Tauranga

“ In Taraia's case this reprimand was sufficient to quiet him, but only a few months later Tongoroa, another Tauranga chief, made war upon his neighbours, and the sore which looked as though it had healed was suddenly reopened. Lieutenant Shortland, who had now assumed the post of Acting-Governor, proceeded to Tauranga to arrest the disturber of the peace, but before the apprehension could be effected his accumulating difficulties were further increased by an unexpected communication from Mr. Clarke, the chief Protector of the Aborigines, and Mr. Swainson, the Attorney-General. ”

“ During the prevalence of the war in the Waikato district, the principal seat of the late campaign, the Maoris at Tauranga remained faithful in their adherence to the British Crown. It was only after the hostile tribes, driven from their land in the Waikato by the advance of our army, had dispersed themselves in the south, that symptoms of disaffection appeared among the natives of Tauranga. The fugitives excited the alarm of their countrymen by asserting that they also would be stripped of their lands, and thus inciting them to revolt. ”

“ Angered at this perversity, Te Rauparaha shook the dust of Opepe from off his feet and proceeded to Rotorua, and as far as Tauranga, where he sought the aid of the great Te Waru. But he met with no success, for Te Waru had schemes of his own which claimed his personal attention. While resting with the Tu-hou-rangi branch of the Arawa tribe on his return to Rotorua from Tauranga, Te Rauparaha (according to accounts) perpetrated an outrage upon Nga-Puhi which was destined to inspire one of the most disastrous wars and one of the most daring assaults known in Maori history. ”

“ The party assembled at Tauranga, a port about a hundred and forty miles southeast of Auckland, and the most convenient starting-point for Ohinemutu, the headquarters of the hot-lake country. The little town was gay with flags and triumphal arches, and crowded with Maories looking forward to a his: drink in return for the dance with which they received the Governor. I was disappointed to find the natives were broad-nosed, thick-lipped, tattooed savages, or at least so they appeared at first sight. ”

“ Taraia, a chief of a tribe in the neighbourhood of the Thames river, having successfully assaulted the pa of a Tauranga tribe, cooked and ate the bodies of two of the slain chiefs, after the old manner of the Maori at the conclusion of a successful battle. ”

“ From Tauranga we proceeded to Maketu, the principal kainga, or settlement, of the Arawas, and celebrated in their traditions as the spot where their forefathers, some twenty generations back, first landed in New Zealand. No Europeans have as yet settled in the inland districts of this portion of the North Island, but the "Queen's son" was as safe among the Arawas in their own country as he would be among the Gordons in Aberdeenshire. ”

“ About four miles from the town is the celebrated Gate Pah, which was built by the Maoris as a defiance to the English, who had a fort at Tauranga. It was a fortification of double palisades such as the Maoris usually make, the inner line of palisades being much stronger than the outer one. Inside the inner line there is a ditch where the men can stand, with the earth breast-high in front of them ”

“ My visit to the Hot Lakes was made in company with the Duke of Edinburgh and several officers of H.M.S. 'Galatea.' Leaving Auckland, by sea, on the 12th of last December, we landed on the following morning at Tauranga, where the "son of the Queen" (te tamaiti o te Kuini) , as His Royal Highness is styled by the Maoris, was enthusiastically welcomed by seven hundred chiefs and clansmen of the tribes of the Arawas and of the Ngaiterangis. ”

“ This was indeed fortunate, for it would enable me to see Auckland, call upon our chief, Colonel Reader, at Wellington, thank him for his kindness in giving me the appointment at Tauranga, and say good-bye to all my old friends at Dunedin. At Auckland, a beautifully situated city with an excellent and picturesque harbour, I spent some four days, having ridden from Tauranga through the Kati-kati settlement, the old Thames Gold Fields, and finishing my most interesting journey in a 106 little steamer, the Rotomahana, sailing from Grahamstown. On arrival at Wellington I called on Colonel Reader. ”

