On 21 June the uneasy quiet in Tauranga was broken by gunshot. In the bloody exchanges that followed over 100 lives were lost, most of them Māori. The battle of Te Ranga, as it came to be known, saw Māori forces overwhelmed by British troops. Rawiri Puhirake and Henare Taratoa were among those who lost their lives that day.

Fighting on 21 June came more by surprise than by a planned attack. On 20 June Captain Colville and other officers in camp rode over the district conducting a regular patrol. Their route took them to Te Ranga, the narrow ridge on the track leading inland. They saw nothing.

The next morning Colonel Greer marched a large contingent out of the camp at 8am. 3 Field officers, 9 captains, 14 subalterns, 24 sergeants, 13 buglers and 531 rank and file were under his command. In his report later that day Greer gave his account of what took place:

'I found a large force of Maori (about 600) entrenching themselves about four miles beyond Pukehinahina. They had made a single line of rifle pits of the usual form, across the road, in a position exactly similar to Pukehinahina, the commencement of a formidable pa. Having driven in some skirmishers they had thrown out, I extended the 43rd and a portion of the 68th in their front and on the flanks as far as practicable, and kept up a sharp fire for about two hours, while I sent back for reinforcements... As soon as they were sufficiently near to support, I sounded the advance, when the 43rd, 68th, and 1st Waikato Militia charged, and carried the rifle pits in the most dashing manner, under a tremendous fire, but which for the most part was too high. For a few minutes the Maoris fought desperately, and then were utterly routed.'

It was a bloody scene. The close confines meant that much fighting took place in the rifle pits, estimated at 250 yards long and four and a half feet deep.

The Māori party, led by Rawiri Puhirake, did not retreat but stood their ground. Reinforcements also came to their support, but too late. The steep ravines surrounding the ridge made for difficult pursuit.

Henare Wiremu Taratoa, c.1860. 1/2-011005-F, Alexander Turnbull Library

The next day, 22 June, a party of British officers returned to the scene to bury the dead. Archdeacon Alfred Brown was present. Those who died were laid to rest in the rifle pits where they had fallen. Henare Taratoa, the scholar and key author of the code of conduct by which Ngai Te Rangi had set down the terms by which they would fight, was found with a copy of the code sewn into his jacket. It included the verse from the New Testament book of Romans 12: 20 'If  thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst give him drink'.

With this heavy loss Te Ranga marked the last major engagement between government and Māori forces in the Waikato-Tauranga wars of 1863-64. Te Ranga is remembered as a place of tragedy, and of heroism. To iwi in Tauranga Moana today it is also considered an event of mate kohuru - treacherous murder.

Events marking the 150th anniversary are taking place over the next 2-3 days, including a memorial service on the site of the battle.

A.N. Brown to George Grey, 27 June 1864, GLNZ B 29.8, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

Col H H Greer to Deputy Quartermaster-General, 21 June 1864, Enclosure in No.19, Further Papers Relative to the Affairs of New Zealand, Great Britain Parliamentary Papers, 1865, Vol.XXXVII.

During late May and early June 1864 there were signs that a kind of peace may have been negotiated in Tauranga. Grey had put out some terms in discussions with some Māori in the area before returning to Auckland. Ngai Te Rangi had been under arms for nearly four months. Winter was approaching.

Signs of a retreat, or at least a suspension of hostilities, were evident. 700 British troops returned to Auckland in mid May and others followed over the next three weeks. The remaining troops, which General Cameron left under the command of Colonel Greer of the 68th Regiment, were instructed to patrol the district. There were no obvious plans for a winter campaign.

Hugo Shelley Light, 1834-1894. The DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery.

Hugo Light, lieutenant in the 68th, wrote to his mother (who was living in Italy) describing the outpost he was sent to occupy near the Wairoa River on the northern side of the Tauranga Harbour across the peninsula from the main encampment at Te Papa:

"I have set to work to make myself comfortable, have dug out my tent, put an old one over it and made it very comfortable. The ground is well suited to digging out as it is good clay & sand soil. I have dug about 4 feet deep, and managed a capital fireplace that draws to perfection, stretcher bed, table, & all the luxuries of the season, so that tho' under canvas for the winter, not the least to be pitied. We have had a very rough time of it up to this, so you may fancy I am glad, now that the weather has got bad, to get comfortable. A friend of mine once told me about the weather out here, that it blew a gale every day in the  week and a storm on Sunday and he was not far wrong when he made that quaint remark.

I went out with a patrol last week about 5 miles inland but saw not Maoris or sign of them, so I hope they will not give me any trouble, I think they will regret it if they do.

I like this place very much. It is very prettily situated overlooking the harbour which separates it from Te Papa. The only drawback is that I have no communication with HQ except at low water, when the harbour is fordable in one place. I was over there yesterday and walked back rather late for the tide, so that I got it as high as the hips, this is all very well in warm weather, but not on a cold night."

