ORAKAU PA CAPTURE.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17985, 2 April 1930, Page 7

ORAKAU PA CAPTURE.

THE 66TH ANNIVERSARY

COURAGE OF BRITISH SOLDIERS. (Contributed.) Monday was the sixty-sixth anniversary of the capture of Orakau Pa, a stronghold that formed the last forlorn hope of the Waikato and Isgatimaniapoto natives, and its fall ended the campaign which the aggressiveness of the Kingitcs had made inevitable. Practically the war was won -when General Cameron marched past Palerangi Pa, leaving that formidable stronghold “hanging in the air,” and cutting off the supplies of its large garrison by occupying the rich and extensive plantations in the neighbourhood of To Awamutu. Paterangi had to be evacuated by its defenders, most of whom realised the game up, and retired to the upper waters of the Waipa and its tributaries or to their homes in the Bay of Plenty, where some of them still had to be dealt with in an even more sanguinary engagement. But some of the die-hards determined to make one more stand, and hurriedly threw up a pa on a ridge a few miles to the east of Kihi-Kihi. From this they were dislodged after three days’ close investment and a good deal of heavy fighting. Experiences of An Onlooker.

The story of the assault and fall of Orakau has been told so often that it is not intended here to give a general account of it, but only to narrate the experiences of an onlooker who got a very close view of part of the affair, and whose story has not so far been published. A fortnight ago there died at his home at. Lyall Bay, Wellington, in his 90th year, Mr James Adam Capper, who took an active and risky, though non-combatant, part in the seige. Mr Capper first saw New Zealand in 1856, when the gun-brig on which lie arrived as a ship’s'hoy sailed into Wellington Harbour, lie was hack again in .1863, when the Waikato campaign was commencing, and, like many another naval man, left his ship without saying good-bye to get the excitement of some land fighting.

Joining the Ist Waikato Militia, he was drafted as one of ten men to strengthen the settler garrison of St. Bride’s Church at Mauku, and on October 23 Look part in the engagement at the Titi, or as it is often called, the Bald Hill. Of this light he was the last survivor. Then, to his disgust, he found himself still posted at Mauku while his regiment moved forward with the Imperial troops to the capture of Rangiriri and the investment of the central Waikato Plain. At last, after three or four months of inaction, he obtained a transfer to the Transport Corps, and found himself again at the front.

As driver of four bullocks and a dray he had a very good general view of the operations at Orakau, his job being to keep the front lines supplied with rations and ammunition. Bullocks are always used if obtainable for transport work in the firing line, as their lack of imagination makes them insensible to danger under which horses cannot he trusted to be steady. In India the usual practice was for the gun-elephants to drag the artillery as near the scene of action as they coulci be induced to go; then horses were employed to take them on till they in turn began to get too excited; but the last lap into the firing position was always left to the stolid bullocks, who feared no danger because they had not the intelligence to apprehend it. On two of these trips Mr Capper brought to the dressing station a number of wounded men laid on a bed of fern spread on the floor of the dray. On various occasions the team was under fire, but only -once was there a casualty, and that was when one of the leaders was hit upon the horn by a bullet. “The poor beggar shook his head for hours,’ said Mr Capper not very long ago, adding with a smile: “I should not be surprised if lie is shaking it still.” Ilis job was not a comfortable one, for lie sometimes had to get in the line of a cross-fire which made his friends as dangerous as his foes. The Closing Scene, It was in the mid-afternoon of the third day that Mi 1 Capper saw the episode- that made his narrative so interesting, and it was the closing scene of the fight. Whenever the story of Orakau is told a great deal is made of llauraki Tonganui’s declaration in reply to Ensign William Mair’s summons to the garrison to surrender, that the Maoris would fight on for ever and ever and ever. So much doubt exists as to the actual words used that one hesitates to give them dogmatically, hut that that was their general effect everyone admits. It was a fine heroic declaration, but Hauraki apparently had a mental reservation as to where this eternal fighting was to take place. Probably he was not familiar with either Goldsmith's distich—“He that and runs away, Will live to fight another day”; or Butler’s less-known couplet—- “ For those that fly may fight, again, Which he can never do that's stain.” But it is evident he fully appreciated the principle they state. Capper's team and another had been sent round to the hack of the pa for loads of gabions or fascines to be used in the sap which was being driven up to the earthworks; and then he saw the sequel to Haurakiks orgulous declaration. Out of the back of the pa swept the whole ■body of the garrison, seeking other regions in which they might hope to fight again. Before them on the edge of the swamp was a small party of the 40th Regiment cutting three. These men deemed it their duty to try and hold up ten times their number of maddened fugitives, and did succeed in breaking up the solid phalanx into separate groups, though not without.heavy loss to themselves. Everyone who has heard of or read about Orakau knows the story of Hauraki’s reply, and the tenacity and courage of the Maoris has been lauded and applauded; but who ever hears about the courage and tenacity of those men of the 40th? Is it any wonder that lan Hay wrote “The Oppressed English?"