THE UREWERA CAMPAIGN

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 34 (Supplement)

THE UREWERA CAMPAIGN

was the final stage of a war as harassing and vreirvmg to the troops engaged as ever was the Malakand campaign, or any Indian frontier war. From 1869 to 1871, when he was a nuned man, a fugitive and outlaw, his mam broken, his following destroyed, Te Kooti keptk c pt up h's fight-and-iTun-away policy in the Urewera country. A few words descriptive of this "City of Refuge" for outlawed rebels may be quoted from. Lieutenant-Colonel Purtcr: '"In caseb of the invasion ot their country messengers are despatched with the utmost speed to warn the scattered haptis of the foe's I. approach. They travel with incredible speed through the difficult forest tracks. . . . It is not customary for the Ureweras to fight in large bodies, their tactics being to waylaj the advancing foe in the most difficult places on the line of march, shooting ■lown the leading men of the single file, the only mode of advance that can be adopted in the narrow passes of that country." So far-reaching was the strained sense of insecurity, so wide the fear of a general Maori rising during these troubles that in April 1871 there were enrolled in New Zealand 4263 militia, 6568 volunteers, 723 armed constabulary, and 4000 armed Maori allies — a total force of 15,554 men. In November, '71, Kereopa was captured, and the reward of £1000 paid to 1c Whiu, who secured him. In 1889 le Koofci, long quiescent, and therefore jgnored, made foesh. converts, and threatened to descend on Poverty Bay once more. No time was lost by the authorities, and Lieutenant-Colonel Porter succeeded in capturing him.