War in the Waikato Region, 1863-4

Ngā Pakanga Whenua o Aotearoa i Waipā, me ngā takiwā o Waikato

The Waikato Campaign began on 12 July 1863. At the direction of the Governor, Sir George Grey, units of the British Imperial Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Duncan Cameron, crossed the northern boundary of territory claimed as a separate jurisdiction by Waikato Māori, represented by the Kīngitanga.

I tīmatangia te kauhanga riri Pākeha ki Waikato i te 12 o Hūrae, 1863. Nā te whakahau a Kāwana Hōri Kerei, i whakawhiti ai ngā ngohi o te Taua Karauna o Peretania e whakahautia ana e Rūtene Tianara Tākena Kāmariera, i te rohenga whakateraki o ngā iwi o Waikato, i raro i te Kīngitanga.

Graphic Novel

He pūrākau whai whakaahua

The New Zealand Land Wars in the Waikato

Ngā Pakanga Whenua o Aotearoa i te rohe o Waikato

In 1863 British Crown forces invaded Māori lands in the Waikato, unleashing a vicious war that would change this country and region forever.

I te tau 1863 ka ara ake te pakanga kino i te whakaeke a ngā hōia Pākehā a te Karauna i ngā whenua Māori o Waikato, me te aha, ka rerekē te āhua o tēnei motu me tēnei rohe, ā, haere nei te wā.

Emergence of the Kīngitanga

Te Putanga o te Kīngitanga

The Kīngitanga was a pan-tribal organisation established in the late 1850s to collectively resist government incursion into its territory through land purchases and the introduction of roads, government institutions and laws which threatened Māori authority and cultural identity. In 1858 King Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was anointed as the first Māori King to promote tribal unity and represent Māori interests, thereby counterbalancing the influence of the Governor who was regarded as representing Pākehā interests. Following his death in 1860 Te Wherowhero was succeeded by his son, who became King Tāwhiao.

Governor Grey, who had already made unsuccessful attempts to establish government institutions in the Waikato, interpreted the election of a Māori King as a threat to the authority of Queen Victoria and the British Crown. He used this, plus what he saw as the potential threat of the Māori jurisdiction to the safety of Auckland, to justify the invasion. He was also under public pressure to obtain land for a rising tide of would-be immigrant farmers.

He kaupapa ā-iwi puta noa, te Kīngitanga, i whakatūngia ai i ngā tau whakamutunga o te 1850 ki te ātete tōpū nei i te whakaeketanga kāwana mai ki tēnei rohe mā te hoko whenua, mā te urunga mai hoki o ngā rori me ngā kaupapa Kāwanatanga, ture hoki, i whakaweti i te Mana Motuhake Māori, me te āhuatanga Māori. I te tau 1858 i whakawahia ai a Pōtatau Te Wherowhero hei Kīngi Māori tuatahi ki te whakamana i te kotahitanga o ngā iwi, me te whakakanohi i ngā tūmanako o te Māori, hei ātete i te mana o te Kāwana, i whakaarotia ai hei kanohi mō ngā tūmanako Pākehā. matenga i te 1860, i tauatia ai a Te Wherowhero e tana tama, koia ko Kīngi Tāwhiao.

Ka tā Kāwana Kerei, kua ngana tahakore nei ki te whakatū kaupapa kāwanatanga, whakamāori i te whakatūnga Kīngi Māori, he whakatuma i te mana o Kuinni Wikitōria me te Karauna. Whakamahia ai e ia tēnei, me te whakatuma torohū a te Māori i te haumaru o Tāmaki Makaurau, hei taunaki i te raupatu. I te ākina hoki ia e te tūmatanui Pākehā ki te whiwhi whenua mō ngā kaipāmu manene tokomaha e haramai nei.

War Breaks Out

Ka Pakaru mai te Riri

Military engagements were fought on the Koheroa Ridge on 17 July 1863. An entrenched defensive site at Meremere was bypassed in late October with the aid of gunboats on the river while the defenders fell back on Rangiriri. Progress by the Imperial Army was halted between mid-July and October by the need to defend sites along the Great South Road and in the Pukekohe district – where Māori based in the Hunua Ranges and Ngāti Maniapoto warriors, from the Waikato River, tied down troops with guerrilla actions to the rear of the advancing army.

A significant battle for the Waikato followed at Rangiriri on 20-21 November 1863 when 1,500 troops with artillery, supported by gunboats, eventually overcame a force numbering about 500 supporters of the Kīngitanga in well-designed earthworks. However, none of these actions resulted in the decisive victory sought by Governor Grey and General Cameron. In each case, large numbers of Māori defenders escaped across adjoining swamps, and although 183 prisoners were taken at Rangiriri, the cost in British casualties was high.

