PAGES FROM THE PAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1921, Page 9

PAGES FROM THE PAST.

PUKETAKAUERE. THE STORY OF A FAILURE. (By ‘•Juvenis.’’) In perusing some old files recently, I came , acros s an article reprinted from the Sydney Morning Herald of July 20, ISS2, descriptive of the fight at Puketaka uere, and the part played therein by Captain Seymour, of H.M.S. Pelorus, who was wounded and nearly lost his life. Captain Seymour afterwards rose to be an Admiral. The article was evidently written by one who took part in the fight and dealt very trenchantly with the incapacity of the Commander-in-Chief (Colonel Gold), whom he blamed for the “crushing and humiliating defeat” sustained by the British forces. He wrote:

Captain Seymour received his wound or June 27, 1860. But for the degged determination of his own blue jackets, this splendid officer would have been • tomahawked in the fern of the Wai- i tara hills or in one of the swamps of the Waitara Valley. And had such a man as the Seymour of 1882 been commissioned to squelch the Maori rebellion in 18G0, a racial struggle, which dragged through more than a decade, and involved a pitiful sacrifice of life and the expenditure of millions of hard-earned British money, would have been pre|vented. Seymour’s short service in New Zealand belonged to the first days and the first battle-fields of the rebellion. It ' was in the Waitara Valley that the ■estrangement between the two races broke into open hostilities on March 17, i IS6O. Taranaki, the provincial district in which Waitara is included, has a red history. When the red flag was run up at the Waitara by Wiremu Kingi the only Imperial forces in the Col®ny were the 65th Regiment artd a battery of artillery. These were at. once moved to Taranaki, and supported by the arming oi al) the settlers between the ages of 16 and 20. In a few weeks several comparfies of the 40th Regiment were despatched from Sydney and Melbourne, and the ships of I the Australian squadron anchored in I New Zealand waters. But the latter were of little use, because the Maoris were generally too wideawake to build pahs where they could be shelled by men-of-war oil' the coast. A strong land force was the great desideratum, and in the emergency a number of blue jackets, Seymour himself at their head, were landed at New Plymouth from the Pelorus. NOT ENOUGH SHOT AND SHELL. The three months which had elapsed since the destruction of the first pah erected by Wiremu Kingi, in defiance of Governor Gore Browne, had not been creditably used. There had been too much mild expostulation, and too little shot and shell. More than one opportunity for summarily suppressing the disaffection had been missed by the blundering authorities, and meanwhile the rebellion gathered strength. The settlers were huddled together in the little town, and the overcrowding, to which they were entirely unaccustomed, bred disease and death. Bands of natives burned the farm-houses and drove off the cattle and sheep, and more than £lOO,000 worth of property soon disappeared in this way. Several poor fellows who, anxious about homes which had cost ' them a lifetime of honest labor to make 1 for themselves, ventured out to see what was left, were shot and barbarously mutilated. In the few formal engagements which had taken place between the troops and the rebels, no decisive advantage had been gained by either side. There was a generally expressed hope that the military authorities would by some bold and thoroughly executed movement, promptly put an end to the miserable business; but there was aiso an unexpressed doubt that the Com-mander-in-Chief, Colonel Gold, would only trifle with his chances. It was at this juncture that Wiremu Kingi’s men suddenly—in a night—erected the palisading and dug the trenches and pits of the Puketakauere pah. One June morning the British camp on the piece of Waitara- land, the dispute about the alienation of which had nominally originated the hostilities, found itself confronted and overlooked by this new evidence of unconquered rebellion. The eamp was about a mile distant from the mouth of the Waitara River, and the pah was, as a shell travels, just a mile

from the camp. A few miles further inland, on the heights rising towards ‘ Mount Egmont, were the cleared settle- i ment of Wiremu Kingi’s tribe. The i Puketakauere site d : d credit to the veteran who chose it, being equally 1 difficult to attack and easy to retreat from—ami a Maori engineer thinks much of retreat. THE ATTACK ORDERED. An attack upon Puketakauere was ordered for the June 27. Major Nelson was to move from the Waitara camp and Colonel Gold was to move from New Plymouth, about ten miles distant. On the 26th, Seymour's blue-jackets and one or two companies of the 40th marched to the Waitara to join Nelson (“Tiger’’ Nelson he was fondly called by his men in recognition of his courage). It was in the middle of winter, and torrents of rain fell during the day. Wet and weary, but eager for the morrow’s strife, they arrived at the camp. Early on the 27th, Nelson, implicitly trusting in Gold to fulfil his part of the programme, assembled his little army—only a few hundred men all told, with two or three 20-pounders and one 12-pounder. the latter a brass gun from the Pelorus and dragged bv the blue-jackets —and marched upon the pah. The weather continued wild and wintry.

