George Augustus Preece ( – 10 July 1925) was an officer in New Zealand's Armed Constabulary who rose to prominence during

Te Kooti's War Te Kooti's War was among the last of the New Zealand Wars, the series of 19th century conflicts in New Zealand between the Māori and the colonising European settlers. It was fought in the East Coast region and across the heavily forested centra ...

. He was awarded the New Zealand Cross for his actions during the

siege of Ngatapa The siege of Ngatapa ( mi, Ngātapa) was an engagement that took place from 31 December 1868 to 5 January 1869 during Te Kooti's War in the East Coast region of New Zealand. Te Kooti's War was part of the New Zealand Wars, a series of confl ...

. The son of a

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

worker, Preece was born at

Coromandel Coromandel may refer to: Places India *Coromandel Coast, India **Presidency of Coromandel and Bengal Settlements ** Dutch Coromandel *Coromandel, KGF, Karnataka, India New Zealand *Coromandel, New Zealand, a town on the Coromandel Peninsula *Coro ...

in New Zealand. Able to speak the

Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...

he worked as an interpreter for the court and then, during the

East Cape War The East Cape War, sometimes also called the East Coast War, was a series of conflicts fought in the North Island of New Zealand from April 1865 to October 1866 between colonial and Māori military forces. At least five separate campaigns were ...

, for the military. Following the outbreak of Te Kooti's War in 1868, he became an officer in the Armed Constabulary and was heavily involved in the pursuit of

Te Kooti Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki (c. 1832–1893) was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatū religion and guerrilla fighter. While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Cha ...

, a militant Māori religious leader. In 1870 he was given command of a force of Armed Constabulary of

Te Arawa Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu (tribes and sub-tribes) of New Zealand who trace their ancestry to the Arawa migration canoe (''waka'').Urewera ranges, hoping to capture Te Kooti. In 1876 he became a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

and several years later a businessman in

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

. He died there in 1925, aged 80.

Early life

George Augustus Preece was born in 1845 at

Coromandel, New Zealand Coromandel, ( mi, Kapanga) also called Coromandel Town to distinguish it from the wider district, is a town on the Coromandel Harbour, on the western side of the Coromandel Peninsula, which is in the North Island of New Zealand. It is 75 kilomet ...

, to James Preece, a missionary, and his wife Mary Ann . His father, who arrived in New Zealand in 1829, was part of the

and based at mission stations in the area around the

Firth of Thames The Firth of Thames ( mi, Tikapa Moana-o-Hauraki) is a large bay located in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the firth of the rivers Waihou and Piako, the former of which was formerly named the Thames River, and the town o ...

. Preece was raised at Ahikeruru and became well versed in Te Reo, the Māori language. In 1864, he was employed at the magistrate's court in

Wairoa Wairoa is a town and territorial authority district in New Zealand's North Island. The town is the northernmost in the Hawke's Bay region, and is located on the northern shore of Hawke Bay at the mouth of the Wairoa River and to the west of ...

as a clerk and interpreter. The following year, the

broke out. This war was one of a series of conflicts in New Zealand between some local

Māori people The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several ce ...

on one side, and British imperial and colonial forces and their Māori allies on the other. These clashes are collectively termed the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the M ...

. Preece was attached to a contingent, commanded by Colonel James Fraser, of the Colonial Defence Force as an interpreter and served in this capacity until the end of the war in 1866, at which time he returned to his legal career.

Te Kooti's War

In July 1868,

, another conflict of the New Zealand Wars, broke out.

was a Māori warrior of the

Rongowhakaata Rongowhakaata is a Māori ''iwi'' of the Gisborne region of New Zealand. Hapū and marae There are three primary ''hapū'' (subtribes) of Rongowhakaata today: Ngati Kaipoho, Ngai Tawhiri and Ngati Maru. Ngāti Kaipoho Ngāti Kaipoho descend fro ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

'' (tribe) who in 1865 had fought on the side of the

New Zealand government , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = , ...

against the

Pai Mārire The Pai Mārire movement (commonly known as Hauhau) was a syncretic Māori religion founded in Taranaki by the prophet Te Ua Haumēne. It flourished in the North Island from about 1863 to 1874. Pai Mārire incorporated biblical and Māori spiritual ...

religious movement during the East Cape War in

Poverty Bay Poverty Bay (Māori: ''Tūranganui-a-Kiwa'') is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the north ...

