WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 183, 29 April 1924, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

It looks as if the A.S.R.S.. may be still out on strike a long time after the railwaymen are back at work again. It is sixty years ago to-day that the Maoris at the Gate Pa at Tauranga showed Lieutenant-General Sir Duncan. Cameron that though he bore his honours thick upon him he had still a thing or two to learn about some sides of warfare. General Cameron on this occasion had 1650 men under him, and was repulsed with heavy loss by a force of Maoris not exceeding 250 in number. The General was a descendant or Cameron of Lochiel, who carried the Highlands lor Bonnie Prince Charlie, and he had commanded the Highland Brigade at Balaclava, and after generally distinguishing himself in the Crimean War was appointed Commanded in-Chief in Scotland. In 1861 he was sent out to take charge in New Zealand, and began by springing a surprise on General Pratt by one day blowing into the camp at Waitara from nowhere in particular, producing his appointment out of his pocket, and forthwith taking over. General Cameron had not been long in New Zealand before he formed an opinion that the whole Maori War was simply a land grab by the colonists and no affair for a gentleman to be mixed up with. This opinion, which was shared by a number of his officers, General Cameron took pleasure in expressing in the freest possible manner. In letters to the Governor, Sir George Grey, he even went so far as to make direct accusations against three members of the Ministry. Despite his freedom of talk in a general way. Sir Duncan Cameron became extremely wroth when Sir George Grey communicated the charges to the parties concerned. The Governor, the General declared, was no gentleman at all to disclose the contents of private letters. In bis military operations General Cameron, while always ready to meet the Maoris in a fight out in the open, had a strong dislike of an undignified and ungentlemanly chase after them through the supplejacks and lawyers of the hush. One gathers, indeed, that General Cameron considered New Zealand a lowdown turn-out altogether.

Tlie Maoris, as is well known, were always ready to meet their opponents’ peculiarities in making any little arrangements for a fight. The British began ojierations at Tauranga by sending H.M.S. Miranda up to blockade the port. The Maoris replied by building a fort, and when it was completed the chief Puhirake (as Mr. Cowan tells us) gent a letter to the British General announcing that he and his people had built a pa ten or eleven miles out from Tauranga, and had made a road to it from the harbour so that the soldiers would not be too weary to fight when they reached it. To this polito invitation no reply came, so the Maoris eventually deckled that as the General did not care about marching inland they had better go down to the coast. One of the chiefs who had been trained up in the Maori mission at Otaki, drew up regulations for the fighting, and in Mr. Cowan’s “History of the New Zealand Wars,” it is related how it was agreed that barbarous customs should not be practised, and that the wounded should be spared, the dead not mutilated, and non-combatants not harmed.

Eventually, General Cameron came down in person to drive the Maoris out of the pa which they had built just outside Tauranga, near the gate in the fence dividing the Jtiiropean from the Maori land. The force assembled for tho operation totalled about 1650 officers and men, including a naval brigade of 420 men from H.M.SS. Miranda, Esk, Falcon, Chirac coa, Haniei, and Eclipse. A. bombardment of the pa was begun at a little after daybreak on April 29, 1864, and at four o’clock in the afternoon it was considered that a sufficient breach in the main work had been made to attempt an. assault. An attack was thereupon made by a storming party of 300 men, hair of them seamen and marines under Commander Hay, of the Harrier, and half soldiers, under Lieut.-Colonel Booth. _ Alter desperato hand to hand fighting, the assault was repulsed by the Maori garrison, whoso original numbers, as stated above, did not exceed 250. Both Commander Hay and Colonel Booth were killed, as were eight other officers, and the total British casualties were 111, including 31 dead. The Maoris had twenty-five killed. In the night after the fight they withdrew from the pa.

About eight months after-the Gate Pa fight, General Cameron, with, a force of 1100 men refused to undertake the reduction of another pa at Te Wereroa, near Wanganui. He had, lie contended, not sufficient men for the purpose, and marched on to Taranaki, leaving the Maoris in possession. Sir George Grey decided to take the pa himself, and* although possessed of only a very small force, succeeded by a stratagem .in making tho Maoris think their position was insecure, with the result that they fled from ine place within three days. This action ot the Governor in starting operations on his own account infuriated General Cameron, who resigned the following nicnth, and laid complaints at the War Office against the Governor for causing the subversion of discipline. Sir George Grey was rapped over the knuckles, and General Cameron became the Governor of Sandhurst College to train up a new generation of army officers in the way they should go.

If General Cameron fell out with Sir George Grey "it has to be remembered that other people did also, for Sir George, like many another able man, had a will of his own. General Chute, who succeeded to the command, was one day asked how he got along with the Governor, and whether he was not subject to continual interference. “I get on with the Governor very well indeed,” said General Chute. discuss tlie position, and His Excellency says: ‘Tlie plan of campaign will* be so and so. You will first do so and so, and you will next do so and so, and after that you will do so rnd so.’ I reply, ‘Certainly, sir,’ and when I return home I write a letter to His Excellency the Governor, in which I saw: ‘Sir,—l regret to inform you that I have an exceedingly bad memory, and am quite unable to remember jour instructions to me to-day. I shall be glad, therefore, if you kindly put them in writing, and let me have them at your convenience.’ Ihe Governor,” added General Chute, “never puts his instructions into writing, and I therefore do as I please.” RICK MAN, BECCAR MAN, THIEFR.ich man, beggar man, thief, How we clutch at a glint of treasure ; Selling our silver dre area For a handful of tinsel pleasure. Hurrying through the world With greed in our eyes to blind us; Cramming our pockets full Of tlie things we must leave behind us. Lying straight in our graves At the end cf the road we must travel; Rich man. beggar man, thief, We shall grasp but a handful of gravel. —Medora Addiew* in the “Fpnun.”