HOW IT BEGAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10392, 9 May 1927, Page 9 (Supplement)

HOW IT BEGAN.

LONG DRAWN OUT WAIKATO WAR. " MR. EZRA PMm! ft 'N TERESTING NARRATIVE. THE OPENING . N lIDENTS. . Before arriving in Gis 'erne in 1872 iinoe which i'. te lie has resided bore ir. Ezra Smith, o' Gladstone Road. '-iveVl witiij.ffs parents' in the Waikato nd wa'-ifft "'iit'-'v fliSfoeiabed with the early events;of she Waikato wai when the,Maoris and pnkehas of. that district first clashed. ■ ! - Chatting with a “Times” representative, Mr Smith threw some interesting light on' these momentous happenings. He i»aid the trouble apparently rose over a Maori pa, called Kiri Kiri ,near Papakura. For some reason, probably because the. pa wa. on Government* land which had been sold to settlers, the authorities decided that the: Natives must move; out. This meant that the people of Kiri Kiri would have to move to a pa at Mangere or take to the bush. Naturally, they objected and a squad of mounted,, cavnlr? was sent to enforce the Government edict. When, the mounted men approach eel. the Maoris in the pa moved off into the bush. . ■ WAR ON NATIVES’ LARDER. Two settlers lived in the neighborhood of the pa, a Captain Calvert and a Mr. Golding, and.word was received at these.homes that the Maoris 'had been driven out cf- Kiri Kirn Thinkimr to profit bv this event two sons of'these settlers proceeded to the pn and removed a.Targe quantity of maize and kumcras. The Maoris, however, had not lelt then posses-.

sions altogether nnwatched.- It was an old custom of those times time, should a Maori go mad, he "as shut up in a hut with p’enty of food and left for a while to see whether lie would recover. Taking advantage of this, the departing Nat-ves hao left several old women in a hut, telling them to “act mad,” but to take “pte of a nv person who removed anything from the pa. Thus the actions o, young Culvert and Golding were carefully observed. . . , \ flav or two ’ater. a large band m the evp-llod Natives mmo down towards‘Captain Calvert's home., Mr Smith’s In me was situated near the •Calvert’s house and, tnough they bad had no trouble with the Maoris up to that time, they were always prepared and two horses were kepi rcadv in the stable. 'llierc was a. trap-door in tiie floor of the house, too, so that a person you!' 1 slip f, “U’ through this, make tor th e stable, pick up a horse and ride away for assistance.

It was customary, in pioneering days, to start the day’s work early and, about sunrise on this particular merhing, the Smiths observed the Natives creeping down through the bush, and surrounding the Calvert’s home. Mr Smith himself was despatched immediately on horseback ior assistance to. a place, some miles away, known as •■.aptain Ring’s Redoubt.” As lie rode out of the yard, he could hear the first shots being fired in the attack on. the Calvert s. CORNERED' AND SLAIN. A.s was discovered later, this attack was of short duration, the Natives firing a few times and _ then rushing tiie house. Captain Calvert’s son, who bad vis.ted the Kiri Kiri , pa, was the only male at tioinc and when the Mao us made their rush he fled into a bed-room. There he was cornered and shot down as he attempted to sbeHei' beliind-SoiTH; furniture. The Natives then retired from the Calvert s p ace and made for the shelter of tlie_ bush, whence they continually . .sniped at the Smith’s domicile. Meantime Mr. Ez-

ra Smith had reached Ring’s Redoubt, informed Captain-Ring of the trouble and led a party of troops to the Calvert homestead,‘arriving there on the evening of tlie same day. .’ A further party of 200 volunteers also ;arrived on the scene. The Natives, of course, had fallen hack to hiding places in the bush and it was useless attempting to follow- them when they had the cover of darkness as well as of the hush. It was thought they might possibly attack the Smith homestead during the night and preparations were made to give them a warm reception. Captain Ring's men of the 18 th Loyal Irish were hidden in the scrub near the house and the force of volunteers were housed in the stable. The Maoris, however, proved too cautions and not a shot was fired during the nightt.

