STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

rHE BATTLE OF THE GATE PA—THE REPULSE OF THE BRITISH STORMING PARTYHEROES OF TWO RACES—A CHIVALROUS COMBAT.

A writer on New Zealand history said, in a recent book: "Not enough men have died in this land. Not in letters nor in art has life crystallised and ennobled itself." He was tryjng to show that this country had not yet developed a fine national spirit, had not yet found its soul. He appeared to have England and other Old World countries in hie mind, lands in which history and literature have been in the making over very long periods. His statement sacrificed truth to smartness. If ever there was a country in which history was made in a short period of time it is New Zealand. There are greater things than literature and art in the making of a young nation. The clash of races, the pioneers' effort*, the explorers' perils and achievements, the men of the gold fields, the moving frontiers, the long border wars, united to give Mew Zealand a story and a soul of its own. The real history of our country was not made in Parliament or in the towns. "Not enough men have died in New Zealand 1" I should like to have had the man who wrote that sentence with me yesterday (Christmas Day), when I walked around the greatly transformed crest and slope* of the green ridge on which the battle of the Gate Pa wag fought on April 29, 1864. I should like also to have taken him through that most beautiful of sacred acre*, the historic burying place at Otamataha, on the Tauranga town harbour front, and shown him the graves of British and Maori warriors, and the inscriptions above those graves of the brave men of two races. That ia only one of the places where hundreds of men— and sometimes women—have died in the process of, unconsciously, giving the country its distinctive genius, its deathless tradition and its soul. The Site of the Gate Pa. It is a most lovely land to-day, that seaward-looking elant of land that goes gently down from the forested hills to the shores of Tauranga Harbour. The Maoris of the Ngai-terangi tribe and the then allies built their challenge fort on the crown of a ridge called Puke-hina-liina (pronounced Poo-kay-heena-heena; puke meajis hill and the hinaliinn, or mahoe, is a small tree that grew there), about two miles inland

from the centre of the present town of Tauranga. It was a defensible place if strongly fortified, for the ground on each side fell away rather steeply; below on one side was a tidal river and on the other a swamp. The Maoris of the district, most of whom strongly supported the Maori King, and many of whom had fouuht in the Waikato War, had built a fort on the edge of the bush, some sixmiles inland, and had boldly challenged the Government to attack them there. After waiting some time and seeing that there was no prospect of a battle there, the chiefs decided to move nearer the British Army camp at Te Papa, the mission station which wa« then the centre of English life at Tauranga. They entrenched themselves on this hill of

the hinahina tree, and quite in the spirit of o_ld chivalry let their enemy know that they awaited a visit and a test of arms. A party of warriors sallied down to the shore and fired oh the sentries at the camp, and then retired under fire to their pa. Their position came to be called the Gate Pa by the pakelia after the fight because there was a gateway there in a fence between pakelia and Maori land.

The Maoris who built the pa numbered about 250; principal chiefs were Kawiri Puhirake (Poo-hee-rah-kay), Reweti, Hakaraia, Poihipi, and a young warrior named Hori Ngatai. Their arms were chiefly doublebarrel guns and old flintlock muskets; every man also had a tomahawk and some of the tomahawks were fitted with long straight handles, about four feet in length; these weapons were called "Kakauroa."

The fortifications that the Ngaiterangi built were a series of ditches and parapets; some of the dug-out pits were roughly roofed over for shelter against shell fire. The protective fence in the front of the position could scarcely be called a stockade; it was merely a screen of manuka and ather sticks, even the

flower-stalks of flax, stuck in the ground in front of the main trenches. There was very little timber close to the spot, and the fence therefore was nothing ljke the strong pallisades built in the earlier wars with the British. Some writers have described the(■'ate Pa as a fortress. In'truth, it v as a very weakly fortified position; it was simply built as a kind of challenge fort, where the Maoris wished the British general to meet them and fight it out. The British Guns. Indeed there was an amazing contrast between the strength of the British who invaded Tauranga and the Maoris who entrenched themselves to defend their lands. The Maoris had no artillery, but the

warships which transported the troops and guns from Auckland to Tauranga 'landed all these weapons to hurl shot and shell against the defence*: — One 110-pounder Armstrong gun; two 40-pounder Armstrongs, two 0pouiuler Armstrongs; two 24-pounder howitzers, two 8-inch mortars, and six Cohorn mortars; total 15 guns, manned by Koyal Artillery and Royal Navy detachments. This was the strongest battery assembled during the Xew Zealand wars; it delivered a terrifie fire against the gunless Maoris. Some round shot and cylindrical shells found on the battlelielct are to be seen to-day mounted oil the concrete posts of the .Memorial (iates opposite the little church on the Gate Pa site. There also are embedded in the concrete some of the weapons of that day, rusty old long-barrelled shotguns used by the Maoris and one of the long swordbayonets of the British infantry. The Bombardment. Early in the morning of April 29, IStil, tlie battle began.' There were three British warships in the harbour, the Miranda, Ksk and Harrier, and l.irge detachments of sailors I from these steam frigates were

landed to take part in the assault. The principal infantry regiments at Tauranga were the 43rd and the 68th. On the previous night a large force of tlie fiStli, with some Navy men, cautiously worked round to the rear of the Maori works, to prevent escape in that direction. When the disposition of the troops had been completed, the artillery preparation began, the heaviest fire of the war. From the great 110-pounder down every gun roared, sending its solid round shot or its bursting shell against the frail entrenchments on the ridge, at ranges of five to six hundred yards. The Maori Defences. Now turn to the Maori entrenchments, where brave old Rawiri Puhirake paraded to and fro on the

parapet, encouraging his men with voice and gesture. When some of the young men became impatient to charge out and attack their foes in the open, Rawiri cried: "Stand fast, impetuous ones! The cannon-shot will not touch us! Be firm! Be firm!" But the cannon-shot soon had its effect on the fence and the parapets, and 011 some of the defenders. There was a Church of England lay-reader in the pa and also an old tohunua, a priest of the ancient Maori religion. These men said their prayers appealing for victory, and both were killed by shell-fire. The death of the "minita" or minister of the Church was a greatly dramatic incident. He waft standing up pronouncing the final part of his service, and just as he had uttered the words in Maori: "May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of—" a great shell (it was from the 110-pounder) struck him and shattered him to pieces. Later on that morning the tohunga £>f the old religion was killed in the same way, by shellfire, while he was reciting his Karakia or prayers for success in the tight. (Continued on page 157.)