“ The night of the 29th of April was, in the British camp at Tauranga, a night of deep humiliation and mutual reproach. The men were disgraced in their own eyes, and what would the people of England say? There is not a more gallant regiment in the service than the 43rd; Napier, who belonged to them, has commemorated their deeds of valour in the Peninsula, and the memory of the numerous engagements in which they have taken part is preserved on their colours. But now where were all the laurels they had won in the Peninsula and India? ”

“ Being smooth and of the same colour, both internally and externally, it cannot be mistaken. About a score of dead ones, varying from one and a-half to two inches in length, have been found by my friends and myself on the ocean beaches near the entrance to Tauranga Harbour, and at Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty. ”

“ The arriving tribe settled down then to the camp provided for them by the authorities. Two days afterwards the third tribe arrived, and the same ceremony took place. The ground then again shook unmistakably. It took one back—as many of the residents of Tauranga (who after fighting in the Maori War had settled in the district) remembered—to the days of that campaign and to the battle-cry of the advancing Maoris whom they had fought against. But these very men were now engaged in the pursuits of peace, and all of them welcomed with delight the presence of their late enemies. ”

“ Williams and his colleagues meanwhile journeyed back into the Thames Valley, and, after promising Waharoa to send him a teacher as soon as possible, passed on to the Bay of Plenty. At Tauranga a large gathering of the inhabitants was held. ”

“ Not amid battle cries, When the desperate foes Their dense ranks close: Not from the lips of the terrible guns Thy well-known cry resounding o'er the heath: "Now, now, my sons! Now fearless with me to the realms of Death!" Not thus—not thus, amid the whirl of war, Wert thou caught up and borne away afar! IV Who will arise to save? Who to the rescue comes? Waikato's lord—Tauranga's chief, Thy grandsons, rushing from their distant homes, They shall avenge their sire—they shall assuage our grief. ”

“ The route for the ease-loving tourist is from Tauranga by coach to the Hot Lakes, a distance of about fifty miles, and back again over the same route. It is proper to say that travellers who come as far as New Zealand for the sake of sight-seeing are greatly disinclined to repetition, and nearly all visitors go by one route and return over another. ”

“ We have been so long successful by land and by sea, that we have come almost to regard victory as our right, and when our arms meet with any reverse we are apt to be unjust, and to ascribe our failure to any but the true cause. Sir Duncan A. Cameron, the general commanding the forces in New Zealand, has been most unjustly assailed as the cause of the recent disaster at Tauranga, and a portion of the English press have been unmeasured in their abuse of that distinguished officer. ”

“ In the Bay of Plenty I have found this shell seven inches long and extremely solid and heavy, and I am inclined to think from the shape and structure of the valve that the Bay of Plenty Mesodesma is different from the Ventricosa; but I never secured a live one while in Tauranga.
MESODESMA NOVÆ-ZELANDIÆ (Plate VIII.) .—Fig. 25 (late Paphia novæ-zelandiæ) is the common oval Pipi, or Kokota, of the Maoris. This whitish shell, covered with a thin, horny epidermis, is sometimes 21⁄2 inches long. It is found in both the North and South Islands on sandy banks in harbours and in tidal rivers. ”

“ He then sent General Cameron with 1,500 soldiers to deal with them. This force found the Tauranga tribe prepared to fight in a strong place called the Gate Pah, built on a ridge with a swamp at each side. They had 500 men in it, all well armed. Cameron had three heavy guns placed in position, and during the night 700 soldiers passed round one of the swamps to get at the rear of the Maoris. In the morning a terrific fire was opened, and for two hours the place was swept by shot and shell, but the Maoris had dug underground shelters for themselves, and were little injured. ”

“ On the peninsula of Te Papa, in the Poverty Bay district of East Auckland, the Maoris had entrenched themselves in a very strong position. They had built a long stockade along the narrow strip of land connecting the peninsula with the coast, at Tauranga, with rifle-pits extending almost the whole length. This formidable fort was known as the Gate Pah, because it commanded the entrance to that region.
The natives chose the place for their stronghold wisely. The Gate Pah was guarded by great swamps on both sides, which rendered a flank attack impossible. ”

