys of Ancient R ome. I

HE defence of Or akau Pa by the three hundred Maoris who deserve lasting fame as surely as the three hundred of Thermopylae has passed into imperishable history as an inspiring example of heroism and devotion to a

national cause . Many and many a story of that three

’ days siege has been written , and yet new narratives with much that is thrilling are still to be gathered from the very few survivors . Far away in the wild forest glens of the U r ewer a Country I have heard the story of Or akau told in the meeting-houses at night by the old H uiar au warriors , and travelling over the Mountains to Waikare H auh au moana, my companion , a veteran , told me how his father fell at Or akau and he himself escaped from the field with a severe wound , and proudly he exhibited the deep scars .

Or akau was one of those defeats and retreats that are grander ’ than a victory . The spirit of Bannockburn was in the defenders scornfu l defiance of terrible odds ; but even Bannockburn was out done by the Maori garrison ’ s indifference to the foe ’ s superiority in numbers and arms and by the devotion of the women who r e mained to share the fall of their husbands and brothers . The ’ pakeha s cattle graze over the unfenced , unmarked trenches where scores of brave men were laid to rest . Technically they were rebels , holding stubbornly to nationalism and a broken cause , but the glory Or akau An of rests with those rebels . d now that the old racial animosities have disappeared Briton and Maori join in fraternal worship of the men and women who died for a sentiment . A Waikato Regiment has taken for its motto the war- cry of the people whom Cameron defeated but could not conquer, and has inscribed “ Ka wh awh ai on its colours the words , tonu matou, ake , ake , ” ake ! To New Zealanders of the blended races in th e year s to 59

THE BAT TLE OF O RAKAU 6!

come that slogan of the soil sh ould carry as thrill ing a call in battl e ’ test as the last wo rds of Bur ns s Ode hold for the Scot : Li berty' s ” in every blow— let us do or die ! 0 0

Of Ngati - Maniapoto them selves there were but fifty or so in

Orakau ; the defence fell chiefly on the U r ewera— who had come fully a hundred and fifty miles to fig ht the pakeha— a nd on the

- - — K h r a Ngati R aukawa and Ngati te o e and other West Taupo hapus. Very nearly all those dogg ed heroes of Or akau have passed to the R einga ; I know of only five now living— th ree Ngati - Maniapoto and two Ur ewera. In this sketch of Waipa hi story I need not enter into the already Or akau fam iliar military history of . There is , however , an im

— mensely interesting MS . narrative at my hand Major Von Temp

’ sky s account of the siege— a nd extracts from this animated descr ip

' tion make a valuable contr ibution to the story of the thr ee days

fighting . T m s h r Von e p ky, after describing his march with t e Fo est ’ A m r Rangers from Te wa utu , as advance gua d of Major Blyth s

- column, narrates that the for ce crossed and t e cro ss ed the Puniu an d came out in r ear of Orakau , soon after the main body under

- Brigadier General Carey had opened the attack . His Ra nger s ( No .

2 — Company No . 1 was in camp at Ohaupo ) were ordered to guard m k the east side of the Maori position . Von Te ps y then goes on to r l describe the events of the fi st day ( 3 st March , 1 864 ) For two hour s we lay under what cover th e inequal ities of

- u v . the gro nd afforded , with a hea y and well directed fire upon us

We could see the Maoris strengthening their works as busy as bees , firing away al so with rifles from two or three small embrasures with s mo t unpleasant comparative accuracy . Ther e was one gentleman in particular sending his shots at me with a wonderful p r o gression of skill . I had a hillock somewhat bigger than my head to shelter the same ; a gentle incline thence affor ded a philosophical resting place for th e trunk and limbs ; so that I lay in compar ative security r h f om direct s ots, though not from the leaden droppings of high d escent . The first indication of the notice taken of my i nsi gnificant presence was given me by a bullet striking the ground in beautiful line with my head about eight or nine yards in fr ont. The next shot n i th e made the dista ce six , in the same splendid l ne , the thi rd five ,

u — l fo rth four , and so on until h e did not hit me after al . 62 THE OLD FRONTIER

I had had some hopes that the nearness of our circle to the pa indicated an intention of a general assault , but nothing of the kind

- fir e took place . We could not even fire , as the danger of a cross was then too imminent , and I must confess that I was heartily glad when we were removed at last from that uselessly— exposed position to a point further back , where the sudden fall of the ridge gave a comparative shelter from bullets . Here I was joined once more by the rest of my men and Lieutenant Roberts , and got from him a full account of the proceedings of the main column . They were first fired upon from some peach - groves in the beginning of the village . The advance guard under Captain Ring , accompanied by Roberts and his Rangers , skirmished along the o road , the natives retiring bef re them . It became then apparent that the Maoris were going to make a stand in a large peach - grove

- before them . There was an old stock yard fence visible , but as to the nature of any other defences no one had any idea of what was C before them . The word for assault was then given and , aptain n Ring and Roberts leading gallantly, they advanced i quick time .

The Maoris held their fire until our force was within fifty yards , and then gave them volley after volley . Within a few yards from the ditch , and a parapet now becoming visible , Captain Ring fell dead by the side of Roberts . A few Rangers were trying to get into c the dit h , but were not supported . Several men had fallen , and the o bugle fr m the main body sounded the Retire . Another effort to lead the men on to the assault proved as ineffectual as the first . Captains 4 h Fisher and Hinds , of the ot , and Captain Baker , of the Staff , most

n— gallantly set the example , and urged the men o but the advance of the latter was this time even a milder affair than the first . Cap

tain Fisher was badly wounded , several men shared the same fate , and only a few of my men got into the ditch . Roberts saw that he ffi was not su ciently supported , and drew his men back . The two c pie es of artillery then commenced to play upon the pa . We arrived about that time , and I witnessed the harmless flight of shells and

f c other equally ine fe tual shots . A little dust , and a cheer from the natives , were all the results that I could see . This firing of the m c Ar strong even ontinued after we were in our encircling position , and I had the pleasure of picking up nice pie ces of shell dropped amongst us , after the explosion had taken place over our heads . Von Tempsky here comments on the failure to rec onnoitre the pa before the troops were rushed against it in premature assaults .

64 TH E O LD FRONTIER

There was soon an echo in the forest of this pandemoniacal concert . Another choru s of three hundred or four hundred throats made the woods tremble with their wrath of lung and the thundering stamp of feet . Twi ce it subsided , and skirmishers appeared , firing

c lustily into us . I must onfess there was something impressive in these two savage hordes linking their S pirits over this distance into

’ f u a bond O wr athful aid , lashing one another s f ry into a higher heat by each succeeding yell e choing responsive in each breast . Yet when the result of all this volcanic wrath broke against us , when the simple crack of our carbines sent line after line of their skirmishers c back into the bush , then the third war dan e to get the steam up anew became a most laughable affair, particularly as its result was equally pusillanimous with the first two . No ! that open ground under the muzzles of our carbines was not at all to the liking of the

- war dancers . There they remained in the bush firing at us at long range , their bullets coming amongst us with that asthmatic , over travelled sound denoting exhaustion of strength . The sap workers were now covered by a good number of E nfi l e d rifles , which dropped most of their bullets into our snug hollow . I must say that as night came on I refle cted upon its f probable e fects , and I experienced a good deal of uneasiness . I c was pla ed on the one point where the Maoris from the pa , trying efi ect c c to a jun tion with the for es in the bush , would have to pass or break through . I never for a moment believed that they would t h e allow night to pass without making the attempt , as they had no water in the pa . If the forces in the bush , then , favoured by dark O ness , crossed the pening and attacked our rear while we faced the c Maoris from the pa , the hances were ten to one th at the junction efi ec ted would be , and that thus our prey would escape us after having done irreparable damage .

I gave Roberts charge of the picket . It could not be in better hands . That day his behaviour before the pa , and on many previous instances , had borne me out in my preconceived idea of the young man that he was as true as steel . I ranged all my men on one side o of the road , lying d wn close to one another in the fern , with strict orders not to stir from their positions until I gave the word— to let

— the Maoris run the gauntlet of their fir e and then , when Roberts had barred the narrow pass across the swamp , to charge them ,

- bowie knife and revolver in hand .

n — s h e It was an a xious night o much so , that I even forgot t THE BA TTLE OF OR AKAU 65

h want of sleep of t e night previous, and listened with little need of effort to the firi ng from the pa on the sap and from the sap on

the pa . The Maori s had now fought for mor e than twelve mortal hours ; they had wrought at the spade with marvellous h ’ rapidity and pluck ; and last , not least, they had urr ah d and war

danced enough to supply all England with consumption , and all that

with no adequate supply of water, as their store of it inside must

have been quickly exh austed . I believe that night some daring and devoted slaves managed to creep through our sentries and bring a

- few calabashes full into the pa . But what was that for the great t ? assau ed number of parched throa s (Also , raw potatoes g their

thirst considerably . ) Still the roar of their guns did not c ease , and allow me to tell you that they had some old - fashioned barrels that

roared like the bulls of Bashan and threw balls as big as potatoes . Hour after hour I listened to the firing and to the pinging of bul lets whistling over our heads and dropping amongst us the whole life long night ; but the sounds I most listened for were footsteps and that inde scribable hum that precedes even the most silent body of in men . I went to the picket several times , and returned each time a great haste , fearing the Maoris might break cover during my h

sence . But I was not the only wakeful ofli cer . I think nearly

everyone with any responsibility on him slept little that night ,

except those borne down by fatigue . The artillery troopers under Rait had hardly ceased their rounds along our whole circle through

out the night , and Rait and I had a long chat about the certainty

of the Maoris breaking cover that night . Yet the night passed and

nothing happened .