In the days between action the lives of officers and men could be preoccupied with food, drink, and daily comforts and discomforts. In another letter Light described his rations as "very fair, 3 of us dined together in 1 tent, we get fresh bread baked in camp, 3/4 lb of meat, potatoes & a good go of rum, and by drawing our servants rations with us, we manage to get a fair joint now and then."

Hugo Shelley Light, Letters, 28 May 1864, and n.d. 1864, D/DLI 7/409/4, and D/DLI 7/409/3, Durham Record Office

Men who took up arms to fight occupy the centre stage in the history of the wars of the 1860s. They did so as fathers, husbands and sons; as members of whanau and hapu alongside wahine. Women were present in Tauranga on both sides of the conflict though their presence is often overlooked. Where might we find the women whose lives continued in the shadow of war?

Unnamed woman, 1864, Horatio Gordon Robley, A-080-002, Alexander Turnbull Library

We do not know the name of the woman in the painting above. She was living in the Tauranga district in 1864 where she was painted by H. Gordon Robley (1840-1930) and simply identified as belonging to Ngaiterangi. The painting is one of a large number Robley made during the nineteen months he was stationed in the area as an officer with the 68th Regiment.

High Trees, the house in which Agnes Greer and Colonel Henry Greer lived in Tauranga, 1864-66.
Tauranga City Libraries.

Agnes Greer (1831-1912) travelled from England to New Zealand when her husband, Colonel Henry Greer, was sent into the field as a commanding officer in late 1863. She sailed with her three youngest children and husband on the Silver Eagle, leaving England in late November 1863 and arriving in Auckland in March 1864.

As the war in the Waikato came to an end and the focus of fighting moved to Tauranga, Agnes Greer also moved there with her husband. Colonel and Mrs Greer occupied the house known as 'High Trees', the most elaborate house in the small settlement.  Agnes Greer gave birth to her fifth child in March 1865. The birth was premature; there were fears for Mrs Greer's life following the birth. Captain Charles Shuttleworth, an officer with the 68th Regiments, recorded in his diary on 24 March that Mrs Greer was 'very dangerously ill'.  Four days later he was still noting that her health was 'very bad'. By 11 April he could report that she was 'getting better'. The regimental band played for the first time 'since Mrs G. illness' on 15 April. Sadly, the child died a few weeks later.

Erena, 1864, Horatio Gordon Robley, A-080-009, Alexander Turnbull Library

The portrait of a younger woman identified as Erena, also made by Horatio Gordon Robley in the Tauranga area in 1864, brings another woman into historical view. Twenty-four year old Robley developed close ties with some Māori living in the area; he married a local woman Harete Mauao with whom he had a son Hamiora Tu Ropere. Robley left New Zealand in early 1866 leaving Harete and Hamiora behind.

Charles Shuttleworth Diary, 1865, D/DLI 7/632/2, Durham Record Office.

'Robley, Major-General Horatio Gordon', from An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, edited A.H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. Te Ara-the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 23-Apr-09

This week we are drawing attention to a new section on our website: Who was there?

Click on this tab and you will discover the work done by students in HIST 316 New Zealand Social History at Victoria University of Wellington. Starting with primary sources (newspaper reports of casualties, official lists of those who surrendered, inscriptions on monuments, regimental records) the groups of students have listed the names and details of many of those who fought at the battle of Te Ranga and at Gate Pa. Both Māori and British fighters are listed.

They have organised the information in such a way as to make it searchable by name and by category (eg hapu, regiment).  The results now constitute a resource that can be used by anyone interested in these events. This work has been produced as a course assignment; all details can be checked against the original sources.)

They have also produced carte de visites - photographic portraits in small size - for some of those who appear in the lists. Carte de visites were very popular in the 1860s.

Commentaries on how the work was done also appear for each group.

Here are just 3 of carte de visites. Click on 'Who was there?' to see them all.

The heavy loss of life and unexpected defeat on the government side quickly led to recrimination, accusations of incompetence, and disillusionment.

Governor George Grey arrived in Tauranga on 13 May. Recovering from a scalp wound in the army hospital tent Ensign Nicholl caught a glimpse of Grey but was unimpressed: 'I had a squint at him and he seemed a very poor kind of man.' (p.221)

Several days later he was no more impressed with either the Governor or with the army commander General Duncan Cameron. Grey had met with some local Māori but left the district on 15 May. 'The beast never came to see us or even ask after us' (15 May 1864). The next day General Cameron left to return to Auckland. In Nicholl's view Cameron was also an 'ungrateful beast. He has been, I think the whole time he has been here the most selfish man I have ever known. Never so much as asking how we were' (16 May).

Nicholl's view of Grey was to change. Cameron's behaviour in not visiting his wounded men was unusual and has been taken as a sign of the deep shock the defeat at Gate Pa - Pukehinahina made on him.

