BATTLE OF BALD HILL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 931, 26 March 1930, Page 16

BATTLE OF BALD HILL

LAST SURVIVOR DIES MR. JAMES ADAM CAPPER The last survivor of the Titi or Bald Hill fight at Mauku on October 23, 18G3, Mr. James Adam Capper has died at the .age of 89. Born in Inverness-shire, Scotland, Mr. Capper joined the Navy at the age of 15 and came to New Zealand in 1856 as a member of the crew of a naval brig. The ship was dispatched to the North Pacific station but returned to New Zealand in 1863. The Waikato War was just beginning and lured Mr. Capper to desert his ship and join the land forces. After being’ in camp at Drury, Mr. Capper’s company, under Captain St. John, was sent away, the company being divided into two sections at Runciman, one half going to the Queen’s Redoubt at Pokeno as escort for amunition carts and relieving the East Pukekohe garrison at a critical moment. The other half went across the Karaka to the Lower Mauku stockade, where after a period of quiet they battled with the Maoris. This fight was the only one in the campaign in which Colonial troops, not supported bv regulars met the enemy in anything more than a skirmish. After the war Mr. Capper was messenger in the House of Representatives and since his retirement had lived at his home in Lyall Bay, Wellington. During the last few months he was confined to his bed, but could talk clearly and concisely on the earlier years of his life.