“HE’S ’LIRE A RAT.” Through his special knowledge of the district, Mr. Ezra, Smith was chosen to carry a despatch from Captain Ring to Major Galloway, who had charge of another redoubt some miles away. Quite a boy then, Mr. Smith and Captain Ring asked Mr. Smith, senior, what weapons ' best suited the young lad. Mr Smith replied: “Oh lie doesn’t need anything like that. They’ll never see him—he’s like a rat in the bush.” And the father's prophecy proved true, "or Mr. Smith rode safely through, the bush without a stop, despite the fact that some hundreds of Maoris ■were moving about on the watch for just'such an attempt. Not only did lie deliver the despatch to Major Galloway, bat lie also returned safely to Captain Ring with an answer, arriving back just before dav-hreak. it was a- remarkably fine piece of work, especially for a mere boy, and he received a- great deal of credit for it but, ns he himself remarked: “Jfc was a very anxious time for dad while I was away, and when I go-t back, lie simply said to me, ‘Well done, my son,’ and went away to his to his room.” how the Waikato war began,” said Mr. Smith, and lie went on to relate the incidents of the first real engagement of tlie campaign. FLANKING ATTACK FAILS. A few days after the killing of Captain Calvert’s son, a section of the 18th, who had been sent on patim duty near some lonely homesteads close to Kiri Kiri, were attacked in the bush. Mr. Smith was guiding the party at the time and, after shots mid been exchanged at intervals lor the greater part of the day, he suggested that tlie party, under his leadership, should make'a detour and fall on tnc Natives from the rear. This was agreed to but, on reaching some particularly thick bush, the lieutenant in charge would not risk entering it and returned to the former position with a view to making a frontal attack. There they encountered a squad of men from the 65th, attractHOW THE WAR STARTED. On fhe following day, the troops and volunteers entered the bush and soon came on the tracks of the mam body of Maoris, but the Natives retreated still further into the interior and only an occasional shot was exchanged by the two parties. A man named Copper went on a scouting expedition on his own and was killed by the Natives, who set alight to his clothes, so that the pnkehas could find tlie corpse and see that the Maoris had scored another death. Then the Natives appeared in a clearing on the hill-side . high above the troops and treated them to a war-dunce. Captain Ring ordered the men to sight their rifles at dOO yards, but the bullets fell short and the Natives continued their dance uninterruptedly. Mr. Smith, who knew the country, stated that they were fully a mile distant when the sights were raised. The. bullets fell among the Natives who immediately broke"for cover. It was useless attempting to follow them up into tne hills, where they knew every inch of the ground and so the troops returned to the redoubt. “Aiul that whs ed to the spot by the firing, and it was decided to send these men, by a short cut, to make a flanking attack on the Maoris. This short cut, however, as often happens, proved the longest way round and the Maoris, who had scouts out, learning of this move, kept up such a hot fire that the flanking party was compelled to stay their advance and keep closolv to cover. Meanwhile, the men of were in trouble and had been forced hack unt’l they took refuge on a small bush-covered knoll. Besides tlie regular troops there were a number of volunteers and this mixture oi trained and untrained mode the party very hard to manage effectively. 1 ho Maoris surrounded the small rise whereon the pnkehas were and tlie latter apnea-ed in serious danger, but n determined charge 'broke the Ma aids’ cordon and the Natives fctroated np the, billy slopes to their rear. The party hi raising. Jhe 65-Ls lost little time in following their compatriots and the first engagement o. •the Waikato Maori War had ended.

SNIPER KILLER. “It must be remembered,” remarked Mr. Smith, in conclusion, “that this fighting took place in country covered by heavy bush and the two parties were very chary about coming too close to one another for fear of an ambush, for which tlie country was certainly admirably suited, in consequence, casualties oil either side were very few. The onlv dead Maori I saw:, alter this figlit, was one who had been sniping from the top of a tiee and -had been shot as lie . attempted to scramble down toy safety when the Maoris commenced” to retreat. One man each from the 18th and the 65th was killed, but thesp were the only fatalities known of. Of course, the‘ Maoris made a practice of carrying off their dead and wounded and they might have suffered a great .deal more than it appeared. Beside our two dead, there were a number wounded and some had remarkably narrow escapes.”