. He was later deemed to be a spy and was exiled without a trial to the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

along with 200 Pai Mārire warriors and their families. He became their leader and in July 1868 escaped captivity with his followers, landing back in Poverty Bay in July 1868, triggering what was subsequently known as Te Kooti's War. At the start of the conflict, Preece was commissioned into the Armed Constabulary. This was a paramilitary law enforcement agency that formed New Zealand's main defence force at the time and which was led by Colonel George Whitmore. He participated in the pursuit of Te Kooti and was present at engagements with Te Kooti's forces in late July. Following a massacre carried out by Te Kooti in October of colonists in Poverty Bay, Preece was promoted to lieutenant and was given command of a force of around 170

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The tribe is organised into six geographical and administrative di ...

warriors from Wairoa, which he led in pursuit of Te Kooti. At Makaretu, a ''

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites o ...

'' (

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

) where Te Kooti positioned a rearguard, Preece and his men linked up with a contingent of

Ngāti Porou Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou is affiliated with the 28th Maori Battalion and has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand ...

kūpapa Kūpapa (also called Queenites, from Queen Victoria, loyalists and the friendly natives) were Māori who fought on the British side in the New Zealand Wars of the 19th century. The motives of the ''kūpapa'' varied greatly, as did their degree of ...

''—Māori who were aligned with the Government— commanded by Ropata Wahawaha. On 3 December they mounted an attack and defeated Te Kooti's rearguard. However, Te Kooti and the bulk of his forces had withdrawn undetected to a nearby ''pā'' at Ngatapa. Together with Ropata's men, Preece and his Wairoa warriors attacked Ngatapa the next day. They were able to make it up close to the ''pā'' and during the course of the afternoon small groups of warriors were able to join them. Eventually, they breached the outer defensive trench. As night fell, more reinforcements joined them but ammunition was low. Ropata requested some be brought up, but night had fallen and no one wanted to make the climb up in the dark. Ropata and Preece abandoned the position early the following morning as their men had run out of ammunition. They then withdrew from Ngatapa altogether, fatigued from the marching and fighting of the past several days, and returned to Tūranga. For their actions at Ngatapa, Ropata and Preece were subsequently awarded the New Zealand Cross (NZC), the recommendation coming from Whitmore. The NZC had recently been established as a gallantry award for colonial personnel, and was regarded as being equivalent to a

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

(VC); those serving in New Zealand's colonial militia were ineligible for the VC unless they were under the command of British officers. Preece continued to be involved in the pursuit of Te Kooti, who along with his surviving followers had fled to the rugged Urewera ranges. Promoted to captain, Preece was given command of a force of Armed Constabulary of

Te Arawa Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu (tribes and sub-tribes) of New Zealand who trace their ancestry to the Arawa migration canoe (''waka'').Te Teko Te Teko is a small inland town along the banks of the Rangitaiki River in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The township includes a racecourse, golf course, police station, and a primary school. The primary school was estab ...

he and his 90 men patrolled the western edges of the Ureweras in the hopes of capturing Te Kooti. His force fired the last shots of the New Zealand Wars on 14 February 1872, when they caught sight Te Kooti and a party of his men and pursued them for a distance up the Waiau Valley. Preece and his men were withdrawn from the field three months later after Te Kooti found shelter in the

King Country The King Country (Māori: ''Te Rohe Pōtae'' or ''Rohe Pōtae o Maniapoto'') is a region of the western North Island of New Zealand. It extends approximately from the Kawhia Harbour and the town of Otorohanga in the north to the upper reaches of ...

with the forces of the

Māori King Movement The Māori King Movement, called the in Māori, is a movement that arose among some of the Māori (tribes) of New Zealand in the central North Island in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the British c ...

Later life

Promoted to sub-inspector, Preece continued to serve in the Armed Constabulary until 1876 at which time he became a magistrate at

Ōpōtiki Ōpōtiki (; from ''Ōpōtiki-Mai-Tawhiti'') is a small town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Ōpōtiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Ge ...

. He subsequently fulfilled similar roles in Napier and

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

. In 1892 he retired from the judiciary and became a businessman. He moved to

, where he died on 10 July 1925. He was survived by his wife and four children.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Preece, George 1840s births 1925 deaths People from Coromandel Peninsula People of the New Zealand Wars Military leaders of the New Zealand Wars Interpreters District Court of New Zealand judges Recipients of the New Zealand Cross (1869)