STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

By JAMES COWAN.

VICTORIES FOR THE MAORIS: COLONEL DESPARD'S ILL-FATED CHARGE AGAINST THE REBELS

PART 11. But there was hot and close fighting between Kawiti's warriors and their comrades from the pa, under Heke. and the men of the 58th Regiment, 011 the sloping ground near the lake. The Maoris charged with the utmost bravery against the British bayonets. The shooting and frequent combats with long-handled tomahawk against bayonet lasted for four hours. The Maoris lost about thirty killed and many wounded. The British had fourteen killed and more than forty wounded. Both sides fought with desperate bravery; the soldiers had nothing but admiration for the way the warriors of the Xorth charged right up to the bayonets. It was a drawn battle; both sides had had enough of it by sunset. Hulme was compelled to retreat because the food was all consumed; there was 110 accommodation and comforts for the wounded; and men were falling sick from wet and cold and little to eat. The British therefore retreated to the coast as soon as rough stretchers could be made for the wounded. The commander did not wait to bury his dead; that was done by a missionary, the Rev. R. Burrows, and Heke's men. Colonel Hulme returned to Auckland with his men in the warships and transports.

He was severely criticised for his failure; but it was not so much his fault as the fault of the Governor (Captain Fitzßoy) and his advisers who had sent him out without proper equipment in the winter season. A Second Expedition. But that unfortunate military adventure to the shores of Lake Omapere was not a sufficient warning to the Government. Another expedition was sent inland against Xgapuhi, though it was now the depth of the rainy winter. The authorities were afraid that the longer Heke was left alone the stronger would grow his forces. So a force Mas sent up from Auckland under Colonel Despard. . There were about 000 men in this expedition. including, besides the 58tli, 200 •-oldiers of the 99th Regiment from Sydney, volunteers from the Auckland Militia, and some sailors and marines from H.M.S. Hazard. This column, warned by Hulme's failure, brought some field guns to batter the Maori defences.

This time the scene of battle was further inland, towards Kaikohe. A Maori church and graveyard occupy the exact site of the pa to-day. The name of the place was Ohaeawai; it is about half-way between Kaikohe and the modern township wrongly called Ohaeawai —it should really be Taiamai (Tve-ah-my), the ancient name, a musical name too, which, unfortunately, is not given on any of the Government maps.

Here at Ohaeawai was the pa of Pene Taui, which Kawiti, Heke and Taui jointly strengthened and converted into a very strong stockade, with double palisade of strong timbers, and a system of trenches and parapets. The outer face of the high

stockade was thickly reinforced witli green flax leaves, lashed to the timbers, as at Puketutu. The Ngapulii even had some small pieces of artillery. old ships' guns, placed iu the angles; one of these was loaded with a long bullock chain of iron. Heke was wounded in a skirmish with Waka's men near Omapere before the British arrived, so lie did not take part in the defence of the pa. A Charge That Failed. Colonel Despard's artillery fire made very little impression on the stout puriri stockade. In spite <5f ! there being no breach by which to enter the fort, he resolved to attempt direct assault with the bayonet. The rebels provoked him by making a sortie from the rear, working round through the bush, attacking his hill battery and capturing a Jiritish flag. This flag they hoisted on the. pole in the pa underneath a Maori flax mat. The sight so annoyed the colonel that he would not wait until his guns had battered the fort walls sufficiently. He ordered storming parties to parade for the desperate, indeed, impossible, task of capturing the pa. The wise old Tamati Waka Nene, Mr. Mailing and Mr. Webster strongly advised the colonel against such an insane attack. The stubborn Despard rudely asked Mailing: "What do you civilians know of the matter?" Mailing replied: "Sir, we may not know much, sir, but there is one that apparently knows less, and that is yourself." Nene said, in Maori, that the colonel must be "a very ignorant man." Despard was a very angry man by this time; he threatened to arrest Mailing and Webster, and he ignored the friendly chief's warning that the fort could not be carried by a front assa ill t •

The naval officer. Lieutenant Pliillpotts, of H.M.S. Hazard, also entered a protest against so senseless an attack. (He was killed in that charge.) But Despard would not be moved from his purpose. He ordered the assault, and a forlorn hope party

of 23, followed closely by stormers numbering 220, rushed against the stockade with fixed bayonets. It was a gallant but hopeless effort, as foolish and as brave as the famous Charge of the Light Brigade (at Balaclava in the Crimea War ten years later). Not a Maori could the British soldiers see, but the whole face of the stockade blazed fire. The defenders were all in their trenches, firing their guns through the foot of the palisade and through loopholes higher up. An old soldier of the 58th, who was in that amazing charge, told me: '"We were in front of the stockade, thrusting our bayonets in, or trying to pull part of it down, for, I suppose, not more than two minutes and a half. From the time we got the order to charge until we got.back to the holloxv where we formed up it was only five to seven minutes. But in that short time we had forty men killed and about seventy wounded." There were many deeds of gallantry and devotion. Several men returned again and again through a hot fire to carry off wounded comrades. The tragedy of that repulse so sobered and alarmed Colonel Despard that lie ordered an immediate retreat to the mission station at Waimate, but the friendly chiefs persuaded him to remain. Pie left the field ten days later. By that time the Maoris had gone; tliev quietly left the pa at night. Not more than, ten of their number had been killed in the fighting. So the first three battles of the war had resulted in favour of the Maoris, who had proved themselves better soldiers than the British so far in everything except fighting out in the open, where the bayonet gave the redcoat warrior the advantage. (To be continued.)