Governor George Grey, a photographic portrait finished in oils by Daniel Mundy, c.1860.
G-623, Alexander Turnbull Library

R C J Stone relates the following episode in his Logan Campbell's Auckland. Tales from the Early Years:

Several weeks later the Auckland newspaper The New Zealander published an article entitled 'A Visit to Te Papa Cemetery'. Commenting on the gravestone to Captain J.F.C. Hamilton of HMS Esk, one of four naval officers who died at Gate Pa, the 'special correspondent' noted that:

'It is much feared that this brave officer was cruelly deserted by his men, who were seized with a panic and fled back to our position after being gallantly led as the forlorn hope to the attack. It is true it was a a critical moment, but if the men had displayed half the courage and daring of their officer, a very different result would have to be chronicled respecting this unfortunate encounter.' (The New Zealander, 4 June 1864)

The Esk had returned to Auckland. The following morning (a Sunday), a group of sailors from the ship and from the Eclipse, incensed by this accusation of betrayal, marched up Shortland Street to the offices of The New Zealander. Demanding to know the identity of the 'special correspondent' and to see the editor-owner John Williamson - neither of which they succeeded in doing - the men proceeded to pull down the building in which the newspaper was housed. They attached block, tackle and hawsers to the roof and top storey threatening to pull the weatherboard building to the ground.

The threat worked. The paper promised to print the sailors' own version of what had happened in the attack on the pa in a special edition. That version was published in a special midday edition of The New Zealander. In it, the sailors put the blame for the confusion in which Hamilton had died onto the men in the 68th Regiment who had entered the fighting from the inland side of the Gate Pa.

The episode created a big stir in the town.

Ensign Nicholl, who was sent back to Auckland to fully recover in mid-May, recorded it in his Journal:
6 June 1864 Auckland
'There was a great commotion in the town today as some of the sailors from H.M.S. Esk said that they would pull down the office of the "New Zealander" newspaper if they did not issue an apology at once for what they had said about the Gate Pah. In the afternoon the newspaper did what they were asked.' (p.234)

Nicholl, Spencer Perceval Talbot, 1841-1908. Journal, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, MS-1712

R C J Stone, Logan Campbell's Auckland. Tales from the Early Years, Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2007, 149-151

By the morning of 30 April the Gate Pa at Pukehinahina was silent. Bodies lay in the trenches and in the surrounding swamps. Māori casualties were estimated at around 25 dead, while the British counted 35 killed and around 75 wounded.

Among the dead were the Ngai Te Rangi chiefs Te Reweti, Eruera Puhirake, Tikitu, Te Kani Puhirake, Te Rangihau and Te Wharepouri; officers of the 43rd Regiment brothers Robert and Frederick Glover, Hamilton, Booth, Utterton, Muir; naval officers Captain Muir from the Esk, Captain Hay from the Miranda and officers and men from the 68th Regiment.

On 2 May a number of those killed were buried in the churchyard adjacent to the mission station - what is now the Mission Cemetery, Tauranga.

Ensign Nicholl, lying wounded in the Camp, recorded the events as they were described to him:

May 2nd 1864 – Tauranga
'Today they had the funeral of those killed at Puke hina hina. Seven officers and 16 men of the 43rd and three officers and some men of the navy were buried in the church yard there. They buried the officers in coffins but they were not able to procure wood eno’ [enough] to make them for the men. I should have liked to have been there very much but they would not let me go. What a dreadful loss the regiment has sustained, more officers were killed than in any regiment at the Alma. Seven killed out of twelve.' (p.217)

Looking over the Pa the morning after their defeat Nicholls' fellow soldiers searched for the secret behind their opponents' superiority. What they saw was a bitter revelation.

30 April
'Those who went in this morning for the first time say that they never saw such a place in their life, and that you might as well drive a lot of men into a sheep pen and shoot them down as let them assault a place like that.' (p.216).

Gate Pa flag

Out of the terrible triumph and sorrow of the battle came stories of heroism. The most well known is the story of the compassion shown to the dying Lt-Col Henry Booth. As he lay seriously wounded in the trenches a Māori opponent gave him water.

The act is now generally attributed to Heni Kiri Karamu, the only woman understood to have been in the Pa during the fighting. In an act of courage she took water to relieve the wounded Booth's last hours. Heni fought alongside her brother at Gate Pa and had previously fought in the Waikato battles. In later life she came to be known as Heni Pore (Jane Foley). Heni was famously photographed alongside the flag she made for the King Movement. The symbols of moon and stars carries over to the Gate Pa flag which is raised today in honour of all who fought at the event.

On 29 April 2014 the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gate Pa - Pukehinahina was commemorated with a series of events beginning with a dawn ceremony. A haka was performed by a group of 500 people, most from local iwi. As one of their number said, 'We're still here'. View footage.

