SOLDIER AND HAUHAU.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1726, 29 March 1905, Page 59

SOLDIER AND HAUHAU.

STORY OF A HEROIC FIGHT.

THE DEFENCE OF TUHTJTURU-

MOKAI.

Two miles beyond the town of Hawera, in South Taranaki, along the Turuturu road, where the clear trout stream of the Tawhiti curves round a great parapeted “pa” of ancient Maoridom is a quiet grassy knoll sacred to the memory of probably the most desperate combat in the whole of the Taranaki Ten Years War. Just over a wire fence, on the left, that divides the green paddocks of a dairy farm from the main road, the traveller may see —if he knows where to look—the faintly marked lines that indicate the long-since razed parapets of the Turuturu-Mokai redoubt. Almost every trace of the old fort has been obliterated—indeed, those inquiring for the site of the redoubt are as often as not shown the walls of the adjoining Maori pa, and informed that that was the scene of the fight—the Rorke’s Drift of Taranaki. Although the site is believed to be a public reserve, it is not fenced off from the farm lands, and no memorial of any sort marks the spot where a little band of white men held the fort successfully against Titokowaru’s Hauliau warriors, though threefourths of their number were shot down or tomahawked. A monument stands on the battlefield of Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu—where Von Tempsky fell—a few miles away; and the site of the Turu-turu-Mokai surely deserves a similar distinction. There are few survivors of the Hauhau war-party• who so furiously attacked the post one winter morning in 1868; some of them are this week gathering at Parihaka, to hear their prophet. Te iWliiti. address the remnant of the faithful who wear the fanatics' badge, the plume of the “rau-kura.” Of the pakeha defenders of the Turuturu hut one or two are with the living. One is Mr John G. Beamish, a resident of Patea. Mr Beamish’s brother was killed in the redoubt, and he himself was severely wounded there. Tlie brothers had only arrived in the colony a few months previously, and. joined the Armed Constabulary under Col. McDonnell two months before the fight. John Beamish was about twenty-one years of age at the time. The complete story of the affair has never vet been told, and it should be of interest to- place on record Mr Beamish’s narrative, together with some hitherto unpublished notes from Maori sources. That the redoubt, with its arms and supplies, did net fall into the hands of the Hauhaus was due to .the brave resistance of Privates Beamish, Tuffin. Gill, and one or two others, who held the flanking angles till reinforcements came. If ever any colonial soldiers deserved the New Zealand Cross it was these men—but not one of them ever received, or perhaps expected. the decoration, though others less modest have had it conferred upon them for services in no degree mere meritorious. The Turuturu-Mokai redoubt was a very small entrenchment, and was beihg strengthened by its little garrison of A.C.’s, under Captain George Ross. The attack took place before dawn on the morning of July 12. 1868. Of the twentyfive men, ten (including Captain Ross) were killed, and six were badly wounded. Three or four of the recruits were so panic-stricken by the first rush of the Maoris that they jumped from the redoubt, it is said, and made their way in the darkness to Waihi, three miles away ; so that the men left to hold the place numbered only a score, and many of these were quickly put out of action. THE HAUPIAIT WAR-PARTY. The Hauhau warriors who attacked Turuturu-Mokai numbered sixty. They were commanded by the chief Haowhenua. whose brother, the veteran Tauke, is still living at Hokorima, near Haw.era. Haowhenua belonged to the Ngaruahine tribe. Sixty was the usual strength of the war parties despatched by the Hauhau loader Titokowaru on special expeditions. The band of warriors was termed the “Tekau-ma-Rua” (“The Twelve”) after the Twelve Apostles—though it numbered five times twelve. The headquarters of the belligerent Maoris of Taranaki at this time was at Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu (four miles from Turuturu-Mokai) the palisaded bush pa where the colonial forces soon afterwards suffered a severe defeat. Here Titokowaru built a large meetinghouse. called “Te Wharekura,” after the ancient sacred lodges of instruction. In this house he assembled his men prior to an expedition, and selected the members of the Tekau-ma-Rua” by means of divination with his sacred weapon, the “taiaha.” which was supposed to bo influenced by the breath of the war-god T T enuku. Some little time before the assault of Turuturu-Mokai, the friendly Maoris appeared to have known of the intention to storm it, for one of the military officers was warned that tin's and other small isolated posts were in considerable danger, and would be attacked by the Maoris. Before the chosen sixty started on the war-path, hakas by the men and poi dances by the girls were given, to “send them aw in