This is one convincing proof to me that the Maoris after all ,

with all their cleverness , have not the true military sagacity in them to distinguish when obstinacy of defence turns into stupid self

sacr ifice. Had they pushed through us that night we woul d have suffered at close quarters with their guns quite as much in ten ss minutes as in the time that the whole siege lasted , and their lo

would have been comparatively small , as up to that time I believe

not half a dozen of theirs h ad been hit .

THE SECOND DAY .

The morning of the first of Apr il brought Jackson and his - rs Rangers . I was glad to see another half hundred revolve E 66 THE OLD FRONTIER make their appearance and str engthen my rather ticklish positiom ’ u Some of Jackson s men , on passing by the sap , had vol nteered to work therein . They did excellent service , all havi ng been diggers,

. and, being strong, daring fellows , they pushed the sap in great style his They were under the direc tion of George Whitfield , who had got k commission for his behaviour at M angapi o. At Or akau his ser vices were quite as prominent, and should have been recognised more than they were .

— — Another weary, weary day wait, wait nothing but waiting .

- — There was not even the fun of a war dance no water for boilers, so there could be no steam . Now and then yet a hurr ah or so of the natives , when someone got prominently hit , but the strength of voice and lung displayed on the first day had made us hypercritical , so that their performance in the vocal depar tment was not appr e ciated . They made , however, some very good shooting, particularly at unconscious amateurs and spectators . There was poor Major r Hurford , of the 3 d Waikato Regiment . He came to me and said that he had just had two very narrow escapes , one bal l contusing

’ hi s breast, another his hip . I am so glad , he said, that my wife

’ will not hear of this until all is over . The followi ng morning it was all over with him .

That day the natives began running out a counter-sap to out n fla k ours , and the firing from each covering party became exceed ingl y hot . We got all our own lead from those musical E nfiel d messengers en masse . When it comes to eating , drinking, and sleeping under an unceasing peppering of lead , when it drops into

— your pannikin , or into the bowl of your pipe a man may be ex cused

— for losing his temper ii he has one to lose . i The natives in the bush showed again that afternoon , but the r spirits were not so high as the day previous . They would not treat

- us to any more war dances , and just fired their sullen shots to let their friends in the pa know that they were there . That evening the sapping party of Jackson brought home their first victim of the

— war Private Cogl an. Having exposed himself rather imprudently in planting a gabion , he was shot dead on the spot .

I felt a little less anxious that night . More than one hundred e r r volve s were now in a row, which in half a minute would fire 500 s hots , and these at close quarters should tell . At night there is n in oth g like a revolver for a struggle . TH E BA TTLE OF ORA KA U 67

THE THIRD DAY .

The following morning ( 2nd April ) General Cameron made his appearance with a detachment of the Defence Corps and some - f Our packhorses wi th hand grenades . sap was now so

- far advanced that it entered the old stock yard fence , which sur rounded the pa at some distance . It was in rashly jumping out of the sap and cutting down gallantly one of these posts that Major

- Hurford received his death wound in the head . He rallied for a short space of time , long enough to receive the attentions of his n poor wife , but the ball , remai ing in his head , caused his death at last at Otah uh u . Many gallant deeds were done that day in th e sap , but the same being at the opposite extreme of the pa from our

- position I was not an eye witness to them . I only know from good testimony that Captain Baker was amongst the foremost to urge the

’ work by word and example ; Jackson s Ensign Whitfield behaved with his usual distinction ; Ensign Harrison , of the Transport Corps , did good service with his rifle en amateur ; my Sergeant S outh ee 65th later in the day, still with the detachment, was the first to change his footing from our works into that of the Maoris . (Note . Poor Whitfield lost his life in one of my engagements in the Wanga nui district . He was one of the most gallant ofli cer s I have known . ) The weariness on our post on that third day was becoming to me almost unbearable . There was no excitement to compensate for the constant annoyance of bullets flying about you for three days and two nights , and the constant false reports of the assault going to take place sickened one at last of the whole affair . There had been a demand for volunteers in the morning to go sapping . I knew it did not refer to me , but I thought they might accept me after all when the hottest work commenced , so I took sixteen vol un teers from my company and marched round to the sap . I was close to the sap when Baker met me and instantly drove me back in spite

’ of all my expostulations and pleas of the morning s order . No , no !

’ To your post ! To your post ! And as a sweetener for this dis agreeable treatment the cunning Stafi Machiavelli told me to come ’ n back at four o clock in the after oon , when I would be allowed to sap , knowing himself perfectly well that by that time I would have found other work to do . I went back crestfallen and miserable . My a return inst ntly enfranchised Jackson , who took the opportunity of 68 THE O LD FRONTIER trying his rifle skill en amateur in the sap— and h is skil l in this department is by no means contemptible . ? What means that shout— that hur rah Stand ! s be to your ar ms , men Another truly British cheer They mu t

‘ ’ — ! assaulting the pa ! Fo rward , men forward And away I dash th e with a promiscuous crowd of Ranger s and soldiers . But I know way where we can go in reasonable security. Along the slant of r ws the hill the fer n is high , and the level of the ground sca ce sho r our heads . If we reach the angle of the pa in f ont of us while attention is concentrated on the diagonally opposite angle where our sap leads to we may get into the pa with little opposition, or shoot down fugitives escaping thence , if there are any .

We had to go some distance . Th e Maoris saw us first just

h . wh o on cresting t e hill , and sent a heavy fire at us But all those f followed my guidance were soon safe from it . I saw some heaps o - - 0 rubbish under some trees , with a half broken down pig fence , at 3 yards from the pa . That was a good halting place to br eathe my r men and count them . Alas ! there were not above a dozen . The e T a were my two sergeants , Carron and oovey, Mogul , and little Keen . ’ and a few of Jackson s company— but we had lost our tail by th e velocity of our flight forward . Well , the place had a ver y tenable r d n look about it , so , seeing that eve y man lay well covere , I se t m Sergeant Carron back for reinforcements, and saw that my en ’ kept the Maoris heads well down the parapet . Our arrival there had in the first instance driven back a few Maori s attempting to escape from the angle I expected they would make use of . After that they kept up a pretty close fire upon us , but we had very good cover , and gave it to them better than they could . Carron r eturned in a little , and said that Captain Baker wanted me immediately at n n my post , so nolens volens , I had to retur , seeing that a dozen m e were not enough wi th which to assault 3 00 Maoris behind a high parapet . During my return I was infor med by my men that one of h i those following me had been t , and was lying in the ver y path to

. h l the pa T is was the first intimation I had of such mishap , for al the men close to me and following my guidance h ad been untouched .

This poor fellow had chosen the main track to walk upon , probably scorning the fern , and had so come by his death . It was Cor poral

Taylor, an old soldier of th e 7oth . Sadly we carried our burden to our post , where I found my mentor Captain Baker char ged to th e u a m zzle with milit r y reprimands for me . Wh ile he and I and Major THE BA TTLE OF O R AKAU 69

Blyth were ar gumenting on this subject a tr emendous shout arose

— fr om the pa a volley, and then such an incessant rattle of musketry

th at I perceived at once what the matter was . At last the Maoris had broken cover .

Leaving my interlocutors very unceremoniously, and cal l

ing on my m en to follow me , I rushed up to the picket house .

c saw t . On the other side of th e house , at a glan e , I the s ate of things A dense mass of Maori s was ru shing through the scrub at the bottom

of the gully on the further corner from our post . The ridge where

- the pa stood was enveloped in a dense mass of powder smoke , whence the incessant firing of our troops issued as if there never

would be a pause to it . Giving hurri ed orders to Westr upp to watch the forest side of

the picket hill , and taking Roberts with me, we went off at full speed along the ridge to cut ofi? the Maoris whom we saw now ascending

the furthest extreme of that ridge . ! R un, men , run ! Cut them off Cut them off ! And th e

Rangers bounded over the ground as if their feet had wings .

The Maoris had had a tremendous start of it, but the passage of the swamp and scrub in the bottom of the gully had delayed them

somewhat . We came within shot of them , and as their long,

irregular mass ascended the next rise our fire began to tell . Still we had to use the utmost exertion to keep within sight and shot of

them , and would probably have lost half had not Rait with h is troopers and some of the Defence Corps headed them by a daring

- break neck ride across country . But the Maoris , seeing only these n troopers after them , suddenly tur ed upon them , and from the other

side of the swamp commenced to give them some ugly shot s , killing i in a moment two horses and wound ng some of the men . Now,

’ Rait s troopers had only revolvers , which were utterly useless at i that d stance , so they began to be rather doubtful what to do with a their Tart r, when the Rangers made their appearance , and the presence of their carbines became soon painfully evident to the Off natives . they started again , and now at a lesser distance they began to drop under our fire very fast ; also some of them had outrun h n t eir fl eet ess, and , our wind and stamina beginning to tell after

the first three miles , many a laggard was shot down after gi ving us

the last desperate shot of his barrel . The l ast natives saw t we were three or four tro ting along the top of a distant ridge. Signs of decl ining day and a bugle sounding the return made us 70 THE OLD FRO NTIER

n e- relinquish further pursuit . O r crossing the river we found

Colonel Havelock collecting the squads of avengers . He marched them home in a body, myself remaining behind to wait for some men of mine who had not yet made their appear ance . When these k - at last arrived I also turned my face Ora au wards . “ We followed pretty much the direction we had taken in the pursuit, and soon came upon the silent marks of it . Amongst them , th e however, I found one poor fellow still alive . We bandaged him

best we could , and carried him along . After getting over the next

mile he expired , and we laid him to his rest . We found another one, not far off, and carried him also some distance , when he , too , ” gave up the ghost and left us . em sk Other wounded men were carried into the camp , Von T p y continued , but not until next day did the troops fully realise the terrible nature of the blow they had inflicted on their foes . Probably fewer than fifty out of little more than three hundred escaped death or wounds . Fully 1 60 Maoris were killed or died of wounds . The

British loss was 1 7 killed and 5 1 wounded .

