PAGES FROM THE PAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1922, Page 9

PAGES FROM THE PAST.

THE TARANAKI WAR, EXCITING TIMES IN NEW PLYMOUTH. (By “Juvenis.”) The Government apprehending the serious nature of the conflict in which they had become involved, sent pressing requests to the Australian Colonies for troops and warlike stores. In response to these requests the City of Sydney steamer and the City of Hobart arrived with reinforcements. A strong stockade, well garrisoned, wad maintained at Omata, and another at Bell Block, and temporary guard rooms were constructed on the racecourse and elsewhere. Every night a cordon of ,sentinels kept watch around the town, many of whom were without afiy shelter, and the weather proved very wet. Naval camps were also established in various parts of the town, and a strong force guarded the port, flagstaff, and the boats. CAPTAIN BROWN. Captain Richard Brown was born in Dublin in 1804, and was brought up and educated in that city by an uncle. In his youth he was employed in a mercantile house in Hobart town, Tasmania, and at the age of 20 paid a visit to the Bay of Islands, and to the islands of the Pacific Ocean, in a Tasmanian whale ship. Shortly after the foundation of New Plymov.th he came hither, and after conducting a coasting trade for some time ultimately became a merchant in the town, having for his place of business a long low warehouse near the boat sheds. In 1847 he had a quarrel with the natives about a horse, and striking one on the head with a heavy whip handle he nearly paid for his temerity with his life, for the natives came into town in large numbers, danced the war dance, and demanded that he should be given up to them. For his safety the authorities confined him in the town prison, around Which the natives kept watch all night. In the morning the natives were pacified by the prisoner’s consenting to give up the horse as utu for the damage he had done. For some time after this Mr. Brown engaged in whaling, employing a shore party at Moturoa. under- the leadership of Robert Sinclair. Next he added to his business the profession of land agent, and eventually he super-added to it that of editor of the Taranaki Herald. When the war broke out he received a commission as captain of the native contingent, and proved hitnself to be an intrepid officer. SHOT ON HIS HORSE. On Saturday, May 26, 1860, Captain Brown left the camp at Waitara for the purpose of seeking a straying horse. Riding along the beach towards New Plymouth, on reaching the ford of the Waiongona river he was surprised by three of Wi Kingi’s natives, one of whom, a young man named Tawatihi, who had recently been in Captain Brown’s employment, sprang out of a bush and fired at him. The first shot struck Captain Brown’s revolver-car-tottch-box and glanced off, the next penetrated his thigh, and the third passed through his left side and lodged in his body. After the first shot Captain Brown’s horse swerved, and the succeeding shots struck him as he was turning. Captain Brown galloped back to the camp, and being observed to. drop out of the saddle, was carried to the camp in a fainting state. Here he lingered, suffering with great patience and resignation. till August 21, when death brought him release. Captain Brown was a person of education and of polite manners, a clever improvisatore, and convivial, but sober in his habits. He was singularly reticent as regarded his antecedents and business transactions. He was strictly just and pleasant in his dealings, but there was an inner intrenchment in his nature that was impenetrable and a fire in his eye that forbade too close an acquaintance. To a certain extent he lived and - died a mystery. Dying intestate and without legal heirs his estate was escheated, says Wells the historian. AWAITING REINFORCEMENTS. After the ineffectual demonstrations made by several expeditions to the south the British remained inert, waiting for the rebels t<y renew hostilities. Very many of the settlers’ wives and children were removed to Nelson, where they were received with much compas sion. The militia and volunteers aided the military and the blue jackets in guarding the town from the attacks which were constantly threatened by the enemy. Such of the natives as professed friendship with the British were armed, supplied with rations, and furnished with serge blouses marked with a large white bulEs-eye on the back to prevent their being taken for rebels. The service of this contingent was of but little use to the British,, on account of the illdisguised sympathy of many of its members with their countrymen in rebellion. In the meantime house-burning and the plunder of cattle, horses, and sheep wa’s going on in the country districts, and Hapurona was at work strengthening his position on the edge of the table land overlooking the Waitara valley, between the Devon Road and the site of the present town of Waitara, and receiving daily reinforcements from Waikato. BATTLE OF PUKETAKUERE. At length, oq Saturday, June 23, a reconnoitring party of the 40th Regiment were fired.upon from the enemy’s worksat Puketakuere, and the officer in command determined to make preparations •for an attack on the pa. The enemy's pvorks consisted of two stockades, one ; erected upon an entrenchment of an old pa. They stood upon a ridge formed by two small gullies, which met a little below the pa, and opened on to the swampy ground in the Waitara valley, forming a sort of long Y with the staik towards the river, and the stockades in the fork. On Wednesday, Juno 27, Major Nelson marched the troops from the camp in three divisions. The main body, consisting of the grenadier and light company of the 40th Regiment, under Captain Richards, and 60 blue jackets under First Lieutenant Battiscombe of the Pelorus, with the Artillery, approached the pa by the direct road from the camp, and at 7 a.m. the guns were brought to bear and the men extended on the seaward side of the pa, the smaller gully behind them and it. With this division were Major Nelson and Captain Seymour of the Pelorus. A second division of about 50 men, under- Captain Messenger, was posted on the flat of the Waii. the retreat oa that

and a third, under Captain Bowdler, passed along the river bank and attempted to take the pa in the rear. The natives, from their position on the edge of the plateau, could observe every movement of the troops. while the British could see little but the palisading of the pas and the high fern. The firing of the enemy commenced on the rear of our troops, the natives at the time leaving the pa» and seeking the shelter of the gullies in order to pour from thence volleys of musketry on our men. Shortly after the commencement of the engagement large reinforcements of Maoris poured in from the inland villages of the rebels, who. creeping in the fern, fired unseen, but at close quarters with the British, and the main body of the latter • overlapping a dangerous gully, was exposed to a terrific fire from numerous rifle pits within it. LET DOWN. When the attack was planned it wasarranged that Colonel Gold, with a Irrge force and two 24-pounder howitzers, should co-operate with the Waitara force by proceeding from town and attacking the rebels from the plateau on the edge of which these works were situated’. Had he done so the fortune of the day would have been the reverse of what it proved to be; but the Co’onel after reaching the Mangoraka constlered the river too high for the troops to cross, and marched back to town, leaving Major Nelson to do the best he could. The fire at this engagement was said by veterans to have been hotter than that at Feroszeshah and Sabraon. and a soldier of the Crimea declared it to be hotter than the attack on the Redan. The natives, as was their custom. used double-barrelled guns and loosely fitting balls, and in loading jerked the charge down the barrels by striking the butt of their pieces on th-? ground. So much pressed were the British at last that it was only by a timely discharge of canister shot thait a retreat was effected. Finding that his expected reinforcements did not appear, Major Nelson ordered the retreat to be sounded, and the men withdrew, sadly harassed by the enemy, and by the swampy nature of the ground. So hasty was the retreat that many of the dead and wounded were left on the field, and quantities of ammunition were shot out of the carts into the fern to facilitate the flight. Captain Seymour had his log broken bv a bullet, and Lieutenant Brooke, of the 40th Regiment, was barbarously killed in a swamp after surrendering his sword to the enemy. Three or four of the wounded men crept through the fern to the camp during the afternoon, and another was brought in after dark, after having crawled on one knee for four hours through the fern, the other knee having been shattered by a shot. One man escaped by swimming the river, and two others were drowned in attempting to do so.