The Tauranga campaign was a six-month-long armed conflict in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
's
Bay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...
in early 1864, and part of 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 ...
that were fought over issues of land ownership and sovereignty. The campaign was a sequel to the
invasion of Waikato
The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federatio ...
, which aimed to crush the
Māori King
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
(Kingitanga) Movement that was viewed by the colonial government as a challenge to the supremacy of the
British monarchy
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwi ...
.
British forces suffered a humiliating defeat in the Battle of Gate Pā on 29 April 1864, with 31 killed and 80 wounded despite outnumbering their Māori foe, but saved face seven weeks later by routing their enemy at the Battle of Te Ranga, in which more than 100 Māori were killed or fatally wounded, including their commander,
Rawiri Puhirake.
Background
In late January 1864 British commander General
Duncan Cameron—at the time still facing the intimidating Paterangi line of Māori defences in the
Waikato campaign
The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation ...
—despatched by sea an expedition to occupy
Tauranga
Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...
, through which he believed his enemy were transporting men and supplies from the East Coast.
The local
Ngāi Te Rangi
Ngāi Te Rangi or Ngāiterangi is a Māori people, Māori iwi, based in Tauranga, New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends to Mayor Island / Tuhua and Waihi Beach, Bowentown in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, south of Te Puke and to ...
Māori were hostile to the government, a major
gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...
store was known to be inland of Tauranga and the district was an important source of food for Māori fighting British forces in the Waikato. While Colonel Henry Greer was landed with his force at Te Papa, where they built two redoubts, Captain Robert Jenkins, commander of
HMS ''Miranda'', was ordered to blockade the harbour to prevent the arrival of more Māori reinforcements.
Though Cameron's strategy gained the enthusiastic support of Premier
Frederick Whitaker
Sir Frederick Whitaker (23 April 1812 – 4 December 1891) was an English-born New Zealand politician who served twice as the premier of New Zealand and six times as Attorney-General.
Early life
Whitaker was born at the Deanery Manor House, ...
and his cabinet, who were keen to use the 1863
confiscations legislation to open fresh territory for European settlement, Governor
George Grey
Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Go ...
was opposed, fearing it would raise rebellion in more Māori tribes, including those that had thus far refrained from supporting the Kingitanga movement. Grey withdrew his initial assent for Whitaker's orders to take an aggressive stance and instead directed the Tauranga expedition's commander, Brigadier
George Carey
George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton (born 13 November 1935) is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
During his time as archbishop the C ...
, to remain strictly on the defensive, apart from intercepting armed bands en route to the Waikato.
Alerted to their arrival, Ngāi Te Rangi warriors returned from the Waikato battlefields and built a hilltop fort, or ''
pā'', on high ground at Te Waoku near the Waimapu Stream overlooking the Bay of Plenty, where they established a garrison of about 100 men. Ngāi Te Rangi chief
Rawiri Puhirake taunted Carey in a letter, challenging him to fight, then in April 1864 moved closer to the British base to occupy to a new ridge-top position at Pukehinahina, a locality known to Europeans as "The Gate" because of the presence of a post-and-rail fence and gateway used by Māori to block
Pākehā
Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Ze ...
trespassers. The new fortification, which became known as the "Gate Pā", was built just 5 km from imperial troops, who were prohibited by Grey's orders from intervening.
Puhirake, finding it increasingly difficult to keep his force together without a battle in prospect, again attempted to goad the British into action.
Meanwhile, fighting had already broken out nearby. A large contingent of East Coast Māori, possibly as many as 700 warriors, were making their way towards the conflict at Waikato. Their route took them through the territory of another tribe which saw themselves as allies of the Pākehā, the Arawa tribe based around
Rotorua
Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...
. Forewarned of this, the Arawa chiefs called back their tribesmen, many of whom were working in Auckland or further north. Pausing in Tauranga to borrow guns from the British, they hastened onward to Rotorua. Four hundred warriors of the tribe were mobilised and they met and held the
East Coast
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* East Coast FM, a ra ...