good heart,” as the Maoris expressed it; and as they marched out of the pa, armed with their guns and tomahawks and with their cartouche-boxes and belts strapped round them, the grim Titokowaru paced up and down with his befeathered “taiaha” in Ms hand, and farewelled his soldiers, shouting out his ferocious commands: “Patua, kainga! Patua, kainga ! E kai mau ! Kaua e tukua kia haere! Kia mau ki tou ringa!” (“Kill them, eat them ! Kill them, eat them ! Bet them not escape ! Hold them fast in your hands!”) The injunction to “eat them” was no mere figure of speech, for Titokowaru, as is well-known on the West Coast, revived cannibalism in- the campaign of 1868-69. Several bodies of soldiers wlio fell in the battles of Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu (“The Beak of the Bird”) and Moturoa (or Panatiakiaki) were eaten by the liauliaus in their forest strongholds: and the hearts of the first slain were invariably cut out, and “fed” to the Maori god of war. In single file the Hauhaus struck into the dark forest, chanting as they left the pa and entered the bush this incantation invoking divine aid to clear their path of obstructions and smooth their way : “Wahl taratara e—i Me tuku kite Ariki Kia taoro' atu e —i! Nga pukepuke i noa.” Marching with the savages of the “Te-kau-ma-Rua” was a renegade white man, who had cast in his lot. with the Maoris. This was Charles Kane, a deserter from the 18th Royal Irish Regiment. Kano had been punished for some military offence, and hod fled to the Hauhaus. He was exceedingly bitter against bis late comrades, and Titokowaru allowed him to join the war-party, seeing that the disgraced runaway was. anx'cus to .strike a blow against Ids follow whites. Kane carried a gun and took part in the attack cn the redoubt, and was wounded in the face by a .bullet. He was tomahawked by the Maoris some time after this, on suspicion of treachery. DYING IN WAIT. It was a bitterly cold, freezing night. Most: of the Maoris were very scantily attired, after the fashion of war-parties, and some only wore short flax mats. They lay close to each other in the fern, shivering, awaiting the signal for the rush. And all this time Titokowaru, sitting oil his sacred mat within the pray-ing-house “Wharekura,” in the “Beak of the Bird.” was engaged in repeating “karakia” after “karakia” incantations to the heathen gods, as well as Hauhau prayers to the Christian Trinity —for the overwhelming of the pakeha and the triumph of the “Tekau-ma-Rua.” The night, dragged on too slowly for the impatient and shivering warriors. Some wished to rush the white men’s pa at once: but their leaders forbade it till there was a little more light. Several of the younger men began to crawl up through the fern towards the walls of the little fort. The form of a solitary sentry was seen, pacing up and down outside the walls. He could easily have been shot, but the time bad not yet come. Suddenly the sentry stopped, apparently alarmed, and stood lookingdown the hill-slope. Then he quickly levelled his gun and fired. The darkness was all at once lit up by the blaze of a return volley, and with a fearful yell the host of half-naked Maoris leaped from the fern and rushed for the redoubt. The fierce fight that followed is best told in Mr Beamish’s own words-—a story drawn from him by many questions, for he is a- man of quiet reserve, and not given to frequent telling of his brave work at Turuturu-Mokai. MR BEAMISH’S NARRATIVE. “The redoubt stood in a bad position, overlooked by rising ground only a few chains away, and it was not quite finished when the attack was made. The place was small, and Capt. Ross occupied a whare outside the walls. The Maoris around had been very friendly with us while we were building what they called the pa, and they used to come in every day and watch us at work. Only the day befoi'e the attack a number of them visited us, and spent some time outside the redoubt, larking about and playing games. All this, it turned out, was just a canning scheme te put us off our guard. It had been raining and blowing, and the night was cold. The ground inside the parapets was so muddy that the sentries did their rounds outside.

“It was just approaching dawn, perhaps five o’clock in'the morning, when the Maoris attacked us. We were all suddenly awakened by a shot. The sentry had seen something move in a gully just below bun, and challenged and fired. Then there was a return volley and a war-cry, and the Maoris jumped up from the fern where th<*y had been hiding and charged for the redoubt gate. THE CAPTAIN KILLED. “Capt. Ross ran out from his whare dressed only in his shirt, and just managed to cross the ditch by the narrow plank-bridge and get inside the gateway. He defended it bravely with bis sword and revolver till he was killed. We afterwards found his body lying just inside the gateway, between the guard-tent and the parapet; his heart

