THE TARANAKI WAR.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 286, 13 April 1889, Page 2

THE TARANAKI WAR.

REV. J. WARD IN AUCKLAND. On Monday night, in Auckland, the Rav. J. Ward, of Gisborne, delivered an address on his Reminiscences of the Taranaki War-*' There was a good attendance, and Mr T. McMaster presided. The Auckland Star reports the lecture as follows:—Mr Ward, prior to dealing with the incidents of the war, explained that Taranaki was very dear to him, for there his father landed in August 29th, 1844, from Home as a missionary, and it was in Taranaki that he himself was born and Spent his early days. He described in glowing terms ths beauty of the province and its pride, glorious snow-capped Egmont, er Taranaki, as the Maoris call it; and then briefly sketched the founding of New Plymouth in 1840 by the Plymouth Colonising Company, and the troubles and hardships contingent upon '■ roughing it ’’ in the early days of New Zealand colonisation, Taranaki grew apace in prosperity and population until the Waitara war broke out in 1860. This Taranaki war was one of great importance in the history of the colony. The immediate cause of the war was a dispute in connection with the purchase of some 600 acres of land near the Waitara, from a native chief named Teira and his hapu. This sale of land, which was made in defiance of the Ringites’ resolution to allow no more disposal of territory to the pakelm, was opposed by the Ngatiawa chief, Wiremu Kingi, who claimed a share in the land with his tribe. Opinions differed as to who had, according to the Maori custom, the best title to the Waitara, and it is generally thought now that Wi Kingi’s claim should have been fairly weighed, but Governor Gore Brown persisted in completing the purchase from Teira. Previous to this dispute, an inter-tribal war had raged for some time amongst the Taranaki natives regarding land sales to Europeans, and in these ambuscade

skirmishes Rawiri, Katatore, and many other Maoris were killed. In 1860, as war was imminent, two companies of the 65th Regiment were despatched from Wellington for New Plymouth in command of Major Turner, and in March the war commenced. The settlers in outlying parts of the country removed to the town with their wives and children, for shelter, leaving with sad hearts all their worldly possessions and the result of years' labor to the tender mercies of the enemy. The first shot in the war was fired on March 17th, 1860, when the •• L " pa was attacked by the militia and regulars, The fight was hastened by the action of the Governor in sending out surveyors to survey the disputed block, Their pegs were pulled up by the natives, who construoted in the neighborhood the " L ” pa, so called from its shape. The lecturer was at the time of the assault at a place many miles away, but ha heard distinctly the distant boom of British cannon bombarding the pa. On the 27th March the natives murdered at Ometa three European men and two boys, who had remained on their homesteads rather than come into the fortified town of New Plymouth, and in order to ascertain the fate of a number of outlying settlers end their families, Lfeut-Colonel Murray left for Ornate with 300 troops. For some reason Colonel Murray retired to town again soon after coming under the Maoris' fire at Omata, with his portion of the force. They were met returning by Captain Cracroft, of H. M.S. Niger, with sixty bluejackets and marines, who at once msrehed to the assistance of Captain Stapp’s body of settlers, who had marched out under Col. Murray and had not retreated. Coining In right of the Waireka pa occupied by the enemy, Captain Cracroft determined to take it. He charged with his brave little body of men and they took the pa by storm, scaling the trenches and palisades by mounting on each other's shoulders. They soon cleared the place of natives after a brisk fight, leaving none inside the trenches but dead jr dying Maoris. A perfect ovation was accorded the gallant bluejackets on their return to town, and to Captain Stapp’s company, who also reached New Plymouth with the loss of a few men. The excitement in New Plymouth was at the time intense, for none of the women and children there could say that their defenders would ever return again. The lecturer described the fortifying of Marsland Hill by the settlers, as a protection for the inhabitants in case of a Maori descent on the town. For a long time tha town was blockaded by the natives, who made a practice of cutting off stragglers within a very short distance of New Plymouth. Mr Ward described how a lad was tomahawked only a mile from town, and how his brother had a very narrow escape from falling into a Maori ambuscade laid for (him in a karaka grove through whice he was expected to pass. During this period nearly 200 deserted homesteads were sacked and burnt by the natives, in retaliation for the destruction of their kaingan and cultivations by the troops. The lecturer raed “ The Taranaki Mother's Lament,” a poem composed at the time, expressing the grief of many a Taranaki settler at the destraction of their once cherished homes. In consequence of the crowding together of the whole of the settlers and families within the narrow limits of the town, the Governor resolved to send the women and children off to Nelson, but the outcry and resistance thia determination evoked would not be soon forgotten. The women said they would not go and leave their husbands and brothers, and one woman in particular, finding it was intended to remove her on the transport vessel, took her husband's rifle and ammunition, and shutting herself up in a house defied them all to come and take her. Many of those women who did go to Nelson never saw their loved ones again. Still amidst all the war troubles New Plymouth had no lack of amusements, and a comic illustrated paper called the” Taranaki Punch "served to beguile the tedium of the blockade. The lecturer paid a tribute to the bravery of the Maori enemy throughout the war, instancing the gallant manner in which they charged and assaulted redoubts and fought against overwhelmningodds, as in the battle of Mahoetahi. The Mahoetehi ns was taken by assault by tha troops, and the surviving Maoris fled into an adjoining raupo swamp, where many severe hand to hand fights took place. In this assault, the leotursr’s brother was wounded. Th* sap Te Are! pa was described, and the manner in which Lieut. McNaughton, 8.A., who soon afterwards met his death, prevented the Maori* from carrying off the sap-roller at night, as as they had heretofore done. He had a ten. inch loaded shell placed near the roller, where it would be certain to have the desired effect. In the dark a number of natives came as usual and were about to roll away the sap-roller, when one of them stepped with both feet on the shell. In an instant the explosion blew him into space, and one of the enemy after, warde said that not a bit of that ** noble savage" did they ever see again. After referring to the British officers and mm who fought in the Taranaki war, the lecturer described the part the settlers took in the fighting, At first they were, as might be expected, not very well trained and disciplined, but they afterwards became excellent bush skirmishers, fighting the Maoris in thsir own way and on their own ground. If this had been the universally adopted plan of conducting campaigns he had little doubt but that the various little

wars in which the colonists had bsen engaged would have terminated much sooner, After speaking briefly as to the resumption of ths war in 1863, after its first close io 1860, the lecturer described the death of the Rev. John Whitely, an intimate friend of his father’s at the' White Cliffs, at the hands of a party of Ngatimaniapoto, in 1869. This tragedy was the concluding event in a nine years' intermittent war, whirii was estimated to have cost some seven millions sterling, However, they had now seen the last of a war of races, and a lasting peace was established between pakeha and Maori. He eulogised the bravery which the natives showed at Bang!riri, Orakau, and other places, and referred to such Maori genuine patriots as Wi Tamehana (William Thompson), to Wabaroa, and others, who fought for their soil and country with a heroic desperation which should ba tha emulation of every New Zealander who had affection for his adopted land.