East Cape War

The East Cape War, sometimes also called the East Coast War, was a series of conflicts fought in the North Island of New Zealand from April 1865 to October 1866 between colonial and Māori military forces. At least five separate campaigns were fought in the area during a period of relative peace in the long-running 19th century New Zealand Wars.

The east coast hostilities came at the close of the Waikato wars and before the outbreak of Te Kooti's War, both fought nearby, but sprang from causes more closely related to the Second Taranaki War—namely, Māori resentment of punitive government land confiscation coupled with the rise of the so-called Hauhau movement, an extremist part of the Pai Marire religion (also called the Hauhau), which was strongly opposed to the alienation of Māori land and eager to strengthen Māori identity.

Pai Mārire arrived on the east coast from Taranaki about 1865. The subsequent ritual killing of missionary Carl Volkner by Pai Mārire followers at Ōpōtiki on 2 March 1865 sparked settler fears of an outbreak of violence and later that year the New Zealand government launched a lengthy expedition to hunt for Volkner's killers and neutralise the movement's influence. Rising tensions between Pai Mārire followers and conservative Māori led to a number of wars between and within Māori iwi, with kūpapa or "loyal" Māori armed by the government in a bid to exterminate the movement.

Major conflicts within the campaign included the cavalry and artillery attack on Te Tarata pā near Ōpōtiki in October 1865 in which about 35 Māori were killed and the seven-day siege of Waerenga-a-Hika in November 1865. The government, claiming that one of Volkner's killers was being given sanctuary by Māori in the remote Urewera region, confiscated northern parts of the Urewera land in January 1866 in a bid to break down Māori resistance and confiscated additional land in Hawke's Bay a year later after a rout of a Māori party it deemed to pose a threat to the settlement of Napier. In 2013 the Crown paid $23 million in financial redress and expressed "profound regret" over the "unjust attacks" in Hawke's Bay in 1866 and apologised for subsequent land confiscations.

Background

In 1863 the government enacted laws to confiscate the land of Māori deemed to have been "in rebellion" against the government in the land wars. The laws were aimed at punishing Māori for their aggression and also establishing law, order and peace by using areas within the confiscated land to establish settlements for colonisation. From early 1865 the government began confiscating wide areas of Taranaki and Waikato, depriving Māori of their food sources and livelihood. In many parts of the North Island, the resultant resentment and anger found expression in the more radical, nationalistic elements of Pai Mārire, which sought to drive European settlers from the land.

Pai Mārire had begun in Taranaki as a peaceful religion, a combination of Christianity and traditional Māori beliefs, but by 1865 had developed a reputation as a violent and vehemently anti-Pākehā (European) movement. The arrival and rapid spread of Pai Mārire in the East Cape destabilised the region, dividing Māori communities and also causing great alarm among New Zealand settlers despite the fact the area was almost devoid of European settlement. The government responded with several ad hoc measures, including supplying arms to "loyal" factions, organising a force of Arawa tribesmen under European leaders, and a series of small expeditions of volunteer settlers from Hawke's Bay.

Killing of Carl Volkner

right|thumb|Pai Mārire prophet Patara Raukatauri, who spread the religion in the east coast.In early 1865 Pai Mārire leader Te Ua Haumēne sent two prophets, Kereopa Te Rau and Patara Raukatauri, to convert East Coast tribes. Kereopa, an ageing veteran of the Waikato wars, carried with him the head of Captain P. W. J. Lloyd, who had been killed in the Ahuahu attack of April 1864 in Taranaki. Kereopa had lost his family in the bloody British raid on Rangiaowhia the previous year and blamed much of the massacre of women and children on missionary complicity, so he and his followers sought utu, or revenge, against missionaries. In Whakatane he demanded that Ngāti Awa iwi hand over the local Roman Catholic priest; without waiting for a result the pair continued on to Ōpōtiki, where they succeeded in winning the allegiance of local Māori from the Whakatohea iwi to the Pai Mārire creeds. German-born Lutheran missionary Carl Sylvius Volkner, who had lived in Ōpōtiki for four years, was absent in Auckland and Patara, believing the cleric was acting as a government spy, wrote him a letter stating that missionaries would henceforth not be permitted to live among Māori and ordered him not to return. Ignoring warnings that his life was in danger, Volkner sailed back to Ōpōtiki, arriving on 1 March. The schooner was looted and Volkner and another missionary, Thomas Grace, were taken captive. The following day Volkner was hanged, then beheaded. In a church service that followed, Kereopa swallowed Volkner's eyes—momentarily choking on one of them—and passed around a chalice containing the missionary's blood for it to be consumed by his congregation. Grace remained captive for two weeks before escaping.

