Taranaki Province is a large peninsula on the west coast of the North Island on New Zealand, closer to Wellington than it is to Auckland. At the time of the conflict the main settlement was at New Plymouth and much of the fighting took place within 25km of the town.
The immediate and most obvious cause of the war was the disputed sale of some 600 acres, 250 hectares, of land at Waitara. A minor chief of the Te Atiaswa Tribe offered to sell the land to the British. However the sale was vetoed by the paramount chief of the tribe, Wiremu Kingi. Despite knowing this Governor of the Colony, Thomas Gore Browne, accepted the purchase and tried to occupy the land.
The real issue was sovereignty. The Treaty of Waitangi had given the Maori Chiefs and the British Government equal sovereignty over the land of New Zealand. By 1860 it was tacitly recognized that British Law prevailed in the settlements and Maori Custom elsewhere. The British had accepted this situation for twenty years but were finding it increasingly irksome. The European settlers now outnumbered the Maori whose population was declining due to disease and low birth rates. They were convinced that the British system represented the best that civilization had to offer and saw it as both their duty and their right to impose it on other peoples.
However in the twenty years since the signing of the Treaty the Maori had made significant political advances. They had moved from being a collection of independent tribes to an effective confederation. This was called the King Movement and was largely centred on the Waikato region but had influence over large areas of the North Island. One of the uniting principles of the King Movement was their opposition to the sale Maori land and the concomitant spread of British sovereignty.
In March, 1860 Governor Browne ordered the militia commanded by Colonel Gold to occupy the disputed block of land at Waitara. In response Wiremu Kingi with about eighty men hastily built a Pa or defensive strong point on the land and refused to evacuate it.
The resulting action in many ways illustrates the military distance between the two sides. The British had nearly 500 men who were able to approach very close to the Pa and fire freely. They also had two 24-pound howitzers that between them fired 200 shells into the Pa. Despite all this firepower the Maoris suffered no casualties and abandoned the Pa that night leaving the British with nothing.
The Pa was small, it had been built by eighty men in a single night, but its dug out bunkers and covered trenches had protected the occupants from the heavy fire of the British troops. It was situated so that it was difficult to surround completely, it was easily made, very effective and completely expendable. With pa like this the Maori were able to neutralize the military superiority of the British and they were used effectively throughout the campaign.
At Waitara the British knew they had been defeated or at least thwarted. Their objective had been a decisive battle that would destroy the opposition and this had been denied them. It is perhaps an indication of the quality of the British leadership that Colonel Gold was unable to recognize the bunkers as bombproof shelters. He described the interior of the pa as "curiously hollowed out" Within a few days Maori war parties began plundering the farms south of New Plymouth, killing a few of the settlers who had not taken refuge in the town. Fearing an attack on New Plymouth was imminent the British withdrew from Waitara and concentrated around the town.
Hearing that some settlers were trapped by the rebellious Maori at Omata, south of New Plymouth, a British force of some 300 men set off in two columns to rescue them, one inland and the other along the beach.
What actually happened during that day depends upon the historian you read. It appears that the larger, inland party which consisted mainly of professional soldiers encountered heavy sniping from the bush surrounding them. They were effectively pinned down all day and retired to New Plymouth at dusk. As they returned they encountered a party of sailors who pushed on to a nearby Pa which they promptly stormed. Since they suffered only four casualties it seems probable that the Pa was largely undefended. However they returned to New Plymouth claiming a great victory. Meanwhile the column marching up the beach, composed largely of inexperienced settlers were in trouble. Trapped by the rising tide, surrounded by actively hostile Maori and running short of ammunition; the militia had been issued with only 18 rounds to last all day, and then they realised they had been abandoned by the professional soldiers. The retreated to a farmhouse and were preparing for hand to hand fighting, a last stand scenario, when the shooting of the sailors storming the Pa was heard. The attacking Maori immediately broke off the fight, the tide went down and the militia, no doubt greatly relieved, went home.
