FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 2, Issue 139, 24 October 1913, Page 2

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

The Fight at The Ti Ti, Mauku. "The stubborn spearmen still made good ' The dark, impenetrable wood. Each stepping where his comrade stood 'lhe moment that he fell "

For seme months after tha cutbreak of ihe Waikato war fighting was almost confined to the Franklin County. General Cameron, the Commarcer-in-Chief, had a considerable force at the front, wnich at that time was Pokeno, and had thrown up a line of forts across the island, the Esk, the Miranda, the Surrey, the Queen'B and the Tuakau redoubts to hold back the rebels from the settled country, but the difficulty of Retting supplies to the front during the winter months by the solitary track over the Pokeno ranges rendered it impossible for him to make a forward movement and attack the Maoris in their strongholds at Rangiriri and Meiemere p?s, on the defences of which they had been working with feverish activity for months, and which they fondly deemed impregnable.

During this time the bush was full of bands ol natives who had been turned out of their villages, but allowed to take with them their arms and ammunition, among the most turuulent and implacable of whom were Ihe Patumahce men. War parties from the Waikato and Rohe Potae also thought it a pleasant diversion to cross the river at night, spend a few days cattle killing and house-burning, or patting a stray settler or two, and return to their pas. liaida on Auckland were also planned/by way of the Manukau harbour, where they were believed to have a number uf canoes hidden, which had escaped the notice of the men-of-warEmen who had made a clo?e search in their boats and destroyed scores of the dug-outs. This belief was afterwards verified, for a number of canoes were later discovered secreted in the scrub on the Karaka side of the Papakura channel. Fear of one of these night-raids kept the citizens of Auckland in a continual state of alarm, and it is with the failing of the only serijus cttempt made in that direction that this article has to du. In tha very heart of the King Country, where the flourishing town o? Te Kuiti now stands, lived Rewi Maniapotu, the hereditary chief of the Ngatimaniapoto tribe. He w'as a man of great influence among the Maoris, always bitterly onposed to English rule, and a prime fosterer of j the movement which had welded the t independent tribes of the Waikato into a single body under a kins, as well as the chief instigator of the

rebellion that was to cost them ro much of their fertile land. One of his favourite projects had been a descent on-Auckland by night, to burn, t) plunder and to slay, and to retire before reprisals could te undertaken, but his allies could not be screwed up to the pitch necessary tor so desperate an undertaking. Therefore, about the middle of October, he determined that to his own tribe should accrue the credit of the enterprise. Three hundred of tha picked warriors of the Ngatimaniapotos, headed by Rewi's two nephews, veterans of the Taranaki war, and some fifty or sixty - of the Ngatiparcwas from the Bay of .Plenty, dropped quietly down the river, paddling by ni^ht and lying concealed in tha rushes by day. Unknown to any cf our people they landed at Rungipokia before dawn on t":e 24tb. Had they Lot come across cattle and bsen unable to withstand the temptation of shooting them, there is every probability they would have been able to carry cut their original plan. To dear tha forest and keep the lines of communication open, three corps l.ad been formed—the Flying Column, composed of volunteers from the regiments of the line then here, the Forest Rangers, ratecd by Captain Jaikson, and the Forest Rifles, composed chiefly of settlers in Ul3 Mauku district, and raised .. by and under the command of L'aptein Lusk. The Flying Column occupied itself chiefly in seeing to tha safety of the Great South road, the Hangers scoured the broken forest land to the east of that road, while the country to t!:e west was parolled by the Rifles. Not infrequently Rangers and Rifles effected a junction and acted together, as on the day of the fight at the Big Clearing at Mauku on September Bth, but usually each corps taw to the safety of its own district. A stranger looking at the country through which the lower reaches of the Mauku river winds, with its meditative dairy herds, its sheepdotted slopes, and its red-roofed cottsgcs nestling in the lea of the patches of forest which the wise prescience of the early settlers saved from ax 3 and fire, would probably think he had never viewed a more peaceful scene. But when shown tha neatly-filled loop-hcles in the whita church which dominates the landscape from its rounded knoll, ani the bu.lct wounds in its f stout tntara timbers, he wouli realise that monotonous placidity had not always been the ou»s!anding feature of tha place. In the spring of 1863 there were no less than three military posts in Lower Mauku. The headquarters, the Church, was occupied by about 50 men of the Forest Rifle?, a stockade where the Mauku joins the Manukau was held by Lieutenant Percival with 20 men of the Ist Waikato Militia, and at the Falls farm, mid-way between the two, was a small guard of the Rifles, the whole being under the command of Captain Lusk, Early in the morning of the 24th of October Captain Lusk left the lower stockade on B tour ot inspection of his posts, accompanied by a finale orderly. Crossing the uplands of- the Falls farm he was surprised to hear continuous firing in the neighourhicd of Whirter's farm, the Ti-ti, and to see » ths garrison of the church clustered V outside of the palisades gazing in that direction. Quickly guessing at the truth he dispatched the orderly back to the stockade with orders to Percival to join him at the Church immediately with half his command, and proceeded en his journey. Arrived at the Church the cause of the disturbance was plainly, visible. A large body of Maoris was shooting and cooKing the cattle on the Ti-ti . farm. As they very greatly outnumbered his own men he did rot consider it aivitable to attack them without reinforcements. A mounted messenger was sent fly log to Diary

