Marlborough Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, SEPT. 30, 1886.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1970, 30 September 1886, Page 2

Marlborough Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, SEPT. 30, 1886.

Now that it is pretty certain the next Easter Encampment will be held at Taranaki it may be interesting to many to take with us a glance at the old fighting district of 1860. Whether the exact spot chosen isWaitara orOmata, in Taranaki, there are many who will join in the manoeuvres with recollections, either of Puketakuere or Waireka, of a quarter of a century ago, and the volunteers will tread on historical and bloodstained ground. The former will fight their 3attl:s o’er sgaiD, and the latter, like those

“ —gentlemen in Ragland, now a,bed " apostrophised by Shakespeare’s „Henry V, before Agiueourt, will wish they lud been there twenty-five years before to share the Nleeds and dangers of the first colonial volunteers under fire. We can imagine with wbat gusto the ill greybeards, the campaigners of 1860, will recount the stories of Puketakuere and

Waireka to the youngsters who were babes when those memorable battles were fought. But we mean to forestall them and open a short page of New Zealand history. Without troubling to explain the cause of the war, which, of course, was the land question, or the previous operations against the rebels, we will take the reader to the hills above Waireka, near the Omata Village, about four miles to the South of New Plymouth, where the battle of Waireka was fought on the 28th March, 1860. The day before five settlers had been found on the road dreadfully tomahawked, and 500 rebels were reported to be in the vicinity. The British force engaged was made up as follows : —Royal Navy, H.M.S. “Niger,” 7 officers, 43 seamen aud 10 marines, with a 24-pounder rocket and tube ; 65th Regiment, 4 officers and 81 rank and fde • Taranaki Militia under Captain (now Major) Charles Brown and Captain and Adjutant (now Lieut "Col) Stapp, 3 officers aud 52 rank and file; Taranaki Volunteer Rifles, under Captain H. A. (now the Hon Maj r) Atkinson, 4 officers and 98 rank aud file—3oo all told, and the whole undet command of Bt. Lieut.-Colonel Murray, 65th Regiment. The whole force left town at about 2 p.m. on the 29th to engage the rebels near Omata. Before the departure of the militia and volunteers they were addressed by Governor Gore Brown, who expressed a hope that they would do their duty. The troops proceeded along the road, and the volunteers and militia went by the beach. The latter met the rebels at about three o’clock in the afternoon, when they reached the Waireka stream, and were engaged as soon as they came within range. The firing could be heard in New Plymouth, only four miles away, and as Boon as it was perceived that the engagement had begun the “ Niger’s ” bluejackets under Captain Cracroft were marched to the scene of action. The excitement in town was intense and became wilder when news was brought in that the volunteers on the beach, and two miles away from the soldiers, were body engaged and were running out of ammunition. When Dight closed in the s .Idiers returned, and also a party of bluejacke's with some of the wounded. It was then learned that the bluejackets had gallantly stormed the rebel pa, killed many of the inmates and captured the rebel fltgs. About 8 p.m. the sailors came in bring ing with them the flags, and were heartily cheered by the people. The volunteers were said to be surrounded by the Maoris and that their ammunition was expended. A mixed volunteer force was despatched to their rescue at 11 p.m , but they had not long gone when great cheering announced that the forces had nr.et, ami the volunteers under Captain Brown arrived at; half-past twelve. The. natives were dislodged, and, during the night and the following day. retreated to the bush. Tue militia and volunteers had to bear the bmnt of the buttle, They had met the rebels in a gully through which the Waireka stream runs and the litter swarmed down upon them from the hills. Lieut.Colonel Murray, as soon as he heard tne rapid fi; ing in'this gully, judged that the volunteers were hotly engaged and so despatched Lieutenant Blake, R.N., with his men, supported by a subdivision of the company, 65th Regiment, to their aid. With this assistance the vo'unteers drove the rebels out of sight into a straggling and slight line of cyver further up the gully, ” The volunteers then threw up breastworks of sheaves of oats and fencing, bo as to enable them to enfi'ade their posi'ion Just at this time they became aware of the diversion effected in their favor by the attack on, and capture of, the pa by Captain Cracroft, R.M., and the blaejackets which enabled them to retreat after dark. They remained in their positions till tile moon had set when Captain Stapp took charge of the advance, followed by the wounded. The men were told off by fours, one four just keeping the other in sight as they marched in the darkness through the fltx and fern on to the Omata stockade, where they resumed the march to town, arriving half an hour after midnight At sunset Colonel Murray 65'h Regiment, ‘had ’withdrawn his meo, leaving the volunteers to their fate, and meu wondered why the advantages which hail been gained were not followed up. Thirty of the enemy were killed ; only ona was killed on our side, Ser. geant Fahey, of the Taranaki Militia, but a number were wounded. The battle of Puketakuere was fought on Wednesday, 27th June of the same year. Puketakuerr, the rebel position, was situated within a mile of the present township of Raleigh (Waitara), about ten or twelve miles to the north of New Plymouth. The volunteers were not actively engaged. Major Nelsoo, 40th Regiment, was in charge of the attack on the pa and Captain Seymour, R.N., of H. M,S.S. Pelorus (now Admiral Lord Alcester) joined the main body with 50 of his bluejackets. The force actually engaged consisted of Royal Artillery, two 24-pounder howitzers, 1 officer, I sergeant, 19 men ; Royal Engineers, 1 sergeant, 6 men ; Naval Brigade, 4 officers, 50 bluejackets ; Royal Marines, 1 officer, 10 rank and file ; 40th Regiment-, 10 officers, 245 men ; or about 350 all told. Colonel Gold with a large force was to have co-operated by proceeding from town, but after reaching a small s ream, which he considered too high for the troops to cross, he marched back to town, leaving Major Nelson to do the best he could Major Nelson attacked the pa, in which were 700 rebe's, at 7a m. The natives from their position could see every movement of the troops, while the British could see little but the palisading of the pa and the high fern. Many of the rebels crept into the fern and fired unseen at close quarters. The troops were also exposed to a terrific fire from numerous rifle pits. The fire at this engagement was said by veterans to have been hotter than that at Feroszeshali and Sobraon and a soldier of the Crimea declared it to be butter than the attack on the Redan. Finding that his expected reinforcements, under "Colonel Gold, did not appear. Major Nelson ordered the retreat to be sounded, and the men withdrew, sadly harrassed by the enemy and the swampy nature of the ground. So hasty was the rptreat that many of the dead and wounded were left on the field. Captain Seymour bad his leg broken by a bullet, and Lieut. Brooke, of the 40th. was bar--1 ar„usly tomahawked in a swamp after surrendering his sworl to the enemy. Three or four of the wounded men crept through the fern to the camp during the afternoon, and another was brought in after dark, after having crawled on one knee for four hours through the fern, the other knee having b en shattered by a bill The enemy’s loss was never ascertained, but the attacking force had 30 killed and 34 wounded. Such is a br : ef description of two battlefield’s, on one of which the voluute-rs are to fight a mimic ba - tle next year. We hope Waireka will be chosen for the encampme-it, because the locality is better fititd for the mai.iujuvres and because, also, it was the first field on which q ir colonial vo qnteers were ex.os-.d to the fi kof an enemy. ________