STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

STORIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

By JAMES COWAN.

A BATTLE IN THE TARANAKI -BUSH—"THE BEAK OF THE BIRD"—HOW VON TEMPSKY FELK

THE Maori? of Tnrniiaki fame to know Hit. imld figure of Major von Tfin|i=ky well by sight during three years or campaigning. There were iiitcrvnlx of armed peace when tin- α-shting tribes camped peacefully in tlie fringes of the forest. They railed him "Mann-raii," meaning ".Many Birds-' , The name likened the nimble, impulsive soldierbushmaii to the birds of the forest, because he was here, there and everywhere. That Mexican sword of his, the curved blade that he always carried naked on an expedition— leaving the scabbard in camp—anil hi? long bowie-knife .seemed weapons of great inana. After General Chute's campaign ill lSlili, already described, the leader of the Fore-t Hangers had a breathing, space of freedom from the war trail, and spent many happy weeks with his little family in Auckland; the home was a cottage in the lower part of Grafton Road. The Forest Rangers were disbanded; and presently the Government enlisted a new force for the field. This corps was called the Xcw Zealand Armed Constabulary. We used to know it Well in later years in the Waikato and on other frontiers. There are still some veterans of this old A.C. Force among us, but their service was chiefly in the period IS7O-S-3, after the wars were over. Von Tempsky was given the rank of inspector (equivalent to major), in command of Xo. 5 Division, as a company of 100 men was termed in the A.C. " There was war again, fierce and bitter, in ISCS. It began with bush n i(il)Uf"c;i(ics licrc rikl tlicrc, fin<l wit it a most desperate attack on a email redoubt near Hawera, in which half the score of men who gallantly defended the post were killed. There , were expeditions from the frontier posts into the great forest around the base of Taranaki Mountain (Mount Kgmont). Von Tempsky fought in all of these, and he fought his last battle in a disastrous attack on the Maoris' principal bush stockade, Ihe large village called Te Xgutu o te Manu (Xgutu, pronounced Xgoo-too, rncane beak or lips; here the stockade was likened to the strong beak of a bird which closed on its food).' The place was also called Te Rua Ruru, meaning "The Owl's Xcst" (usually a hole in an old tree).

This fortified ramp was the headquarters of tlie great warrior chief :>ii.l priest of the South Taranaki tribes. Titoko-waru — whose name we >hall abbreviate to Titoko (Tee-to-ko i in this story. He was a most skilful and determined soldier, and lie succeeded in beating the Government troops in several engagements; in fact, it was not until the beginning of lKli!) that he was finally driven away into the rugged wild" country of North Taranaki. They were called rebels, but they were' simply

attempting to defend their own conntry from "the Europeans, who had confiscated it and were dividing it up among military settlers. We recognise now that"they were justified in their fijrht for their land; they were patriotic defenders rather than rebels. They certainly made a stout light for their rights hi 1808. An Attack That Failed. One foggy morning in August, lSfiS. an armed force of 2(iO Government Colonel Thomas McDonnell, left the AVaihi Redoubt, crossed the "snoring river" Wai-ngongoro River (Xgo-ngo-ro, "snoring river.' , imitates a snore) and struck into the forest in which

the bu-h camp= lay, masked by the far-stretching screen and roof of three companies of Armed Constabularv. .Major von Tempsky was second in command. Many of the von Tempsky hail some of his old Rangers under him; but there were many recruits, raw and new to bush "'Dint was one defect of this force which marched so confidently into the heart of the Maori forest. 'Then the

one hail more experience of the bush and the Maoris than he had. and yet he blundered badly at Te Xgiitii-o-(e-manii. The force reached the stockade; at any rate they could see the palisades, but they we're held up there by the strong 'ami skilful Maori defence. The Hauhau warriors left the stockade and skirmished with their enemies in the dense rat a forest. Some of the agile young men climbed the trees and fired on the whites, many of whom were quite confused by the strange character of the lighting. There was little to be seen but tree trunks and masses of green leaves.

A panic overtook some of the new volunteer soldiers; many of them were Wellington recruits." They had not yet got their bush legs, and many of them never did, for they were left dead or dying on the field. McDonnell's Retreat. Von Tempsky and some of his brave fellow officers, wise ill bush skirmishing, led their men well and the pa could have been assaulted and taken had von Tempsky had his way. But .McDonnell thought the place wounded, he took most of the force out into the open country again. Von Tempsky and the other officers waited vainly for orders that never came from t'he commander, and the Ileak of the liird closed on him. The Survivors' Stories. I have heard from more than a score of men, pakeha and Maori, the story of that tragic cfTort to beat the Maoris oi. tlieir own ground. Scarcely two accounts agreed. That was natural, for every man in a fiaht in the half-light of' the bush sees only the happenings immediately around him. The noise of the firing, the smoke, the Maori warriors' shouts, and the dense roof of foliage, all go to confuse the senses. From Mime of the Hauhans who fought and won that day, and from some of the experienced old A.C. officers and men, I was able, however, to piece together a more complete description of thia forest engagement than anything published in the dispatches of that period. This account is far too long to give here; I shall confine this story to the , undents surrounding the 'death of "Manu-rau." The Death of Von Tempsky. One of the last men to see von Tempsky alive was the late Colonel .1. M. Roberts. He told me that he and others were on the east side of Hie pa firing away and vainly waiting for orders. The whites were hotly pressed by the Ilauhaus, who were firing from good cover. Von Tem|*kv was there, chipping away with his sword at a hanging rata vine when Roberts last saw him; he was disgusted, he told Roberts, at the wav "the attack was mismanaged, it was'after Roberts moved away to get a clearer view of the stockade tlutt the fatal bullet struck his old comrade of the Rangers. I knew one of the men who shot von Tempsky; he was the man who finally dispatched him with his tomahawk". This Hauhau warrior was the man whose picture is ? iven on this page. His name was Tutangc (pronounced Too-tah-ngay) Waionui; he was the chief of Pari'roa. near Patea. In many talks he unfolded for me Hie narrative of the battle from the Maori side.