A series of 9 pou were unveiled at the Gate Pa -Pukehinahina site marking the events.

An interview with kaumatua Peri Kohu can be watched here.
Justice Joe Williams gave the inaugural Gate Pa Address.
Governor General Sir Joe Mataparae also spoke at the event.

On 26 April an Artillery Barrage was staged at the Tauranga Domain.

Spencer Perceval Talbot Nicholl, 1841-1908. Journal, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, MS-1712

Tui MacDonald, 'Heni Pore, Jane Foley, 1841-1933', The Book of New Zealand Women, Ko Kui Ma Te Kaupapa, Eds. Charlotte Macdonald, Merimeri Penfold and Bridget Williams, Wellington, 1991, pp.531-533

In the last days of April 1864 the weeks of tense standoff between Rawiri Puhirake's fighters and British troops turned into open conflict. At the battle of Gate Pa - Pukehinahina fought over the days and nights of 28-29-30 April a small and lightly armed Māori force held off a much larger and better equipped body of British soldiers and marines. The result was an extraordinary victory for Tauranga Māori and sent deep shockwaves through the settler community and imperial command.

Both sides had made careful preparations for the battle. The outcome at Gate Pa - Pukehinahina rested on the skilled engineering of Pene Taka Tuaia in the design of the Māori position, and highly disciplined fighting under Puhirake's inspirational leadership. Māori soldiers, estimated at no more than 250 in number, were positioned deep inside the maze of pits and trenches. Food, drink and arms were secreted deep inside the fortification. Prayers and religious observance took place as the battle commenced.

General Cameron had a fighting force of around 1600 at his command: men of the 43rd and 68th regiments, highly experienced marines and members of the Colonial Defence Force. He had also assembled a very large artillery battery with which he intended to bombard the Māori position.

British troops moved up to the pa on the Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 April. At daybreak on the morning of Friday 29 April the artillery bombardment began, continuing through the day until around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. With no sign of return fire, and with a breach in the outer wall, an assault was launched.  When the storming party came through the gap that had been made by mortar fire they were faced with fire at close range coming from deep within the defensive structure. Heavy casualties occurred at this point in the battle, including the loss of most of the officers leading the attack.

Confusion reigned as those retreating from the pa ran into reserve companies being sent in to support the first wave of attackers. Men of the 68th regiment who had been sent to the rear of the pa with the intention of surrounding the position and cutting off escape, were, at times in the path of the artillery bombardment. During the night of 29 April most of the Māori fighters were able to escape from the pa, leaving in small parties through the darkness. In the morning of 30 April what was left was a scene of desolation.

A series of commemorative events marking the 150th anniversary of the battle will take place in the coming days at Tauranga. The Links page provides information about these events.

The diary below provides one account of the Battle of Gate Pa. It was written by Ensign Spencer Nicholl, a 22-year-old junior officer in the 43rd Light Infantry. The spelling and language is as in the original; Nicholl made corrections to the original dates entered, the corrected ones are given below.

April 26th 1864 – Tauranga
We went this morning down to the sea and had a jolly bathe. On our way back we saw the 68th parading for their march to reconnoiter the Gate pa which the natives have built on the boundry [sic] of the missionary land, it is not quite three miles from here. We are all very savage about not going as I dare say that the brutes will bolt in the night. They have taken two twelve pounder Armstrongs with them as well as all their tents as they are going to pitch a camp close by the pa. After breakfast a lot of us went to a small hill close by where we could see all that was going [on]. When we got there we could see some of the 68th in skirmishing order in front of the pa, the natives were firing at them but they did not return it as they were about 1000 yards from each other. With my glasses I could see one of the niggers walking up and down on the parapet waving his hands about.

They fired an Armstrong shell at him and he soon disappeared. The natives there ran up a large red flag with a white cross on it this remained up for the rest of the day. The 68th soon began pitching their camp & all there became quiet except a casual shot now and then. Soon after we had got back to camp Sargents company were ordered to take some large guns up to the new camp. The men were harnessed on to two eight inch howitzers which they pulled along very merrily. When we got there I went to see Col Greer and I went with him and sat on the brow of the hill within 1000 yds of the Pa. We did not see any niggers but several shots were fired. This is the first time I have seen English troops engaged. On our way back to camp we met the sailors pulling along the 110 pounders Armstrong with which they say they are going to blow the Pa to the devil. By the time we got back we were as black as Maoris from the dust. (pp.199-200)

27 April Tauranga
We went down in the morning and had a jolly bathe in the sea. Whilst we were there we saw them disembarking C. L. C. [Colonial Light Cavalry] horses from a steamer. They sling them up and then let them down with a run into the water where they were taken in tow by a small boat which brought them ashore. Most of them came very quickly but a few kicked and plunged very much. They brought all on shore without an accident. In the evening I was on outlying picquet at a farm house close to the camp. I had the sentries posted across a narrow part of land each had a rifle pit to get into in case they were attacked. I had to sleep in the verandah. I made myself pretty comfortable with lots of blankets and slept very well considering ... (p.201)

28 April
'I suppose that we shall see some New Zealand service at last'

Camp before the “Gate Pah"
We went down in the morning to bathe. In the afternoon an order came down from here to say that we were to march some men up. At first my company was not to go but as they wanted more men we went as well as the rest. Every one was highly delighted at the order and I suppose that we shall see some New Zealand service at last.

