WHEN AUCKLAND HAD ITS BLOCKHOUSES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18786, 15 June 1929, Page 19 (Supplement)

WHEN AUCKLAND HAD ITS BLOCKHOUSES.

Boys Left School to Take Arms When Alarm Was Given.

(Written for the ** Star “ by

JOHN BURNS.)

THE “ Star ” has secured for publication portions of the memoirs of the late Colonel Rochfort Snow, who died at Christchurch on March 17 - of this year at the age of seventyeight. These memoirs, which have been made available by the courtesy of Mr Clement Sellars, Colonel Snow’s son-in-law, contain interesting information on life in early New Zealand, Colonel Snow'having arrived at Auckland shortly before the outbreak of the Waikato War. His work lay in the Customs Department, but he w'as a prominent member of the volunteer forces. He joined up with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles at their formation under Major Slater. He was for several years sergeantmajor, finally rising to the rank of captain in command. He served with mounted troops in England, and retired about 20 years ago with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

war was a protracted one. Ten regiments of the Regular Army and one battery of the Royal Artillery arrived about this time from England, India and Australia. * The Royal Artillery was commanded by a friend of my father’s. Captain Mercer. He fell at the battle of Rangiriri, on the Waikato River, while commanding a battery of 12-pound , Armstrongs. The Maori proved himself a grand fighter, and further he was fighting in his own country in his own way—in extended order, toeing cover wherever possible— troops of the regular army stuck to the old-fashioned close order. General Cameron, who commanded the forces, was a Crimean and Indian Mutiny hero, and would not change to suit the new conditions. Consequently our men were potted, from behind palisadings and dug-outs t>y the enemy. It was not until the colonial troops and, settlers took upon themselves to adopt the Maori way of fighting that the war was brought to an end. After the reverse at Rangiriri I well remember attending the funeral of the officers, who were laid to rest In the Symonds’ Street cemetery, Auckland. About this time H.M.S. Orpheus was wrecked on the Manukau Bar and about 1-50 of her crew were drowned. This ship had come to New Zealand for the first time and had on board a commodore who was to command the Navy in New Zealand. He was drowned.

The memoirs were written principally during the last year of his life. Rochfort Snow was born on August 10, 1851, in the town of Blandford, ■Dorset, where his father; Mr Charles Snow, was a banker. A painting by Lady Mary d’Ovly of the house of his birth—-a picturesque, thatched.roofed place—is in the possession of his daughter, Mrs Clement Sellars, of Fendalton. Towards the end of the fifties the American cotton failure smashed nearly ail the private banks in England, and the Snow’s went down with the rest, his partner absconding* to the '"ape of Good Hope with several thousand pounds belonging to the bank. Shortly after the bank’s affairs had been settled, the Snow family sailed from Bristol for Auckland in the ship Lord Burleigh, of 850 tons, arriving after a four months’ voyage. ‘‘The Waikato War began soon after our arrival," says a portion of the memoirs, “ and all males between the ages of sixteen and sixty had to enlist. My father joined the volunteers. Those who would not fight were enrolled as conscripts and consequently looked down upon by the volunteers. The

During the war the firing of three guns from Fort Britomart was an order for every male bearing arms in Auckland city to assemble at the various blockhouses which were to be seen all over the town and suburbs. ** I was a pupil at Parnell Grammar School,” writes Colonel Snow, “ when one afternoon three guns were heard. Dr Kinder, the head master, ordered any boy over sixteen years of age who was enrolled in the forces to stand up, and proud we were to see about a dozen stand at attention. They were ordered by the head to report themselves, with their arms, at their various stations.

“ One man who stood cut prominently in the fighting was Major von Tempsky, with his company of Forest Rangers. He was descended from a noble Prussian family, his brother being a colonel in the Prussian army. Von Tempsky was a man of great literary attainments, a good linguist, and in his youth an officer of the Prussian Hussars. The Forest Rangers were raised principally at his own ex-

pense, and were armed with carbines, revolvers and bowie knives. Von Tempsky, terror of the Maoris of the Waikato, East Coast and Taranaki, fell Ngutu-o-te-Manu. "The name of Major Heaphy, V.C., was also well known throughout . New Zealand as the only colonist on whom the Victoria Cross was conferred during the Maori wars. He arrived in Wellington with the pioneers of the New Zealand Land Company in the Tory in May, 1839, and held the appointment of District Surveyor at Mahurangi. At the commencement of the volunteer movement in 1859 he joined the Auckland City Company, commanded by Captain Stewart, aide-de-camp to Governor Gore Browne. Major Heaphy won the V.C. in this way. His company was reconnoitring the country near Wfiiari, in the Waikato, when they were fired upon by Maoris. A soldier was seen lying near the edge of'a creek, wounded and bleeding to death. Captafn Heaphy (as he then was) having some knowledge of surgery, volunteered to go to his assistance. Having reached him, he was engaged, in taking up an artery when he was fired at by a body of natives who were concealed in " the fern close by. He was struck and wounded in three places, but succeeded m completing his job and carried off the man. For this he repeived the New Zealand medal and the rank of major in the militia, as well as the

