DEATH OF A VETERAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16434, 10 January 1917, Page 9

DEATH OF A VETERAN.

CAPTAIN R. N. HAWES.

PROMINENT FIGURE IN MAORI WAR. [ [ I O.ve of the surviving veterans of the wars 11 with the Maoris of 50 years ago passed , away at Epsom last week, in the person of Captain Robert Norgate Hawes, who I had lived to his 83rd year. Captain i Hawes was a younger son of an old Engi ] lish family, and left England for AusII tralia in the early " fifties'' of last cen- , j tury. After staying on the gold-diggings . there for a time, he came on to Otago, ■ at the period of the Gabriel's Gully rush, . From there he went to Taranaki and , joined No. 10 Company of the Taranaki i Military Settlers in September, 1864. In • the first half of 1865, he was sent with i his company to Pipinki, on the Wanganui , River, to erect three redoubts and garri- ; son them, in order to prevent the King Country natives from travelling down the , river and attacking Wanganui. With No. ', I 10 Company went also No. 8 Company, ' under Captain Wilson, and the Patea Rangers, under Captain Newland. ' Some Sharp Engagements. This force was attacked in July, 1865, by Topia Turoa, and 600 or 700 King 1 I Country natives, and was under fire for 12 days, being very short both of ammu--1 j nition and food. Relieved by a force ' i under the late Colonel Rooke, the garrij son was sent to Opotiki, reinforced to ! 600 men, still under Major Brassev, who >, had commanded at Pipiriki. After con- ': quering Opotiki, where thore was much ', fighting, and many prisoners were taken, I Nos. 8 and 10 Companies were ordered to I Wairoa, Hawke*s Bay, under the com--1 j mand of Major Frazer. Many miles up I the Wairoa River the troops came into | action with the Urewera Hauhaus, on ■. Christmas Day, 1865. There Captain '! Hussey, of No. 10 Company, was killed, '; together with four others—friendly natives ' j under Major Ropata. Captain Hawes : and four others were wounded, but not •j before Captain Hawes had shot the man ' ( who killed Captain Hussey, and also an- ', other. Next the force was removed from I Opotiki and Wairoa to Taranaki, where ! it was engaged in desultory fighting for , more than a year, when the war seemed to die out, and the men were discharged. The Attack at Moturoa. In 1868, however, Titokowaru raised the torch of rebellion. All the settlers, from Wanganui to New Plymouth, were organised into companies, and redoubts were built. Captain Hawes was at Waverley— called Wairoa— his land, and was given the command of the company raised there. Early in November, 1868, Colonel Whitmore, then ''a command of the coast, arrived at the Wairoa Redoubt, bringing two or three companies of Armed Constabulary under Captains Roberts and Goring, both afterwards colonels. Then came the disastrous attack by the whole'force on the fortified pa at Moturoa, three miles east of I Waverley, a position so strong that it could not be taken by assault without the aid of artillery. The Armstrong big guns that were available, had been left at the i redoubt against the advice of Captain j Hawes, who knew the ground. In this | action the Government forces had 26 killed and 26 wounded and missing; the killed including Major Hunter. Captain Hawes and his company had the post of honour in the retreat, fighting a stiff rearguard action. After this there was no more very serious fighting, thoueh the redoubts were occupied till late in 1869. Mrs. Hawes survives her husband.