We marched away at three and arrived here at a little after four after a very dusty march. We halted on the top of the hill in front of the Pah, here were told off three very strong picquets, but, luckily for me, I did not go with any of them and so spent the night in bed and under a tent. Soon after we arrived the whole of the 68th and the flying column in parade and as soon as it got dark they marched off. They were going to try to surround the pa so that none of the Maoris in there shall escape. They were guided by a farmer and two Maoris and they have to go through a very nasty swamp. At eight o’clock some of the guns and mortars opened on the Pa and the picquets kept up a running fire which was responded to by a few shots from the Maoris. This firing was to take the attention of the Maoris from the 68th. I do not think that I have ever seen a prettier sight of the kind, the fire of the small arms spilling out of the darkness in all directions, the larger flash of the big guns, the slight curve of the howitzers and the high arc of the shells from the mortars all looked so very pretty in the dark night. They kept up the firing for about an hour and then they ceased quite suddenly. I wonder what the Maoris thought we were up to. None of our men knew that there was to be any firing so that when it began they all turned out under arms. I slept in a tent with Utterton who is now my captain and Clark. I was rather cold as I had only a [?blanket] (pp.202-3)

April 29 1864
We paraded this morning before daylight. As I was dressing I thought that I never should get on my boots. We paraded behind the hill and so we could see nothing of what then was going on by the Pah. As soon as it was light they opened fire from all the guns on the unfortunate pa it was very tantalysing [sic] not being able to see what was going on and it was very unpleasant standing still in the rain which was falling fast. There were four companies of 21 file and when we first fell in we thought that we were going some where. After remaining with the men for an hour and a half we walked up to the ridge of the hill to see what was going on. The Armstrongs were in a small battery to our right with the howitzers and coehorns [a 12 pound mortar] farther on. The 10 inch mortars were to our left, all the guns were within 600 yards of the place. The big 110 pounder did not make so much noise as I expected and instead of blowing up the whole pah at the first shot as they said it would it did hardly any damage the whole day tho’ they fired 100 rounds from it.

One reason why it did not do better was because they made such bad shots. Some of the shells burst at the muzzle, others did not burst at all and I saw a few burst a good mile behind the pah greatly to inconvenience of the 68th who were behind the Pah. The best shooting by far was from the mortars & howitzers the latter I believe made the breach. Whilst we were at breakfast we heard a cheer from our men and on going to see what it was, we saw the 68th had quite surrounded the Pah and hemmed the natives in. During the whole of the firing we never saw the sign of a nigger and we all thought that there were none in, till we were told by one of the Staff swells that they had seen some shoveling up the earth in the breach. The Pah from the outside looks a most insignificant place. The face of it is about 80 yards long: first comes a small palisade then a ditch and then a high rampart on each flank of the Pah. There are rifle pits  running down for about 200 yards, on the proper left of the Pah there is a small pah built. There is a tall flag staff which we thought was in the centre of the Pah but which was found to be placed in [the] rear. (pp.204-6)

Whilst we were standing looking at the firing some one cryed [sic] out fall in the 43rd and the men all rushed away & began falling in, but it all ended in smoke and the men returned to their tents very much dejected. At two o’clock we gave up hope of doing any thing that day, so we ordered our dinner to be cooked.

I proposed that we should wait till we had stormed the Pah as then some of us should have more to eat, little did I think when I said this how few would eat their dinners that night. Before our dinners were ready the order was given for the men to fall in I never saw the men fall in so quickly before. The 1st Co. was commanded by Glover Garland his Sub, 2ed. Co Utterton & men for his sub., 3rd Co Hamilton & Clark, 4th Co Moran and young Glover. With each company were two men carrying stretchers besides several others with Tanner. We waited for a few minutes and then Booth marched us over the hill to the Armstrong battery here some men of each Co. were given some hatchets to carry as they might cut down the palisading. The General and his staff were here and the former told the men that he wanted them to take the pah and that they must rush up with not a moments hesitation and in a way worthy of the old Light division of the Peninsular, some of the men answered all right old boy. We then marched two deep with the sailors on our right two deep along under the brest [sic] of the hill, we were not quite under cover as the bullets kept flying over our hands and one of them hit a sailors sword bayonet and then hit two marines. When I first  saw it hit I laughed as the sailor seemed so very astonished.