had been cut out. After the fight was over we found the heart lying outside the ditch. The Maori who cut it out must have leaped right inside the redoubt in the darkness, killed the captain there, and, making a clean cut- in his breast, pulled out the heart, but lie was hit on getting outside, and had to drop his trophy. “Well long before this we bad rushed for our carbines and belts and manned the parapets Six of us took up a position in one of the flanking angles, and for two hours it was desperate work. The Maoris surrounded the redoubt and tried again and again to swarm over the wall, and they kept it up till broad daylight. We could not see much at first but the flashing of guns all around us. Presently some of the Maoris set- fire to the whare,s outside the redoubt. They were armed with muzzleloading En fie Ids and shot-guns, and we could now and then see the ramrods going up and down as they rammed the charges home. Then sometimes we would see the flash of a tomahawk and catch a glimpse of a black head above the parapets. One of our troubles was that there wore no- loopholes in the parapets. otherwise we could have .shot many of the Maoris in the ditch. We were exposed to the fire or the enemy on the rising ground close by, and this was how so many of the men in our angle were hit. “Tin? ditch was full of Maoris—only the narrow parapet separated us—and they were shouting at us and swearing in broken English, and we talked back at them. We would sing out : ‘Look out! The cavalry are coming!’ but the Hauhaus only laughed and exclaimed. ‘Gammon, pakeha, gammon!' When they set fire to the raupo huts outside we were able to take a-im at some of Mom the light of the blazing wlmres

END :• RMINING TH E PAR AP KTS

“Then they started to dig and cut a way at the parapet.-: with their tomahawks. iVe could plainly hear them at this work, and I heard one Maori ask another for a match. L -suppose he warded to try and fire our buddings inside the walls. One after another our men dropped, shot- dead or badly wounded. I had. very little hope of ever getting out of-the place alive. But w-e well knew what cur fate, would be if the Maori? once got over the parapets, so w-e just put cur hearts into it and kept blazing away as fast as we could load. We had breech-loading carbines which had to be capped. One incident I remember was a black head just appearing- over the parapet in the grey light, then came a body with a bare arm gripping a longhandled tomahawk. Quietly the Hauhau raised himself up and was just in the act of aiming a blow at one- of our men who did not see him when we fired and brought him down.

“My younger brother was fighting not far from me. He fell mortally wounded, and before be died lie told us he believed it was a white man who shot him. (This would be the deserter Charles Kane). I was wounded about the same time. An Enfield bullet struck me in the left shoulder. It took me with a tremendous shock, just as I was stooping down across a dead man to get some dry ammunition. The bullet slanted down past my shoulder blade and came out at the back. This incapacitated me from firing, or, at any rate, from taking accurate aim, so I had to content myself with passing cartridges to Gill—one of the men in my angle—who kept steadily firing away, and with levelling mv unloaded carbine as well as I could with my right hand whenever I saw a head bob up above t-lie parapet. When the fight ended Gill was the only unwounded man in our angle of the redoubt ; out of tlie six who manned it when the alarm was given, three were shot dead and two were wounded. One man. Tuffin—now living at Wanganui—was wounded in five places. HELP FROM WAIHI.

“Daylight came, and those of us who could shoulder a carbine were still firing away and wondering whether help would ever reach us. We knew they must have heard the firing and seen tlie flashes of the guns at Waihi Redoubt, only three miles away. Suddenly the Maoris ceased firing, and retired into the bush. Their sentries had given them warning that troops were coming. A.s they dropped back wo rushed out cf the redoubt and gave them the last shot, and then Von Tempsky ancl liis A.C.’fi arrived at the double, and the fight was over. My wound kept me in the hospital for five months. Out of the twenty men who held the place ten were killed (the captain, a sergeant, a corporal and -even privates) aud six wounded : and the only wonder is that any of ns over came out of it alive.” A few minutes more and the Maori? would probably have succeeded in undermining the on rape t and in killin.g tlie handful of brave pakehas who held 1 lucrum!;! ing wall -. Srvo !or eight ?ds>ori>wero killed, and a considerable nuntri must have been wounded. jTtoke.-.vr.m bad warned bis men no f to as-nn't gateway, which was lUu’.y to b M ilnmost stubbornly def-’-nded : “if you d.».“ said he, “the lion will cie-e Ids in-mU on you.” The young men. hnv.vvor, Utempted to charge in through che r. gateway, armed with their b.-r.g 'onhawks, and here fell mo-.-i of Eh. - - were killed.

The name Turuturu-Mokai is in iteeli a reminiscence of the savage days “Old New Zealand.” It means tha stakes or poles on which dried human heads were set up, in public view, a? relics of battle. The name is, strictly speaking, that of the ruined Maori pa vhich stands near the redoubt ground-. Hus pa 6s of large extent- with high and massive walls, and was 'a celebrated lighting-ho-ld m ancient days. Both it and the site of the fort where the whits men “held off ’ the Hauhaus that ter* rible morning in ’6B have recently been brought under notice of the Scenery Preservation Commission, and no doubt will be set apart by the State as “tapu’» spots, marking, as they do, one of the most historic places in historic Taranaki.,.