MEMORIES OF OHAEAWAI

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 141, 17 June 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

MEMORIES OF OHAEAWAI

By --- James Cowan.

The flint of July, 184."), i s a date tlmt mil* f,, r rrmi'iiihraiirn nrul honour ■ ~ur history. It recalls liimiiiim 0"iim«(. at its best anil nt its most futile; devoted obedience t„ orders, heroic; self sucrilice; rhe chivalrous bruvory of dm Maori, as of the British; ami a Isn Ihe display of the extraordinary uttipidily of Mritiili military Icadci -hip. The charge of llir> forlorn li.,|„- nn,| | lie slormiii". party that followed ii n»iiin»t the almost imprcyuahlc pnlis id 's of the Ohiieiiwai I'a was a- useless ami linive an effort im the Charge of the Itii«a.le at ital.iclas ,i. The Hriti-.li eolonel who ordered it should

have been conrt-martialled for his waste of soldiers' lives. There could havo been no better disciplined soldiers than the men who blindly obeyed that order to innkn M frontal attack on a strong flax-padded double stockade on which the poor artillery could make hardly any impression. There, were no more shrewd military advisers than the chiefs who urged Despard not, to deliver that fatal charge. They were better and more experienced soldier* than the stiffnecked colonel, who despised them am "savages." Tn vain did the friendly northern chiefs, Tamati Waka Nene, Wiremu Ripa, Taonui, Patuone and Mohi Tawliai seek to dissuade the officer commanding from what they considered a rash and useless attempt.

Mr. F. K. Alanine; and Mr. John Webster, too, made protest, without result. The order was issued, the words of command •jivcii. and a waywent the forlorn horn* nml t lie stormin;: party in the \aiu hope to pull down hy strenjrili ~f arm what the heavy Willis had been powerless to lii-earl, effect ivelv.

The yiilhint, fellows went straight at their work; their ollieers were laplain (Jrant, Lieutenant I'.eattie. .1 ml l.ieiitemuit I'hilpotts, of 11.M.5. Hazard. The defenders showed not a head aliove the level of their (irilljf inside t he. palisades, ami it inijrht liave I ii supposed, until the troops were with l.'i paces, that the frowninjf pn had no defenders. Then a deadly Volley proved the eontrarv; the Maoris ~ulv reserved their aim "to he more deidl'v. Many fell at the til-si lire, to rise no more; I.tit the work of slaughter went on. Those of our men who were shot down were replaced by others. Some of the soldiers tried to bayonet the defenders Ihroiieh the defence, hut they only afforded a surer mark to t hose' inside. Lieutenant I'hilpotts scaled the outer tenee, e-capinir hy ~ seeming miracle many shots. He ran the jm nutlet of the inner stockade and was then shot dead. The retreat was sounded. Many wounded men were carried away by their e.imrades, hut 42 were left « here t hey fell.

A hasty retrofit was decided upon by the commanding officer. That evening guns nnil baggage and the dead were to lie abandoned on the 111-Id. I. lit tlie angry Friendly chiefs would not listen to this. They finally persuaded t lie colonel to stay, declaring that if he did retire they would remain and with his own guns do hat tie against the enemy for the (/iieen. Now a Maori cliureh nnd its burying ground, surrounded by a high lava stone wall, occupy the exact place where the stockade of 184") stood. Within the churchyard walls lie the remains of nearly forty British soldiers who fell in the battle. (Jovernor Sir Ocorjje Bowen. in a dispatch in 1870 to the Secretary of

State for the Colonies, mentioned a visit he had recently made to Ohnenwni, ami said that the -Maoris there liad just erected a pretty church on the site of the fortifications of Hoke's War, ''among the now decayed palisades and rifle pite.*' Tliey hn<l reserved the whole of the historic j>a as a burying ground. "When the Bishop of Auckland," the Governor eontiiiiied, 'sliall have consecrated this new Initial ground the Maoris intend to remove into it the remains of our soldiers who now lie in unmarked graves in the neighbouring forest and to erect a monument over them, «o that, as an aged chief formerly conspicuous among our enemies said to me, 'The brave warriors of both races, the white and tile hrowri, now that all strife between them is forgotten, may rdecp »ide l»v side until the end of the world.'

Tlie rcrcmnny of removing the bodies of the liritisli dead and rethem in the churchyard took place on -July 1, 1872. two years lifter tlio (iovornor'a vi*it. The Vaoris displayed srreater eonsideratimi for the Queen's redcoats killed in the forlorn hope than Colonel Dcspard, the eoiiimander, did. In the churchyard of the pretty mission ehiirch of Waitnate there are inscribed stones to the memory of the three officer* killed; they were buried there s<ion after the battle. But the litinilik' non-oom*. and privates were too numerous to lie {riven similar clmrehyard burial; they did not matter so much, presumably. Had it not been for the indignant remonstrances of the friendly chiefs, the colonel would have marched off to Wniinnte without even waiting to bury the dead on the field, so overcome was he by his failure. However, they olept as soundly uneoffined in their trenches in the fern as their ollicers in the sanctified ground at Waimate.

When this ceremony took place some of the war-battered palisade posts of puriri still stood on the sacred field, and solid shot of 321b and smaller were scattered about the battlefield. Even now there are still standing on the slopes and plain around the focal point of history venerable puriri trees whose branches shivered to the reverberations of British cannon fire.

Sir Ocorge Bowen conveyed the chivalrous wishes of the Maoris to the Government. It- was in accordance with that desire that the bones of Ihose soldiers who were buried there were removed and reinterred within the precincts of the old pa. The Government deputed Mr. H. Clarke. Civil Commissioner, to superintend the removal. This gentleman liad received a painful wound on that fateful day, when he was an interpreter on the field. On Saturday, June 20, 1572, though the weather was most severe, many Maoris assembled on the ground. Among them was the chief Molii Tawhai, from Waim.i. IJokianga, a patriarch of 80 years of age. The remains of the dead, a correspondent wrote to the "Auckland Star"' of that time, were in a wonderful state of preservation. Even some of the hoots they wore when buried were whole; but, of course, fell to pieces at the touch. Six collins received the skeletons, which were then removed to a large building preparatory to being laid in the churchyard on the following Monday, duly 1, the twent v-seventh anniversary of the battle. On Sunday Colonel Thomas McDonnell arrived from llokianga accompanied by several chiefs, some of whom had taken an active jwrt against the British during the war, and on Monday Archdeacon Williams, Mr. Clarke, of the Waimate. a hale old man of over seventy, his sons (one of whom was the Civil Commissioner) and many other pakehas from Waimate, assembled on the. ground.

(Continued on page 335.)