BATTLE OF ORAKAU.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5469, 2 September 1929, Page 3

BATTLE OF ORAKAU.

A CENTENARIAN VETERAN. AN INTERESTING ADDRESS. On the Sunday before last, August 25, Major Westmacott organised a meeting of officers who were undergoing a senior officers’ course in Cambridge with the two remaining veterans of the Battle of Orakau, fought during the Maori war. This battle was fought in 1864 between some 300 Maoris, who occupied a strongly entrenched position, and a British force of 1800 men, composed of the 18th Royal Irish 40th foot, 65th Regiment, Royal Artillery, Waikato Militia, Forest Rangers, and Colonial Defence Force Cavalry, under Brigadier Carey. The battle lasted three days. There were two unsuccessful assaults on the Maori position on the first day, after which a sap was carried towards the pah. On the third day Major-Gen-eral Sir Duncan Cameron arrived and took command. During the afternoon, before' the final assault, the Maoris were called upon to surrender, and they gave the famous reply, “We will fight you for ever, and for ever, and for ever,” which has become the motto of the present Waikato Regiment. The Maoris were led by Rewi Maniapoto, and came from tribes located near Kihikibi, the King County, Taupo, and Urewera districts. After the British terms had been refused the Maoris were called upon to send their women out of the pah. The women’s reply was, “If the men are to die, we will die too.”

Mr Herlihy, who speaks the Maori language very fluently, acted as interpreter in a very efficient manner on the occasion of the officers’ visit on the 25th, and Mr C. Barton, an officer of the R.A.F., was responsible for bringing the Maori veterans to the battlefield.

The following is a brief outline of the description of the battle as told by Te Huia Raureti, who is now over 100 years of age, the other veteran not being able to come owing to sickness. Tn order to get certain information the following questions were put to Te Huia by Major Westmacott through the interpreter • — “When did you come to the paji ?

Te Huia said he first came to the pah in Orakau in the days when his people congregated there.

“How old was he ? When war broke out he was a married man with children. He is now over 100 years of age. “How were you dressed and armed?

In those days he was dressed in the ordinary shirt, and was arpied with a double-barrelled gun. Te Huia remarked that he left his trousers behind, which caused some laughter. “How did you carry your ammunition ?”

He had two belts on, each with ten cartridges in one portion and ten in the other, making a total of 40 cartridges in all. It was a proper cartridge belt with leather flaps. “Did yon help to dig the trenches ?”

Yes. The trenches were dug with ordinary spades, but they had only very few. They dug the first day and part of the night. “Where were you posted in the pah ?” He was posted near the south-east corner.

“When did you first see the soldiers ?”

The first of the pakeha soldiers appeared early in the morning, when it was just breaking day. There were only a few at first, but after awhile more and more appeared, and the Maoris wondered where they were all coming from. “Describe the soldiers’ attack.”

The Maoris opened fire on them at first, and then let them come as close as desired, but, unfortunately, an old peach grove obscured their view, as the soldiers kept well behind it. The soldiers were very brave and fearless. “Did any fall close to the pah ?” Yes. One of them who was very high up in rank was killed there. “Were they carried off ?”

The soldiers tried hard to rescue him, but as fast as they approached him fire was opened upon them and they had to go back. Eventually, however, some of them made a rush and tied a rope round the dead man’s leg and dragged him in that way. “Were any Maoris hit close to you ?” Yes. One Maori, who was standing in the corner of the pah near Te Huia and his father, was looking over the parapet to try if he could see anything, when he was shot in the mouth and killed.

“What did you do with your dead and wounded ?”

Te Huia replied that they just covered them with a little earth, as they had no time to dig graves. One Maori was a great hero. He used to walk round the top of the parapet all day and tell th-. othe? s what was going on, until at last., one night, he was wounded very severely. They made him comfortable in a dug-out, but he did not linger long. “How were you fed ?”

The Maoris had no time to make proper provision for food, and just had to steal out at night and gather potatoes from a pit which had been left outside the pah. They were also able to get kumikumis, a species of marrow. Unfortunately, they had no water, but used to quench their thirst on the juice which they got from the pith of the kumikums. “Could you see the sap ?” Yes. There was a small outwork outside the big pah, and they were able to see the sap quite well. The soldiers were very wise, and dug a trench from where they were obscured by the peach grove. “Did you see the interpreter, Captain Mair ?” Yes. One of the soldiers asked the Maoris to surrender so that they could save their women, but he had hardly finished speaking when Te Huia noticed an old man getting ready to shoot him. Te Huia said that by the time he got to this old man and told him not to shoot, the man had fired, but missed. The Maoris said that if the pakehas went home they would leave toe.

“How was the message to retire given ?” Te Huia said he really could not say. When the soldiers commenced bombing the outwork the Maoris there cam- rushing over the parapet into the main pah. They seemed to scatter all of a sudden. There was a gateway in the south-east corner of the pah. “Were there women in the pah, and how many ?”

Te Huia, after naming them to himself on his fingers, said there were about twelve women there, including two lovely girls—and his old eyes twinkled. One of them was a halfcaste and one a Maori. “What were their duties ?”

They had to do the cooking and carry provisions of food. They acted as drays. “How did the Maoris treat bullet wounds ?”

The Maoris had no herbs with which to treat wounds inside the pah, ffiit when they got hit they had to rip off their shirt sleeves or something else and use them until they got home again. “Where did you meet the soldiers of the 40th ?”