On 3 r d April , 1 864 , the Forest Ranger s were moved from Orshan,

e l . . the main body having left the previous day . Colonel MacN i , A D C , to General Cameron , had been ambuscaded near Ohaupo during the r k three days of O a au . It was therefore decided to have a permanent P k r im post about half way between u e u and Te Awamutu . Major Blyth ( 4 0th ) and Von Tempsky were despach ed from Te Awamut u to a place a little beyond the native pa of Ohaupo , and a redoubt was built on a commanding ridge . The 4 oth built the redoubt , while

’ Tem sk s Von p y Rangers policed the road and scouted the bush . m There is some lovely lake scenery , wrote Von Te psky, Awamu u between Te t and Ohaupo . Among sombre patches of forest gleams a water mirror every now and then , with a vivid green mar gin of waving grasses and ru shes ; here and there a solitary b - ca bage tree with its long , irradiating leaves giving to the otherwi se - c home like s enery the New Zealand character . By moonli ght th e lake scenery is quite a fairy effect , and has often compensated me for the tediousness of repeated night patrol .

INCIDENTS OF THE SIEGE . TH E OR D E FE E MA I NC .

’ Th e Maoris reason for not building the Orakau pa in a more ns defe ive position is explained by the survivors . They say that it

72 THE OLD FRONTIER

t od and r Kawana was not placed where the native chur ch s o , whe e e t u con afterwards fixed h is homestead , becaus tha sit ation was

i . spicuous, and would readily be seen from the K hikihi redoubt This position certainly would have been superior to that selected u s st n as the site of the fort on the Rangata a ri e , for on the we er a ea th e side of the Or akau Hill , just in re r of the old homest d , and ha ground slopes steeply to the Tautoro gully and swamp , t t side of the pa could easily have been sca rped into an insur mountable e wall . On the southern side there is a quick incline to the pres nt road ; on the east and north aspect the land slopes gently from th e hill crest . With regard to the fam ous cry of defiance associated with the ifii cul s th e a r defence of Orakau , it is d t to reconcile ome of M o i h r i versions with the popular story . From none of my Maori aut o i O sh n to ties , all o them men who fought at r a , have I been able obtain exact confir mation of the reported ultimatum : Ka whawhai ” ! l e and e er tonu matou , ake , ake , ake We wi l fight on for ev r, v , and The following is the statement of Major W . G . Mair . c ac who , when ensign in the Colonial Defen e Force Cavalry, ted as

’ a h e stafi interpreter , and conveyed Gener l Cameron s demand for t surrender of the pa and his promise of safet y for the garr ison : I could see the Maoris inclining their heads towards each oth er in s m consultation , and in a few minutes cam e the an wer in a clear , fir ’ wh ai hi k ke k tone : E hoa , ka wha tonu ahau 9. oe, a , a e! Fr iend,

’ I shall fight against you for ever and ever ! Then Mair made request for the women and children to come out . There was a

‘ short deliberation , and another voice ma de answer : Ki te mate m ’ nga tane , me mate ano nga wahine me nga ta ariki . If the men st are to die , the women and children mu die The difference

’ between the popular version and Mair s nar rative is obviously very slight .

- The Maori account, as given by Te Huia Raureti and Pou Patate H uih i and the late Te Wairoa Piripi is to the efi ect that the answer of R ewi and his fellow-c hiefs was that th ey would not make

’ Pi r i peace . Te Wairoa pi said : The General s messenger came to a o t : us and c lled u Do not fire at me . I have a message for you ra e s h from the Gene l to r que t t at you make peace, so th at your ’ women and children may be saved . This message was made known Raur eti ia a by Pa k to the whole pa, to R ewi , wh o was at th e northern sec o th e a wh n the eha ti n of p e pak was speaking to Ra m ti . Th e

THE BATTLE OF ORAKAU 73

people in the western part of the pa were listening . R ewi Manga made reply : Kaore an e bohou te rongo I shall not make u : Then all the people cried in chor s Kaore e mau te rongo , ake,

’ ! — ake , ake Peace shall never be made never, never, nak -A k r Then stood up Kar amoa Tuma o, of Ngati pa u a, and said

’ I shall make peace . To this R ewi , Hone Teri , and R aur eti replied

We are not willing that the people should be made prisoners , but ’ if we leave the pa you make your own peace . Some of the people having fired , the pakeha dropped down , and the fighting began

- i e. a again . It was now that the rakete (rockets , . , h nd gr enades) were flung into our pa . They were not so bad at first, but when the fuses were shortened many were the deaths . The sap was now close ek eran i up . The outer fence , or p g , was thrown down on the top of e the soldiers , and some of them were kill d or injured there . Two shells from the big gun on Kar aponia [the hill on which the block in - - house was afterwards built] burst the Manga o Hoi swamp , and the tribes in that direction were scattered . The explosion of a third shell slightly damaged the end of the pa where Te Huia and certain others were . The sun was declining, and now the pa was broken

- at the south east angle , and the people jumped out from all parts

- of the work . Th e line of soldiers below the pa in the south eastern b h direction was broken through y Paiaka , Te W akatapu , and Te Taae a Makaka te p , and the people fled to the swamp , thence to the

Puniu, leaving a great many dead .

Te Huia R aur eti said When the interpreter spoke to us , saying , Friends , c ome out to us so that your lives may be ’ i ania t saved , R ew M po o made reply, through a messenger, my father

’ — R aur eti Paiaka , Peace shall never b e made never, never ! Again : spoke the pakeha , and said That is right for you men , but as for ’ the women and children , send them out of the pa . This was de

’ cl ined ‘ , and all the people cried , repeating Rewi s words , Peace ’ — shall never be made never, never, never ! Kaor e 9 man te rongo

- ake , ake ,

The Ngati -Tuwhar etoa and Ngati - te -Koh era tribes declared that it was Hauraki Tonganni who replied to Mair on behalf of R ewi h e was simply a mouthpiece or messenger.

’ e It is clear from all the Maori stat ments , and also Major Mair s account given me many years ago , that R ewi himself did not speak to the interpreter . (For full detail s of Orakau and the discussion 74 THE OLD FRONTIER between the opposing parties see the Ofiicial History of the New

Zealand Wars , written for the Government , and published

- - Or akau pa was surrounded by a square of post and rail fence , about a chain outside the earthworks . A veteran of the Forest Rangers says it was a cleverly- designed obstruction— the prede

- cessor of our modern barbed wire entanglements . It was partly masked with flax and fern , and it wrought the defeat of Captain ’ Ring s charge at the pa . The mounted men , too , were stopped by

- - the post and rail fence , and there made a good target for the Maoris.

The earthworks were not high , but the wide trench was a deadly f a fair and a complete obstruction to any charge .

CR OSS - SE CTI ON OF OR AKZAU PA m r ve Fr o a su y , 1 864 .

C R OS S- SE CTI ON OF O R AKAU PA The British headquarters in the siege were fixed just under the fall of the ground on the south -west of the pa close to where the

- blockhouse was afterwards built . The slopes are covered to day with a dense growth of prickly acacias . The blockhouse has dis appeared ; the site is traceable only by a hollow showi ng where the magazine was under the floor of the building . A short distance to s the W . S .W . of this spot , on slightly higher ground , ju t on the edge Kar a ni of the po a crest , with the acacia grove feathering the abrupt slope to the swamp a hundred feet below, is the place where two s Armstrong guns were posted to shell the pa . A tall bluegum mark the exact spot ; at its foot are the fern- grown remains of a short parapet , the gun emplacement . It was estimated that about rounds of ammunition were

’ Orakau . fired by the . troops during the three days fighting at

76 THE OLD FRONTIER

n had his They h ad no surgeons to attend to their wounds . O e man left leg broken by a ba ll ; he bound two pieces of wood round it as with wild flax and fought on to the last . Another whose side w pierced plugged the wound with a cork and kept his place among i" r wh o the defenders of the pa . We have office s here fought through the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny ; al l unite in affir ming that neither the Russians nor the Sepoys ever fought as the Maori s have done ; all lament the necessity of having to fight n th e is against such a gallant race . O this point whole army unanimous ; a different feeling may prevail among the colonists, who look forward to reaping a rich harvest from all this carnage ” and bloodshed . ’ A MAORI SURVIVOR S STORY . H E E TR E T TO TH E T R A PUNIU . The following are extracts from the narrative given to th e i f present writer in 1 920 by the veteran chief Te Huia R aur et , o - ni Orakau Ngati Ma apoto, who with his father fought at

O r akau was not a strong fortification . There was no proper palisading around the earthworks— we had not sufii cient time to

— - - complete the defences but there was a post and rail fence , in the form of a square , a little distance outside the trenches and p arapets. The principal parapets were about five feet high and four feet in thickness , composed of sods and loose earth , with l ayers of fer n pulled up and laid with the roots outward . The fern help ed to bind the earthworks . We were still working away at th e ditches and parapets when the troops came upon us . We had a sentry on th e

- look out , on the west side of the earthworks , the Kihikihi side , fr om which the soldiers approached . His name was Aporo . Suddenly his voice was raised in these words of alarm He pukeko kei te Kawakawa ! Kei Te Tumutumu te m ea e