A poorly-armed Māori party led by chiefs including Ropata Wahawaha mounted an unsuccessful raid on Pai Mārire adherents at Mangaone, near Pukemaire, on 10 June 1865. After several more small engagements in the Waiapu Valley a delegation of east coast chiefs led by Mokena Kohere appealed to Donald McLean, the new Provincial Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, for arms and reinforcements to subdue the uprising. McLean immediately supplied Mokena with weapons and ammunition, then dispatched about 100 Colonial Defence Force troops under Major James Fraser. landed the troops at Hicks Bay and at the mouth of the Waiapu River on 5 July 1865 in a bid to capture Kereopa and Patara, shelling their Hauhau enemy the next day. When a trading cutter following the troops anchored off Whakatane on 22 July to allow surveyor and government interpreter James Fulloon to go ashore to investigate the local mood, it was boarded by Pai Mārire converts at the orders of Taranaki prophet Horomona. Fulloon and two of its crew were shot and killed and the vessel's mast was taken ashore and erected as a niu or sacred pole for Pai Mārire rites.

East Coast expedition

In Auckland, fears grew that the spread of Pai Mārire could unite tribes against settlers in a tide of religious fanaticism. The problem posed a major challenge for the cash-starved government which, already under pressure from London to release British troops for overseas deployment, had deployed the bulk of available forces in Taranaki and Wanganui, where much of their foe was also aligned with Pai Mārire.

A small initial landing force came under fire as it attempted to land in gale-force winds and was reinforced with the remainder of the troops the next morning, driving the Māori defenders several kilometres inland. Eight Whakatohea Māori were killed in the two-day clash.

The expeditionary force remained in Ōpōtiki for several weeks, converting Volkner's church into a redoubt and engaging in occasional clashes with Māori, who established the entrenched and palisaded Te Puia pā about 8 km inland. On 4 October McDonnell led a force to Te Tarata, a new pā about 6 km from Ōpōtiki. When the force came under heavy fire, McDonnell sent for cavalry and artillery reinforcement, who surrounded the pā on three sides and began shelling it. As Māori reinforcements began arriving from nearby Te Puia, the cavalry charged through them with swords, killing and wounding about 20.

The two groups—which, with additional support from Ngāti Porou under Ropata totaled 380 men—marched against Pukemaire on 3 October in heavy rain, facing a garrison estimated to be about 400. They opened a flying sap and managed to destroy part of the frail palisade but abandoned attempts to storm the pa when rain rendered their weapons ineffectual. Nine Pai Marire and two government soldiers were reported killed in the engagement. Forces returned to the pa on the night of 8 October ready for a renewed attack but found it deserted. The pa was later burned. McLean raised 300 volunteers from loyal Ngāti Porou, who were taken by steamer to Poverty Bay, where they were joined by a mixed force of Hawke's Bay Cavalry, Military Settlers and the East Cape expeditionary force under Fraser and Biggs, who were landed from the Brisk. McLean sent an ultimatum to the pā with a list of demands: all Māori were to take an oath of allegiance to the Queen, all who had "fought against the Government" were to be surrendered, everyone who did not belong to the district be expelled, and that all arms were to be surrendered. McLean warned that if the terms were not complied with, they would be attacked and deprived of their homes. Though some signed the oath of allegiance, In Fraser's account of the same events, the armed Pai Mārire force advanced from the pā under a white flag of truce, which Fraser viewed as a ruse, "as no flag of truce should be respected carried by such a large body of armed men, and I ordered them to be fired on before they could come up to us ... the enemy were totally defeated, with the loss of 34 killed, and at least that number wounded, their men falling in all directions as they attempted to regain their pa".