By 8 December 1863 the British flag was flying at Ngāruawahia, at the confluence of the Waipā and Waikato rivers. General Cameron occupied what had been the headquarters of King Tāwhiao, although they were deserted when he reconnoitred it from the gunboat Pioneer prior to occupation. It was here that he consolidated his force during December before moving into the Waipā valley in early 1864.

I tū ngā whawhai i te pae o Koheroa i te 17 o Hūrae, 1863. I tōhipa noa iho i tētehi maioro i Meremere i te hiku o Oketopa, me te āwhina a ngā manuao i te awa, nō te rerenga o ngā kaiārai ki Rangiriri. I parea te kōkiritanga o te Taua Karauna i waenga i te puku o Hūrae me te Oketopa, i te aronga ki te tiaki i ngā wāhi i te rori o Great South i te takiwā o Pukekohe – ko ngā Māori i ngā pae o Hunua nō Waikato, me ngā toa o Ngāti Maniapoto, i ārai i ngā hōia mā te whawhai tukipoto i te hiku o te taua whakaeke.

I tū tētehi pakanga nui mō Waikato i Rangiriri i te 20-21 o Noema, nō te whakaekehanga a ngā hōia whai pū 1,500 nei, i tautokongia hoki e ngā manuao, i tētehi ope 500 nei o ngā toa Kīngitanga i ngā maioro. Heoi anō, kāore a Kāwana Hōri Kerei rāua ko Tianara Kāmariera, i tino toa i ēnei pakanga. I tēnā puta, i tēnā puta, he nui ngā kaipapare Māori i rere atu ai i ngā repo tata nei, ahakoa 183 ngā herehere Māori o Rangiriri i mau ai, he nui te utu tangata o ngā hōia.

I te 8 o Tīhema 1863, e tare ana te kara Peretania ki Ngāruawāhia, ki te huinga wai o Waipā me Waikato. I noho a Tianara Kāmariera i te takuahi o mua a Kīngi Tāwhiao, ahakoa rā kua whakarerea taua takuahi, nōna ka torotoro mai i te manuao o te Pioneer i mua mai i te noho muru. I konei i whakatōpū i tana taua i te Tīhema, i mua i te nekehanga ki te riu o Waipā, i te upoko o te 1864.

The War in the Waipā

Te Pakanga i te Waipā

Reinforced by additional British troops, and supported by colonial militia, by late January, Cameron had moved his force to Te Rore, confronting the newly-constructed and sophisticated entrenched Kīngitanga defensive sites at Pāterangi and nearby Pikopiko. They were located here for almost a month, building up supplies for the next phase of operations. Periodic skirmishing and shelling of Pāterangi occurred, and a significant engagement took place on 11 February 1864 when a bathing party was ambushed at Waiari.

Governor Grey desired a direct assault on Pāterangi to demonstrate his military superiority and assert his authority. However, General Cameron had learned the cost of directly assaulting a well-prepared defensive site at Rangiriri and – according to witnesses present – told Governor Grey to ‘go to hell’. General Cameron chose instead to bypass Pāterangi Pā with more than 1,200 men in a clandestine night manoeuvre on 20 February. They went on to attack the unfortified Kīngitanga village of Rangiaowhia the following morning and established a military encampment at Te Awamutu.

On 22 February, Kīngitanga defenders from Pāterangi confronting General Cameron’s force at Hairini, between Rangiaowhia and Te Awamutu, were repelled and Rangiaowhia was again occupied.

On 23 February, troops from the Imperial encampment at Te Awamutu, occupied Kihikihi. They looted and burned the undefended village of Rewi Maniapoto, whose occupants had withdrawn beyond the Pūniu River.

On 30 March surveyors, looking through theodolites to map the lands occupied so far, observed Kīngitanga defenders constructing a new defensive site at O-Rākau. During that night, a strong army column crossed the Pūniu near Kihikihi and re-crossed south of O-Rākau to effectively cut off any line of retreat for the supporters of the Kīngitanga. Next morning, a second column advanced from Kihikihi and a third from Bluett’s Redoubt at Rangiaowhia. Thus, for the first time, on 31 March the Imperial Army had fully surrounded a Kingite defensive site.

