MAOIRI WAR PERIOD

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 8, 10 January 1925, Page 13

MAOIRI WAR PERIOD

4 MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE ill- V-. . GREAVES '- V; ■a-'--' ' -- ■'■■■ •—■ ■. ■■' ■ :■■■.'■■■! \IIEW LIGHT ON NEW ZEALAND ijj ' HISTORY .ij , ("»* OUS OWN COERESPONBEM.) v .-."'. . ■•. . LONDON, 27th November. >'j General Sir George R. Greaves was •ji born at Windermere in 1831, and he J * died on 11th' April, 1922. Before his j "is' death, however, he had written his me-' £'; ' ■ moirs covering an interesting and advenf}% turous . career] and this book—r"Me-C-i moirs of General Sir George , Richard f-\ Greaves" (John : Murray)—has just now ff; been published. It is interesting. in go Jvj far as it deals with the Indian, Mutiny U period, but is especially interesting to ij\ New, Zealanders because it throws some ■->- new light upon the Maori War from, 1861 > to the end of 1865. The late general, it y.i is true, devotes only about fprty 'i' pages to. this particular portion of his \^ . career, but more could hardly be expect- '^ ed seeing that his memoirs cover ninety-. ?| one years of his life. He arrived Vat £§ . '■; Auckland from India with his regiment 4 ' on :25th May, 1861, and the regiment, ;| with.others, was camped at Otahuhu, ;;| ■'■ Greaves appointed brigade ; major, y .' and Jie~ tells how-he used to. walk the. | -| nine miles into Auckland to his wife, "•j ' . and waUi out again: in the morning in ■j_ . time for work at 9 o'clock.' : ; . '. ■| When the summer came the troops T . were put to building a road to the ■J •.•-.I Waikato: River. ''The bush," says Gen-' y eral Greaves, "was tangled,'together ij with 'supple jack' and other creepers, 4 and was swarming with mosquitoes, aadj :«j to make things worse, it rained in tor- ; j v rents for several days together.^ The sup- \| plies for the troops had to be brought ■J from Auckland over a road none too .j good at any time, but which became al:i most impassable. In places stone was ;«j found, which was broken and laid upon !h ';. the road, but" for miles no stones were •,- • ... to bo had and themetal had to be cart- • ; - ed considerable distances. This was done h in bullock carts, and it was a common '.; thing for bullocks to 'be suffocated in the I.' mud, hundreds of men being employed in ./'. gettingithe bullocks and carts on to ?! , : ' dry ground again. In very soft places > * we had to make hurdles to "lay: the >j metal on. This was in the summer, but ':\ ■ when the winter came everything had' ',;; , to be stopped, and the men returned 'to ':j "■; camp at Otahuhu." ■•■;..•' '. ' • . The next task undertaken by the. yj writer ; of the.memoirs was the survey of lq the Waikato River to the mouth. Half 'A ■■'. . way down the river the writer mentions ■J, • he came upon a mission station, on the ?j ■ Maori bank. "The clergyman- there •j..- ' : was Archdeacon Maunsell, and he kindJ ly asked me to dine and sleep at the ''i. station. I met his wife and' daughters ;*■§ there; they expressed themselves quite .j Batisfied with their position, and had /] apparently every trust in the Maoris >j round them. , I confess I did not feel so 4 Batisfied, and was ;very sad at': leaving x beautiful English girls in such an out'i '.■ ' of-the-way' place in such troublous "^j. -times, tp say nothing of the good Arch- •: ' deacon and his kind wife." As it hap- ;| .. pened, Greaves had.to go to tieir,rescue '.I ; in-a steamer later on, and got there only l' t just in time. , ,| ; BATTLE OF; O^AXAJJ.i,,{ l\ '4 ■■ . A little more than a page is:-'devoted ; '^ to the,historic Battle of Orakau. This 'I -.. is what the-writer has to say about it. i "In ; one place,' Orakau;-they had cdni\ .'.struirted a: very strong 'earthwork: It $ was surrounded and attacked," but the 4 attacks; were repulsed one • after the 1 other, and an urgent appeal was made ■j to headquarters for reinfordements. I ,} , was ordered to conduct a force of two .s hundred men..' We started aa it got 4 dark, travelling by a path I had twice ' ,1 been over in the daytime. Struggling : j along through the most broken, swampy ■i ■' c.°untry, we arrived at the pa at daytfj i light next morning, over twenty miles.' ;j The officer commanding the attacking ' ,| ,force,had decided not to attempt >> ; ■ another .assault, so it was arranged to $ sap up to the work. Brushwood was H very handy, and we soon made a fine ■ i sap-roller, and pushed- it along with the c] sap as quickly as we could. We had a" ."j ' good many, men hit, till at last, taking i-,:- : ;a little breech-loading rifle I.had just '1 . got from home, ;and peeping over the ;] sap-roller, I saw where the well-aimed ,1 shots were coming from,, and spied the i 'i muzzle of a gun coming 'over the edge 1 of the ditch close' to us. It was followed ,-. . by a white head of hair; then 'haw ' ,rj' : ■:• and someone was hit/so I kept my rS e '■< >.... .aimed on the place where the white head •^ had gone down, saw the muzzle of the •1 .-■ ■ S"° Poking- up.. again; and just as the :■ white hair appeared I pulled^ the trie: ;J .- ger, and we had no further trouble 'from „! that quarter. When wo afterwards took :-| the place, we; found an old man dead, %i l,, a bul]9t in his'forehead;; his leg •J had,been broken by a shot some time be--4 tor.?> half-way down his shin, and it had ■4 .'■■ 8pl ™ts on ,lfc made 'of two tent-pegs fiest- \ 'Zf d Wi* flax" Pluck 7 oldchap . After \this we assaulted ,th/\work and .-• ■ captured it, most of th e enemy escap-' ing, they were pursued and lost one - .... hundred and twenty killed and thirty- """"' ™e*, ta*en P«soner. Unfortunately ; | tne Maoris had some women and child- * > "I *In he pa' The General had offer-ed-to allow these to come oiny but the , men refused, and said .they would fight ;■. until they were Killed/aid, sad to sly / a few women did get killed." ' j 'Greaves arrived at Gate'Pa on the \ :J? OTl""a the-battle. "A s I arrived at Gate_Pa," he writes, "the artillery had just opened fire on the place d .so, obtaining the General's permission I j began looking, about and found that the .j swamp on, the enemy's left was passable :i -' on *°, aj1"le rid Se of firm ground which - enfiladed the work. After some time we ; took . a six-pounder Armstrong g un ■ ■'• ; , .across, and, having made a little cover ; placed the gun in position, and fired : right along the ditch. : It was, how- . .ever, so well traversed we did not do ;J much harm. ■ ■' | ' J ' "After a time the,assault Was,ordered | and having had a good look at,.the work, •j and made up my mind as to the best \ pointfor the attack, I was allowed to j lead in. We were received by a pretty j heavy fire, and had a, lot of casualties; „ among them Captain Hay, of H.MS M Harrier, was killed alongside me, by a j shot fired through the top of-the'para-' ! pet which we werestanding on. But the ,| men rushed in and the place was taken i . tho enemy escaping at the rear. I rej turned to the General, who was on a j commanding position close by, and re- | ported what had happened, when he said 'Yes, but what is happening now?_ Looking back, we could see the Maoris back again- in the pa and driving our men out. Bofore we could form up for a fresh assault it rained and became too dark to do anything. Next morning the place was found to be deserted." . ■ '■ ■ • . -BISHOP SELWYN. On one occasion Greayes was told off to accompany Bishop ISelwyn round i some of the camps for divine service., 1 The Bishop usually started at -4 a.m. 3 and did not get back until dark. "The | good Bishop, held seven services during | the. day, and preached seven different 3 sermons, all to the purpose .and emm,- , eutly suitable fur soldiers. I remember I BO occasion ;w hen jvc arrived ai ! ; ! / V ■■;;;■•: \ ' '

