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.

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

With these words Henare Taratoa challenged the commander of British troops in Tauranga as to his intentions. Taratoa, the highly educated Ngāi Te Rangi man, spoke on behalf of 'all the Tribes'. His letter to Colonel Greer, written in late March 1864, culminated with an invitation to fight on the following Friday 1 April. Fighting did not take place that day but was to follow a few weeks later.

How did this standoff come into being?

By the autumn of 1864 fighting between Maori loyal to the King movement and government forces (British troops and local militia) was moving south and east from the Waikato to the Tauranga district. In late January the first British troops landed at Tauranga establishing Camp Te Papa adjacent to the Mission Station. With troops in their midst, and news of major engagements at Rangiaowhia and Hairini (21-22 February), and Orakau (31 March-2 April), people in Tauranga were faced with the decision of whether or not to take up arms. How could they best defend themselves and their lands?

The larger context for the wars which brought Maori and government into conflict dated back to the late 1850s. Rising tensions over land sales, resistance to land loss, and contests over authority broke into violence first in Taranaki in a series of conflicts between March 1860 and March 1861. After an uneasy peace war resumed with supporters of the King movement (founded 1858) facing government forces. In July 1863 General Duncan Cameron, commander-in-chief of a large body of British and local troops marched across the Mangatawhiri stream breaching the boundary set by King Tawhaio.




Portrait of King Tawhiao. Martin album. Ref: PA1-o-334-35. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23183173

Henare Taratoa to Colonel Greer, 28 March 1864
'Friend the Colonel. Give heed. We are searching for the meaning of your thoughts, because we have considered your offence.
Your first offence. -The shooting of Maoris by soldiers on the 24th February, 1864.
The second. - The going of the soldiers to Maketu, the meaning of which is an eager desire to fight the Ngatiporou.
The third.-The Queen natives have taken up arms.
The fourth. - The coming of the soldiers to Peterehua [Peterehema - Bethlehem]
Friend, we thoroughly understand your intentions now.
Do you hearken. A challenge for a fight between us is declared. The day of fighting, Friday, the 1st day of April, 1864.
This is a fixed challenge from all the tribes. When our letter reaches you write a reply to us. No more.
HENARE WIREMU TARATOA
From all the tribes.'
Quoted in W.H. Gifford and H.B. Williams, A Centennial History of Tauranga, Dunedin: AH &AW Reed, 1940, p.226.

21 June 1864 stands as one of the bloodiest days in New Zealand's history.

Over 100 lives were lost in fighting at Te Ranga, near Tauranga. The battle marks the last major engagement in the 1863-64 Waikato-Tauranga campaigns. Among those who died were the Ngāi Te Rangi leader Rāwiri Puhirake and the scholar Henare Taratoa.

On the occasion of the 150th commemoration of these tragic events we are looking down the barrel of history: to remember what took place that day, and to look beyond the battlefield to the wider world of the 1860s.

Over the next few months we will be posting despatches - korero following the people who came to face each other in conflict at Te Ranga. Our postings will track their movements over the period from March through to 21 June 1864. Where possible we will be using accounts made at the time.

Join us as we explore the tragic, heroic, and everyday lives of the people who were present at this dramatic moment.

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Pouhere Taonga memorial tablet, Te Ranga, erected 1964.