Māori on 7 April in a two-day battle on the shores of
Lake Rotoiti. On 27 April fighting broke out again on the coast, with Māori loyal to the Crown supported by the
43rd Regiment and British corvettes firing on Kingite Māori as they were pursued through the sand dunes.
Battle of Gate Pā
Still hoping to provoke an attack, the 250 Ngāi Te Rangi fighters at Pukehinahina enlarged the existing trench and banks and transformed the pā into a system of two redoubts, including a honeycomb of ''rua'', or anti-artillery bunkers. Ngāi Te Rangi garrisoned the main redoubt, and about 30 members of the Ngāti Koheriki ''hapu'' and another 10 men from Piri-Rikau and other ''hapu'' manned the smaller redoubt. With timber scarce in surrounding swampland,
palisading was frail, but the location of the redoubt on a hilltop, and the total span of the palisading gave their enemy the impression of greater strength than it actually possessed. In all, the total garrison of Gate Pā was about 230 men.
On 5 April Cameron abandoned hope of pursuing
Ngāti Hauā
Ngāti Hauā is a Māori people, Māori iwi of the eastern Waikato of New Zealand. It is part of the Tainui confederation. Its traditional area includes Matamata, Cambridge, New Zealand, Cambridge, Maungakawa, the Horotiu district along the Wai ...
leader and prominent Kingite
Wiremu Tamihana
Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa ( – 27 December 1866), generally known as Wiremu Tamihana, was a leader of the Ngāti Hauā Māori iwi in nineteenth century New Zealand, and is sometimes known as the kingmaker for his role in the Māori ...
after his foe evacuated the besieged
Te Tiki o te Ihingarangi pā near Lake Karapiro. Cameron switched his attention to Tauranga, arriving there on 21 April in and established his headquarters at Tauranga. In addition to the reinforcements on ''Esk'', more from
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
arrived on . Within days Cameron decided he had sufficient forces to finally march against Gate Pā.
On the afternoon of 28 April, Cameron launched an hour-long attack on the front of Gate Pā with four batteries of artillery placed at a range of between 350 and 800 metres. The battery—the heaviest used in the wars of 1863–1864—included a 110-pounder
Armstrong gun
An Armstrong gun was a uniquely designed type of Rifled breech-loader, rifled breech-loading field and heavy gun designed by William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England beginning in 1855 by the ...
, two 40-pounder and two six-pounder Armstrongs, two 24-pounder
howitzer
A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
s, two eight-inch mortars, and six
Coehorn
A Coehorn (also spelled ''cohorn'') is a lightweight mortar originally designed by Dutch military engineer Menno van Coehoorn.
Concept and design
Van Coehoorn came to prominence during the 1688–97 Nine Years War, whose tactics have been su ...
mortars. According to accounts by
Hēni Te Kiri Karamū and
Hōri Ngātai, the first victims of the British cannon shots were
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
ministers conducting prayers.
Late in the night Greer moved his 700 men from the
68th Regiment across swamps to the east of Gate Pā under cover of darkness and rain to take up a position to the rear of the redoubt to cut off a Māori retreat. Those forces were joined by a detachment of the Naval Brigade from the warships ''Esk, Falcon'' and . By daybreak on 29 April Cameron had a total of about 1650 men surrounding the pā: 700 of the 68th Regiment, 420 from the Naval Brigade, 300 of the 43rd Regiment, 50
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
, and another 180 members of the
12th
12 (twelve) is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13. Twelve is a superior highly composite number, divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.
It is the number of years required for an orbital period of Jupiter. It is central to many systems ...
,
14th,
40th and
65th Regiments.
At first light on 29 April the assembled guns and mortars opened fire again, this time maintaining the bombardment for more than eight hours. They destroyed the palisade and completely suppressed Māori gunfire. An estimated 30 tonnes of shell and shot were dropped on or near the Māori position,
killing about 15 of the defenders.