’ tata ana ! A swamp hen has reached the Kawakawa ! Ther e are others nearer us at Te The pukeko was the advance guard of the Imperia l tr oops the Kawakawa was the settlement near the large acacia grove [ about a third of a mile north of the Orakau church and ka inga ] Th e troops marched by the road which skirted the bush and up through the cultivations . Meanwhile some other soldiers (mounted men) h ad come a more direct way, a little to the north of th e cart road , and we saw them at the peach and almond grove on the hi ll just west of the Tautoro swamp and creek about a quar ter of a mile fr om TH E BATTLE O F O RAKAU 77

f h e d our earthworks . Some o t e troop rs ro e at our pa, but had to od retir e before our volleys . The main b y of th e soldi ers came marching on ; and another force which had marched up along the n i a Puniu River, crossing and recrossing , finally fordi g the r ver ne r where the W aiker ia joins it and coming out on the Orakau- Maunga ” tantari Road . ’ R aureti After describing the th ree days fighting , told the story of the retreat to the Puniu on the l ast day : When the people had come to the decision to abandon th e pa we all went out of it on th e north - east side and retreated on the eastern side of the Karaponia ridge . My gun was loaded in both barrels , and I had some cartridges in my hamann [ammunition O holder . ] The soldiers were already in the outworks of the pa . nly W i Kar amoa one man wished to surrender, and this was , the min ister . He remained in the pa , holding up a white handkerchief on a stick in token of surr ender . We left many killed and wounded in r the pa . Some of the dead we had buried ; others we e left lying where they fell . Among those whom we buried in the works were Paeh -Parekawa R o ata Matekan, Aporo (Waikato) , ua ( of Ngati ) , p

- - f i Piri i H e h r e er a . (the husband o Hine turama) , and p te u eu (U w )

There was bayonet work in the first rushing of the pa . On the first f s part o our retreat, across the l pe of the pa , we did not fire ; we r eserved our sh ots for emergency. We had to br eak through the soldiers at the steep fall of the ni land east of Kar apo a . Here , where the ridge dropped , there was e m a scarp d bank and ditch , ade to keep the pigs out of the Ranga taua cultivations . Just below this , between us and the swamp , were the soldiers . A man rushed first to break through the soldiers ; he

was i . k lled Then the foremost man turned back towards the pa , but my father R aur eti Paiaka and his comrade Te Makaka dashed di at the line of sol ers and broke through , and all the rest of us followed and made for the swamp . R aur eti shot two soldiers here .

We now were broken up and separated from one another . We retreated through the swamp , and when we reached a place called Manga -Ngarara (Lizard Creek) we found some troops who arrived there t o stop us . There again R aur eti Paiaka broke th rough and we passed on . Ngata was nearly killed there by being cut at with

. R aur eti a sword raised his gun as if to fire at the swordsman , but Th he had no cartridge in his gun . e soldier, fea ring to be shot , as i u h t ly t rned back, and our friend was saved . 78' THE OLD FRONTIER

Our chief and relative R ewi was with us in the retreat th rough wa the swamp , and several of us formed a bodyguard to fight a y N am ako thr ough for him . When we had crossed the swamp to the g side , where the hills go steeply up , we saw soldiers , mounted and foot , in front of us , and we fired at them , and one or two dropped . At last we reached the Puniu River ; we crossed it and travelled through the M oer ika swamp , and presently halted at Tokanui . Next k r morning we went across to Oh ine u a (near Wharepapa) . Some of those who escaped from O rakau retreated to Korakonui and Wharepapa ; some crossed to Kauaer oa ; and others went to Hanga tiki . When we crossed the Puniu the old U r ewer a chief Paerau , who was following us , called out to us from the Ors han side of the

’ Wh enuanu i . river, Friends , Te is missing However, Te Whenua nui (the chief of Ruatahuna) appeared safely, and we continued our retreat together . R ewi M aniapoto had gone to the Ur ewer a Country before P r n i ate a g was built , in order to enlist assistance in the war . Ther e were old ties of friendship with the U r ewer a dating back to th e O time of the battle of rona , at Lake Taupo , in the ancient days . War ah oe r wer The section of the U e a had a pa there then , and there - ni were Ngati Ma apoto living with them . Some of Warah oe later - Mania oto came and lived in the Ngati p country . Two casks of gim powder were given to R ewi for the war ; one of th ese was paid for : Takur ua in this way , elder brother of Harehare , of the Ngati w Manawa tribe , came back with R e i , and R aureti gave him £ 3 0 ” to pay for the gunpowder .

80 THE OLD FRONTIER

cl umms of red pine may still occasionally be seen . A party of some two hundred sawyers are employed about six miles from the camp n h i - [ near R a giaow a] ; strange , wild looking men who have lived for years in the bush and hold little intercourse with their fellow men . Some of the more skilful amongst them can make as much as £ 1 5 per week ; the poorest workman can make the half of that n amount . The fur ishings of our hut consist of a - es camp bed , a table , two chairs , two wooden stools , two bridl , a

- riding whip , a mirror six inches by four, a few paddles , a rifle , a s sword , and a lump of bacon suspended from the roof . The mother and sisters of officers out here are not to suppose that their sons and brothers are equally comfortable ; our habits are deemed quite

c luxurious ; our hut is the envy of the whole amp . The rumour i h as reached us that the Colonial Government , who claim it as the r b s us property [ the ut was at the mi sion station] , intend to turn out , but they wi ll find that rather difficult ; possession at Te Awamutu is something more than nine points of law ; we know our rights and ” mean to stand by them . Awam tu h in Describing some of the troops at Te u , the c apla wrote : The soldiers of the 65th Regiment are most Th e exemplary in this respect [attendance at religious services] . regiment has spent eighteen yea rs in the colony ; the men have been f broken up into detachments and stationed in rural districts , ar removed from the temptations of garrison towns . Their appearance is very different from that of the men belonging to other regiments r recently arrived . They are grave , se ious , thoughtful men , with bronzed faces and flowing beards— living proofs of the healthiness of the climate . They are all in good condition , and occupy one four th more space on the par ade- ground than any other regiment here . From their long residence in the colony most of them have contrived to save a little money ; some who have speculated in land are capitalists possessed of thousands . This wealth does not inter fere in any way wi th the strictness of discipline or the respect due

ofii cers. On r to their the contra y, they expose their lives as readily as those who have nothing to lose , and from long intercourse ar e devotedly attached to those under whom they serve . They have never left their officers wounded on the field of battle ; it is always a point of honour with them to carry them Off, whatever loss may be entailed . Their wealth also sometimes enables them to be generous. I t was only recently that a subal tern of long standi ng was likely

WHEN TE AWAMUTU WAS A FORTIFIED CAMP

[F r om photos lent by Co lonel Ryder . l

THE RE DOUBT AT THE BRIDGE OVE R THE MANGAHOE STREAM

r m th e 40th e men at Te Awam t in h r n The ed u e e rve at the With pa t of the c a p of R gi t u u t e back g ou d . R o bt R s u n n M u u and M an a i ko ree m r he i e i m J ctio of t g p St ts a ks t s t of th s ca p .

THE BRITISH RE DOUBT AND CAMP AT TE AWAM UTU ( 1864

The u m en in th e re r u n a r x ima el u the re en r n a e ex an r h m h t ts fo g o d pp o t y occ py p s t f o t g s of A l d a S t ree t . T e fore ost u men I S S u a e at the rner lex an ra ree and M ar e ree wi ar h t t it t d co of A d St t k t St t , th the locat ion of the saley ds i n the backg r ou nd

82 THE O L D FRONTIER

’ knows all that it says . After this sentimental avowal we have

. learned to tolerate this black Blondel , this dusky Trovatore Ariana

- f is a remarkably pretty half caste , the o fspring of an Englishman

and a Maori woman . Her mother died some years ago , and her

father , one of those restless , unsettled beings so often to be met with c in the colonies , left her to the are of her Maori relatives and

started for Australia ; nothing has been heard of him since . When the war broke out she was living with a settler near Awamutu ; ofi the family was obliged to leave , and she was carried by the

rebels . She says that this was done against her will , and that while the fighting was going on at the pa [ Or akau ] she was tied to e another woman to prevent her from attempting to escape . W

suspect, however that she was tied only by the gentle cords of love , and that a Maori warrior had something to do wi th her presence sh e there . When the pa was evacuated was hit by a bullet which shattered her arm ; it would have gone hard with her in the indis criminate slaughter which ensued had not some brave fellow stood

over her and defended her life . Ten men came forward to claim the honour due to this gallant deed ; but this was after the report of her beauty had spread over

the camp , and each claimant doubtless imagined that he could

establish a lien over her heart . Nay ; some weeks after the fight an enthusiastic militiaman

travelled all the way from Raglan , a distance of thirty miles , and demanded an interview with the Brigadier ; he stated that he was

’ the preserver of Ariana s life ; he could neither eat nor drink nor sleep for thinking of her ; so he had m ade up his mind to make her n his wife . He had £ 5 0 i the Savings Bank , which sum he wished

to devote to her education , so as to prepare her for the duties of

the married state . All that he desired at present was an interview with the object of his afi ecti ons ; Ariana would at once recognise

him and rush to his arms . There was only one slight difficulty he spoke no Maori and she knew no English ; but love has a language of its own ; he had no doubt that they would understand one an

other . ’ es The Brigadier [ Carey] , amused at the fellow s earnestn s ,

granted the desired interview , and allowed the interpreter to be present to assist if the silent language of love should prove ia

' sufficient . The lover entered the room with a bashful , sheepish

air, and stared at Ariana, who stared at h im in return ; but there CAMP LIFE A T TE A W AMUTU 83

was no recognition on her part , no outburst of gushing gratitude , no rushing to his arms . On the contrary, she turned to the inter preter and coolly asked what the man wanted ; on learning which she laughed heartily and told him to go away, as she had never seen him before , and would have nothing to say to him . The poor fellow begged , beseeched , implored , and looked unutterable things ;

Ariana only tittered and turned away her head . Ever since that time the militiaman has continued to urge his suit in letters , written by

- a half caste amanuensis , but the Maori maid is still obdurate . He is not the only man who has felt the power of a beauty or claimed to be her preserver ; so importunate were some of her admirers that a guard had to be stationed at the hut for her protection . She has now almost recovered from her wound , and an asylum will be provided for her in an orphan institution . We have still some hopes of the militiaman : perseverance often leads to success in love as in ” everything else . CHAPTER XI I . L D PI ONE E R LIFE ON TH E O FRONTIER .

