AN OLD STORY RETOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14507, 22 October 1910, Page 5 (Supplement)

AN OLD STORY RETOLD.

( tHE fight at the mauku i IN 1862. JIY I PIUS. n.-K would lock in vain over rural New Zc;t----1 ud for a more peaceful scene than is preted by the country through which the lower reaches of the Mauku River winds. Viewed rom one of the numerous gentle fflinenccs tho -roofed houses, nestling • j the lea of the patches of native forest which the wise prescience of the earv settlers lived from axe and tire, the meditative, dairy fords' and tho sheep-dotted slopes fill the ev e witha sense of measureless content vhicli even custom cannot stale. And the cmtt-n and centre of the landscape is the old -bite, steep-gabled church standing on a rounded" knoll girdled by a curve of Jhe stream a little above where it. takes a 70ft M over * M --° <* basaltic lava., But placidity was not always the obtruding feature of the place and when grangers are shown tho neatly «trai'8 el filed loop-holes and the occasional bullet holes in the stout totara timbers of the i-huivh they realise that t one time there were other things to Vnk about than the production of butt '-fat and the price of "wool. Home[eids were, fewer then, but they wore not less loved—more, perhaps, for they were go greatly jeopardised. There are still a few—alas, a very few—of the old settlers of whom the happenings of 47 years ago, when the local volunteers beat back *' ie most, determined raid of the Waij.ajo war , and saved this district, and probably others from annihilation, are a jivins memory. Among these few is y 3 jor Lusk, who commanded our little force in those days, and who, though on t l,e threshold of his ninth decade, is still possessed of a spirit and vigour which would shame many a man of 40. I was privileged one day recently to visit with him the scene of the encounter, and to j hear from his lips an account of the engagement . " On October 24, 1855, the following was the state of affairs at Mauku. The church, which had been surrounded by a heavy Jog stockade, was garrisoned by a few men of the First Waikato Militia, under Lieutenant Norman, and about 50 men of ■ the local volunteers, the Forest Rifles. At what was known as the Lower Stockade, on the Grange farm, where the Mauku flows into the Manukau, was stationed Sergeant Pereival, a young Victorian, with 20 men of the First Waikatos, and at the Falls farm, midway between, were a few men of the Forest Rifles, the whole being under the command of Captain Lusk. Early that morning, accompanied by a single orderly, he left the Lower Stockade to inspect his other commands, and on reaching the uplands, of the Falls farm, he was surprised to hear rapid and continuous firing, and to see the garrison of the church all outside the stockade, intent on watching the south-west, from Which point the firing came. The orderly was immediately despatched back to Sergeant Pereival, to order him to bring a dozen men up to the church with what, speed he might, and to leave the camp in charge of the commissariat officer, and Captain Lusk hurried on to the church. On arrival there the cause of the disturbance was plainly visible. • A large body of Maoris was to be seen shotting the cattle on the Ti-ti farm, a mile away, but as they evidently outnumbered our men many times over it was not considered advisable to attack them without reinforcements. A mounted messenger was ' sent flying to Drury, a dozen miles away, where Colonel Austin lay with a considerable force, to ask for a detachment of Colonel Nixon's Light Horse. For some reason, however, he did not send the troopers, but ■ despatched instead two companies of the j "Waikato Militia, which did not arrive till the affray was over. The settlers being all safely behind the walls of the stockade, our men would have remained in shelter until their numbers were augmented but for the impetuosity of Pereival. Disregarding his orders to effect a junction at the church, he made a beeline through the forest to the point at which he could hear the firing, and to the astonishment of those at the church they saw him and his little _ band emerge from the bush on what is now known as the tramway road, and with reckless daring engage the enemy at long range. An enveloping movement on the part of the Maoris was at once begun, &nd it was seen that an instant sally of the garrison was the only hope of saving ■ Percival's men, if, indeed., it was not already too late. Leaving little more than a corporal's guard in the church, our men set oft at the double. Just, as they left thestockade Lieutenant Norman, who was paymaster, galloped in from Drury, ran to his locker, and then snatched up a rifle and raced down the hill after his men. Crossing the Mauku waist-deep, they arrived on the scene just as Percival's little contingent, which had taken what shelter it could behind the logs and stumps of the clearing, was completely surrounded. Though they had accounted for several of ' The enemy, up to this time the men from the Lower Stockade had escaped untouched, but when the junction was effected Per- • cival, with his characteristic recklessness, jumped up on' a log to cheer, and immediately fell, shot through the heart. His purpose effected, Lusk would now have retired, but the enemy had other views. Percival's fall seemed to spur them on. Our men were in a narrow clearing, surrounded on three sides by walls of bush, lined with yelling natives. _ Of these about 150 had been advancing in a converging line to that of Lusk upon Percival's position, but had fallen back into the bush on the left, as the relieving body advanced. But only for a moment, for with dance and yell they joined forces with ■ their comrades, and rushed the clearing again. The open ground was clearly untenable against so overwhelming a force. On the volunteers' right rear was ' a scanty fringe of trees, and to this they retired, hotly pressed by the enemy, who came again and again to the point of the bayonet for the "only time in the war. During the hand-to-hand melee things looked very serious for a time. Corporal Power drove his bayonet through the brawny chest of a 6ft Ngatiparoa warrior, and was axed while vainly endeavouring to extricate his weapon. Wcttthington. had his head split- open with a longhandled tomahawk, while trying to load. Norman shot a Maori dead, then tripped over a root and fell. Another native rushed up to tomahawk him, but lie rose to his knees and killed him with bis revolver. Before he could reach bis feet a third jumped up from behind a log and shot him through the liea t. _ In the short retreat to cover we lest eight 3r»en, but, once among the timber, the superior marksmanship of the white man drove the en :mv back, and they took cover in the bush'across the clearing, from ■which they kept up an ineffectual fireIt would have been hopeless to attempt to . dislodge the enemy from their dense cover, and suicidal to* have re-entered the open ground to recover the bodies of theslain, so the volunteers retired to the church. On their side, the natives had ■ bad sufficient, and during the night retu'ed to Rangipokia, on the Waikato River, where they re-embarked in their Canoes, carrying their dead and wounded With them. The following morning their trail was followed as far as the bank, where discarded, litters to the number of some 40, were found. Hie Maoris engaged were three hundred of the Ngatiamaniapotos from the Rohi fiT l6 anc * fift y Ngatipijroas from the Bay •°f Plenty. Their losses iSferfe afterwards admitted to be thirty- killed, among them two of Rewi ManiapZSLo's nephews, and a •urge number wounded. The volunteers engaged numbered sixty-seven, of whom eight W^ le hilled, including two out of the three officers. From reports afterwards made by '»«•} friendly natives of the Lower Waikato . It transpired that the objective of the raid was Auckland. They had canoes hidden at ♦he Karaka ferry and intended to descend upon the town at night. There is no doubt they could easily have passed the cordon of Sorts at Manuku under cover of the darkt cess had they been able to resist the temptation of cattle-shooting.