Hutt Valley campaign

The Hutt Valley campaign was an armed conflict in the lower North Island of New Zealand between indigenous Māori and British settlers and military forces in 1846. The campaign was among the earliest of the 19th century New Zealand Wars that were fought over issues of land and sovereignty. It was preceded by the Wairau affray (June 1843) and followed by the Wanganui campaign (April–July 1847) and was triggered by much the same pressures—the careless land purchasing practices of the New Zealand Company, armed government support for settler land claims, and complex intertribal tensions between local Māori. The three conflicts also shared many of the same combatants.

The campaign's most notable clashes were the Māori dawn raid on an imperial stockade at Boulcott's Farm in the Hutt Valley on 16 May 1846 in which eight British soldiers and at least two Māori died, and the Battle of Battle Hill from 6–13 August as British troops, local militia and kūpapa Māori pursued a Ngāti Toa force led by chief Te Rangihaeata through steep and dense bushland. Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha was taken into custody during the campaign; he was detained without charge in Auckland for two years.

A 2003 report by the Waitangi Tribunal concluded the New Zealand Company's 1839 land purchases were invalid and that the Crown committed a number of breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi in subsequent dealings with Māori in the area.

Background to war

Tensions rose in the mid-1840s as settlers and Māori were left to deal with the consequences of haphazard and often dubious land purchases by the New Zealand Company. The boundaries of purchased land and Māori reserves were often only vaguely indicated, creating confusion and conflict. The company's purchasing agents seldom questioned the right of vendors to sell the land, whose possession even Māori disputed among themselves and Māori who lived in the Hutt Valley under customary rights were forcefully evicted by the government with little or no compensation for their homes and extensive cultivations.

Ngāti Mutunga had established ahi kā, or a long historical association with the area and was therefore in a position to sell land, but had departed by September 1839, when the New Zealand Company vessel Tory arrived at Port Nicholson to purchase land for its settlements.

Unaware of these complexities, and disregarding advice that Te Rauparaha had conquered all the land around Cook Strait and was widely accepted by those who lived on the land as the final owner, the New Zealand Company distributed payment to six chiefs for vast, but poorly defined expanses of land in the Port Nicholson (Wellington) area. Among the recipients was Ngāti Tama chief Te Kaeaea (also known as Taringa Kuri, or "Dog's Ear"), then living at Kaiwharawhara in subservience to Te Rauparaha. Ngāti Rangatahi, although it had been in the Heretaunga district seasonally since the early 1830s, was offered nothing, although its territory was included in the purchase.

New Zealand Company settlers began arriving at Port Nicholson from January 1840 in numbers that shocked Māori, who soon found Pākehā trampling over their homes, gardens and cemeteries, and in places sticking survey pegs in the ground.

Spain commission

thumb|Ngāti Toa Maori chief [[Te Rangihaeata, 1840.<br>Artist: Charles Heaphy]]

In January 1841 Secretary of State for War and the Colonies Lord John Russell appointed lawyer William Spain as Land Claims Commissioner to investigate and determine the validity of the New Zealand Company purchases. Spain arrived in Auckland in December and began his hearings into the Port Nicholson dealings in May 1842.

The New Zealand Company frustrated Spain's efforts to make a full investigation of its entitlement to land

In a preliminary report in 1843 Spain stated that many of the Māori taking part in the original Port Nicholson transaction in 1839 would not have understood that by signing the deed they were selling their land, including pā and cultivations. He noted that "the greater portion of the land claimed by the Company in the Port Nicholson district, and also in the district between Port Nicholson and Wanganui, including the latter place, has not been alienated by the natives to the New Zealand Company; and that the other portions of the same districts have been only partially alienated by the natives to that body".

Despite the company's inability to prove it had made a valid purchase of land—and the Treaty of Waitangi's guarantee that Māori would have undisturbed possession of their lands so long as they wished to retain them—Spain in early 1843 ceased public hearings and began serving as an arbitrator or umpire in negotiations between the New Zealand Company and Protector of Aborigines George Clarke Junior on how Māori should be "compensated" for the alienation of their land. Another £530 was distributed to Māori of Kumutoto, Pipitea and Tiakiwai pā the same day.

