Fighting the Hauhaus.

But there was more important work in store for Mair, when the Hauhau campaigns began in the Bay of Plenty country the year after Orakau. Now he had an opportunity of proving his inborn capacity for dealing with the Maori as well as his gift of leadership. The Government quickly recognised his twin talents of command and diplomacy, and gave him practically a free hand in organising the friendly Arawa tribe for service against the rebels of the coast who had been converted to the Pai-Marire cult by Kereopa and other emissaries of Te Ua, the Taranaki founder of the fanatic faith. After the murder of the missionary Volkner at Opotiki, and the Government half-caste agent James Fulloon, at Whakatane, he raised and led a force of over four hundred Arawas against the Hauhau tribes, and for months skirmished over the Lower Rangitaiki and Whakatane and Matata country, himself the only white man in the operations. He closed the campaign by capturing the great rebel pa at Te Teko, on the bank of the Rangitaiki.