BATTLE OF MOUTOA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 670, 20 May 1914, Page 2

BATTLE OF MOUTOA.

There was a Bomeiie touch about the battle of Moutca fought exactly fifty y,ear3 ago on May 14th, which saved Wanganui from a Hauhau raio. Picked bands of Maori warriors, one party frisndiy to the Europeans, the other filled with the new-born Faimarirs ..fanaticism and literally crazy for a fight, mat each other on a historic battle ground and fought a desperate engagement with their tribespeople looking on, meeting esch other not only with the pakcha guns, but sl3o with tomahawks and stone "meres." Tba arena wss an island in the Wanagnui river, about fifty miles up from the month, a long narrow strip of shingla which is i» rruch the same state to-day as it was then, except for a tall grove of poplar tress at one end. It was on this end, that a •Hauhau war perty a hundred and forty strong grounded their war canoe 3 from - Taumarunui and Pipiriki and sprang ashore at dawn to meet tho Lower Wanganuis, under the chief Mete Kingi, who were posted there to meet them. This was in response to a challenge, issued by the frien Hies, who barred the passage of the Hauhaus towards Wanganui town and dared the invaders t) muztal combat on Moutoa, a classic spot well named the "Isle of Heroes."

There were only a hundred Lcwar Wanganuiu on the island to oppose the Hauhaus. The rest had taken up strategic positions c.n the left bank to enjoy tha spectacls of the fight and to cut off those of the enemy who happened to survive tne combat. The Pai-marire men charged fiercely and fired volleys which billed some o£ their opponents. Tha defenders of Wanganui were slowly driven back by repeated volleys and charges, and the Hauhaus had almost won the battle when a sub-chief nameS Tamehana turned the tide. Ha killed one Hauhau with a dead man's spear, having na time to reload his gun, and a second with the tomahawk which he snatched from •the slain Hauhau, and then seizing another fallen man's loaded gun he brought down a third. A bullet struck him in the arm and another broke hia knee, but his heroic stand had stopped the charge and his tribesman rallied and. in their turn charged the, Hauhaus. "There was no time to reload," Colonel Gudgeon wrote in hia narrative of the fight, "so down went the guns and all went in with the tomahawk." The end of it was that the Hauhaus were routed in a feWv minutes, leaving fifty of their number dead. The Ranana tribe had maintained their "mana," their chieftainship over the river-way, and Wanganui town was saved hot night's work., aa the Hauhaus undoubtedly would have attacked its outskirts before the next morning. The lover of kinematograph may be able to appreciate the delight with which the Maori spectators viewed that early-morning tussle. Soma day perhaps the film-maker will turn his attention to New Zealand's fighting stories and reproduce on the shingle banks of tha "Isla of Heroes" the charge of the up-river Hauhaus and Tamebana's gallant stand that won the day for "law and order"*in 1864.