Hardly had the force left camp before a Maori messenger on horseback was < seen speeding away to the heights for j reinforcements. Probably every fighting ‘ man in Wiremu Kingi’s settlement took ' part in the day’s struggle. Nelson divi- j ded his men into three bodies, intendfhg to surround the pah, and either annihilate its inmates or compel them to surrender. Every thing went well until the struggle actually began, and then the cry was. Where is Gold and his men ? Nelson found himself in a terrible predicament. His diminutive army was divided for the purposes of attack; the pah was one of those bewildering combinations of palisading and trenches and pits which are so hard to get into when held by a resolute foe; the country, with its thick mat of fern, its ridges and sullies, and its swamps, was exhausting the strength of the brave fellows he commanded; his men had only the ammunition they could carry in their pouches, and the enemy had the superiority of numbers, knowledge of every inch of the ground, and entrenchments* Never was tough-hearted soldier more cruelly deserted than was “Tiger” Nelby Colonel Gold.

A MAORI CHALLENGE. The Maoris were not slow to perceive that the balance of power was on their side, and leaving their trenches and palisading, challenged the white faces to hand-to-hand conflict. Not a sign of the New Plymouth force could be seen anywhere, and Nelson was obliged to acknowledge that the day had gone against him. The retreat was sounded; but getting back to camp was a terrible business. Each division had to fight its way home. The grenadier company and the blue jackets were in the thickest of the fire. When the grenadiers mustered in camp again it was found that 33 of their number were killed and wounded. Probably there were not more than 70 or 80 in the company. About a dozen of the blue jackets, including Captain Seymour, who was shot through the leg, were among those who suffered. The total casualties were 29 killed and 38 wounded. There would have been far more if the rebels had been armed with rifles and had aimed them accur ately; but the Maoris are like the Egyptians in this, that they aim execrably. Many a Briton owes his life to that defect in their military education. HEROIC WORK. Some of our fellows performed wonderfully in their distressing circumstances. One grenadier is said to have shot or bayoneted six natives. Lieutenant Brooke, of the 40th, was pursued into a swamp, where he fought valiantly until his sword arm was broken by a musket ball; he then handed his sword with his left hand to his foremost assailant supposing that the surrender of a brave soldier would be accepted by the noble savage. The wretch took the sword, an,l tomahawked Brooke. One poor fellow dragged a broken limb through fern which at once hid and hindered him. till he was close enough to , the camp to cry for aid in the small [hours of the morning. Two or three others, 'lnaimed by bullets, lay still in i the friendly fern till night, and then | attempted to crawl towards the lights lof the camp, but a stream intercepted i them and they were drowned in a few ! inches of waler. One grenadier was said to have fired away all his ammuniI tion, and got separated from his comI rules. 'The fern sheltered him for a ■ while, but a party of natives, intent [upon despatching the wounded and plun- | dering the dead, came towards him. He I stretched himself on the ground like a i dead man. A native pricked him with [his own bayonet, and rapped him on ’the head with the rifle, but not a muscle quivered. He was able to report himself at the camp during the night; that was the reward of his nerve. Seymour's men found an invaluable ally in their brass gun, which was ol more use in covering their retreat than all their rifles counted together. The camp was a sad place that night. In the morning hundreds of men had marched out full of hope and eager for distinction; they returned with the black mark of a retreat against them. I In the fern and swamps they had left • many a dead and dying comrade, and [the curses which they invoked upon those who Were responsible for the nonarrival of the reinforcements were such as Britons are seldom tempted to utter. AN INGLORIOUS PART. Colonel Gold had marched his force to within half-an-hour's distance of Puketakauere; but then his heart sank down into his boots, and he ordered a retreat I before he had sighted the enemy. Probably the sound of the firing reached {his ears and made him feel sick. He was [jhat kind of old _man generally called

an “old woman.” Of his military incapacity he had given many proofs, but it was hoped that- he had at least the courage of his profession. He had not. He had grown old in a. service for which he was physically and mentally unfitted. His excuses for not carrying out his pledged part of, the day’s programme were manifestly ridiculous.

Naturally enough, the reverse at Puketakauere in the eyes of the Maori diminished the fighting reputation of the Briton. Every rebel stripling thought himself equal to the task of driving a dozen soldiers ihto the sea. The news of the day's work rapidly travelled north, and inflamed a number of young VVaikatos to come down to the W aitara and assist in the congenial task of “wiping out” the troops. But after a few weeks shelling, the pah was suddenly abandoned by tlie natives, and immediately converted into a British redoubt. A melancholy duty of the new 7 garrison was the collecting and burying of the bones 'of the uniortunates who fell on June 27. It was then made plain—-what had previously been suspected—that the hatchet’had finished what the bullet haa ' begun. The noble savage never spared his wounded foe. 1 Seymour's wound did not heal rapid- [ ly and it was near the middle of August i before he could make the short voyage to New Plymouth, where he remained i uhtil sufficiently recovered to resume i duty at the Waitara. He was then • about 40 years of age, and might be [described as a distinguished-looking j Englishman. In manner he was reserved and haughty; he appeared to be [fonder of reading than of social inter- ! course with his fellow-officers. His men I generally spoke of him as a stern disciplinarian.