' “ Ther ai iman and oi nted to the north is the star t o what m e, s d N , p , f y t — - t all the W d Bounds wher e v r man fa her peace be with him used o c icke , e e y ' l a nd a da er in below hi coat— Cam r Cl an you l meet bos gat a history, gg s e onS , ’ R o and he F — it to the Fir th o nald s men, Clan Citati on, t rasers stretches f " m i kit . I erness for six ty m les, the way a e wouldfly

OOKI NG southward across the Puniu in th e Seventies and early Eighties we who were bred up on the Frontier saw

- n i a mysterious appearing land , fascinati g to the imag na

— tion because unknown a land , too , of dread in the years r of unrest , for there in the hinterland only a few miles f om the border river lived Te Kooti and his band and the hundreds of Waikato dispossessed of their good lands on which we pakeha families now dwelt . As far as the eye could range it was a l and altogether given up to the Kingites and the B auhaus— an untamed country painted in the dark purple of broken mountain ranges, merging into the vague , misty blues of great distance , the sombre green of ferny hills and plains , and the yellow and white of deep

- flax and raupo swamps . Clear, dashing hill streams and lazy, - k in swamp born watercourses , alive with eels and wild duc , all carr y g

- down their quota to feed the silently gliding Waipa . And over al l ,

’ from Maunga -tau tar i s shapelessly rugged mass along the curving ’ Pir on ia - sector to g s fairy haunted p eaks , an aspect and air of soli tude ; a suggestion of mystery and waiting for the touch of man

- which was to transform that far stretching waste . The contrast ! On our side th e green farms of the pioneer

— - settlers , roads , villages each wi th its redoubt as a r al lyi ng pl ace

— c s— in alarm hurches , school primitive schools , maybe , in the early

— stages the flag of British authority flying . b So the order remained , the line of demarcation sharply defined by the confiscation boundary, the southern side inim ical, sul len ,

- waiting, for well nigh twenty year s after the final shots of th e

- Life on the old frontier, on one of the farthest out farms , seems a kind of dream , a fabric of remembrance tinged with a faerie

86 THE OLD FRO NTIER

- n . O raupo marsh , were Maori peach groves the south , a few hundred yards from the homestead , was the Blockhouse , with its

- — a little garrison of smart , b lue uniformed Constabulary tiny fort , i but one that came large and grim enough on the eye of ch ldhood . The nearest farmer neighbour was the farthest-out settler of all

— — Mr Andrew Kay and very far out and lonely his home seemed , on s the verge of the confiscation boundary . Maoris were more numerou

- than pakehas ; many a savage looking and tattooed warrior, wear ing a waist-shawl— for the Maori had not then taken kindly to trousers— c alled in at the home from one or other of the large villages just over the border ; and native labour was employed at times on the farms . That was long before the day of the dair y factory and the

refrigerator, and while living was cheap there was little ready

- money in the country . No monthly cheques for butter fat then ; no competing buyers coming round for crops or stock . When a mob of cattle was ready for the market it had to be driven all the way to Auckland ; and often there was mighty little profit for all the t long hard work . Wheat was one of the s aple crops , and in the early years it was threshed by hand wi th the old- fashioned flail and - - l the grain carted to the nearest flou r mill . There was a water mi l

- - i on the Manga o Hoi , on the old swamp road between Kihik hi and A am - Te w utu , and further south in the Waipa Waikato country there

- - were several wi nd mills . I think I recollect two wind mills of that old type on the road from Te Awamutu to Hamilton ; one stood at or near Ohaupo . For many a year after the War periodical scares of a Maori invasion were raised in the border settlements , from Alexandra and Awam utu Te around the confiscation line to Cambridge . The shoot m ing of the surveyor Todd on Pirongia Mountain in 1 870, the to a hawking of the farm -hand Lyon on the Or akau side of the Puniu in the same year , and the murder and decapitation of Timothy -o- - Sullivan near Roto Rangi , on the Maunga tantari side , all set alarms going . Every settler was armed , and the old Militia organi sation presently was supplemented and made m obile by the forma tion of a fine body of frontier horse , the Te Awam utu and Cambridge 00 tr ps of Waikato Cavalry. Well mounted , armed with sword , carbine , and revolver , able to shoot accurately and ride well , and k thoroughly acquainted with the trac s , roads , and river fords , these settler-cavalrymen could not have been surpassed for the pur poses PIONEER LIF E ON THE OL D FRONTIER 87

8 1 of border defence . Formed in 1 7 , the troops remained in existence until the introduction of the mounted rifles system in the beginning

of the Nineties , and many hundreds of young fellows passed through

the ranks during that time . In the early years , when the two troops

were a real bulwark for the frontier, Major William Jackson , the Awamutu veteran of the Forest Rangers , commanded the Te troop

his lieutenants were Andr ew Kay and William A . Cowan (the

’ - k Or a au . writer s father) , the two furthest out settlers of Captain A am t w Runciman commanded the Cambridge corps . Te w u u as the

’ - r - usual drill g ound of Jackson s troop , and the shooting butts were

on t h e Puniu side of the settlement . Some of the isolated settlers supplied themselves with smal l

armouries of weapons for defence in case their homes were attacked . ’ In our Or akau homestead there were , beside the cavalryman s regu

- lation arms , a double barrel gun and a Spencer repeating carbine ,

A . a novel weapon in those days , American make ; it was the U S f cavalry arm . It held eight cartridges , ed in a pecul iar way, by r spring action th ough the heel of the butt . a Towards the Puniu , on a lonely hill where a few bluegums m rk

- the site of a long razed dwelling , there lived an old soldier who had - r in been a gold digge , and he devised a method of winning safety, case of an attack, which would naturally suggest itself to an ex miner . He dug a tunnel from the interior of his little house to a

- point on the hill side , concealed with a growth of fern and shrubs ; there he considered he could make his escape into the scrub if h is h i assailants burned s house over his head .

’ There was another pioneer, a veteran of Jackson s Forest

Rangers , now living in Auckland . He told me of his preparations for defence on his section , which was partly surrounded by bush , s at Te Rahu , a short di tance from Te Awamutu . There was an old

- - Maori potato pit , one of the funnel shaped ruas , not far from the m house , and this he deter ined in one period of alarm to convert into

- - a little garrison hold . He made it a comfortable sleeping place with layers of fern and blankets , and after dark at night he cautiously retired there with his carbine and two or three other shooting- irons and plenty of ammunition , and spent the night with an easy mind .

His companion was his little daughter— his wife had died— and there the pair rested till morning . To make his retreat doubly secure

- - the ex Ranger had dug a short tunnel from his r ifle pit, emerging in the fern , so as to have a way of retreat in case his stronghold 88 THE OLD FRONTIER

u as was forced . The place was quite an ingenio s little castle ; and , h is n he said , would probably have been secure even had home bee a att cked , for fern grew all about it , and was not likely to have been discovered except by a dog — and the Maoris did not take dogs wi th them on a raid . The most anxious time on the frontier in the Seventies was the crisis caused by the murder of Timothy Sullivan by a party of

- - - n'2 th Maoris between Roto o Rangi and Maunga tantari , o 5 April, 1 e 1 873 . This was an agrarian murder, caused through rather carel ss P k dealings with native land ; uru utu , the principal in the crime , had not been paid for land in which he had an interest and which h a k t Mr E . B . Walker had acquired on lease , outside t é u a i line. a ’nobod Sullivan was regarded by the Maoris as a tutua , , y ; they s were really after his employer , Mr Walker , and other , including

. ie é f r Mr Buckland , of Cambridge It was a savage p c of work, o

P r k u - — u u ut and Hori te Tumu , after shooting Sullivan é who had been at work with two companions fascining a swamp — decapitated him and cut out his heart . This was the last deed of the kind committed in New Zealand . The following account was given me by the ol d Tak r ei man Tu Tamua e , who died recently at Parawera Timoti [ Timothy] was killed on the open plain at the foot of the hil l . The H auh aus cut off his head with a tomahawk and al so cut open his body and took his heart away as a trophy of war . The head was carried to Wharepapa , where it was left . The heart was

a x - c rried up country at the end of a korari stick ( a fla stalk) , and was taken to a place near Te Kuiti . The slayers of Timoti intended he to lay the heart before Te Paea , or Tiaho , t Maori ! ueen , but d she disapprove their action , so the trophy was not presented to her . The taking of a human heart was an ancient custom of the nd en k Maori ; it was the practice to offer it to Tu a U u u, th e gods of ” war .

