ROUT OF MAORIS

Taranaki Daily News, 5 June 1935, Page 7

ROUT OF MAORIS

BATTLE AT KATIKARA STREAM. TERRORS OF EARLY TARANAKI. Seventy-two years ago. torday the settlement of New Plymouth was m a state of high excitement, for on June. 4, IBM, a body of soldiers routed Maori rebels at the battle of Katikara, killing about 40 natives with a loss of three white men. ~ The colonists had for some time. been, undergoing nerve-racking alarms ana excursions and their restlessness became almost intolerable when on May 4 two officers and six men were and brutally killed by Maoris on Wairau beach between the Oakura and Tataraimaka blocks. The state of the settlers when this news arrived can be nudged from the tone of the leading articles in the Press of the day. “The blow so long imminent has fallen at last” exclaimed one writer. “Eight of our fellow countrymen, gallant soldiers all of them, without offence or provocation, in open daylight and on the queen’s highway, have been barbarously murdered. . An expedition was prepared and exactly one month after the Wairau massacre it set out under General Cameron, 450 men noiselessly stealing out of towni on a fine moonlight night. Strict secrecy had been observed in making all arrangements and the carts, necessary equipment and sundries, had been sent previously to Tataraimaka so that the soldiers might march more silently. Meanwhile H.M.S. Eclipse, with the Governor-General, Sir George Gtey, on board left New chored off the mouth of the Katikara a.m. on June 4 the troops attacked The Armstrong battery opened fire on the Maori redoubts, earthwmks m course of completion on the banks the Katikara River. The few shells as the 57th regiment, the. men too impetuous to be restrained, d°«bled down the valley in single file to storm the rifle pits on the right of the enemy P Taken by surprise, the Maoris offered only slight resistance to attacks from several quarters. The soldiers dashed upon them with bayonets fixed and killed everyone they could. About 100 escaped, but 24 bodies, among them, it was thought, that of Tamati Hone, chie of the Ngatiruanui tribe, were carried back in carts and burned. Casualties were estimated at about 40. At 10 a.m. Major Mould, left in charge of the civilian forces at New Plymouth, received a telegram from General cron announcing the success of the expedition, and two hours later men galloped in on reeking horses to confirm th The settlers were jubilant, feeling that now the massacre of May 4 was avenged. However, the battle did not mean the end of their troubles. Disquieting evidence of the temper of the natives came the same evening when a party of men riding back from Tataraimaka m ad vance of the troops were ambushedby Maoris, again at Wairau beach The Maoris fired one volley and then de camped, having failed to hit Nevertheless the white men knew the war was not over.