A GRIM CAMPAIGN

Te Ao Hou, December 1961, Page 10

A GRIM CAMPAIGN Rapata and Mokena, with their Ngati Porou, were among the combined Maori and European forces which inflicted defeat on the Hauhaus at Waerenga-a-hika. Rapata and his men spear-headed the pursuit and defeat of the Hauhaus at Wairoa in the following months. Ngati Porou furnished the greater part of the garrison which kept uneasy peace in Poverty Bay during the four years which followed the Hauhau defeat. The letters of Major Reginald Newton Biggs, who was resident magistrate at Turanga during that period, give some idea of the cost at which Ngati Porou demonstrated their loyalty. “I have sent Henare Potae a ton of flour and a ton of potatoes and 4 cwt. of sugar,” he wrote to McLean. “I hope the Government won't find fault, but Ngati Porou are starving. They were protecting us, here at Turanga and at Wairoa, at a time when they should have been planting the food of which they are now so badly in need.” Paratene Ngata wrote in his diary: “We were sent for (by Rapata) to take up garrison duty at Turanga. The job was without monetary consideration so we depended on catching horses and hunting stray cattle and pigs. At times we had to leave the garrison because the rations were so meagre, and take odd jobs pit-sawing timber.” It was Rapata and his Ngati Porou who led the storming of parties in the advance on Te Kooti's position at Ngatapa and it was Rapata and his Ngati Porou who bore the main burden of keeping Te Kooti on the move in the Urewera, defeating one by one the supporting parties of Tuhoe and finally driving Te Kooti to sanctuary in the King Country. Under conditions so severe that two European columns, under Colonel's Whitmore and St John, had to be withdrawn Rapata and his tribesmen fought on. Rapata would not allow a fire to be lit lest it pinpoint his position to the enemy. It was a campaign that only the strongest

General view of marae Eastland Photographers could survive. Rapata and his men survived it, conquering privation as they conquered the enemy.