MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 July 1938, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

FALL OF RUAPEKAPEKA. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) In November, 1845, Captain Grey arrived and had a long personal interview with Governor Fitzroy at Auckland. At the Bay of Islands he found 700 soldiers entrenching themselves. The Maoris were of three distinct classes, friends, enemies and neutrals. These last-named were promptly told that those not for us were againts us. The British policy of non-intervention was as yet unborn. Returning to Auckland, the new Governor assembled the Legislative Council and put a long overdue stop to the penny an acre proclamation and to the sale of arms to all Maoris. The Maoris’ rapid improvements in the plans of defence were relatively greater than those of European armies. Their trenches were inside the palisades of huge tree trunks. Ours were outside the walls. The Maoris stand within and shoot through loophopes at the ground level. This was the main difficulty for us at Ruapekapeka. The flanked walls of this great fort were 170 yards by 70, with the rows of tree trunks from 12 to 20 inches in diameter, and the walls three feet apart. A deep ditch between and the earth formed an inner parapet. The enemy within numbered 500. Our men included 1173 men and officers of the British Army and Navy, and 450 wellequipped Maori allies. We had three 32-pounders, one 18-pounder, two 12pounders, seven brass guns, and rocket tubes. After we had lost 13 men and had 30 wounded, Ruapekapeka fell, but the enemy escaped by a cleverly hidden tunnel. The enemy’s wounded were carefully tended, and mostly cured by our surgeons, a new mode of warfare which made a deep impression on the Maoris.