QEII War Museum-a guided tour

Waimarino Bulletin, Issue 4, 12 August 1988, Page 6

QEII War Museum-a guided tour

In this series of reports about the Queen Elizabeth II War Memorial Museum in Waiouru over the next few weeks we will be bringing you a selection of the various exhibits on display. Last week we presented you with a broad overall view of the Museum itself. Today we start with the preEuropean and immediate post-European Exhibits. On entering the Museum the visitor is advised to trace the history of New Zealand's

martial history i n chronological order by starting at the Colonial Gallery just a few steps up from the reception area and bookshop. First though a visit to the left at the top of the stairs is recommended if possible in order to take in an audio visual presentation (using six screens and 12 projectors) to obtain an overview of the historical sequence of events from pre-Euro-pean times to the present day. This 23-minute audio visual programme takes place every 45 minutes

starting at 9.15am. While most of the exhibits in this gallery are of post-European settlement (because it was only then that an accurate written, painted and photographic record became available) it is as well for the visitor to the Museum to remember that a form of intertribal warfare had been occurring over several centuries prior to the coming of the European. It will hardly come as any surprise therefore that there are few tangible exhibits of pre-

European history i n New Zealand. The written word and photography were both unknown prior to European settlement so that what occurred prior to the 1820's when the first whalers, sealers, traders and adventurers came to these shores, is not recorded in any detail nor supported by military-type exhibits. However we do know, from oral history and excavation sites, that inter-tribal warfare was prevalent and clashes occurred between the various Maori tribes over rights to land and fishing grounds. As the Museum displays show this seesaw conflict which demanded 'Utu' and a 'payback' system of resolving differences extended over many generations and countless numbers of people - men, women and children - would have lost their lives in this inter-tribal retribution. Prior to 1810 when the first European and American adventurers arrived in the Bay o f Islands, inter-tribal rivaling was resolved with the mere, the patu and the spear using surprise attacks and small skirmishes rather than full-scale, all-out battles. After 1810 the pattern of warfare between the Maori tribes changed because, with the introduction of the musket (Hongi -Hika bought 300 muskets

during his visit to Britain), it became possible for some tribes to gain the upper hand over others until they too had acquired similar weapons to defend themselves. The widespread acqui-

sition of muskets then made internecine warfare more complex causing slaughter and destruction to a degree not previously experienced and long expeditions were undertaken during which prisoners were captured to provide a mobile supply of food. However by 1840 when most tribes had acquired weapons o f their own a stalemate was reached and intertribal warfare was virtually eliminated though it left a few old scores to be settled during the Land Wars of the 1860's. Here the Museum's displays are much more detailed and comprehensive, using photographs (the earliest dated 1863 soon after the invention of photography in Europe), paintings, models, dioramas, uniforms, weaponry and military insignia. They describe the 1860's Land War campaigns in the Waikato, Wanganui and Taranaki and show in graphic detail how some of the battles (including Gate Pa) were conducted when the Imperial Forces canje up against palisades and trenches in the fortified pas. A display case of lifesize figures shows the coloured uniforms of some of the Imperial Forces which made them such easy targets in bush warfare together with the much more practical garb of locally recruited volunteers. The locally recruited volunteers, including the Militia, the Armed Constabulary and the Forest Rangers acted initially as scouts and to protect the Imperial Troop's lines of communication but later became more directly involved as their numbers and expertise grew. The visitor will see

examples of the actual weapons, uniforms, • insignia, badges of rank and various other acoutrements of this period in this small but compact display representing the latter half of the 19th century.

Pride of place in the Colonial Gallery with its own display case is one of the world's rarest decorations for gallantry . . . the New Zealand Cross. This particular New Zealand Cross was awarded to Sergeant Samuel Austin who was then serving in the Wanganui Native Contingent having earlier been with the Imperial Forces. He received this award for helping a wounded comrade on the field of battle. The New Zealand Cross was instituted in March 1869 to meet the need for an equivalent award to the Victoria Cross for which New Zealand fighting troops were not eligible. The New Zealand Cross was restricted to the Militia, Volunteers and Armed Constabulary who "when serving in the presence of the enemy shall have performed some single act of valour or devotion to duty or who, having performed any very intrepid action in the service of the public and neither rank, nor long service, nor wounds nor any circumstances or conditions whatsoever save merit of conspicuous bravery, shall be heard to establish a sufficient claim to the honour." Only 23 New Zealand Crosses were ever awarded. The Colonial Gallery also features a special showcase containing the potted biographies of several of the main protagonists in the Land Wars of this period. One is Te Kooti who originally fought against the Hauhaus but, after being suspected of collaboration with the enemy, was sent with captured Hauhau prisoners to the

Chatham Islands in 1865. In 1868 he and fellow prisoners seized a schooner and fled to Poverty Bay where, as a child, he had attended a mission school. He later became a

master of the ambush and lightening raid types of warfare but failed in set-piece fortified defence warfare. In 1872 he made his way to the King Country and lived under the protection of the Maori king. He was later given an amnesty and granted land in Poverty Bay where he died on April 17, 1893. Another colourful protagonist whose biographical details are recorded in this showcase is Gustavus von Tempsky. Von Tempsky, who had been educated at the Prussian Academy and had been a member of an expedition to establish a colony on the Mosquito Coast of Central America before travelling to the Californian Goldfields, arrived in New Zealand in 1862 at the age of 34 and, perhaps naturally enough, made for the Coromandel goldfields after first visiting Australia. When fighting broke out in 1863 in the Waikato von Tempsky joined the Forest Rangers and led General Cameron's advance south of Ngauruwahia. He was reported to have developed bush fighting methods using the bowie knife to a state of the art. He was appointed Inspector of the Armed Constabulary in 1868 but was killed at Te Ngutu-o-te Manu in September of that year. Also featured are Sir Duncan Cameron who commanded the Imperial Forces and Sir George Grey governorgeneral and later premier of New Zealand. NEXT WEEK: The Armed Constabulary; The Wellington Amazons; The Boer Wars;. Queen Victoria's Scarf and; the Spar Torpedo Boat . . . a suicide mission if ever there was one!