THE CAMERON TOWN AMBUSH.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 2, Issue 128, 16 September 1913, Page 1

THE CAMERON TOWN AMBUSH.

A Tale of Fifty Years Ago. September Bth, 1863. In the vsinttr and spring of 1863 what is now the Franklin County was the chief theatre of the war with the Waikato anl Rohepotaa natives. Covered as it then was wilh a dense mass of foie3t, stretching from tha frith-of-Thames to the West Coast, and from the Waikato almo3t to the Manukau, it presented a veiy different appearance to its pie ent smiling aspect, Civilisation practically stoppid short at Drury, to which point the Great South road then reached, but a few daring spirits had penetia.ed the bush as far as East Pukekohe, and at Mauku a handful of settlers were hacking out homesteads fyr tnemselves with bill-hook and axe. Roads there were practically none, though in anticipation of the outbreak of hostilities a track bad been cleared over the Bombay hill from the end of the Great South road lo Pokeno, where a considerable number of regular troops were entrenched at the Queen's redoubt. But leng before the end tf (he winter—an exce sively wet one, Ly the way- this track had beccma an almost impassable quagmire, and it became a more and core diifticult problem to supply the troops at the front wiih stores. A tramway line had be-n prtjecttd, and even surveyed, from deep water on the Mauku estuaty to the Wcikato river, but the track had not even been cleared, so it was manifest that many months must elapse before the situation could be relieved by that routs.

Mr Armitagej the native agent and magistrate of the Lower Waikato, came to the rescue at this juncture, and undertook to get stores up to the front by way of tha Waikato river. He relied for aid in this undertaking upon Waata Kukutai, chief of the Kohunga district, who had always been a Queen's man, and into whese hapu Armitage had married. A schooner was tent round fo Port Waikato, and her cargo taken up the river in canoes by the friendly natives, working under Armitage's directions. But for some unknown reason they halted a few miles short of their destination and landed the stores at Te Ita, 0: Cameron Town, as it had been r.amed after the general in command of our ro,en. The news evidently did not take long to reach the enemy, for two days afterwards they crossed the river looted and turned the stores, and shot Armitage as he sat in his canoe looking hopelessly at the destruction, while his trusted allies stood by without raising hand or voice to avert the disaster. This wes on the afternoon of September 7th.

Tnat evening the news resched the Qaeen's redoubt, and by daybreak on the 3th Captain Swift with about 50

msn ol the Gsth marched for To lla lclbwtd some time alter !.v Colonel Murray *iih a force of 150. Swift made what haste he possibly could, hut he had a long ard rough way to travel, Maori tracks being the o. ly roads, and it was mid-afternooa before the half*company reached the vicinity of its objective. A quarter of a mile from Te Ita the trail curved round between a high knoll End a kahikahi ia swamp, and and here the comparatively open nature of the tawa and taraire foiest chingtd to a targled undergrowth of ki.-kie and supplejacks. A3 the soldiers were proceed ng cautiously through the dense thicket the voices of natives were heard net far to the front. Lining loth sides cf the track the men waited in grim End expectant silence wilh finger 01 trigger for what wes to follow. Twei.ty minutes passed. Nothing stirred, the vcices were beard no more, and all that broke the silenca was the songs of the bush birds, not eo scarca then j as cow. In a whisper the word v,as passed round to fix bayonets tnd advance, and the little force moved forward. But the Maoris had played the same waiting game, and with more patience. At a turn of j the track our men were met with a heavy volley from an unseen foe. The leader tell mortally wounded, Lieutenant Butler bent over him and atked if he should charge. "Ye*." | was the faint reply, and, dword a:d revolver in hand, Butler lei the shouting men' into the dense thicket from which tha rite had come. But bis leadership did not last long, fcr inside of a dozen yards he also was stretched upon the ground. The charge was a failure, as any charge must be under such circumstances. The active and wily enemy easily eluded the bayonets, and foiled every effort of the soldiers to close with them, while fiom behind every tree they tired at the soldier?, toltirg away to reload After ten minutes' fruitless skirmishing they retired to where the two officers lay, having lost two men, and having several more or less severely wounded. Deprived of their sccustomed leaders, excited by the bloodcmdliig yells of the natives, who now completely surrounded them, and exasperated by the failure cf then effort* to come to close quarters, the men were rapidly, getting out of hand, and it would have gone hard fur them hut for the presence of a couple of those collected and resourceful non-coms., to whom, under Heaven, the British aimy has owed so much of its efficiency ever since the days of Marlborough. With the fall cf Butlsr the command had fallen upon Colour-Sergeant McKenna, with Sergeant Bracegirdle as his next in rank. "To the roolness, judgment and intrepidity of these men," to quote General Cameron's report, "it was due that the whol3 haltcomyany was not wiped out. Calmly as ir on parade they steadied down the excited soldiers, and bestowed them in the best cover that coul.l be found, a large fallen log sheltering the wounded. For an hour the engagement continued, with much expenditure of ammunition, but to sedulous were both sides to keep under cover that there was little resulting damage. McKenna knew that his position was untenable, and resolved to make a push for the open country before darkness set in. Making a determined demonstraticn to the front which drove the Maoris towards the river he, undsr cover of this feint, had the wounded carried back along the track by which they had come, and after giving them a short start the whole detachment followed, hoping to meet with Colonel Murray. They were pursued, but so faintheartedly that the rifles of the few picked men who had been detailed as rear-guard kept off attack. But the darkness came on so fast that they could r.ot keep the track, and after feeling their way a mile or thrcugh the bush they were compelled to halt for the night, without having come up to the bearers of the wounded men.

It was a bitterly cold night and before daylight came Captain Swift died. He was an officer greatly beloved by his men, and Lieutenant Butler, who, though most seriously wounded, ultimately recovered, records how Corporal Ryan, who was in charge of the carrying party, and the rest or the men gtnerously stripped themselves of their tunics to cover him and their captain. At daybreak they were found by the rest of the party., and emerging from tre forest they met Colonel • Murray's command, which had reached there at dark the ni*ht before. Colonel Murray proceeded to the river-bank, but there was no sign of the enemy, either alive or dead. They rescued one man 0! Swift's party from an island. Separated from his comrades and closely pursued he had lied in the wrong direction, and coming to the river he had jumped in and swum to an island, where ho had spent a miserable night. Ancther man was unaccounted for for some thirty years, when a settler found his buttons, buckles and side-arms, everything else having been consumed by tha bush-fires. For his conduct in the affair McKenna received the Victoria Cross, the most coveted distinction soldier or sailor can win. His seniority no doubt gained him this, for there v;as a strung fueling in the regiment that if only one cross was lo have been awarded it shouid have been given to Bracegirdle, whose courage and resource in a most difficult and trying position were stated by the autvivora to have moie than equalled McKenna's, [Sunday, September 14th, was the fiftieth anniversary tf the famous defenco of Fast Pukekohe Church. On Fiiday we will have an article on tbat historic event from tha same pen whiih recorded the story of Cameroiitown.—Ed.J.