Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1928 WHEN NEW PLYMOUTH WAS ENTRENCHED: 1860

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 11 August 1928, Page 6

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1928 WHEN NEW PLYMOUTH WAS ENTRENCHED: 1860

THE Taranaki Settlement, which was temporarily destroyed in 1860 by tho Maoris, was a narrow strip of land which stretched north-east and southwest along the coast-line. It lay between Mount Egmont and tho sea, and measured some twenty-five miles in length, and varied in width from a milo or two to nine miles. The town of New Plymouth was near the centre of the settlement, which contained about 2500 people, most of whom wore living on farms, and, though they lived amicably enough with the Maoris who inhabited the country adjacent to them, it necessarily followed that such wild neighbours, who were frequently at feud among themselves, did not allow the settlers to forget tho. possibility of war between the two races. Consequently, as early as 1855 unrest and bloodshed among the Taranaki Maoris caused tho settlers to think of self-protection. Marsland Hill, in New Plymouth, was fortified, and Volunteer and Militia companies were enrolled. In 1850 or 'sl there had arrived in tho settlement a remarkable man, Major Lloyd, late of tho 73rd Regiment, who had fought at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, where he was severely wounded. It was. from this veteran that tho

Taranaki Volunteers and Militia received their first training. He had left his wife and family in Ireland, ‘ and had come alone to the Colony for the purpose of making a homo for thorn in Taranaki, where he took up land at Waircka, and, it is said that for an entire winter ho had no better shelter at night than lie could lirid under his cart —which in a. man over sixty years of ago indicated: wondorful vitality and powors of eridur-' ance. His indeed was a Spartan’s existence. The late Judge Eyre-Kenny has left in liis reminiscences a description of the hardy old soldier :- f There can be no doubt that Major Lloyd, who was an excellent drill instructor, gave the Militia and Volunteers a thorough good training. One. would have thought that, a man of: such a stern, uncompromising charac-: ter would soon have got to logger-’ heads with the rough, outspoken, independent country settlers he had to deal with. Not so, however. The men recognised that Lloyd was a thorough soldier, and they respected, his obvious military capacity, his Waterloo medal, his zeal and perseverance, and took to their work with enthusiasm. By Major Lloyd’s advice, they used to meet once or twice a week at each other’s houses in the country to drill each other in the manual and platoon exercises and the “facings.” "Only,” as Major Lloyd said, “you must not fix bayonets when you' present arms, or you will drive the bayonets through the' ceiling.” A 'lady how (1913) in New, Plymouth, Mrs Webster, widow of Captain F. 1., Webster . . . tells mo that when she was a girl at Omata, her mother, Mrs McKellar, used once a woek to clear out their largo diningroom, and the neighbours came over to practise their drill in it. But the vary first" evening, forgetting Major • Lloyd's caution, they presented arms wit'll fixod bayonets, and, hey presto! six or eight holes appeared in the coiling, which was of scrim and not of wood, and there they remained till some two years afterwards, when Mrs McKellar’s house was' burned by the rebels. Major Lloyd worked on his farm like, a 'Trojan. , . . After ho-had got a small liouse up he wrote tb Mrs Lloyd, desiring her to rejoin him. This she refused to do, fearing the hardships of the life she would have to lead; so the old soldier toiled away alone until’ his health broke down, and compelled him to return to Ireland in 1859. In the meantime his wife had died, and Major Lloyd, finding that a monument had been erected to her memory by’his sons, commemorating the many'virtues of the deceased, promptly ha'd it knocked down', on the ground that his wife did ( not deserve a monument, because “she had disobeyed his orders to come to New Plymouth.” I once saw 'fTib grim old soldier break down completely. My father happened- to say that he had - - the sword-belt he wore when a Captain in the 73rd hanging up in his dreSsing-room: Lloyd expressed a wish to see it, and my father brought it into the room. It was the usual, white cross-belt- with a frog for the sword, made of light buff, not patent leather. It had a gilt breast-plate with the number “73” in the centre, surrounded with a spray of thistles and the words “Mangalore, • Seringapatam. Waterloo.” The old man took the belt into his hand, examined it curiously, and then, to the consternation of us all, burst into a flood of tears. “Take it away; take it away, Kenny,” he said, “I can’t bear to look at it.” Such was the man who set his impress on the civilian sjoldiers who were to play so important a part in the troubloujv 'times'of Taranaki. Major Lloyd’s suc--cessor in the command of the Taranaki Militia and Volunteers was Captain St. John Herbert, formerly of the 58th Regiment, and he was. in command of them when war came in 1860. • -