Te Huia said he cbuld not distinguish one legiment from another, but the troopers on horseback galloped round in a circle to try and cut the Maoris off. Te Huia recalled that his father fired at an officer oretrboper and shot his horse, but the man got away. There were seven Maoris in one group, but all of a sudden thirteen soldiers appeared. The seven Maoris, of whom Te Huia was one. were told that Rewi, their leader, was coming through the scrub behind them, and they were waiting to cover his retreat. His uncle told him to be careful, and they would wait and watch and get ready so that as soon as the soldiers appeared they would fire on them. When the Maoris fired some of the troopers got right on the sides of their horses and escaped from them. After that they saw no more soldiers. “Did the guns do much harm ?’’ Te Huia said the soldiers had some big guns on a ridge called “Kariponia,” which was meant for “California,” and they were the ones which did all tbc damage. The soldiers might have had one gun in the sap, but he did not think it was ever used, as it would be impossible to fire effectively from deep down. “When did you reassemble, and where ?” The Maoris reassembled right away after the fight. Te Huia and his father and relations met together beyond the Puinu and at Otewa. “Did you ever fight again ?” He did not fight any more. Some time afterwards, whilst with Rewi, they nearly fired upon some soldiers, but they had a scoth-sayer, a tohunga, or priest, with them, and he prophesied that they would have bad luck if they fired a shot, so they turned back.

Those present were asked if there were any other questions which they would like answered, and Colonel Duigan asked why Orakau had been selected for the site for the battle when there was a better position on higher ground on the Kirinonia ridge Te Huia replied that the pah was built so as to block the road along which the pakehas would always come, so the Maoris thought it best to wait for them there. They had a fieldglass, which was not as much benefit to them in the pah, but when they were able to get to the top of a hill they could see all over Kihikihi and other places. Te Huia said that one Maori, his eldest brother, was taken prisoner, and his gun was taken from hi a, and whilst being escorted from the rear by. two soldiers the party was stopped by twelve troopers, who insisted on taking him in charge sd that they could shoot him They made a ring round him and armed him with a taiaha, an ancient Maori weapon, and made him fight one of then:. He killed two soldiers and then sprang over the top of the others. One struck him with the butt of a rifle on the knee and many of their bullets grazed him. One hit him in the shoulder, and the blow on his leg so lamed him that he ran practically on one leg. Eventually hfl completely recovered.

A question was raised as to what the Maoris thought of Rewi as a general. They said that he was a very high man amongst them. He was related to practically all of the tribe (a very well-bred man), and they looked up to him as a man of good blood. Colonel Spragg inquired if the Maoris appreciated Rewi’s military ability, and Te Huia replied that he was a brave man and very kind to children and grown-ups alike, and they looked up to him with respect. Major Mackesy inquired what became of the two beautiful girls. Te Huia said they were both killed. One was wounded and died at Orakau and the other was wounded and taken a prisoner to Te Awamutu, where she died. The great battle was fought in March, and the weather was beautiful and the pah quite dry. It was only a small pah in those days. He said they enjoyed fighting, but they did not fight for a joke, as they were very wild with the pakehas and were in earnest.

Te Huia said that Rewi and his relations went back to Kihikihi He often moved amongst the soldiers. Indeed, after the soldiers moved up to Te Awamutu Rewi and his companions from Paterangi just walked through the place and the soldiers let them pass, not knowing that the great chief Rewi was amongst them. Rewi was, however, above all things, fair in his dealings, and hated anything underhand.

Major Westmacott asked the interpreter to thank Te Huia very much for his very interesting description of the fight, and to ask him if he would stay and lunch with the officers. He feared he might be. feeling tired. Te Huia replied that- he had had his lunch, but would partake of a little more. He. said he was not a bit tired of talking, and that once he started to talk about the war he did not want to stop, as it got his blood up. Thanks were then returned by Colonel Duigan, the officer in command of

the Auckland district, to Major Westmacott for the trouble he had taken to get this meeting together ; to Mr Barton, for bringing Te Huia ; and to Mr Herlihy, for his accurate interpretation.

When told how much the officers regretted that his old comrade in a poupataee had been unable to come owing to sickness, Te Huia said : “Ah, he is getting quite an old man now.” Everyone then had lunch and the conversation became general. Asked if the Maoris had thought they could beat the soldiers at Orakau, Te Huia replied that they were all strong men, and had they not thought so they would not have been there. He stated that one of the older men did not retreat from the pah, but stayed with the wounded, holding up a white handkerchief upon a stick, and when the soldiers rushed with their bayonets they did not hurt him, but took him prisoner. He attributed their escape from total distruc’ion when they charged out of the pah to the fact that they rushed between tw!o lines of soldiers who could not fire for fear of hitting one another. The old man made a dignified figure, and it was most impressive to see him demonstrate the loading of the old muzzle-loader —the biting off of the bullet from the cartridge, pouring the powder down the barrel with the bullet on top of it, and bumping the butt on the ground so as to settle the charge—and, as he related each incident, to see him point with his stick to the place where it actually took place.

Everyone was most interested, and showed great consideration for his age and standing. Many lingered asking question after the official recital was over, and many further questions were asked, but where he had not witnessed an incident he said, “I do not know that, I did not see.” He gave no hearsay anecdotes. His quiet bearing and gentle manner, together with his wonderfully alert mind and physical activity, caused considerable surprise to those who had never before met an old-time Maori warrior. Such a gathering in such a place, combined with so interesting a personage, must have been almost unique.

Photographs were take of the group and of Colonel Duigan, Te Huia, and Major Westmacott seated together at the foot of the memorial upon the battlefield.