THE LAST NEW ZEALAND WAR.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXII, Issue 2681, 19 February 1866, Page 5

THE LAST NEW ZEALAND WAR.

4 No. VL (Continued from the Daily Southern Cross of the 18th October last.) Ik the interval between the occupation of Tataraimaka, and the recall of the General and the troops from Taranaki,' stirring events had of a truth followed thick and fast upon each other in the Waikato district. The turbulent natives, with Rewi at the head of them, excited by the news of the Governor's proceedings at Taranaki, were not long in giving vent to the rebellious spirit which animated them. Passing over several minor offeDoes of whioh they were foilfcy, such as the forcibly bringing baok the timber brought to Eokehe, for purpose of building a police barracks at the " la, " the printing and publishing of a seditious newspaper called the Hohioi, and the sending of divers threatening messages to the Government, and the like, I will proceed at once to the point, when matters were brought to a climax by a party, of from 80 to 100 Maori*, under the command of one Aporo, violently taking possession of, and carrying away, the printing-press at Te Awamutu, belonging to the Government, wherewith Mr. Gorst was promulgating Te Pihcnhoi Mokemoke, a rival newspaper to the Hokioi. After this little incident, Kewi impudently wrote a letter to Sir George Grey, informing him that Mr. Gorst must go away from Te Awamutu immediately ; and that if ho, Sir George Grey, did nut remqye him within three weeks, his death would be certain. Sir George Grey took no notice whatever of this letter, beyond coolly telling Mr. Gorst that in the " event of there being any danger whatever to life, he was at once to return to Auckland with the other Europeans in the employment of the Government on the station." At the same time one of the Colonial Ministers promptly stopped the inland mail between Auckland and Otawao, thereby cutting off the only regular communication with the town. Mr. Gortt, being left in this predicament, endeavoured by means of William Thompson and the more moderate natives to induce Kewi to be reasonable, bnt without success, and, as he was informed, in very plain terms, that the firltshot fired at Taranaki would be the signal for any young fellow who wished to exalt his name to come and murder all the Europeans at the station, settlers and missionaries, as well as the officers of Government, Mr. Gorst had no choice but to abandon Te Awamutu. At the same time most of the other Europeans left the district. After this there was a pause. The Maori, and the European, each felt that war must come, but each hesitated to strike the first blow. At this time, according to Mr. Gorst, one Urei came into town to see the Governor, and began to talk saucily about the Maori King, and about his objection to the Governor's magistrates ; but in the place of his buffoonery being good-naturedly listened to — as at one time it would have been — he was abruptly ordered to leave the Governor's presence, and informed that if he was found an hour later in Auckland he would be sent to gaol. The patience and long-suffering of Sir George Grey had been severely tried by the manner in which he had been hoodwinked and deceived by the Ngatiruanuis and Tarauakis, and for a season at least even he ceased to regard with the eye of favour the brown-skinned aboriginals who had till now so entranced him. As will be seen however, the spell was only broken for a time, and Sir George Grey was soon as much under its influence as ever. And now the signs of the times multiplied in number, and increased in significance. The natives removed the bones of their ancestors buried at the foot of the hill of Mangarei, opposite the town of Onehunga, and carried them to (as they imagined) a safer resting-place in the Waikato district. People who professed to be acquainted with the manners and customs of the Maoris, said that there could scarcely be a more sinister omen than this. Then, rumours began to citculate among us, of the existence in the native mind of a secret and terrible plot, to fall upon and murder the European inhabitants of this province, and to re-enact here the horrors of the Indian outbreak. The settlers at the Mauku and W, aiuku sent in their wives and families to the town, and those residing in Raglan followed their example. Many persons buried their plate, and other valuables, in covert places, whilst others prepared to leave the colony altogether. The first class militia was turned out for drill, and numerous volunteer companies were formed and trained. Nor, as will presently appear, were all these precautions uncalled for, or the notions entertained by so many of some dark and meaning combination of the natives without foundation. We are now in the possession of evidence, which amply proves that the Maoris had conceived a plan for the utter massacre and annihilation of the European inhabitants so dire and complete as well to merit that epithet of "thorough" which the Earl of Strafford loved to bestow on his elaborate scheme for the subversion of the English liberty. Just at this time an incident occurred which, trifling in itself, yet served to precipitate the strife. The 2nd July was set apart as a holiday and day of rejoicing i* honour of the marriage of the Prince of Wales. After darit, many of the principal buildings in Auckland were illuminated, and large bonfires were lighted on the summits of the principal hills round about the city, in further celebration of the joyful event. The Maoris, from their lairs in the ranges, beheld the sheen of those fires, and their troubled consciences caused them straightway to imagine that the pakeha had divined their murderous project,- and that the kindling of the bonfires was the signal for a sudden invasion of the Waikato. Filled with this idea, they hurried on their preparations therefore, and resolved to forestall by some days the date on which they had originally determined to attack us. But there still remained some among the Maoris in whom the recollection of benefits received was not altogether dead, and who felt some conpunctions at leaving us to our fate, without giving us an intimation of the blow that was coming. And so, between the 3rd and Bth July, the Governmentreceivedmany warnings from natives, all of them couched more or less in ambigious language, after the fashion of Lord Mounteagle's famous letter concerning the " Gunpowder Plot," but all of them pointing unmistakably to the fact, that the natives did entertain the design of attacking their European fellow subjects in this province, and that immediately. Those warnings were contained in certain letters and statements which were published in the " Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives," for 1863, E. No. 3, p. 60. There, he that runs may read, and as there are some in this colony, and elsewhere, who^are to this day incredulous as to the existence in the native mind of the plot alluded to, and who still continue to imagine the story of it to be a fabrication of the bloodthirsty settlers, eager to discover, or devise, any excuse for killing the poor harmless aborigines and taking their lands, we would advise all such, if they really wish to know the truth, to peruse attentively the documents alluded to, and particularly the statements of the Rev. A. G. Purchas, and of Mr. Mark Somerville. Under these circumstances, the Governor and the General determined to take the initiative by concentrating the army on the banks of the Maungata•whiri. Accordingly, on Thursday the 9th July, the troops commenced their march from Auckland, and the camp at Otahuhu, accompanied by Lieutenant General Cameron, and his staff, by nine pieces of artillery, and by six large boats capable of containing twenty men each, which hitter were carried tip the country on drays. The command of the Garrison in Auckland was placed in the hands of lieutenant-Colonel Kenny, whilst the camp at Otahuhu was entrusted to the care of Colonel Pitt and some 200 militiamen who had been induced to volunteer for "actual service," upon certain conditions. At the same time, Sir George Grey issued a proclamation calling upon the natives of Mangarei and the adjoining districts to give up their arms, and take the oath of allegiance. Very few, however, responded to this demand. At Mangarei, only six Maoris came in ; the remainder declined to give up their arms, declaring that they did not Bee why they should not have a King as well as we had a Queen. Another manifesto was also published, and posted about the city of Auckland, ordering the natives therein to keep within their houses from sunset to daybreak. This edict caused no small stir among the dusky race, who were observed collected in groups here and there all daylong, chattering with so much energy and volubility, that it might -have been supposed that they were discussing, not the native difficulty only, but even the fate of nations. Their surprise and consternation is not to be wondered at. That the Government should take any steps for the protection of the Queen's European subjects was indeed a novelty, and a marvel even to those subjects themselves, and to the natives, who doubtless remembered the almost Cheaterfieldian politeness enjoined upon the pakeha by Governor Brownes proclamation at the commencement of the war of 1860. The tone of Sir George Grey's proclamation must have been an indication that the downfall of the Native Office was approaching. Am may be supposed, the greatest anxiety now prevailed amongst the inhabitants of Auckland and Onehunga. The latter place was at that time

