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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

The Stand At Orakau

The Stand At Orakau.

On the 30th of March, 1864, information arrived that the Maoris were entrenching themselves with the intention of making a stand at Orakau. Brigadier-General Carey, with a force of 1000 men, made a night march, and arrived before the pa at daylight on the following morning. This
Rewi.

Rewi.

pa proved to be of unusual strength, with ditches and parapets, and surrounded by a post and rail fence. Three assaults were attempted without success. Rewi, page 152 the great fighting general of the King party, was in command of the rebels. Reinforcements of rebels arrived in the afternoon, and kept up a fire from the bush. Heavy firing was kept up on both sides all that day, and the following night. Forty thousand rounds of ammunition were served out to the troops, who had also been reinforced, bringing up their numbers to over 2,000. On the morning of the 2nd of April, the Armstrong guns were brought into play. General Cameron now arrived, and the Maoris were asked to surrender. Their reply was: “This is the word of the Maori: We will fight for ever and ever and ever.” On being urged to send away their women and children, who were in the pa, they replied: “The women will fight as well as we.” Is there anything more heroically touching in ancient or modern history than this?

Our troops now got desperate. Through a breach made by our guns, a private threw his cap, and rushed after it; he was immediately followed by about twenty colonial troops. The Maoris retreated to the inner works, and ten of the assaulters were shot down. The Maoris, who had been fighting for three days, almost without food or water, at this stage evacuated their pa in a body, with the chiefs in the centre, and made towards the neighbouring swamp and scrub. The troops started in pursuit with the Colonial Cavalry, a corps of Mounted Artillery, and Colonial Forest Rangers, under Captains Jackson and Von Tempsky. Subsequently the Maoris acknowledged to a loss of 200, while our casualties amounted to sixteen killed and fifty-two wounded. Rewi got away unscathed, and ultimately reached Hangatikei. Virtually this ended the Waikato campaign, and the whole district from Auckland was now held by the British and colonial troops.

Up to the month of April, 1864, the Imperial troops had been assisted in the campaign by the Europeans only, but then the Arawa tribe of friendly Maoris came upon the scene, influenced probably by various motives—including tribal jealousy and hatred engendered generations before, and unabated by lapse of years, the intense desire of all Maoris to possess guns and ammunition, and their still greater love of war.