after arrivin S in Auckland Mr Charles Snow joined the Civil Ser- ' ice as head of the Audit Department from which he retired in 1890. In 1864 the seat of Government was removed to Wellington, and the Snow family, now numbering six, travelled thither by the ship Phoebe. “We were disgusted with Wellington,” writes Colonel Snow, “which was peopled with whalers, sailors and the riff-raff of the. New Zealand Land Company. My father rented a house on Te /Aro fiat. " I '°^ M reacll the Government Buildings at Thorndon Flat he had to waV< alon-' the beach, which is now called Lambton Quay. The public buildings were miserably small and quite unsuited for the work oi the Audit Department. The residential buildings were matchlined, and corrugated ‘ iron roofs were just coming in, so we felt the high winds and storms for which Wellington is noted, and longed to be back in Auckland.” The following account of the Hauhau movement among the Maoris is given in the memoirs:—“The Maoris had been told of so many different religions and at different times, that one was right and the other was wrong, that they were puzzled. At last a man name Te Ua determined to find a new religion for himself and the race. The result was the religion called Hau, and its disciples were called Hauhaus. They worshipped before a pole placed firmly in the ground and rigged as the topmast of a ship. They chanted their prayers in an unknown tongue as they marched and danced round, trusting that, sooner or later, they would be able to comprehend the meaning of the apparent gibberish they gave utterance to. A spike nail

was driven into the pole or Niu, about three feet from the ground, upon which they used to hang the head of one of their enemies. Paimariri was their watchword, and Riki was their god of war. Their form of prayer was a chant after the following: ‘God the Father, Hau; God the'Son, Hau, Hau; God the Holy Ghost, Hau, Hau, Hau; Paffnariri, Hau; big rivers, long rivers, big mountains and seas; attention, Hau, Hau, Hau.* They were then sanctified by the Three in One. Each person now touched the head hanging on the nail in the Niu as they revolved round the pole. Then, if about to start on an expedition to seek the enemy, Joshua’s spirit led them forth.

“The first Ilauhau fight was near Mt Egmont, and was fought bravely. Here they killed Captain Lloyd and several of our men, and cut off their heads for their Nius. The top of Captain Lloyd’s gkull was used as a drinking vessel on special occasions. The

war in the Wanganui district then commenced. The Maoris attacked our troops at Xukumaru and nearly took our C.O. The next fight was between Papawhero, Patea and Kakaramea. We were on the line of march, and just as we filed through some sandhills and drew near to a small swamp we were attacked by the Pakakohe tribe. They were defeated and. as they retreated, were cut down by the Alexandra Cavalry. About this time we took possession of Pipiriki with a force commanded by Major Brassey. Queen’s troops were also sent to Tauranga and Maketu, and the Arawa tribe were enrolled under Colonels Hay and M’Donnell. Colonial troops were sent to Poverty Bay, many pas being taken and scores of prisoners secured. Some were sent to the hulks in Wellington, while Te-Kooti was, with many others, sent to the Chatham Islands.

“In 1867 we got the alarming news that the Maoris had defeated a large

force of ours at Ngutu-o-te-Manu. Some of.our best officers fell, among them being Captain Buck (late 14th West York Regiment), Lieut. Hastings (late 16th Lancers), and also our hero, Yon Tempsky. This was in the Taranaki province, where the Hauhaus had been very troublesome. At this time the Defence Department was enrolling men

for a newly-formed Battery of Field Artillery consisting of 3.6 pound and 2.12 pound Armstrong guns, then the very latest breech-loaders. I joined this battery. We had shooting practice at floating targets off Kaiwarra and also on the rifle range with our carbines. In those days the carbine was considered very wonderful. With -the West-ley-Richards action one drew back the bolt and in three motions inserted a cartridge, closed the breech and placed a cap on the nipple, this being much quicker than the muzzle-loader of that period. Our full dress uniform was similar to that of the R.A. # of those days, with the busby, but the undress uniform consisted of blue trousers with a broad red stripe, a loose Garibaldi jacket, also of blue, and forage cap cocked bn two hairs. The former was used on special occasions.”

The memoir then goes on to describe the escape of Te Kooti and his fellow warriors from banishment at the Chatham Islands." When they landed m Poverty Bay, “no Maori force was ever so well found in material for lighting. Colonel Whitmore was absent at this time in Wanganui, and Te Kooti, taking advantage of the absence of his experienced antagonist, made a sudden and well-directed attack on the settlers of Poverty Bav, and in one night slew over forty Europeans. Te Kooti, to encourage his men to commit excesses on the women and girls, which they had no wish to do, himself set the example. Over fifty friendly Maoris were slain in the same night. Te Kooti, after this victory, entrenched himself at Ngatapa, a strong ancestral pa. Colonel Whitmore attacked this pa, assisted by Ropata. chief of the Nga-te-Poru, and his warriors. Our Battery was there and we did a little execution, but the Government gave us such a small supply of ammunition that we could not finish off Te Kooti. .The fact is, those in acthority, who were making a good thing out of these native wars, did all they could to prolong them.” end of IS6B Mr Snow was appointed to the Custoifls Department and shortly aftervynrds transferred to Dunedin. “I said farewell to my dear Field Battery,” he writes, ‘‘which was a wrench.” The Collector of Customs’ in Dunedin was Mr Thomas Hill, an old pal of my father’s who proved a true friend to me. I served four years at the Port of Dunedin. During that period the Duke of Edinburgh, in H.M.S. Galatea visited the Scotch settlement, and they gave him a most hearty welcome.”

From 1873 to 1877 Mr Snow served in His Majesty’s Customs at Westport, sailing thither via Wellington by the s.s. Kennedy. “When outside the Westport bar,” he writes, ‘‘l asked the first mate where the old town used to be. He said, ‘We will be going over it presently.” Two years previously the tqwn had been washed out to sea, and the