On 22 November, after a week of constant rifle fire, Fraser turned to artillery to end the siege, loading shrapnel-filled salmon tins into a six-pounder cannon from the Sturt to create makeshift canister shot. After two rounds were fired into the pā the demoralised garrison hoisted a white flag and 400 occupants surrendered; they were taken to Gisborne to be either released or shipped to the Chatham Islands for imprisonment. The pā was destroyed. Total Pai Mārire losses from the siege were more than 100 dead and 100 wounded, while government losses totaled 11 dead and 20 wounded.

Among the kūpapa at Waerenga-a-Hika was future Māori guerrilla leader Te Kooti, who was taken prisoner (but later released) on suspicion of treachery after allegations that he was collaborating with the enemy and firing blanks.

McLean, meanwhile, continued to hunt for Kereopa. Convinced the Urewera people were giving him sanctuary, McLean declared they were rebelling against the government and on 17 January 1866 the government proclaimed the confiscation of all the low-lying and relatively fertile lands at the northern edges of the Urewera. Binney concluded: "From the government's perspective, the 'sanctuary' of the Urewera had to be broken open. Therefore, its people had to be broken; the most direct way to break them was to take their land." The party, led by Pai Mārire prophet Panapa and chiefs Nikora, Kipa, Kingita and Petera Kahuroa, as well as Ngāti Tuwharetoa chief Te Rangitahau, stayed for several weeks at Petane, north of Napier. On 4 October most of the party moved to the village of Omarunui, about 10 km southwest of Napier, while the original occupants moved out. McLean, alerted to their arrival at Omarunui, sent a messenger on 5 October demanding that they explain their intentions and over the following three days the chiefs wrote to McLean indicating they wished to take meet him. On 8 October, concluding they were a threat to the Napier settlement, McLean warned the Omarunui encampment that they should return home or they would be attacked.

McLean instructed retired Colonel George Whitmore, a Crimean War veteran and Hawke's Bay settler, to call out 130 Hawke's Bay Militia for active service, drill them for action and join 45 Napier Rifle Volunteers who were also placed on alert. McLean requested further assistance from Fraser, who arrived in Napier on 11 October with 40 Military Settlers and a party of Wairoa kupapa. The entire force was placed under Whitmore's command.

About midnight on 11 October Whitmore and Fraser both marched out of Napier in separate directions: Whitmore with 180 settlers and 200 kupapa headed west, reaching and surrounding the Omarunui settlement before daybreak, while Fraser's detachment of about 40 men went north to Petane to intercept an expected advance on Napier led by Ngāti Hineuru chief Te Rangihiroa.

At Omarunui, Whitmore sent a messenger into the unfortified pā to demand their surrender within an hour; when the deadline passed with no response Whitmore's force launched an attack on the village, with soldiers approaching it across a stream and up a high bank—an advance watched silently and without reaction from the occupants. Whitmore's force opened fire, quickly cutting down the occupants of the pā, whom it outnumbered almost four to one. In a firefight that lasted about an hour, Whitmore's force killed about 31 Ngāti Hineuru, wounded 28 (of whom many later died in hospital) and captured 44 others who attempted to flee, thus accounting for almost all the occupants. Among those killed was Panapa, the prophet. Most of the prisoners were deported to the Chatham Islands, where they subsequently joined Te Kooti.

A separate 2013 Waitangi Tribunal report said the action of Crown forces on the East Coast from 1865 to 1869—the East Coast War and the start of Te Kooti's War—resulted in the deaths of proportionately more Māori than in any other district during the New Zealand wars. It condemned the "illegal imprisonment" of a quarter of the area's adult male population at the Chatham Islands and said the loss in war of an estimated 43 percent of the male population, many through acts of "lawless brutality", was a stain on New Zealand's history and character.

Background

Killing of Carl Volkner

East Coast expedition

References

Further reading