We were halted within about 70 yards of there & layed [sic] down so that the men might get their breath for the rush. The flying column was just in front of us keeping down the fire from the Pah but never the less the bullets were flying about in the most unpleasant manner. During the whole time we were here neither Booth who was leading us nor Hamilton laid down but kept looking at the breach the whole time. At last Booth waved his sword and gave the word, “Forward”, and up we got and went at the place in grand style. We were met by a very sharp fire both in front and on our right, the bullets were wistling [sic] about my head so much that I could not keep back with the men but ran on so as to get into the Pah. The breach was very easy to get through but when we got inside we were brought up by by the rifle pits. Inside the fire was horrendously hot and the men were falling fast, the worst was that we could not see the Maoris as they were in the pits covered over with raupo whares through the roofs of which they put their rifles and fired at one at about the distance of three yards.

I ran on on the top of the pits till I fell into one and here I found young Glover pulling his poor brother out of another pit, Capt Hay of the Harrier was laying at the bottom very badly wounded and also another naval officer, one of the few survivors of the Orpheus was sitting with a very bad wound in his mouth. Poor young Glover kept calling out ‘will no one help my brother’. Clark and I then lifted Bob Glover up but we saw it was no good as he was quite dead from an awful wound in his forehead from which his brains were hanging out. A little way behind me I saw poor Hamilton laying on his back and about three yards in front was Sergeant Major  Vance laying on his face. The men were firing just behind me and the Maoris firing back just in front of me. The men when they had got this far seemed quite paralysed and neither moved on nor loaded but kept looking about them. All of a sudden I heard a cheer and on looking round I saw Hamilton of the Esk [naval ship] leading up the reserve... (pp.207-210)

…. he then turned round and said ‘Come on men follow me,’ The moment he said that he was shot dead by a bullet in his head. Soon after this I was looking round to see why the men were not coming on, when I suddenly felt as if something hot had taken off the top of my head and I fell against the side of the pit, on putting my hand to the top of my head I felt it on [a] mass of blood and so I thought that I must be wounded, young Glover told me that it was only a light wound so I put my handkerchief inside my cap and felt putty within.

Whilst I was standing here I saw a lot of Maoris come across the open at the back of the Pah if I had only had a rifle I would have knocked some of them over beautifully I had not even me revolver as I had lent it to Glover, I now began to think that I had better get back to have my wound dressed, but on turning round I saw very few of our men in the Pah and the few that were there were running out as fast as they could, so I thought that I could not stay inside to be tommyhawked. I passed poor Booth who was laying badly wounded, he kept saying don’t leave men don’t leave me, as soon as I got outside I saw the men running away in an awful state of confusion. I heard a voice behind me crying “Stop 43rd stop”, I cryed [sic] out and tried to stop them but they would not, at last Sergt and Corpl Garland came with men and we got about half a dozen together but when they saw that no more would come they ran away saying that they could do no good. I again collected a few together but with like success. I was now close to the battery and so went inside. I now began to feel awfully weak and very thirsty and some  of the officers persuaded me to go home to camp.

When I got there I could not for the life of me find my tent and on going to the guard tent I found my servant who was also wounded in the leg, he showed Corpl Garland my tent and the latter took me there and worked my head, I then felt so much better that I took all the men I could find back to the battery where I found all our men paraded. There was Garland, who with Clark and Glover who were both wounded were all that remained of the twelve officers who had gone into the Pah – remained here for some time, there was a very bad back fire kept up between our men and the Maoris, the latter kept bellowing very much we afterwards found out that they were saying “Go home, go home, out trenches are full of your dead.’ (pp.211-3)

’I soon saw that I could do no good and as I was getting weak again I returned to camp and as soon as I got into my tent I went to bed. I found Clark with his right arm badly wounded but not broke. After some time Turner came to see us and on examining our wounds said that neither of them were much. He said that poor Glover was in a very dangerous state having been hit in the stomach. They kept up a very heavy fire on both sides all night and every now and then I got in an awful funk if I heard the shots very close. During the night one of the 68th shot himself dead by accident when on sentry. At one time we heard a loud cheer, we afterwards found out that it was the 68th killing a lot of niggers. Such was my first day under fire, a nice thing to begin our service with a repulse and a knock on the head, for there is no mistake about it being a repulse.' (pp.213-4)

Spencer Perceval Talbot Nicholl, 1841-1908. Journal, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, MS-1712

Alexander Grubb's painting of the rifle pits at Te Ranga features on our home page.

Twenty-two year old Alexander Grubb (1842-1925) was in charge of the Armstrong gun used in the fighting on 21 June 1864. A lieutenant in the 68th Light Infantry Regiment, Grubb was an officer in the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. Sometime after 21 June, Grubb made this watercolour of the rifle pits at Te Ranga. They are empty of people.

