“Debt” To Maoris Stemming From Gate Pa Repaid

Press, Volume C, Issue 29503, 3 May 1961, Page 17

“Debt” To Maoris Stemming From Gate Pa Repaid

(New Zealand Press Association)

ROTORUA, May 2. Ninety-seven years ago last month, Maori and pakeha were locked in combat at the battle of Gate Pa, Tauranga. Yesterday, the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Hanan) cleared a “debt” to the Maoris supposedly stemming from that engagement. He handed to Mr R. Waaka, president of the 28th (Maori) Battalion Association, a cheque for £2O. Mr Hanan said the debt had been incurred at the Gate Pa engagement when the Maoris supplied ammunition to the British troops, who had run

short. “To my knowledge, the ammunition has never been

paid for,” Mr Hanan said. “Here is £2O in payment." The settlement was greeted with prolonged applause and laughter from the 1000 or so former Maori servicemen present. In some respects, Mr Hanan’s reference to the Gate Pa “debt” was fictitious, yet in other respects there is more than a element of truth in it. The Maoris issued a challenge to the British troops to fight it out at Gate Pa. but the Maoris observed certain conditions—these included succour of the wounded, protection of any man found not armed, and no mutilation of the dead or wounded.

There was heavy loss by the British troops in their assault on the defended lines of Gate Pa. Then the Maoris rose and successfully coun-ter-attacked. As Captain Gilbert Mair

recalls in his book, "The Story of Gate Pa”: "No satisfactory explanation has yet been given how nearly 2000 men of Her Majesty’s forces, the finest troops known, amply provided with the best artillery and arms of precision in the world, were signally defeated by fewer than 250 Ngaiterangi warriors. whose only weapons consisted of old flint Tower muskets, Brummagen double and single-barrelled shotguns, and long-handled tomahawks.”

Then came incidents after the battle to which Mr Hanan may have been referring. The Maoris emerged from the pa and walked among the British wounded and dead. They collected swords and muskets, each of which was handed back to the pakeha troops. So there was a “debt” stretching from April 28, 1864. Men’s lives were spared, and arms were returned, so that they were used by fellow British troops in a later defeat of the Maoris.