UREWERA TROOPS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 178, 31 July 1933, Page 11

UREWERA TROOPS

FORGOTTEN_EXPEDITION REMINISCENCES OF 1895 A PEACEFUL INCURSION From time to time there are brought to light minor incidents in New Zealand’s story which, if they have no historical importance, yet carry a good deal of human interest. One such is the last military expedition ever sent against a Maori tribe, just 38 years ago. If asked to name the last affair of the kind most people would recall either the bloodless encounter at Parihaka in 1881 or the fight at the stronghold of the prophet Rua in April, 1916, when two natives were killed and four police wounded. The expedition against Kua, however, was carried out entirely by the civil police, states the New Zealand Herald. Fourteen years after Parihaka, in 1895, the military were called upon as a precautionary measure in dealing with natives in the Urewera Country, and their operations, which proved, in the event, to be entirely pacific, were carried on about 40 miles from the scene of the later encounter with Kua. Well-known Participants. What gives the expedition most interest is that several of those who took part in it arc to-day well-known throughout the Dominion. Among these are Mr. W. G. Wohlmann, the present Commissioner of Police, then a humble gunner in the Permanent Artillery; Colonel J. E. Hume, at one time officer commanding the Auckland Military District and now living in retirement at Nelson; and Mr. J. Dickison, superintendent of the Mount Eden prison. A full roll of the expedition has been preserved by Mr. Edward Kennedy, of Narrow Neck, who served in it as a gunner and retired from the Royal New Zealand Artillery a few years ago with the rank of first-class warrant officer. Most of the particulars given in this article have been supplied by Mr. Kennedy. Other retired members of the Permanent Force who took part are Captain W. Q. Kewish and Regimental Sergeant-Major G. Bush, of Devonport; Regimental Sergeant-Major H. Valentine, of Takapuna; and Police-Sergeant A. G. Quartermain. of Dunedin. The late Staff-Sergeant-Major H. A. Campbell, of Birkenhead, whose death occurred this month, was also with the expedition. Early in 1895, surveyors who were running the line of a road through the Urewera from Galatea to Lake Waikaremoana were obstructed by natives, who refused to let them cross the lake and threatened to destroy their instruments. It appeared that the chiefs objected to letting the road traverse their lands, until the Government had concluded a definite agreement with them. Hon. J. Carroll as Mediator. The surveyors made their way out and reported what had happened. The Seddon Government, which was then in office, decided to negotiate. It had the best possible emissary in the Hon. (afterwards Sir) James Carroll, Native Minister, who as a youth had fought against To Kooti in the Urewera wilds. At the same time Mr. Seddon did not Intend to stop work on the road, which was being pushed forward by gangs of workmen in a south-easterly direction from Galatea. To protect the roadmakers and also to strengthen his envoy’s hand, he decided to send a small armed force into the Urewera. The stipendiary magistrate at Rotorua, Colonel J. M. Roberts, a Maori War veteran and a holder of the New Zealand Cross, was given general supervision of the measures to be taken. The expedition was placed in charge of Police-Inspector Emerson, who was allotted a sergeant and six constables. To provide an armed escort, 52 noncommissioned officers and men of the Permanent Artillery and Torpedo Corps at Auckland and Wellington, under Lieutenant Hume, were ordered to proceed to Galatea. The Risk of Ambush. The Auckland detachment left by train for Rotorua on May 21, 1895, and went on to Galatea in horse coaches. Accompanied by the police, they marched on from Galatea through Whirinaki to Te Whaiti. There they were joined a day or two later by the Wellington party, which had travelled up by steamer to Onehunga. The march to Te Whaiti was full of risk from a military point of view. The Urewera natives were believed to have a fair supply of arms, and it was even rumoured that they owned some Mar-tini-Henry rifles. The police and troops had to make their way for some miles past Whirinaki over a native track through thick bush, whence they could easily have been fired upon. However, no trouble occurred. Tents and cooking gear followed on pack-horses, and the force was soon encamped at Te Whaiti. Mr. Carroll passed through the camp on his mission soon after, and the troops and police saw no more of him. They remained at Te Whaiti until September 18 following, when, the road having progressed nearly to the camp and the differences between the Government and Maoris having been settled, the military force returned to Auckland. A small party of police was left in possession of the camp for a while after. Objection to a Pig-hunt. Mr. Kennedy’s recollections of the four months in the Urewera are mainly humorous and pleasant. It was winter time, and on account of the cold the men were given leave to build thatched huts and occupy them in place of tents. Many did so, and made themselves very fairly' comfortable with improvised fireplaces. A mess hut was also built. The Maoris were sullen at first, but after Mr. Carroll had passed through Te Whaiti on his mission they became friendly, and remained so to the end. At first the artillerymen were in doubt whether they might not be surprised at On one occasion the force was rimed to stand to arms, but it was a false alarm. The only trouble was a dispute with some of the natives after a pig hunt. The animals were taken in the bush a mile or two from the nearest Maori village. The natives declared that they were domestic pigs that had strayed and demanded compensation, but without success. The grassy’ flat made a good paradeground, and a regular routine of drill was kept up. Needless to say, this was watched with great inten?** by the

1 1 j • natives. One of the sergeants, whose voice was reputed to make the hills echo and the tree-tops quiver, was very soon given an appropriate Maori name. The other sergeant, a man of great girth, was promptly’ christened “Pukunui,” a nickname which stuck to him for the rest of his career. A Child’s Funeral. The Maori children became great favourites with the men. They held parades of their own, armed with sticks, and copied the evolutions of th«* troops. Once when a child died, the parents asked that it should be given a military funeral. This could not be permitted, but nearly every man in camp attended, and four of them carried their little friend’s coffin to the grave. Football matche and wrestling helped to pass the time, and at night “sing songs”'were held round a huge fire in the open. When the tim» for parting came, the Maoris shed many tears of farewell,’ the children (‘specially’. An old rangatira and his wife accompanied tho troops back to Rotorua, the men pitching a tent for them each night and striking it the next morning. So ended a potential “little war,” out of which came only peace and goodwill.