Spain, who in early February had gained in-principle agreement from Te Rauparaha about compensating Ngāti Toa for land at Port Nicholson, met the chief again on 8 and 9 March 1844 at Porirua, this time also with Te Rangihaeata. When he attempted to secure their signatures to a deed of release for their interest in land at Port Nicholson, Te Rauparaha claimed he had previously been unaware it would include payment for Heretaunga, which he now refused to relinquish. Te Rauparaha said he considered "Port Nicholson" to mean all the land seaward of the Rotokakahi Stream, about 2 km up the Heretaunga (Hutt) River. Spain raised his cash offer, offering Te Rauparaha another £100 to compensate for lost crops if he ensured Taringa Kuri left the valley immediately. with further small outposts at Boulcott's Farm and Taita. All were manned by militia until the steady arrival of almost 800 British troops from Auckland and the Bay of Islands, under command of Lieutenant Colonel William Hulme, 96th Regiment, in February 1846. Aggrieved Ngāti Rangatahi retaliated on 1 and 3 March by raiding nearby settlers’ farms, destroying furniture, smashing windows, killing pigs and threatening the settlers with death if they raised an alarm. In late March two Māori were arrested and put on trial for taking part in the plundering of settlers' homes at the beginning of the month; days later, on 2 April, farmer Andrew Gillespie and his son were fatally attacked by tomahawk on vacated land on which Gillespie's family had newly settled. Te Rauparaha sent word to Grey that the killers were Whanganui Māori unconnected with Ngāti Toa and could be found at Porirua. The suspects fled into bushland when a police party was sent from Wellington to capture them.

The battle took place on the morning of May 16, 1846. About half an hour before daylight that morning, the Sentry in front of where the inlying pickett's tent, observed several Māoris creeping towards them. Screening themselves with bushes and branches of scrub. Who reported to have had at least 50 guns. The sentry screamed "Maoris" then he fired, but was overpowered. Two volleys were fired at the four-man English picket, or advance position. Te Mamaku's fighters rushed the tents with tomahawks. William Allen, ran from his tent and raised his bugle to sound the alarm just as one of the attackers felled him with a tomahawk, almost severing his right arm. He snatched up the bugle with his left hand and again started to sound the alarm as a second blow killed him. They then turned their attention on the remaining 45 men in the Boulcott's garrison. Half the force of soldiers at Boulcott's Farm were quartered in a large barn, around which a stockade of slabs and small logs had been erected and loopholed for musket-fire. The rest of the troops were accommodated in small slab outhouses near the barn.

Lieutenant Page's house was surrounded by Māori after a few moments after the destruction of the picket. Page, who had snatched up his sword and loaded his gun, rushed out with two men, fought their way from the house in which they were besieged to a barn, where half the force were quartered. Page ordered his men to advance in the open with fixed bayonets and were reinforced by a party of seven members of the Hutt militia, on hearing the firing, advanced to Boulcott's and took part in the fight and joined against Te Mamaku's forces about 90 minutes after the attack began. Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded in the battle. Private Patrick Haslamn assisted in putting them in their blankets, and laying their bodies in their last resting-place at the farm. One soldier died of wounds who was buried with military honours along with a settler, who also died some days later. There is no reliable account of Māori casualties. But Māori losses were thought to be two dead and 10 or more wounded. The defenders managed to take prisoners. On 16 November 1846 five Māori prisoners arrived at Hobart for armed resistance against the Crown. Te Umuroa, Te Waretiti, Te Kumete, Matai-umu and Te Rāhui were sentenced to a penal colony following their involvement. Two years later they were pardoned and returned to New Zealand but one of them, Te Umuroa, had died of tuberculosis.

A month after the battle, Māori who had fought at Boulcott's Farm taunted the colonial forces by playing Allen's bugle, which they had taken as a trophy. Allen's bugle was later recovered in one of Te Rangihaeata's deserted camps at Battle Hill. The conflict highlighted rising tensions regarding land purchases, particularly transactions negotiated by the New Zealand Company.

