First New Zealand V.C.

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 256, 25 July 1936, Page 19

First New Zealand V.C.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Taranaki war in 1860, a detachment of imperial troops marched out of New Plymouth to attack a strong hill pah at Waireka, some miles to the south. Through over-caution on the part of their leader, who had been told that he must be back in New Plymouth before nightfall, the troops turned backbefore they reached the pah. On the return journey they met a party of GO sailors from 11.M.5. Niger, who, on hearing of the abandoned attack, decided that they would take a hand. They proceeded to Waireka, and in the dusk assaulted the pah. Their captain promised £lO to the man who would haul down the Maori flag, and, eager to win the prize, the sailors scaled the walls of the stockade. At first the Maoris defended stubbornly, cutting at the feet of the attackers with their tomahawks, but Wiliam Odgers, the captain's coxswain, leapt down from the wall, and with his cutlass ctit a path to the flagstaff, and quickly hauled down the Maori flag, on which were depicted Mt. Egmont and Sugarloaf Island beneath a bleeding heart In 1 few minutes the sailors were masters of the pah. Odgers was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first to be won in the New Zealand Wars. —J.E. (Wellington).