At about 4pm, with no sign of life in the pā, Cameron ordered an assault by 300 men—a combined force of Naval Brigade under Commander Hay and the 43rd Regiment, led by Lieutenant-Colonel H.G. Booth—who ran in four abreast with fixed bayonets. Another 300 men followed at a distance as a reserve. Some in the initial British assault force were shot as they entered the main pā, and inside the redoubt more fell as they engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Māori armed with shotguns and
mere (short clubs). A lull of about five minutes occurred, during which time Captain G.R. Greaves, who was with the leading files of the assault party, left the pā and reported to Cameron that the redoubt had been captured and that British casualties were light.
But minutes later, as the rear of the pā was breached by the 68th Regiment, all changed. In a sequence of events that is still unclear, fierce fighting erupted, taking a heavy toll on the invaders and panicked British forces began streaming out of the pā. Historian James Cowan wrote: "More than a hundred of the assaulting column were casualties, and the
glacis
A glacis (; ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in bastion fort, early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More genera ...
and the interior of the pā were strewn with dead or dying. The Maori suffered too, but not severely." Thirty-one of the British force died, including 10 officers, while 80 were wounded.
At least 25-30 Māori were killed or missing.
Several theories exist to explain the British stampede from the pā. A contemporary report by a seaman in the pā suggested that the flood of soldiers from the 68th Regiment at the rear was mistaken for Māori reinforcements. Historian
James Belich has postulated that the bulk of the Māori garrison remained concealed in camouflaged bunkers as the British forces stormed the pā, before unleashing waves of heavy volleys from close range on the British, who were standing almost on their hidden foes. Belich cites descriptions of the main redoubt as being "like ratholes everywhere, with covered ways and underground chambers" and notes that Rawiri Puhirake ordered defenders to "not utter a word or fire a shot till the proper time came for the order". Belich claims that by providing only a feeble defence from the garrison during the storming of the pā and keeping his garrison hidden, Rawiri Puhirake employed a "remarkable tactical ploy ... brilliantly implemented as well as brilliantly conceived" to lure the British into a deadly trap.
As night fell, the Gate Pā garrison, assuming the site would be stormed the next morning, evacuated their position, passing through the lines of the 68th Regiment and fleeing across surrounding swamps before dispersing.
Reaction to British defeat
Gate Pā was the single most devastating defeat suffered by the British military in the New Zealand Wars: while British casualties totalled more than a third of the storming party, Māori losses are generally unknown but thought to number at least 25-30, including Ngāi Te Rangi chiefs Te Reweti, Eru Puhirake, Tikitu, Te Kani, Te Rangihau, and Te Wharepouri, and Te Urungawera chief Te Kau.
Te Moana-nui and Te Ipu were among the wounded, estimated at at least 25-30.
To contemporaries Gate Pā was seen as a shattering and humiliating defeat, with one newspaper noting that the "gallant" force had been "trampled in the dust ... by a horde of half-naked, half-armed savages".
Grey, horrified by the disaster, began exploring ways to limit the extent of land confiscations and thus reduce Māori resistance.
Grey visited Tauranga on 12 May to confer with Cameron and engaged some neutral Māori to act as intermediaries with the Kingites to negotiate a peace agreement.
Three days later, on 15 May, Cameron advised Grey he had decided to cease aggressive operations in Tauranga; the following day he left for Auckland with 700 men, leaving Greer in command of Te Papa with instructions to remain strictly on the defensive. On 20 May the Māori mediators reported that the Kingites were willing to surrender their arms "if they can have full claims over their lands and the Governor will promise to see that no harm befalls them". By early June several Ngāi Te Rangi warriors had handed in their guns and naval commodore William Wiseman reported to London that hostilities in the area had ceased.
Battle of Te Ranga
Despite government hopes of peace, Kingite forces—newly reinforced by ''hapu'' of
Ngāti Pikiao
Ngāti Pikiao is a Māori iwi of New Zealand.
