ECHO OF GATE PA

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2182, 22 June 1914, Page 6

ECHO OF GATE PA

MAORI LEADERS' CHIVALRY | MEMORIAL UNVEILED. IBy Telosrapli.—Press Association.) Tauranga, Juno 21. Colonel Logan, A.D.C., Officer in Command of the Auckland .Military District, unveiled to-day in the presence of a largo gathering of Maoris and residents a memorial erected in the military cemetery by European and Maori subscriptions to Rawiri Puhiraki, the Maori chief wlio led the Maoris when British forces' suffered tho reverse at Gate Pa, Tauranga, on April 29, 1864, and again at To ltanga on June 21 of. tho same year, wlie.ro ho was killed. He was buricri at To ltanga, but tlio body was subsequently removed to the military cemetery. Tho monument is of red granite, twenty feet high, and is the most imposing, memorial in the Bay of Plenty. It bears the following inscription, and also an inscription in Maori: "Saored to the memory of Rawiri Puhiraki, a chief of the Xgaiterangi tribe, who led tho Maoris in battle at Gato Pa on April 29, and at To ltanga on June 21,1864, being killed in the latter engagement. This monument was crected on the fiftieth anniversary of his death by tlio people of the British and Maori races to commemorate his chivalrous and humane orders for the protection of unarmed or wounded men who fell into" the hands of tho Maoris, and for the respectful treatment of tho bodies of a'nv of their enemies slain in battle. This order, framed by Rawiri with tho assistance and approval of Henaro Tarato'a and other chiefs, was loyally observed by his followers, arid, after the repulse of the assault on Gate Pa, the British wounded, who lay all night in and around the pa, iv-fere given water and treated with kindness. This chivalrous _ conduct of tho Maori leader and his people so impressed their contemporaries that Rawiri's body was exhumed in 1870 from tho trenches at Te ltanga and reinterred at this .spot with befitting ceremonies. The seed of better feelings between tho two races, thus sown on.tho battlefield,' has since borno ample fruit. Disaffection has given place to loyalty, and hostility to friendship, British and Maoris now living together as one united people. "Juno 21, 1914," [The Maoris engaged at Gato Pa are estimated not to have • oxceeded 300, .while General Cameron's- troops at,o given as 1695, with artillery. The Maori position, however, -was a very strong one. A breach was made in the works by tho artillery about 4 p.m. on April 28, 1864, and an assault begun. The storming party comprised 300 sailors and marines, with 300 other troops following in reserve. Tho Natives attempted to escape at the Tear of.. the works, but, finding this impracticablc, they turned and charged the assaulting column, carrying it before them. When General Cameron had rallied his forces it was too late to renew tho assault. During the following night tho Maoris escaped. Tho losses on both sides have been variously estimated.l . \