. The settlers had no doubt that Wiremu Kingi’s threats meant war,, and they made,, their preparations accordingly. Not rfnly did they begin to build the block-houses at Omata ahd Bell Block, they began, to form, entrenchments at New Plymouth, which was to be their place of refuge as a last resource. Not only were the fortifications on Marsland Hill completed, but a line of entrenchments was made round the town, with tho exception of the sea-front which was protected by warships. Of course the town was much smaller then than now, and only a comparatively small space of ground had to be encircled. The seabeach formed the base of the entrenched area, the apex of which was the citadel on Marsland Hill; the lines of the entrenchment following roughly the line of Liardet- street on one side and tlfat of Queen street 'on the other, gates being placed at either end of Devon street where the lines of entrenchment intersected it. Within this circumscribed area were crowded practically all the settlers and all such troops as were not in the field or on duty at the blockhouses—in the aggregate between 3000 ahd 4000 souls. This concentration of the settlers in New Plymouth was undoubtedly a wise precaution, but it had the effect of creating among the Maoris the idea that the Pakeha was afraid of him. This idea was increased by the hesitancy ahfl\somewhat abortive tactics of Colonel Gold at the initial engagement at “L” pa. The Maoris had watched his halting advance, his first futile shelling of their stronghold, his failure to assault when eventually a.breach was made, his useless shelling of the empty pa next morning, and his triumphant advance against an enemy who did not exist ; and they were filled with uncontrollable laughter,: and j soon the story of the Pakeha’s futile methods of warfare was told in all'.the kaingas of Taranaki and the King Country. The effect was not long in showing itself. The tribes of Southern Taranaki decided to throw in their lot with Wireinu Kingi, and tho tribes of Northern Taranaki, and soon the warriors of Opunake, Patea, Waitotara and even some from Wanganui were marching on the beleagured town from the south. They halted at- Wairoka, however, and-there Built themselves a pa. The theory has always been that they proposed to wait until forces from the" Waikato had joined Wiremu Kingi in the neighbourhood of Waitara, and that then a concerted attack was to bo made on New Plymouth, with a view to driving the Pakeha into the seal But, ns ever, the Maoris’ methods wero slow in bringing matters to a head. The reinforcements from the Waikato arrived slowly and in driblets, instead of in a strong, well-organised body. The Maoris might laugh at the British generalship displayed at “L” pa but they themselves had no generalship, because they had no general who was in charge of the whole of their forces and could concentrate and direct their strength on the salient feature of the campaign. Instead, they possessed

a. number- of petty generals, each in command of the warriors of his own tribe, or hnpu, and working to a plan of campaign which was of his own conception. The result was confusion, slowness of movement, waste and dispersion of energy, and—as in all Maori wars against the Pakeha—failure. But as yet the hard-pressed settlers of Taranaki knew none of those things. As yet the troops, both regular and colonial, imagined that the Maoris would bo capable of making concerted movements and concentrated attacks; and, seeing that the rebels outnumbered the Queen’s troops in the field of operations by about two to one, it was imagined that no time at all would elapse before the entrenchments of New Plymouth would he put to the test. Probably they would have been, but .for the spirited and effective action at Waireka, when the Taranaki Militia and Volunteers w’on a proud name for themselves, and the gallant, tars of the Navy displayed in perfection tho reckless dash and courage which have always characterised their operations ashore. In the meantime tho rebel warriors were amusing themselves by plundering and burning, and slaughtering stray settlers whom they found in the abandoned territory of the settlement. Such was the Maori’s method of warfare. He had returned to the savagery which had characterised him in the pre-Pakeha days, and found pleasure in hideously tomahawking unarmed citizens and even immature lads, whose mangled bodies told too plainly the story of barbarians’ bloodthirstiness. [There is one in Nelson who witnessed these scenes and manfully played his part in many combats —Mr Hurford of The Wood, Nelson, who served in the Colonial force.]