peculiarly open to attack, and it subsequently transpired that a plan for its destruction had been laid by the Maoris, though why it was not carried out has never been ascertained. Nor was the danger to Auckland itself to be lightly thought of. There was not a single man-of-war then in the Waitemata, with the exception of the small steamer 'Tasmanian Maid,' which had been purchased by the Government, christened the • Sandfly,' and converted into a gunboat. And a hostile visit from the Thames natives, ever among the most turbulent of the Maoris, was a contingency by no means unlikely to occur in the absence of at least two or three armed vessels to watch the mouth of the Thames. But if the situation of the inhabitants of Auckland^ and Onehunga was a critical one, what shall be said of the position of the settlers occupying farms beyond the Otahuhu bridge, for a large number of natives were still in their settlements near Papakura and Drury, and in the Wairoa district, having refused either to take the oath of allegiance or to give up their arms and ammunition. These men, posted as they were in the rear of the field force on the banks of the Maungatawhiri, were in a position very seriously to intefere with its communications, and as a matter of course, likewise, they could at their option occasion great loss to the settlers occupying the Wairoa, Papakura, and Drury districts, and indeed all the country beyond the Tamaki. The continued presence of these men in their kaingas was a cause of very great embarrassment to the Government. Had the Maoris borne to us the relation of "alien enemies," their immediate and forcible ejectionj ection into the country beyond the Waikato would have been a task of little difficulty, and one for the omission or delay of which there could have been no excuse whatever but the natives had always been regarded as British subjects, and in the absence of any positive breach of the peace on their part, other than their assembling in armed bodies, the Government, having the fear of "Exeter Hall," and the "Aborigines' Protection Society," before their eyes, did not for some days venture to resort to strong measures with regard to them. This procrastination on the part of the Government cost us the lives of many valuable settlers, whilst for several months the presence of so large a body of men on the very line of his communications infinitely inconvenienced and hampered the General, in the conduct of offensive operations against the enemy. But, on the part of the General himself, there was no delay, for, with characteristic promptitude, only three days after he took the field in person he crossed the Maimgatawhiri wjA the head-quarters of the 2nd battalion of the 14tn Regiment, and a detachment of the 12th Regiment, amounting together to 380 men. They were encamped on the Koheroa, from whence they were able to command the navigation of the Waikato, and secure the communication between the Queen's Redoubt and the stockade at the Bluff. The operation of embarking, and landing the force took place \rader cover of the night. The troops were conveyed down the river in the cutter and gig of H.M. s. 'Harrier,' and the boats already mentioned as having accompanied the troops in their march up the country. The whole of the boats were manned by the men of the * Harrier,' whilst the arrangements for the embarkation and landing were under the immediate direction and supervision of Captain Sullivan, R..N. On the same day also, a very successful movement was made by 300 men of the 65th, under Colonel Wyatt, C.8., on "Tuakau." The troops proceeded by the bush road, and were guided by a settler. The old soldiers of ihe 65th, and their veteran Colonel, used to the rough ways of New Zealand warfare, marched so swiftly and silently, in spite of the natural obstacles they had to encounter, that they completely surprised the natives in their settlement, who were unaware of the approach of the soldiers, till they were within sight and range. The Maoris made no attempt at resistance, but fled across the river in canoes. Had a similar vigour been manifested in regard to the natives in the rear of the General, how many misfortunes would have been spared us ! The majority of those native swere posted in a settlement called Kerikeri, near the village of Drury. Several attempts having been made to induce them to take the oath of allegiance, or to give up their arms, the Native Office officials offered to give them a safe conduct to the Waikato district, with their arms, ammunition, goods, and chattels. But to this proposition, though made by Mr. Dillon Bell, the Native Minister, in person, the natives paid no heed. " They felt themselves quite equal," says a writer in the Southern Monthly Magazine, "to the task of defending themselves." At last, Colonels Murray and Nixon were sent with a mixed force of royal and colonial troops, to order them off. The two Colonels having halted their men at a little distance from the settlement, rode up to have an interview with Isaac, their leading chief. But Isaac was invisible. He was at a distance — ill, it was represented — and so he could not be seen. The two officers then informed the leading natives thab they must either take the oath of allegiance, and surrender their arms, or else remove at once into the Waikato district. This was on Sunday, the 12th July : the natives asked to be allowed to remain until Monday, and permission was given them to do so. When Monday came, however, they removed not to the Waikato, but to a high hill at the rear of their settlement, and there for a season they were suffered to abide. With regard to the alleged illness and absence of old Isaac, it subsequently turned out that the two Colonels had been imposed upon. Not only was Isaac snug and sound near the settlement, but he occupied at the time a position from whence he could see and hear all that was going on. Later in the day, a settler saw him in his whare, and counted therein, twelve fowling pieces and twenty-four ammunition pouches. He also observed about 121b. sporting gunpowder, which the amiable but invalid old chief immediately covered with blankets when he saw that it attracted notice. Monday, the 12th, and Tuesday, the 13th of July, passed away without any incident occurring worthy of notice. Not so Wednesday, the 14th : that date will ever be memorable in the annals of the province of Auckland, as the day on which the Maoris threw off the mask of friendship, and commenced the war by an act of such deliberate atrocity ,that it has seldom been equalled, even by them. On the Wednesday morning, an old and respectable settler of 59 years, named Meredith, went out from his home in the village of Drury, to his work, at Shepherd's Bush, a place about two miles off. He was accompanied by his son, a little boy only 14 years old. Night came, but with it not the Merediths. | Then the neighbours became alarmed, and search was made for them. The camps at Drury and the hotels there were visited, but in vain, and it was J surmised by some that they might have been benighted in the bush, and that they would turn up all right in the morning. The morning came, but with it not the missing man and boy, and at ten o'clock, a bugler and two soldiers of the 65th, accompanied by a civilian as a guide, were sent in the direction of Shepherd's Bush. The bugler was ordered to sound from, time to time to attract the attention of the men in the bush. They soon arrived at the place where the unfortunate man had been working, and there, close to the rails on which they had been employed, they found the Merediths lying dead. Their bodieswerepartiallystripped,andgashed, and mutilated, in the usual hideous Maori manner. In this fashion it was that the noble New Zealand savage, the pride of Exeter Hall, commenced hostilities in this province. Is it possible to conceive a more cold-blooded unprovoked assassination than this foulj brutal, treacherous murder? # No shot, remember, had yet been fired on either side, beyond the issue of the mildest of proclamations, and the occupation of the heights of the Koheroa by the troops, no steps whatever had been taken by the Government against the Maoris, in spite of the conspiracy amongst them, which had been discovered. The poor victims themselves, on this occasion, were not soldiers wearing the Queen's uniform, and bearing the Queen's arms, and engaged on the Queen's business, but a harmless old man numbering nearly fourscore years, and a child of fourteen, who at the time they were beset and slaughtered were engaged in erecting a fence, on a farm clearance in the bush. Nevertheless, the very men who commenced the war by this ruthless act of barbarity were pardoned by the Weld Ministry by that infamous proclamation of theirs, published in March last ; and so the blood of the Merediths, with that of many another mur|dered Auckland settler, will for ever cry in vain for vengeance, from the hand of man at least. One effect this great crime had, which perhaps was scarcely anticipated by the perpetrators of it themselves, or by the philo-Maons who befriended them and excused, it. It kindled the determination of the inhabitants 'of this province to put down the rebellion of the natives at whatever cost. They saw, by this savage act of the natives, that the Maoris meant the coming conflict to be not a mere strife for the assertion of their King's supremacy, gallantly and fairly to be fought out, till the mastery of the Maori or the European should be established. Though they had been told, and some of them had believed, that the Waikato Maoris at any rate were chivalrous warriors, who would scorn to murder helpless inoffensive men, they now perceived that the most belauded Maoris") were bloodthirsty ruffians after all, and they discerned in this fearful deed the fixed resolution of the natives to make