“ During ten years of intermittent marching and fighting between 1861 and 1871 the Maori did no more than prove that they had in them the stuff to stand up against fearful odds and not always to be worsted. Round Mount Egmont, at Orakau, at Tauranga and in the Wanganui jungles, they more than once held their own against British regiments and colonial riflemen. The storming of their favourite positions—stockades strengthened with rifle-pits—was often costly ”

“ His scheme was to effect the destruction of the great {27} canoe which had brought the hated rivals of his tribe to New Zealand. Once decided upon, his plan was put into execution with a promptness worthy of a better cause. Travelling along the coast from Tauranga to Maketu, he and his followers arrived at the latter place when all its inhabitants were absent in quest of food. But his trouble was that the Arawa had been berthed on the opposite side of the Kaituna River, where she had been housed under a covering of reeds and grass to protect her from the ravages of the weather. ”

“ Theft and murder accounted for a certain number of heads; but the conquerors in battle presently began to offer them in exchange for—as always—guns and ammunition. In the year 1830 a tribe living on the shores of the Bay of Plenty defeated certain Nga-Puhi, and sold such heads as were in proper condition to the master of the next vessel which touched at Tauranga. The brig proceeded to the Bay of Islands—whence had come the original owners of the heads—and was boarded by some of the natives there. ”

“ Do they attempt to build larger Vessels?
No. There are Districts of clever Men, such as at the East Cape; they make handsome Mats, and in carving they are peculiarly clever. As a Race of People they are totally different; they are Black, and their Courage is accounted below Par. All the other Natives say that any one of them can beat Natives of the East Cape. Have they never expressed a Wish to imitate the building of European Vessels?
No; but they have bought them. One especially I remember being in the War at Tauranga. ”

“ Civilians have obtained the Victoria Cross in India; there is no reason why it should not be bestowed on those who are equally worthy in New Zealand.
Our readers are already familiar with the attack on the Gate Pa at Tauranga, on the 29th of April, when our soldiers and sailors, after effecting an entrance into the Maori stronghold, were seized with a sudden panic, and retreated in the greatest disorder. It is rare indeed for our soldiers or sailors to desert their officers in the hour of danger ”

“ Tangaroa 12 note
tangiwai, legend concerning 15
tapu 16, 22, 33, 53, 71, 74, 79
Taramakau 75
Taumutu 21
Tauranga 35, 45
tautau, see kapeu
Tawha, Henare 21, 74
Te Aratangata, death of chief 36
Te Heuheu 34
Te Ika Poto 11 ”

“ The check caused by the Rotorua-Thames (or "bonnet") war was but of short duration. Long before its close, Chapman was back at Rotorua, with Morgan as his colleague. They built a new station on the island in the lake (Mokoia) , and here their families and their wardrobes were in peace. Before long every village round the lake had its raupo chapel; and Chapman himself pressed on southward to Lake Taupo, where the effects of his labours will meet us later on.
In the same year (1838) Brown and Wilson re-occupied Tauranga, which soon became a particularly powerful centre. ”

“ In truth, the Maoris of New Zealand, though they have never studied at Woolwich, are adepts in military engineering; instinct in their case has supplied the want of science. The sites of their pas, which are simply redoubts built of earth and inclosed with a wooden palisade, have always been chosen with the double intention of inflicting the greatest possible injury on their assailants, and securing their own retreat when their position becomes untenable. No attempt was made to restrain the natives from erecting a pa at Tauranga ”

“ Passing a rope round his neck, they made shift to mount their horses, bare-backed, and, forcing him to accompany them, they led him that long, hot ride of [Pg 136] thirty miles, back to Tauranganui, where they arrived that night. Yes, faint though they were with the loss of blood, racked with the pain of untended wounds, without a round of ammunition, and hampered by an evil brute of a Hau Hau, who did everything in his power to retard their progress. Yet they would neither kill him nor let him go.
That I think is a yarn that illustrates folly, pluck and endurance. ”