to ask for Nixon's Light Horsp, which were encamped thera, bet for some unexplained reason Colonel Austin; the officer in command, aid not send tne troopers, but dispatched instead two companies of the Waikato Militia, who, however, did rot arrive till too late to be of aiy use. Ths Rifles, bfing safelv behind thei? palisades, would have remained in shelter till aid arrived but for the impetuosity of Percival. On his way from the stockade hp heard the guns of the catt Icshooters. and jumping to the corclusion that our met; were engaged he disregarded hi a orders and rmde a ber-li e through ths bush to fflere he thocght the tight was going on. To the surprise of the watchers at the Church they saw a handful of ths blae-shirtfd militia emerge from the edge of the bush on what is now known as tha tramway line, and engage the enemy at long range. An enveloping movement on the part of the Msoris at once began, and it was seen that an immediate sally was the on!y hope cf saving Percival, if, indeed, it was not already too late. Bucklirg on their belts as they ran our men raced down the alone and crossed ihe Mauku waist-daep. Just as they Btarted Lieutenant Normsn, of the Waikatcs, galloped in fron Drury, bavit.g met the raessemer on the way, and snatching up a rifle caught up to the party as they were fording the stream. Pressing up the opposite acclivity at the double they reached the top just as Percival's little contingent, which had taken what cover it could behind logs and stumps, was almost completely suirounded. Up to that moment, though they bad accounted for several of the enemy, the men from the lower Btockade had escaped untouched, but when the junction was effected, Percival, with characteristic recklessness, jumped up on a log to cheer, and immediately fell, shot through the heart. Captain Lusk, now that his purpose was effected, would gladly have retired to his sto:kad?, but the enemy had other views. They had drawn back from the first volley the Rifles poured in when they name within range, but the fall of Percival seemed to re-hrarten them. Our m?n were in a narrow Clearing surrounded on three sides by walls of bush lined with yelling natives. Of these about 150 had been advancing across the open on a line converging to that of Lusk, bat had fallen tack into the bush as the relieving body neared them. But only for the moment, for with dance and yell they came out again into the open, darting from stump tu stomp, and rapidly closing on the volunteers, their example being followed by the Maoris from the other two sides. Against so overwhelming a force the open ground was clearly untenable. On the right flank of the volunteers was a narrow fringe of trees, and to this they retired, hotly pressed by the enemy, who came again and again to the point cf the bayonet, for the only time during the war. During the hand-to-hand melee things looked very serious for a time. Corporal Power drove his bayonet through the brawny chest of h six-foot warrior, and was axed while vainly trying to recover his weapon. Worthing ton had his head split open with a long-handled tomahawk while trying to load. Lieutenant Norman shot a Maori dead, and then tripped over a root and fell. Another native rushed up to tomahawk him, but be rose to bis knees and killed bim with his revolver. Before he could gain his feet a third jumped up from behind a log and shot him through the heart In the short retreat to cover the volunteers lost eight men, but once among the timber their superior marksmanship soon drove the enemy back across the clearing. With so small a force it would have beei madness to have attempted to dislodge the enemy, or to have ventured into the open to recover the bodies of the slain, so a retreat was made to the church, a wide detour being made through the forest. For Eome distance they were pursued, but by halting in sections and firing and then retiring while thj men who had reloaded took their places as rearguard they managed to hold the ene»iy at bay, and gained the stockade at dusk without further casualties. Two men were missing, but turned up safely the next morning. During tbe evening the two companies of militia arrived, and early the following morning a reconnaisauce was made over the field of battle, Our dead, mutilated almost beyond recognition, had been collected, and the spot marked hy a white haversack on a poll. Ot the enemy no trace, living or dead, could be seen. Their trail of retreat was plainly marked, however, and was followed ss far as Rangipokia, whera some forty hastily constructed litters were found, showing thsir loss to have been fairly heavy. Among the dead were both their leaders, Rewi's nephews. A fair sprinkling of survivors is still left, but, so far as the present writer is aware, only one, Mr Charles Dromgool, ol Tuakau, is living in this district. The commanding officer, Maor Lusk, still a young man in spits of his eighty odd years, leads an erergetic life at Te Kuiti, managing hid run of four thousand acres, and undertaking, among other civic activities, the post of president of the Farmers' Union for the province. Mr Felix McGuire, for many years M.P. for a laranaki constituency, but now residing in Auckland, is another. Mr H. W. Hill, of Remuera, who was specially mentioned in dispatches for his gallantry in the hand-to-hand combat, and Mr Prior, of Wellington, who rot long agu made a pilgrimage to the scene of his early exploits, are two more. General Cameron had always been inclined to look upon anything in the nature of a raid upon Auckland as an Impossibility, but this daring enterprise caused him to re-mculd his opinion, and within a few days seven hundred regulars were encamped at the Mauku Church. But the advance of spring and the consequent improvement of the roads permitting a proper supply of munitions to be got to the front and enabling him to make a forward movement, the soldiers were withdrawn. The fall of Rangirir : , the evacuation of Meremere, and the retreat of the rebels up the Waipa soon followed. All danger in this district was over, and Captain Lusk, his sphere of usefulness here now ended, was given tbe command of a company of Waikato militia, and dispatched upon the arduous and dangerous task of establishing a line of communication between Kawbia harbour and headquarters on tbe Waipa river, j

Aa the five o'clock poods train was coming into Pukekohe on Tuesday evening it was noticed that llames and smoke were issuing from one of the trucks. The staff quickly organised themselves into a fire brigade and the flames were soon extinguished. Examination showed that the truck was full of household furniture aDd thai damage was not very great. It waa assumed that a apark from the engine had got under the cover and, falling on some