first camp,l the troops formed upon parade, the Bishop, on searching in his wallets, discovered! he had forgotten his Prayer Book. I had one, but was very shy about offering''it, as a page of the morning service was out of it. The Bishop said he did not raind, as he knew the service by heart, but when lie came to the place where the page was missing he could hot say a word. A sergeant was standing close to us with a very fine Prayer Book,, so I took 'it from him and gave it "to the Bishop, who went on with the service as if nothing had happened. Bishop Selwyn, all round, was a man in a millioh." THE WAITOTARA BLOCK. Probably a new story of the Waito■tara "Block is told in , this volume. Greaves was ordered down to report on the matter. He arrived when a cricket match was- in progress, and the enemy,. the Maoris; were .looking on. AfterWards Greaves conferred with the Maoris. The Chief told him that the land did not belong' to the English, who had bought it' from a man of the tribe who had no right £o sell it, and that was why they would fight for'it., "I told them I would send word to the General," Greaves goes on to relate, "and a number of them, comingforward, : someone said, 'Why this is Jack of the, Waikato.' They all wanted to shake hands with me, which done, I returned to the camp and wrote a note,to Sir Duncan Cameron. ,He gave that note^, in confidence to Sir George Grey, the Governor, wuo showed it 'in confidence' to Ministers. It seems that in anticipation of my leaving New Zealand, the Government had brought forward ,a proposal to give me a grant of land for my services in • surveying the Waikato and opening up the country generally, but when the question came up for decision someone read my letter from .Wanganui, and the grant of land was .knocked on the'head:' ■ V'The War, Minister, who waa'a,friend of mine, told me if I apologised and withdrew my. remarksdn the letter previously referred to, thera would be no difficulty about. lny land. However^ I would do nothing, and left the country without a bit of land everybody in those, parts was keen to get." "My last word on New Zealand," writes General Greaves, '"is that the Maoris, taking them all round, as enemies or friends', are as good a lot of men as I have ever met before or since.'"'