The drawing is the darkest and most sombre of a series of watercolours  Grubb made while stationed in Tauranga. Most of his other studies are of the Military Camp and immediate surrounds. This is where Grubb and his fellow officers spent most of their time. As an officer Grubb had a greater opportunity to open his sketchbook and drawing kit than did the men crammed into tents.

Alexander Grubb's watercolours from Tauranga are now in the collection of the National Library of Australia. Further details are listed on our Sources page.

Alexander Grubb, Interior of Gate Pa redoubt, Te Papa, Tauranga, drawn in January 1865, National Library of Australia, Rex Nan Kivell Collection, http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2939008. Permission to reproduce NLAref82977

Art in the midst of war might seem incongruous. The practice of recording battle scenes and remembering fighters and fighting in images has a long tradition. War has also been richly recorded in stories, song, carving and sculpture. By the 1860s the technology of photography had become sufficiently reliable, portable and affordable to bring cameras into the realm of everyday life. The American Civil War (1861-65) has been described as the first war to be caught 'on film'. A recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (see image below) explores the way in which the camera produced what Jeff Rosenheim terms 'shadows of ourselves'. Hundreds of thousands of photographs made, exchanged, collected and displayed during the war years documented the events and mediated 'the brutal events of the battlefield' through memorialising those events in imagery.

In New Zealand the wars of  1863-64 were also recorded in photography as well as in sketchbooks.  James Richardson was one travelling photographer who took his camera to Tauranga in 1864. Some of his glass plate negatives are now part of the Sir George Grey Special Collections in the Auckland Libraries. Carte-de-visites, small wallet-sized photographs carrying personal portraits, were also hugely popular in the 1860s. On the previous post we included a carte-de-viste made for Colonel Henry Greer. We will be showing more of these in the coming weeks.

David Eggleton, Into the Light. A History of New Zealand Photography, Nelson: Craig Potton, 2006

William Main and John B. Turner, New Zealand photography from the 1840s to the present, Auckland: Photoforum Inc., 1933

Jeff Rosenheim, Photography and the American Civil War, New York: Metropolitan Museum of New York, 2013

The fighting in Tauranga, at Gate Pa - Pukehinahina in April and Te Ranga in June, brought together two remarkable and very different sets of military strategists. On the Ngāi Te Rangi side was the brilliant engineer Pene Taka Tuaia and the inspirational Rawiri Puhirake. Leading  the government forces was the battle-hardened Colonel Henry Greer and his commanding officer General Duncan Cameron.

A feature of these battles, as it had been in the Waikato in preceding months, was the ability of small numbers of lightly armed Māori fighters to hold off the challenge of better equipped, professionally trained soldiers five or even ten times greater in number. The government forces were not only much more numerous and carrying the latest armaments but they had the full resources of the British empire.

By early April 1864 Ngāi Te Rangi were fortifying pa in the Tauranga district. Under Pene Taka Tuaia's design several pa were prepared as possible places for engagement with British forces which were assembling at Camp Te Papa  on the peninsula. Tuaia's own pa at Poteriwhi was one of these fortifications.

Ngāi Te Rangi sent invitations to their British opponents to come and fight, but Colonel Greer - under instructions from General Cameron - was not ready to respond.

Pene Taka Tuaia sketched by H. Gordon Robley, c.1864-5. Tuaia is wearing a forage cap, an everyday hat worn by nineteenth-century soldiers. H.G. Robley, Moko; of Maori Tattoing, London: Chapman and Hall, 1896, p.127.

Tuaia's particular skill was in devising fortifications which made the most of the natural position, and combined concealed trenches and chambers beneath a series of rifle pits. Such fortifications enabled Māori positions to withstand bombardment from heavy artillery.

Colonel Henry Greer's presence in Tauranga is remembered in the town district named 'Greerton'.

Greer was 43 years old and had seen 23 years service in the 68th Regiment when he was sent to New Zealand. His wife Agnes and three of their children accompanied him, sailing from England on the Silver Eagle in December 1863. They arrived in Auckland in early March 1864.

Greer was a strict taskmaster, not hesitating to inflict punishment by flogging erring men under his command. Young Spencer Nicholl, an ensign in the 68th, grew to have a greater regard for his superior but his early impressions were not favourable. After a conversation with Mrs Greer in Auckland shortly after disembarking in which he discovered she was intending to go with her husband into the field in Tauranga Nicholl commented:  'She must be very fond of him... it is more than he deserves.' (Ensign Nicholl, Journal, 21 March 1864). Corporal George Brier described Greer as 'a tyrant' (Bilcliffe, p.168).

Greer had seen service in the Crimea. By 1858 he had command of the Regiment, a progression from 21-year-old ensign (1841) to Lieutenant (1844), Captain (1847), Major (1854), Lt.Col (1859) and Bt. Col (1864), the last appointment dated 18 February 1864.