This desperate deed was regarded by very many, Maoris as wel l as pakehas , as a prelude to war, and intense excitement prevailed on both sides of the border . The cavalry troops at Te Awamutu and Cambridge were called out for patrol duty, and the Armed Con stabul ar y posts were strengthened . Additional blockhouses were

- o- ek built, one at Roto Rangi and one at Pa uku , to watch the Man - nga tantari side , and a redoubt was built at the Puniu . The Waikato and Auckland newspapers were full of war rumour s ; public meet n i gs were called at Te Awamutu to discuss defence measures ; and

F r om a photo i n 1870 ARMED CONSTABULARY DE TACHMENT AT ORAKAU BLOCKHOUSE

F r om a photo abou t 1885 THE TE AWAM UTU CAVALRY BAND

Ba R ow Ban m a er - r n : e ea . T . le l en T . Weal ck d st S g t H Sib y , J . Ho d ,

n R ow r l . r r r : r a . . r . unnin am r r a . T r am F o t Co po A H No th , E No th , R C gh , Co po l J . ! ist

90 THE OLD FRONTIER

set a wooden efli gy of a sentry . The figure had been carved by some

Maori artist ; it represented a soldier, with wooden rifle and fixed ” bayonet, in the correct attitude of port arms . It gave a kind of

ar tistic finish to the pa o te hoia , as the Maoris called the Block - e us house , and it loomed very grim and soldier like in the yes of in small youngster s from the Orakau farm . A tall flagstaff stood

front, and there were a potato patch and a garden plot, with

- r s— all the old fashioned fl owe sweet W illiam , verbena , sunflower,

- th e Indian shot, pansies , and their like . The married men of

Armed Constabulary lived outside the Blockhouse , in raupo whares,

and very cleverly the pakeha learned to thatch his house . I r e member the home of an Irish sergeant who lived near the Block ll in r house , beside the main road ; it was a snug , thatched dwe g, ve y

neat and pretty ; there was a potato patch , and there was a sweet

little flower garden , and honeysuckle twined about the whare and

hung over the door . The Blockhouse stood no sieges ; its loop -holes never flashed l b the fire of E nfle d or Snider on a yelling horde of Hau ans . But it

is certain that the existence of this chain of posts along the frontier ,

’ with the vigilant patrol of the settlers cavalry corps , prevented the hostiles from raiding across the border and descending on the

- out settlements .

There were many scares , and more than once the wives and children on the scattered farmsteads were taken in to the redoubts

and blockhouses for the night , while the men of the far ms , with and carbine revolver, watched their homesteads and rode patrol along the tracks leading to the Maori country and the fords of the

Puniu .

- They are all gone now, those romance teeming old blockhouses

. r kau of our pioneer days Like many other deserted posts , the O a

- building stood there on the sentry hill top for many a year , rocking

in the gales now that the protecting palisade had gone , until a Crown Lands Commissioner with no interest in historic matters

sold it as mere old timber . Few people in those years possessed sufficient prescience and sentiment to help preserve for the new

generation of colonists those relics of the adventurous days . Of the redoubts , less easily demolished , a few crumbling earth n i works remain here and there . O e, I am glad to say, that s very well preserved is the Armed Constabulary redoubt at Alexandra PIO NEER LIFE ON THE O L D FRONTIER 91

— now Pirongia garrisoned up to 1 883 . The village English Church

- - stands in the centre of the work to day . I give a sketch plan of this last surviving example of the old frontier forts .

C r o s s - e c tio s n.

The year 1 881 saw the first definite decision for permanent peace on the part of the Maoris ; it marked the nearing end of the necessity for frontier redoubts and blockhouses , and it relieved the border of the Kingite menace which had been an ever- present source of disquiet since white farmers first set the plough to the confiscated

’ lands . Tawh iao laid down his guns at Major Mair s feet at the border township of Alexandra , and then came a peaceful though martial- appearing march of the Kingite men through the European settlements and much firing of salutes to the dead— the powder

— burning of sorrow over the battlefields of the Sixties . Six hundred Kin i armed g tes escorted the tattooed king and his chiefs , the lordly Wah anui - and his shawl kilted cabinet of rangatiras , on the pil grimage to the scenes of the last despairing fights , and there were amazingly animated scenes in the outermost villages of Waikato Tawh ao when i came to town , riding grimly in his buggy, and

- guarded front and rear by his fier ce faced r ifl em en. The march was by way of Te Awamutu , and the Cavalry band rode out from the township along the Alexandra Road to meet the Kingites and play them through the village . A right rousing march it was , too , for the tune the bandsmen played as they came riding in at the head of the procession was The King of the C annibal Islands . It

— m was Sergeant Thomas Gresham then a lawyer in Te Awa utu, and afterwards coroner in Auckland— who suggested the air to 92 TH E O LD FRONTIER

r s Bandmaster Harry Sibley, and that grizzled vete an of the war i r seized on the bri ght idea with joy, and chuckled nto his cla ionet

- at the left handed compliment he was paying his olden adversary .

Tawhiao himself was pleased with the liveliness of the music, and

later , through an interpreter, inquired the name of the tune ; and an angr y man was he when he was informed that it was Te Kingi “ - - w o Nga Moutere Kai tangata . For that same kai tangata as a tender subject ; and dour Ol d Tawh iao had no glimmering of a sense Of humour . Kihikihi settlement was given up that week to a Kingite carnival

- - of feasting and war dancing and speech making , and the Maor i camp at Rewi ’ s house and in the neighb ouring field rang night and f b morning with the musical sound O the Hau an hymns , the service ” d es. Of the Tariao , the Morning Star, chanted by hundre s of voic

Some unconventional scenes there were , characteristic of the

- frontier life . For instance , there was the pakeha Maori dance on the main road in Kihikihi that symbolised the final unifying Of the

’ - two races . The dashing Hote Thompson , the King maker s son , a

fighting man of renown , paraded in all the glory of H auhau war Of - paint in front his savage looking soldiery , and called for a pakeha lady partner to dance te lancer with him , and then out stepped ’ a settler s handsome wife , and the accomplished Hote l ed h er through the mazes of the lancers in the middle of the crowd on the dusty road with as much grace as if he had been young Lochinvar himself . True , Hote wore only a shawl in place of tr ouser s , and h is face was blackened with charcoal dabbed on for a haka , but none the less he was a pretty gallant . Had that pakeha dancer been a reader Of Bret Harte she might have recalled the historic dance on Poverty Flat

i I

The r o m - - d ess f y q ueer vis a vis, And how 1 once went down the middle

Wi th the man that hot nd s Sa y McGee.

’ There was no law but the Maori chieftains law south of th e u 1 P niu River until after 883 , when Te Kooti was pardoned and a general amnesty to Maori rebels was proclaimed . For policy reasons the Kingites were left pretty much to themselves for some time

’ after Tawhiao laid down his guns at Major Mair s feet at Alex andra in 1 881 , and when John Rochfort and Charles Wilson H ursth ouse, se in u m K h ih tt g o t fr o i ik i , carried flying surveys through the R oh e

94 THE OLD FRONTIER

Awamutu r and a force Of Armed Constabulary and Te Caval y, and “ were haled off to Auckland p rison .

1 t

A wilderness that vast country of the R oh epotae lay for many a year . The cultivations of the Maoris , even the fields of wheat and oats around such settlements as Ar aik otor e— the patriarchal Hau

’ auru s village— or the large patches of potatoes and maize at Toka nui and Tokangam utu— it is Te Kuiti to - day— gave but scanty relief from the general impression Of an unused virgin expanse of fern tewa prairie and woody mountain land . At O , on the Upper Waipa , K o i lived the notorious and dreaded Te o t , in outlawed isolation far from his East Coast birthland , ever since his final skirmish with

’ Captain Pr eece s Arawa force in the U r ewer a Country in the begin

’ - ning of 1 872 . Not until after John Bryce s peace making with him at Manga -O - rongo in 1 883 did the white - haired Ol d cateran venture out into the pakeha settlements . f Then miles away to the west , on the beautiful slopes O Hiku rangi , giving on to the fertile basin of the Waipa and overlorded by e Of T wh i the Pirongia Range , ther was the great camp King a ao and r f i i his exiled Waikato , several hund eds O them , look ng down w th many mour nings on the good lost lands and the lost battlefields Of the Sixties . Later, they moved down to Te Kopua , yonder by Kake

’ fem - Wh atiwh ati - a Of puku s shod heel , and then to hoe , the Pl ce the f h mi Broken Paddles , on the level banks O the Waipa . In t e d - i Eighties they migrated in their canoes , a picturesque tribe fl tting , w k past Pirongia , do n the Waipa and down the Wai ato , back to their Ol d m ancestral homes , or what was left of those ho es, on the west side of the Lower Waikato . But they never had a more lovely or more inspiring home in all their wanderings than those sun-bathed slopes of rich volcanic land on the high shoul der Of Hiku rangi ,

- where the road to day goes over the range to Kawhia . Now the once wild country across the border has become the a - highw y of the motor car, has becom e dotted with scores of lively

European settlements , wi th large towns with electric l ight and a sphalted footpaths , churches and police stations , tennis lawns and

- bowling greens , stock sale yards and all the other varied furnishings h - of an advanced day . H au auism is a far Ofi tale of the past ; de scendants of old king-like Wah anui and the one- time followers Of

‘For ur her de ai ls of h ese e is f t t t p odes see Appendices. PIONEER LIFE ON THE O L D FRONTIER 95 the Pai -marire and Tariao fanatic faiths have fought beside Waikato and King Country white soldiers on the fields Of Gallipoli and O l d - France . Yet the names of the trail breakers , the stories of the - heroic missionaries , soldiers , surveyors , road builders , should not be forgotten by those who look out from their carriage windows or their cars or from their comfortable farmhouses on this well f l k favoured land O the Waipa slopes and the O d Au ati frontier . CHAPTER XIII .

KI H AR OA THE GIANT .

