STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND. By james COWAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND. By james COWAN.

DAYS OF ADVENTURE—SETTLERS AND SOLDIERS—THE HAUHAU CAMPAIGNERS ON EAST AND WEST COASTS.

T hero were several front iers of pakeha settlement dur i n ir the middle of the late '.-ixties. Adventures i nil u mera lile occurred on til" bush fringes of the furming country. quite apart from tin- rcgu la r military operation-- against the Hanha i tribes. I here vv a - no actual fighting on the t"|i|ier Waikato bolder after tiie battles of ISC 4. bill (i la I ins u ere many. The new U co n '| i le red country w<is divided into farm section-", which were occupied by the military settlers. In eacli now tow iii-hip there was an earth work redoubt, which was to lie the rail v in::-point in the event of anv attack by the Maoris. Acro-s the border the de'eated tribes lived, grieving for their b>-t lands, taken from tiiem by force of <irms. Thcv planned the reconque-t of Wiiikato but they were poorly armed and their number* were few compared with the thousands of lighting men whom the Government. had introduced into the district. The .\faoris felt that their cause was just, l»ut they came to realise that, the invaders could never be beaten., and Unit the choico-t lands liad paired from them for ever. There were many who bitterly plotted revenge; they hoped to make desperate forny« across the frontier —quick to attack ami quick to withdraw, as a Maori proverb has it - inflicting as much dnmage as they eouhl. Hut for all the alarms and «care« there was no raid. Later on, in tTie early 'seventies, well-armed troops of cavalry were formed by the border farmers, and there were numerous posts of offence jrarrisoriefl by detachments of Armed Constabulary. But in the 'sixties, the men of the Waikato Militia of the veteran Forest Ranjrers who wennettled at various places in the Wai-katn-Waipa country were considered miflicient defence. Lone Farmers' Precautions. Some of the settler* on the outskirts had anxious daye and, night*, in the period after about 1860, when rumours of renewed war were frequent.. A veteran of the Forest Kwrifrer*, who had a military section at Te FJahu, a few miles from Te Awamutu camp, did not consider

hi- }i(.iir-f =afe enough to remain in , .1 f night, w hen the alarms of raids w ere a 1 t licir height. So lie made I a comtortable sleeping place in an old Maori [lotato pit. one of those i runnel like rlore jd o-e- numerous in liie fa i m ; ng 1.in.1. Kvcry night after ,dark lie took refuse there, with hiliieaims a nd } i !■-> blanket». and some water and food in case he was com- , pelled to remain, and *-!»-I,t in r-ei-urity. J lie fern growing around and over Hip mouth of his dug-out ■would have concealed liim from anv i I.! icier-.. | Another mTlitary settler. whose j home was near tlie I'uniii. t lie border I river (about a mile from the farm on which T lived in my earliest years), made a short tunnel from the interior of his house to the side of the steep hill close hy, where the fall of the '.'round was covered with fern. If his house beeame the objective of a rttid some midnight or rather some very early morning, for

, the favourite hour of attack was _ .just before the dawn—lie could escape unseen. i Raiders From the Bush. On the laranaki border, and along i t lie Bay of Plenty coa-t. the settlers' -.'life was more prcoi rioiis than in . ! t he Waikato. and now and again an | incautious t rout icr-man was shot or | tomahawked. There wa-s a chief of the bush ainl the mountain"? in the 1 j rear of Wlui ka t a ne and Opotiki who I j was a. relentless enemy of tin; pakeha. a savage warrior named Tamaikowha. lie delighted in swift raids against | the military settlers and those tribes who were friendly with the pflkeha. j Kx pei I i t ion s against liini were usually I unsuccessful; the deep narrow gorges.! the swift rivers of tin; roadle-s bush! : wen; liis best defences. ! Once he ambuscaded a party of I four settlers who were living at YVaioeka. near the gorge at tlie head of the Opotiki flat. Two escaped into the bush. by fleetnes»s of foot, and reached Opotiki camp under cover of the bu>h. The other two were

j overtaken and tomahawked, and i Tamaikowha and his band of raiders cut out their hearts and roasted and ate them. This act of ceremonial cannibalism was repeated several times by tlie bwhmen of those wild | part*: a little later it was revived jiiUo by the Taranaki Hauhaus, by | way of indicating their hatred of the pakeha. The Tribes of the Forest. At the back of Tauranga there was | little campaign in 1807, when the bush tribes known as the Piri-rakau, meaning forest-dwellers (literally 'Cling to the tree*") raided survey parties and menaced settlers. All i along the edge of the bush overlooking the Taunmi'a slopes there were the villager and cultivations of the*,, peoph'. with a red-painted Xiu, the Piii-murire pole of worship, ill each place. The Piri-rakau had become fervent disciples of the Taranaki prophet Te la's war-religion, and several times daily the people inarelied in procession round the Xiu, chanting the Pai-marire incantations. 1 he military force from Tauranga, with Arawa allies from Kotorua, engaged the Piri-rakau in many skirmishes all along the rugged country from Whakamarama—now a timbermilling place— to Oropi, Paengaroa and l'e Puke. In these forest fights and ambushes the gallant Mair brothers distinguished themselves, and they continued to lead the Arawa tribesmen in expeditions until the end of the Hauhau wars in 1872. On the Taranaki Border. It was in Taranaki, however, that the frontier 6ettlers were beset most determinedly and that the sharpest fighting occurred. Survey parties on the confiscated country where Hawera and Patea towns stand to-day were unable to carry out their work without strong armed escorts, drawn from the Patea Rangers, the 18th Regiment (the Royal Irish) and a force of friendly Maoris from Wanganni. Those settlers and bushmen who took up sections were lialde at all times to attack, and several were killed. Really the only conquered land held was that within rifle range of the redoubts; and there came a time, at the end of 1868, when practically the whole West Coast from the Waimate Plains to Kai-iwi, near Wangonui, was in possession of the victorious Hauhau*.

In the meantime (1805-00) there had been much hard fighting, in which both British regiments and Colonial forces shared. General Cameron led a large force up the coast, but did not occupy the place He did not like the bush: fighting; the reason was that he thought the British soldiers were at a disadvantage as against the mobile Maori warrior, and he hated to sacrifice his men's lives in the interests of a land-seeking Government. Ma jor-General Chute, who succeeded him in command of operations against the rebel tribes, wan a soldier whose tactics pleased the Government better. He was a vigorous Irishman who took a delight in sharp bush fighting and who believed in following up his active foes and in giving them no rest. * Ho led a composite force, with some light artillery up the West Coast, end captured pa after pa in quick succession. One of the units with him was a small but very useful company of Forest Rangers, led by Major Von Tempsky, who had not rested long in peace after his period of service in the Waikato War. "Rangers, clear the bush!" was the order frequently given, in preparation for the rush of the troops with fixed bayonets against a stockade or an earthwork. Chute did his work thoroughly. He captured about 30 Hauhau villages and camps and concluded his sharp short campaign by inarching through the dense forest at the back of Mount Egmont, from Ketemarae (Normanby township to-day) to Mataitawa and New Plymouth. A Maori contingent from Wanganui formed part of his column. Several of those Wanganui warriors survived to recent times. One of them told me much about his bushfighting under "General Shoot," as he pronounced the commander's name. He thought it was an excellent name for a first-rate fighting man. On the East Coast, too, there was much fighting between pakeha and Maori, from 1865 onward. Some stories of that period of strife and countless adventures will be told in our nex.t chapter.