Greer's first experience of war in New Zealand was to come at Gate Pa - Pukehinahina. His opponents brought the accrued experience from fighting against Cameron's forces over previous months, and in many cases experience of previous battles. Pene Taka Tuaia was reported as having 'taken part' in fighting at the time of the Nga Puhi incursions into the Tauranga area in the 1830s and the 1835-45 fighting against Te Arawa.

Unknown, Colonel H. Greer C.B. 68th Reg Production,  circa 1860, Purchased 1916, Dimensions: 59mm (Height) x 48mm (Length),  Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Collections Online, Registration number O.013142, http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Object/404330. Reproduced with permission.

General Duncan Cameron (1808-88) had been in New Zealand for three years by the time war turned to the Tauranga area. While he had won some victories in the Waikato campaign they were not as resounding as he, or his political and military superiors, desired, or expected. His reputation has been rehabilitated in recent years but during the fighting, and for long after, it was Cameron's competence, or lack of it, that took the sharp end of criticism.

Rawiri Puhirake, a Ngāi Te Rangi rangatira, returned to Tauranga from the Waikato where he had been fighting with other supporters of the King Movement against British troops through the summer 1863-4. He
will feature in later postings. Puhirake and Tuaia were military leaders but in a different situation from their opponents, Greer and Cameron. Puhirake and Tuaia were also members of communities: men, women and children living on the land they were defending. Growing food, maintaining shelter and clothing, looking after old and young were activities that continued alongside preparation for war.

You can now sign up to subscribe to our weekly blog. See subscribe box in the right hand menu.

James Belich. 'Cameron, Duncan Alexander', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the      Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012

John Bilcliffe, "Well done the 68th." The story of a Regiment, told by the men of the 68th. Light Infantry, during the Crimea and New Zealand wars, 1854 to 1866, Chippenham: Picton Publishing, 1995

James Lunt, ‘Cameron, Sir Duncan Alexander (1808–1888)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 [accessed 11 April 2014], doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4439

Alister Matheson. 'Tuaia, Pene Taka', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012

Nicholl, Spencer Perceval Talbot, 1841-1908. Journal, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, MS-1712

Jinty Rorke. 'Puhirake, Rawiri', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012

Fighting between Ngāi Te Rangi and supporters, and British troops in Tauranga was a battle of belief as well as of arms.

Henare Taratoa's challenge to Colonel Greer of 28 March was followed by a letter setting down a code of conduct by which Ngāi Te Rangi would take up arms. Taratoa's stance was one inspired by his strong Christian conviction, a faith shared by many in the Tauranga district by 1864. To defend his people, and independence, was not to forsake a faith in God.

Bible reading and Christian services had been part of life around the Tauranga harbour since the 1830s. Maori who travelled to the Bay of Islands brought knowledge of 'the book' to the region. From early in 1838 Alfred and Charlotte Brown set up home on the Te Papa peninsula in order to spread the Christian gospel as Church Missionary Society teachers. Charlotte Brown died in 1855. By 1864  61-year old Rev Alfred Brown had lived 26 years in Tauranga where he was known by, and knew, most people. The mission station was a common calling-in place for travellers around the harbour and around the coast.

When British troops arrived in Tauranga in late January 1864 they occupied land and buildings at the mission station. This was later to become a matter of dispute between the church and the government.

Robley, H.G., Enoka te Whanaki’s house at Matapihi, 1865, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Collections Online, Registration  number 1992-0035-833, http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Object/225016. Reproduced with permission.

During the 1840s and 1850s Maori Christian communities were large and active in many places around the country. This was the era when 'whare karakia' - Maori cathedrals such as those at Otaki - Rangiatea, and at Manutuke, on the East Coast were built. Henare Taratoa, baptised by the Bay of Islands-based Rev Henry Williams on a visit to Tauranga in the 1840s, was later a student at St John's College in Auckland where he was taught by Bishop George Selwyn.

Soldiers serving on the government side also brought bibles in their kit. Church parades, chaplains, and Christian services were part of army life. When Ensign Nicholl, brought up in the Church of England, was required to escort the Roman Catholic men in the 68th Regiment to service he noted it as a reluctant duty in his journal. When his red prayerbook was stolen from his digs at Otahuhu he was bereft.

H. Gordon Robley (1840-1930), the creator of the image in this post, was a lieutenant in the 68th Regiment. While in New Zealand he made numerous sketches and drawings, and collected a good many objects. A great many of these now reside in research collections providing a frequent point of access to the history of Tauranga in the years 1864-5.







Robley, HG, Unknown, circa 1860, Purchased 1916, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Collections Online, Registration  number O.014620, http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Object/406471. Reproduced with permission.

Jinty Rorke. 'Brown, Alfred Nesbit and Brown, Charlotte', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 29-Aug-2013
Richard A. Sundt, Whare Karakia: Māori Church Building, Decoration and Ritual in Aotearoa New Zealand 1834-1863, Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2010