The scare prompted military authorities to arm 250 kūpapa, or "friendly", Te Āti Awa Māori who served under chief Te Puni to protect settlers, while Te Aro settlers formed a volunteer force that began nightly patrols of the settlement, guarding against an expected hostile Māori attack. There is a stone in the cemetery at St James's Church, Lower Hutt.

Capture of Te Rauparaha

Warned that a large war party of Upper Whanganui Māori led by warrior chiefs Ngapara and Maketu was on the march down the west coast to reinforce Te Rangihaeata and Te Mamaku, Grey on 18 June extended martial law northwards to Whanganui. The reinforcements were reported to have been summoned by Te Rauparaha in a letter that had been sighted by a Whanganui settler.

Grey gained the agreement of Te Āti Awa chief Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke, based near Waikanae, that he would block and attack the Upper Whanganui tauas advance if it passed along the coast through his territory. The Governor then launched a dawn raid on Te Rauparaha's village of Taupo, near present-day Plimmerton, on 23 July, arresting the chief on the basis that he had committed treason by supplying arms, ammunition and provisions to Te Rangihaeata, who was in rebellion against the government. Several other chiefs were seized and homes in surrounding villages searched for weapons and ammunition. When news of the arrests reached Te Rangihaeata, a rescue attempt by 50 warriors was mounted but easily driven off. Grey's prisoners were transferred to HMS Calliope, which sailed to Auckland, and they were detained without charge as prisoners of war for ten months.

Two days later, on 3 August, Major Edward Last began to lead the government force north through the heavily forested Horokiri ranges in pursuit of Te Rangihaeata and Te Mamaku. The force comprised Regulars, seaman from the Calliope, militia, armed police and several hundred Māori allies from Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Toa, supported by a detachment of Pioneers armed with axes and other cutting tools to cut through the bush.

Te Rangihaeata's stronghold was discovered on 6 August at the crest of a steep ridge, surrounded by strong fortifications and three of the British force were killed in an exchange of fire that lasted several hours until nightfall. The force withdrew from the hill and a detachment of seamen were sent back to Pauatahanui to bring up two mortars. The weapons were carried in on 7 August and about 80 shells were fired throughout 8 August from a range of about 1200 metres. Some of the force also skirmished with Te Rangihaeata's warriors in the bush near the pā.

thumb|Ngāti Toa chief Rawiri Puaha, who led the pursuit of Te Rangihaeata and Te Mamaku from 17 August 1846.

By 10 August, Last had concluded a decisive victory was unattainable and the majority of the force was withdrawn, leaving a Māori attack force to maintain fire. Three days later they discovered Te Rangihaeata and his entire force had evacuated under cover of darkness and rain. Delayed by storms, the kūpapa Māori, including a Ngãti Toa detachment led by Rawiri Puaha, began a pursuit on 17 August through heavy bush across steep ridges, deep valleys and rocky streams, with both sides suffering casualties in sporadic exchanges of gunfire. Te Rangihaeata finally entrenched himself with about 100 men at a pā named Poroutawhao in swampland between Horowhenua and the Manawatu, while Te Mamaku returned with his force to his Whanganui River base.

Waitangi Tribunal

The Waitangi Tribunal issued a report in 2003 on 13 claims relating to the area covered by the New Zealand Company's 1839 Port Nicholson deed of purchase, as extended in 1844 to the southwest coast. It identified Māori groups with ahi ka rights in the Port Nicholson block in 1840, which included Ngāti Toa in the Heretaunga and concluded that the Crown had failed to adequately compensate Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Rangatahi and Ngāti Tama for their loss of lands and cultivations.

The tribunal found that the 1839 Port Nicholson deed of purchase was invalid and conferred no rights to either the New Zealand Company or those to whom it on-sold its land. It found that the Crown had failed to protect the treaty rights of Māori to sell their land at a fair price and it was critical of the decision to switch from proceeding with Spain's inquiry to implementing a form of arbitration without the informed consent of Māori.

Notes

References

External links

Te Whanganui a Tara me ona Takiwa: Report on the Wellington District, Waitangi Tribunal, 2003.