O-Rākau Pā was defended over three days by less than 300 Kingites who were heavily outnumbered by what grew to 1,800 better-equipped assailants. They withstood two frontal assaults, shelling by Armstrong guns and although without a water supply and lacking sufficient ammunition, refused an opportunity to surrender.

On 1 April, defenders broke out of the pā in a disciplined group, making their way south-west towards the Pūniu River. The eventual survivors joined the Kīngitanga in the Ngāti Maniapoto territory south of the Pūniu, where they were sequestered in a separate jurisdiction for 17 years in what became known as the King Country.

- Essay by Alan Hall, Pirongia Heritage & Information Centre

Taunakitia ana a Kāmariera e ngā hōia Peretenia āpiti, tautokongia ana hoki e te taua koroniara, ā, nō te hiku o te Hānuere, kua nekehia e ia tana taua ki Te Rore, whakaanga atu ai ki ngā waonga Kīngitanga hou, whakatūroa, marutuna nei hoki, ki Pāterangi, me Pikopiko e tūtata nei. I konei rātou, tata ki te kotahi marama, e whakaputu ana i ngā utanga mō te wāhanga o te kauhanga riri e haere ake nei. I puta ake ngā whawhai pokapoka, me te taiparatanga o Pāterangi, ka mutu, puta ana he tino karinga i te 11 o Pēpuere i te kokotinga o tētehi hunga e kaukau ana.

I hiahia a Kāwana Kerei ki te huaki horipū i Pāterangi ki te whakaatu i tana toa taua, ki te whakaū hoki i tōna mana. Heoi anō, i hipa a Tianara Kāmariera i te pā o Pāterangi me āna tāngata 1,200 mā te whakapae puku tūāpō i te 20 o Pēpuere, nā tana ako ki Rangiriri, i te utu o te huaki horipū i tētehi waonga kua āta whakaritengia – e ai ki tētehi tangata i reira, ko tā Kāmarirera ki a Kerei ‘pōkokohua koe!’. I haere tonu rātou ki te huaki i te kainga Kīngitanga o Rangiaowhia i te ata o muri tonu mai, ka whakatū ai hoki i tētehi puni hōia ki Te Awamutu.

I te 22 o Pēpuere, ka panaia ngā kaipapare Kīngitanga nō Pāterangi, i whakaanga ki te taua a Tianara Kāmariera ki Hairini, i waenganui o Rangiaowhia me Te Awamutu, ā, ka whetangia anō a Rangiaowhia.

Nō te 23 o Pēpuere, ka wheta ngā hōia nō te puni hōia ki Te Awamutu i Kihikihi. Ka murua, waihoki ka tahuna e rātou te kāinga o Rewi Maniapoto, inā rā, kua rere te iwi o te kāinga ki tāwahi atu o te awa o Pūniu.

Nō te 30 o Maehe i kitea e ngā kairūri whenua, ngā kaipapare Kīngitanga, mā te paikaraihe, e hanga ana i tētehi pā tūwatwata hou ki O-Rākau. I taua pō tonu, i whakawhiti tētehi ngohi hōia mārohirohi nei i te Pūniu tata ki Kihikihi, ā, ka whakawhiti mai anō i Pūniu, i te tonga o O-Rākau ki te haukoti mārika i te huarahi taui o ngā iwi Kīngitanga. Ao ake i te ata, i whakaeke atu he ngohi hōia tuarua i Kihikihi, me tētehi ngohi hōia anō i te rāihe o Bluett i Rangiaowhia. Nō reira, koinei te wā tuatahi i te 31 o Maehe, i karapotingia e te taua Karauna te tūwatawata Kīngitanga o O-Rākau.

I wawaotia te pā o O-Rākau mō ngā rā e toru, e te iwi Kīngitanga iti ake i te 300, i tuwhenatia e ngā kaiuruhi 1,800, pai noa ake te whai utauta. I ātete rātou i ngā whakaeke rae pātahi e rua, i ngā whakapahū hoki a te pūrepo Armstrong, ā, ahakoa kāore he puna wai, kāore hoki i rahi te hāmanu, kāore tonu i tuohu, kāore i te tuku.

Nō te 1 o Aperira, i puta raupapa nei ngā kaipapare i te pā hei, ka ahu tonga-mā-uru atu ki te awa o Pūniu. I tūhono atu ngā morehu ki te Kīngitanga i te rohe o Ngāti Maniapoto, ki te tonga o Pūniu, i reira rātou i noho haumaru ai ki te rohenga i mōhiotia ai ko te Rohe Pōtae, mō ngā tau 17.

Nā Alan Hall, Pirongia Heritage & Information Centre