- A FO LK TALE OF TH E TOKANUI HILLS .

ather ed r om the last o the old lear ned men o This cur ious tr adition, g f f f - t t i i ven as a t ical ex am le o the Maor i olk-lore the Ngati M ani apo o r zhe, s g yp p f f a unds with which the King Country bo .

h en ah ou d r N the crown of the land at W u , imme iately no th of the Tokanui hills known to the Eu ropean settlers of ” is t the Ol d frontier as The Three Sisters , an his oric Kih ar a Of i spot called o , in memory a giant warr or of e Of Kin ite long ago . It was proposed by som the g chiefs

c f n in 1 864 , after the British oc upation O the Waipa basi , that a fort ’ should be built here for a final stand against the ! ueen s soldier s . The position commanded a wide view over the valley Of th e Puni u f e and the conquered lands north O the river, but it would have be n useless without a sufficient garrison to hold also the hill -forts in

f M . su rear of and above it , ancient terraced pas O the aori The g gestion was not favoured by R ewi and the other leaders , and the warriors r e- crossed the Puniu to the north side and bui lt th e pa at k iki r a a . l O u Long ago , riding along the O d horse track from Kih hi

’ to Otorohanga past Hopa te R angianini s little village at Whenua

’

as was l . i hou , we used to see the Giant s Grave , it ca led Th s locally famous landmark was a shallow excavation on a ferny mound ; it was twelve or fourteen feet in length and about four feet in width , h and vague traditions had grown up around it , but none of t e European settlers Of the frontier knew anything definite Of its history . A few years ago , however , I gathered the stor y of this semi - mythic giant from two venerable warriors Of the Ngati- Mania poto , on the south bank of the Puniu River . There certainl y seems to have been a veritable giant , a man of eno rmous stature and

O f c - length rea h with the hand weapons of those days , six genera

. Kih ar oa tions ago This , or The Long Gasping Breath , was a Of - R aukawa - Wh akater e chief the Ngati and Ngati tribes , who in those times owned the Tokanui hills and the surr ounding fr uitful slopes . Th e strong terraced and trenched pa on Tokanui , the middl e conical hill of the row of three , was built by the two tribes named,

KIH AR O A TH E GIAN T 97

h r . Th e under Ki a oa, about a hundred and fifty years ago same people fortified and occupied the other two bil l s ; the eastern one ” is Puke - rimu Red- Pine hill ) and the western Wh iti - te- marama The Shining O f the Moon There were many good fighting f f men among the people O these hill forts , but their tower O strength h was Ki ar oa, who stood hugely over his fellows ; he was twice the f a Of u height O an ordinary man , and he wielded a taiah un sual Of length and weight , a hardwood weapon called by the name R angih aeata The First Rays Of Morning Many a battle he had fought successfully with this great blade -and- tongue K . ih aroa broadsword , sweeping every opponent out of his path

was tattooed on body as well as face , and when he leaped into n battle , whirling Ra gih aeata from side to side in guard and n - il fei t and cut , his blue carved skin glistening with O and red ochre ,

- his great glaring eyes darting flame , his moko scrolled features

h im . distorted with fury, few there were brave enough to face But there came a day when Kih ar oa met his better on the battl e h n h field Of W e ua ou . - Mania t The Ngati po o tribe , whose great fortr ess was Totorewa, f- an impregnable clif walled pa on the Waipa River, raised a feud - R aukawa -Wh akater e against the Ngati and Ngati , and a large war W ah anu i s party set out under the chief , who himself wa a man of

great frame , though no giant like Kih ar oa . The taua took a circuitous route , coming upon the Tokanui hills from the south via -O - Manga Rongo , and then making a detour to the east to avoid th e deep morass which defended the southern side Of The Three Sis ters — the present main road from Kihikihi to Otorohanga traverses

- this now partly drained swamp .

Meanwhile the garrisons in the hill forts had prepared for war , and their sentinels stood on the alert on th e tih i or citadel of th e terraced strongholds , keeping keen watch for the expected enemy. O f Harua , one the chiefs of the forts , had descended to the pl ain with a small party before the approach of the foe was detected , and although the people on the hill forts called repeatedly to him

- warning him to return , no heed was given to the long drawn shouts. At length a keen - eyed sentry saw the glisten Of a weapon— perhaps a whalebone mere— in the westering sun ; the directi on was wel l f to the east O the pa , and by that token it was plain that th e enemy

army was lying in ambush waiting to advance silently in th e nigh t. It was imperative that Harua and his men outside the pa should be 98 TH E O L D FRONTIER

- warned , and so in the still watches of the night a strong lunged warrior on the battlements Of Tokanui lifted up his voice in this

- - wh akaar aar a pa, or sentinel chant

a ter a a ! E tenei p , e p Titira ki nga tabanga r oa I Tunar oa

Pewhea tena te titiaka

Kia haer e ahe ki te pa .

H oi tonu, hoi tonu !

c - In this chant the garrisons O f the pas on ea h hand , Puke rimu

- - b e and Wh iti te marama , were called upon to on the alert , and to scan the long slopes towards the place called Tu nar oa where the enemy lay concealed . Yonder perhaps was the place whence the Ye foe would advance in the morning sunshine against the pas . ” — heeded me not heeded me not , the chant ended . Had any lurking enemy scout been near enough to hear the words he would take them as being addressed only to the garrisons of th e hill- top fort r s c n es es, and would not suspe t that it was really a war ing for the ears O f Harua and his small force Of scouts who were liable to be cut Off from the pa as soon as daylight came .

The cry Of warning was heard and understood by Harua , and

- he and his scouts swiftly rejoined their friends on the hill tops .

- -M ani d When day came and the war party of Ngati apoto appeare ,

- working round to the north east side of the Tokanui chain of forts , Kih ar a o the giant , stripped for battle , took up his taiaha , Th e f First Rays O Morning Light , and led his warriors down to the h n h open slopes of W e u a ou to give battle to the invaders . As h e dashed down the hill he ran through a grove of karaka trees . Here there was a pOOl where the kernels of the karaka berries were prepared for food by being steeped in water after having been fOOd k r i cooked ; this was termed Opi . Th ere were some dead K r a leaves of the karaka lying on the track , and ih a o slipped on these leaves as he ran , and fell , and narrowly escaped breaking h is

. f taiaha in his fall The spot is at the foot O Tokanui hill , just outside the thickets of prickly acacia which now clothe th e silent O l d i f fortress w th a mat O softest green . This accident was in the tOh u belief of the Maori a aitua or evil omen for Kihar oa . Th e c knowledge of this fa t may have unnerved the giant , or Rangi ’ h aeata s mana may have suffered by th e mishap . He rushed to h is meet foes , but he was outfought for all his phenomenal reach Of

1 00 THE OLD FR ONTIER

Wairaka Stream , a tributary of the Puniu River . The this cave is still marked with the paint kokowai or red is how you will know it . It was an excellent place in to lie in wait for incautious travellers in the days of Ol d . A PPE N D I CE S

E SOME MAOR I PLACE NAM S .

The fol l owing ar e th e m eanings of a number of native pl ace-names i n th e n Te Awamutu di stri ct ; som e O f th ese names ar e now for th e fi r st time pl aced o r ecor d :

t f cano na i a ion. r i . e h e h ead o e T e A wamutu : Th e end of h e ri ve ; . , t v g t

R angiaowhia : B ecl ou ded sky . - h i i a ree l ocus . Kih iki : C cad , t t

Or ak au : Th e pl ace of tr ees. a h h i r Of e id e th e Pater angi : Fort of h eaven; i . e. , th e p on t e gh pa t th r g ,

skyl i ne. r Wai ar i : Cl ear wate .

Mangapiko : C rooked c r eek .

Te R or e : Th e snare. th e an a-O -H oi wh er e th e mil l s ood : hi e s r eam Mangat ea ( on M g , t ) W t t , ‘ an above th e br id e at T e Awa mutu r i h bank of Matari ki ( a sh or t di st ce g , g t r iver : Th e Pl eiad es co nst el l at ion; al so r eeds u sed for l ining th e i nteri or

of a h ou se.

l a e eh in R J . h r ch R an iaowh ia ea in Te R eing a (O l d vi l ge sit b d C C u , g ) : L p g, hi n h u s th l a l in e nal de art in l c Of s ir i s r us g ; t e p ce O f eap g, th fi p g p a e p t

of th e d ea d. ’ H iku r angi ( th e R angiaowh ia h eights above th e Manga-o -H oi ; Gifford s H il l ; l s l n r o ia- n a o p ace o Pi ng Kawhi a R oad) : Skyl ine; h or izo . Pekapek a-r au ( swamp between H air ini and R ang iaowh ia ) : Pl ace wh er e th e s native bat was numer ou . ear wh er e H ai r ini heese a r n nds Tior iori (nativ e vil l age, n th e c f cto y ow sta ) ma e O f r au o A kind of ki te, d p . Tau-ki -tua ( th e site of th e E ngl ish Ch urch at R angiaowhia ) : T h e farth er

ridge.

Te Rah u : B asket m ade O f und r essed fl ax . ’ Te R u a-Ko ar e Ta lor s i l l r een il l n r o w h t ( y , or G H , o th f T e A amutu) : T e ’ kingfish er s nest ( in hol l ow tr ee) . n i n li f r i h ban of an a ik i e a ai Tauwh ar e ( a c ent pa o c f y g t k M g p o R v r , bove W r n i ar i ) : O ve h a g ng . i r c Tokanu : G eat R o k . -o wa er wa or wa er cou rse e Waik eri a : D ug ut t y , t goug d out . h an a : 0 ood carr i ed for a our ne t or Oh‘an a r e c Oto ro g , f j y ; g , st etch d out . A cordi n to a a i-M ania ot o t r di i on e r r i who g Ng t p a t , a c rtain wa or chi ef set out fr om th is spot for Tau po with onl y a v ery s mal l quant ity Of food caused it by super natu r al m eans to str etch out and to l ast until h e h a r each ed s n i d hi d est i at on. H ence th e name.