Te Arawa FM is the radio station of Te Arawa iwi, including Ngāti Pikiao, Tūhourangi and Ngāti Whakaue. It was established in the early 1980s and became a charitable entity in November 1990. The s ...
, from Rotoiti, as well as a Ngati-Porou war party from the East Cape and commanded by Hoera te Mataatai—decided in June to again challenge the British forces. They selected Te Ranga, a steep but flat-topped ridge about 5 km from Gate Pā, and began working on entrenchments and rifle pits to cut off a bush track.
On 21 June Greer, leading a reconnaissance patrol of about 600 men of the 43rd and 68th Regiments and 1st Waikato Militia, came upon the 500-strong Māori force labouring on Te Ranga's defences. Knowing any delay would allow his foe to strengthen their defences, Greer chose to launch an immediate attack. He sent back to Te Papa for reinforcements, then deployed his men to fan out and open fire on the pā's outposts and trenches. As the reinforcements—220 men including cavalry and one Armstrong gun—arrived two hours later, he ordered a charge on Te Ranga. The Māori responded to the ferocity of the advance of British bayonets with double-barrelled shotguns, but had little time to reload and were forced to fight hand-to-hand with ''mere''. Between 83 and 120 Māori were killed or fatally wounded, half of them with bayonets; Gate Pā commander Rawiri Puhirake was among the dead. His death prompted the survivors to flee. Thirteen privates of the 43rd and 68th Regiments were killed in the battle, and six officers and 33 non-commissioned officers and privates wounded.
Settlers celebrated the success at Te Ranga, the last serious engagement of the Tauranga campaign, as "by far the most brilliant achievement obtained throughout the whole war". Coming so soon after the humiliating defeat at Gate Pā, they viewed it as a satisfying act of revenge that reclaimed the honour of the troops. But Cameron, who was showing an increasing distaste for the war against a foe among whom he found more courage and chivalry than among the colonists,
remained steadfast in his opposition to further aggressive actions.
One hundred and thirty-three Ngāi Te Rangi warriors surrendered to the British on 24 July. By 29 August the entire tribe with the exception of one ''hapu''—36 members of Piri Rakau—had followed suit. The tribe gave up some of land and 81 guns, although they still retained a number of firearms in their possession.
Aftermath
Piri Rakau, the Waikato ''hapu'' that refused to surrender in 1864, fled into the hills behind Tauranga where they lived in hiding at Kuranui. With them were Ngati Porou followers of 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 spiritua ...
religious cult who arrived in exile about 1869 and Kuranui became a place of sanctuary for many people of different tribal origins. The community gave support to
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 ...
when he ventured north to Matamata in early 1870. Te Kooti, having been rebuffed by King
Tāwhiao
Tāwhiao (Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Tāwhiao; c. 1822 – 26 August 1894) was leader of the Waikato tribes, the second Māori King, and a religious figure. He was a member of the Ngati Mahuta (Hapū) of Waikato.
Biography
T ...
in western Waikato and the King Country, was trying to lay claim to the eastern Waikato. Two Arawa hapu also joined Te Kooti's rebels, but Tauranga Māori were anxious not to renew the war in Tauranga and distanced themselves from Te Kooti. Chief Tana Taingakawa, Wiremu Tamihana's son from Ngati Haua, wrote to Colonel Moule urging him not to fight Te Kooti in his land.
[J. Binney, ''Redemption Songs'', Auckland University Press 1996, p202-203.]
Footnotes
References
Further reading
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* {{cite book , last= , first=, authorlink= , title=The People of Many Peaks: The Māori Biographies from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biographies, Vol. 1, 1769–1869 , publisher=Bridget Williams Books and Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand , year=1990 , location=Wellington , isbn=0908912196
Conflicts in 1864
New Zealand Wars
1864 in New Zealand
Tauranga
History of the Bay of Plenty Region