the strife a war of races, a struggle wherein not tho ascendancy of the stronger side, hut the absolute extermination of the weaker, was the object to he attained. And still the natives remained at Keriken, and still no force was sent to dislodge them hy tho Government, though they had refused to comply with a single demand that had been made on them, and were now so bold that they danced the war dance at intervals of tv/o or three hours or so. To show the gravity of the error thus committed, it will suffice to say that three of the most respectable settlers in the neighbourhood of Drury being desirous of ascertaining for themselves the real strength of the natives in the Kerikeri bush, paid a visit to that locality, on Tuesday, the 13th July (the day before the murder of the Merediths). In one encampment alone, they counted 100 stand of arms, and there were twenty tents. Altogether, they calculated that there were at least 450 males capable of bearing arms in the Kerikeri rangers. Such at the lowest computation was the number of hostile Maoris who were now left at large, scarcely twenty miles from Auckland, and in the very midst of some of our most thriving settlements. At last however, a half-and-half measure was taken in regard to these Maoris. On the 16th July, 60 of the Colonial Defence Force and the Otahuhu Cavalry Volunteers, and 400 troops, the whole under the command of Colonel Murray, met at Papakura, proceeded to Kerikeri, and surrounded the native settlement there — Isaac and 18 others, men, women, and children were made prisoners, and 12 stand of arms. 12 well-filled pouches, and a quantity of tomahawks, bill-hooks, and other weapons were also taken possession of. But a large number of natives, encamped in a pa in the bush, were allowed to depart with their arms, and accoutrements. Whither did they depart? The question is easily answered, by referring to the Kerikeri conflicts, the murders, and burnings along the Hunua Kanges, and to the hostilities along the line of the Great South Road. Whether for this absurd proceeding Colonel Murray is entirely or partially to blame, whether or no the instructions received by him from the Government were of so stringent a nature as to prevent him from resorting to force, for the purpose of disarming the whole of the natives, Ido not know. This much however is certain, that this mistaken leniency was the cause of all the bloodshed within our lines of defence which subsequently ensued, and a most serious drawback to the progress of the invasion of the Waikato. On Wednesday, the 15th July (the day on which the news of the murders of the Merediths was received in Auckland), another proclamation, bearing date the 11th July, was issued by the Governor, which told the natives, as plain as words could speak, what those among them had to expect who persisted in committing acts of overt hostility against the Queen's rule. Addressed to the "' Chiefs of Waikato," it set out by reciting, how the Europeans, living quietly on their own lands at the Waikato, had been driven away, their property plundered, and their wives and children taken from them; how, by their instigation, officers and soldiers had been murdered at Taranaki ; and how other crimes had been committed in various parts of the island, and the criminals rescued or sheltered, under the colour of their authority. It then reminded them that they were now collected in armed bodies, constantly threatening to come down the "river" (t.c, the Waikato), and to ravage the settlement of Auckland and to nmrder peaceable settlers. The proclamation then stated that the well-disposed among the Waikatos were either unable or unwilling to prevent these evil acts, and that the Governor was compelled, for the protection of all, to establish posts at several points on the Waikato river, and that he now called upon all well-disposed natives to aid the Lieutenant-General to establish and maintain those posts, and to preserve peace and order. Then followed these words :—: — "Those who remain peaceably at their own villages in Waikato, orjmove into such districts as may be pointed out by the Government, will be protected in their persons, property, and land. "Those who wage war against her Majesty, or remain in arms threatening the lives of her peaceable subjects, must take the consequences of then- acts, and they must understand that they will forfeit the right to the possession of their lands guaranteed to them by the treaty of Waitangi, which lands will be occupied by a population capable of protecting for the future the quiet and unoffending from the violence with which they are so constantly threatened." I have been thus particular in analysing the former portion of this proclamation, and in transcribing the very words with which it concluded, because it is, I believe, the first official document, wherein the idea of the policy of "confiscations," was promulgated, in this country at least ; and it will be seen that, from the very commencement of the war, the natives must have known the penalty they were incurring by their resistance to the Queen's aubhorifcy. Though the attitude of the Maoris was now one of such unquestionable hostility that a collision with them seemed inevitable, the 16th of July passed away without any encounter taking place with our troops. But on the next day, two severe engagements were fought, one at Shepherd's Bush, the other at the Koheroa. A description of these conflicts will form the subject of my next article. K. E. H.