F‘ NI A THE CAPTURE O WI TA. er er iniata ca ur ed at O or oh o s Th e Maori mur d W , pt t anga by R obert B arl w, wa n morni n O T esda 2 n o h n ih i i i ear l o th e f u 7th u e 1 8 2. a b roug t i to K k h y g y, J , 8 At b ut ’ l a ornin ons abl e innert Of th e r m o bu o nd th r ee o c ock th t m g C t F y, A ed C nsta lary , f u Bar l ow and ini ata s r u lin vi ol en l ou side th e l h o l i ia h o W t gg g t y t A p a H te . W n ta, w was in a na ed condi ion h ad r eco er ed ro m th e e ec s of th e o n as k t , v f ff t gr g , a d w ma in a des er at e e o to s e H e w s er o k g p ff rt e cap . a ov p wer ed and taken to th e Con stabul ar barr ac s in th e r edou b and ch ained to a ed s a i i t o y k t, b te d. M ajor M nnet , wh was in command Of th e r med onstabul ar or c at Kihi ih i A C y F e k , sent h im to To A wamutu wi h B ar low in th e Go ernmen wa on under n e r nd t v t gg a arm d g ua d, a Constabl e Gil l ies th en took th e pr isoner in ch ar ge and d el iv er ed h im to S er geant McGovern at Hamil ton th e same day. Th er e wer e two o h er aori in th e wh er e at o t M s Ot r oh anga, and both of these wer e mad e h el l essl n p y dru k or dr ugged by Barl ow. 1 02 THE O L D SIFR O NTIE R

’ N TH E K U T MR H URS T HO USE S AD VE NTURE I I NG CO N R Y .

s ous an M r il lia m ewsh am Th e c aptur e of M r Ch ar l es Wi l son H ur th e d W N , Government sur veyors by a band of King C ountr y fanati cs under th e proph et Te ,

i near Te Kuit i on 20th ar ch 1 883 . M r H u rst h ouse Mabuki occu r r ed at Te U ra, , M , n i r wa s on h i s way fr om Al exandr a to expl or e th e countr y fr om th e Waikato fro t e i to th e Mokau and h e and h is assistant sur veyor w er e accompan ed by th e Mokau , fri endl y chi efs Te R angi tuataka and Hone W eter e t e R er enga and twenty - five oth er T i r a si t een mil es be ond O or ohan a on th e a ter noon of Mokau m en. At e U , x y t g , f

i n i edl . th e 20th as th ey r ode up th ey saw a l ar ge bo dy of Maor s musteri g ex c t y , f na c T e abu i or Manuk ura Th ese wer e natives under th e leader shi p o th e fa ti M k , ,

- a ol l ower of Te Wlhi ti t arih a a and a Ngati Maniapoto man who h ad been f a P k ,

o nd sec at h i s own. H e cal l ed his who h ad r eturned .to th e R oh epotae to f u a t ” - - r Th e T wel e — al hou h h e number ed M fol l ower s th e Tekan m a r ua, o v t g t y y

— l s Th i s was a r e i al of a erm of th e H auhau more after th e Tw el ve Apost e . v v t l ed war - ar i es of th e Tar ana i h in ch ie Titokowar u war d ays. Th e se ec t p t k fig t g f ’ - - r a T h ese m en a ac ed H ur sthouse s art and a wer e cal l ed th e T ek au ma u . tt k p y , - - l h ou h no deadl wea ons wer e used. Th e Tekau ma r ua l ivel y figh t fol l owed, a t g y p ’ th e o au m en ofi h ei r h or ses Ran i tuataka s fol l ower pul l ed th e s urveyor s and M k t , g s - Th rison r w m r he fighti ng desper atel y with stir r up i r ons and l eath er s. e p e s ere a c d t T i r a n th e mids of th e er r ibl -e ci ed T ekau- ma- r ua wh o to the vil l ag e a e U , i t t y x t , n h n in n er o war - son s T e i a were dancing and yel ling a d c a t g g i r g . Rang tu taka and W eter e and th ei r m en wer e not il l - u sed— th ere wer e too many of th em ; mor eover th e l eaders wer e h i gh ch iefs of th e tr ibe— but th e su r veyor s and a native named n o a coo h ouse and im r isoned h er e H ursth ouse and Te H aer e wer e th r u st i t k p t , h ei r oa s wais coats an o h r h ands N ewsham h ad been str ipped of t c t , t , d bo ts . T ei we r e ti ed beh ind th ei r backs and th eir feet wer e fastened together with b u l lock i ondi ion su er i n r ea ain rom th e i h ness of h ei r bonds ch ai ns. I n th s c t , ff g g t p f t g t t , tor tur ed by mosqu itoes wh i ch they could onl y br ush off by r ubbing th ei r faces on ’ w i h ou d r in or food e ce dirt wa er and some i o atoes th e ground, and t t k x pt y t p g s p t h r h e r emained h er e two ni h s n a s n th rown in on t e fl oo , t y t g t a d a d y , li teni g to the n na i s s de nd e i . yel l s and th r eats of th e t ve out i , a xpec ti g t o be k l l ed E ar l y on th e ni n 22nd ar ch h er e was a new commo ion o side an H r d mor g of M t t ut , d u sth ome h ear ’ e n ew momen s th e d r th Te Kooti s voic . I a f t oo of e cookh ouse was burst own and th e pr i soners wer e r el eased by Te Kooti— wh o h ad just been promised an mnest b M r B r ce a ive ini s er — and a l ar e rt n a y y y , N t M t g pa y of nati ves, i cl uding ’ W ah anui eo l e ah anui h im el ar r ived a i t s p p ; W s f l ttl e l ater . H ur s h ouse and ewsha m h ad al r ead wor ed h ei r h ands r ee n N y k t f , a d th e for mer h ad pi cked up a iece of i ron ch ain as a wea on i n as ‘ p p c e b e was attacked . Th e extr eme t ension ’ and anxiety of th e th i rty - six h ou r s painful confinement and t h e want of food h ad affec ed e en the indomi abl e H u r sthou se ol d cam ai n v , p g er h ou gh h e was and , as t t t , b e r el a ed a er war ds wh en h e was r el eased h e ai r l br o e d wn n w Th t ft , f y k o a d ept. e ’ su rveyor s wer e escorted to Al exandr a by a l ar ge body of Wah anui s eo le and p p , r esen l r esu med th ei r e lor in e edi ion a p t y xp g xp t , ft er th eir late captor in h is turn h a d been l ock ed up.

MAH UKI ’ S R D ON E X DR AN D AI AL AN A, HIS CAPTURE .

ar ch 1 883 h r ee da s a er the r el eas e r t On Sunday , 25th M , , t y ft of H u s h ouse and and wen -si x ol l ower s invaded th e ow h N ewsh am , Mah uki t ty f t ns ip of Al exandr a ’ on ia in u rsuance of th e l eader s announced in en i on to loo ( now Pir g ) , p t t t th e pl ace. r h sied man e t r aor dinar h in s and i o w Mabuki h ad p op e y x y t g , h s f l l o er s h ad impl ici t

i h is u er na u ral ow er s. H e h ad even sen wor d of hi s i t bel ief n s p t p t ntended vis i , r e ar d or ce of r m ed o ns a l a so Al exandr a was p p e . A f A C t bu r y u nder Captain (after wa r ds a or Gasc o ne wh o was i n command of th e l e and r e M j ) y , A x a R dou bt, and th e T wa tu a al r t r00 wer e on h and and so i s e A mu C v y p , d posed in detach ments out of i s and sur round th e in ader ’ - si h as to su r r e v s. Mah ki r g t p u s men, fortunatel y fo t h m sel ves were no ar med . Two E uro ean t e , p s wh o h ad r idden out to r econnoitre th e r oad to th e W ai pa b r id ge h ad to make a speedy r etr eat wh en th e T ekau-ma-r ua — e in i h . One of h em Mr l red H . Ben cam s g t t A f g e, the sch ool master at Te Awamutu

THE O LD FRONTIER

There wer e l ong speech es ; th e onl y one who was sil ent was th e h uge-fr amed Wah anui ; but h e was fumi ng wi th indignat ion; his ch est was h eaving in hi s ~ efl or ts A t l a t one of th e W ai a o ch ie s r e ar dl ess f to suppress h is anger . s k t f , g o th e fact w r e nl in th e R oh e otae lb sufi er ance o i -M that h is tr ibes peopl e e o y p y f Ngat aniapoto. h ad t h e h ardih ood to d ecl ar e th at th e sod woul d not be tu rned because it was ’ h h remi er i i n . wel l sai d t e u e r e ar di W a kato s l a d O , , P , q tl y g ng th e d eeply ’ ” in ns ah i s ai a o s l and we ave r ce ed W anu i , i f i t W k t h come to th e w ong pl ace. Th en th e al l di nified r an a ir a T aonui al mos as bi a man as ah an i r o e t , g g t , t g W u , a s and sai d wi h an r de er mination: I t i s ou r land th e so d sh al l e n , t g y t ; b turned , a d ’ u r ned to-d a ! And i t was on ai a o wer e ous ed li r al l t y d e. W k t t ; te y th ey h ad no l ocus s andi and ba fled and dis r n l ed e sa th i r t ; , f g u t , th y w e b g wo k begun and th e i r s s e a en in th e i il i n h f t t p t k c v isat o of t e g r eat R ohepotae.