The action that day created heroes, villains and cowards in abundance. The settlers in New Plymouth felt besieged and they needed a victory. So it was reported in the press as a victory, the estimates of the number of Maori killed ranged from two to one hundred and fifty; the phrase "cart loads of bodies" was widely used. The Army were condemned as cowards for abandoning the smaller column. The Sailors were seen as the heroes of the day and their part was written up large. The men of the Settlers column were told that their dangers had been imaginary. And so on, truth was not in the picture. All that can be said with certainty is that several hundred men spent an afternoon shooting at each other, a few were killed and some wounded.
One of the combatants was Harry Atkinson who went on to become Prime Minister of New Zealand.
The British Settlers saw the King Movement as a direct challenge to the Queen, Victoria, and themselves. In a way they were right although they perceived the Movement as being far more aggressively anti-British than it probably was, as a direct affront to colonial authority. Because they were confident of victory in Taranaki they were hoping that the Kingites would become involved and thereby learn the futility of resisting the British. The Governor on the other hand feared that if the Kingites did get into the war their first move would be to attack Auckland.
After Waireka hostilities were suspended for two months while both sides approached King Potatou in the Waikato. He appears to have come down on the side of the Taranaki Maori but stopped short of a total commitment. When Wiremu Kingi returned to Taranaki he was accompanied by a Kingite war party. Kingi was too astute a strategist to let such an opportunity pass. Be wanted a battle with the British but he wanted it on his terms; he knew he was still outnumbered and out-gunned.
Early in June 1860, he began building a Pa which was only a mile away from the British base at Waitara. This was both a military threat and was seen as extreme provocation. The British forces had been severely criticised for their inaction, the press and the settlers had come to realize that the Battle of Waireka had not in any way been the substantial British victory it was claimed to be. The appearance of a hostile Pa so close to their own base could not be ignored.
Then on June 23 a British patrol was fired upon from the Pa. Colonel Gold immediately authorized and attack and on June 27 the garrison marched out, 350 elite troops and two howitzers. They were opposed by less than two hundred Maori.
The Maori had occupied two small hills lying between some swampy ground. Only one of the hills, Onekukaitara appeared to be fortified. The other hill, Puketakuere, which eventually gave its name to the battle appeared to be unoccupied and completely undefended. The British divided their forces into three groups and planned to surround the two hills. A group of 125 men commanded by Captain Messenger had the hardest task, to march around the back of the Maori and occupy Puketakauere in order to cut off the Maori retreat. they had a difficult march and were exhausted when they got into position, just as the action was beginning.
The howitzers began their bombardment and soon made a breach in the stockade on Onekukaitara Hill. The British commander ordered an immediate attack.
And the whole plan went disastrously wrong. There were very few Maori inside the Pa. Most of them were in deep trenches and rifle pits in front of it. When the British advanced on the stockade they entered the killing ground and faced " a most destructive fire" There was a pause while the British went to ground during which the remainder of the Maori emerged from the Pa and joined the battle. The British could make no progress, even holding their position was costing them casualties. Soon they were in danger of being out flanked. They began to retreat and continued retreating until they were all the way back in their base at Waitara. What was particularly shameful about this retreat was that the wounded were abandoned.
Meanwhile Captain Messenger was attempting to approach the battle from the rear over Puketakauere Hill. Contrary to appearances the hill was heavily trenched and the Maori were waiting for them. What happened subsequently is unclear but fully a third of the men died before they reached Camp Waitara.
The abandoned wounded were all killed by the Maori; altogether the British lost over a hundred men killed. They claimed to have themselves killed between 130 and 150 of the enemy but within a few days it became clear that the Maori had lost only five dead. The Battle of Puketakauere ranks with the Battle of Ohaeawai, First Maori War as one of the worst defeats suffered by the British troops in New Zealand.
The Battle of Waireka, March 28th, 1860
The King Movement Intervenes