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The Old Frontier : Te Awamutu, the story of the Waipa Valley : the missionary, the soldier, the pioneer farmer, early colonization, the war in Waikato, life on the Maori border and later-day settlement

A Maori Survivor's Story. — The Retreat to the Puniu

A Maori Survivor's Story.
The Retreat to the Puniu.

The following are extracts from the narrative given to the present writer in 1920 by the veteran chief Te Huia Raureti, of Ngati-Maniapoto, who with his father fought at Orakau:

“Orakau was not a strong fortification. There was no proper palisading around the earthworks—we had not sufficient time to complete the defences—but there was a post-and-rail fence, in the form of a square, a little distance outside the trenches and parapets. The principal parapets were about five feet high and four feet in thickness, composed of sods and loose earth, with layers of fern pulled up and laid with the roots outward. The fern helped to bind the earthworks. We were still working away at the ditches and parapets when the troops came upon us. We had a sentry on the look-out, on the west side of the earthworks, the Kihikihi side, from which the soldiers approached. His name was Aporo. Suddenly his voice was raised in these words of alarm:

“‘He pukeko kei te Kawakawa! Kei Te Tumutumu te mea e tata ana!’ (‘A swamp-hen has reached the Kawakawa! There are others nearer us at Te Tumutumu!’)

“The ‘pukeko’ was the advance guard of the Imperial troops; the Kawakawa was the settlement near the large acacia grove [about a third of a mile north of the Orakau church and kainga.] The troops marched by the road which skirted the bush and up through the cultivations. Meanwhile some other soldiers (mounted men) had come a more direct way, a little to the north of the cart road, and we saw them at the peach and almond grove on the hill just west of the Tautoro swamp and creek about a quarter of a mile from page 77 our earthworks. Some of the troopers rode at our pa, but had to retire before our volleys. The main body of the soldiers came marching on; and another force which had marched up along the Puniu River, crossing and recrossing, finally fording the river near where the Waikeria joins it and coming out on the Orakau-Maungatautari Road.”

After describing the three days' fighting, Raureti told the story of the retreat to the Puniu on the last day:

“When the people had come to the decision to abandon the pa we all went out of it on the north-east side and retreated on the eastern side of the Karaponia ridge. My gun was loaded in both barrels, and I had some cartridges in my hamanu [ammunition-holder.] The soldiers were already in the outworks of the pa. Only one man wished to surrender, and this was Wi Karamoa, the minister. He remained in the pa, holding up a white handkerchief on a stick in token of surrender. We left many killed and wounded in the pa. Some of the dead we had buried; others were left lying where they fell. Among those whom we buried in the works were Matekau, Aporo (Waikato), Paehua (of Ngati-Parekawa), Ropata (the husband of Hine-i-turama), and Piripi te Heuheu (Urewera). There was bayonet work in the first rushing of the pa. On the first part of our retreat, across the slopes of the pa, we did not fire; we reserved our shots for emergency.

“We had to break through the soldiers at the steep fall of the land east of Karaponia. Here, where the ridge dropped, there was a scarped bank and ditch, made to keep the pigs out of the Rangataua cultivations. Just below this, between us and the swamp, were the soldiers. A man rushed first to break through the soldiers; he was killed. Then the foremost man turned back towards the pa, but my father Raureti Paiaka and his comrade Te Makaka dashed at the line of soldiers and broke through, and all the rest of us followed and made for the swamp. Raureti shot two soldiers here. We now were broken up and separated from one another. We retreated through the swamp, and when we reached a place called Manga-Ngarara (Lizard Creek) we found some troops who arrived there to stop us. There again Raureti Paiaka broke through and we passed on. Ngata was nearly killed there by being cut at with a sword. Raureti raised his gun as if to fire at the swordsman, but he had no cartridge in his gun. The soldier, fearing to be shot, hastily turned back, and our friend was saved.

page 78

“Our chief and relative Rewi was with us in the retreat through the swamp, and several of us formed a bodyguard to fight a way through for him. When we had crossed the swamp to the Ngamako side, where the hills go steeply up, we saw soldiers, mounted and foot, in front of us, and we fired at them, and one or two dropped. At last we reached the Puniu River; we crossed it and travelled through the Moerika swamp, and presently halted at Tokanui. Next morning we went across to Ohinekura (near Wharepapa). Some of those who escaped from Orakau retreated to Korakonui and Wharepapa; some crossed to Kauaeroa; and others went to Hangatiki. When we crossed the Puniu the old Urewera chief Paerau, who was following us, called out to us from the Orakau side of the river, ‘Friends, Te Whenuanui is missing.’ However, Te Whenuanui (the chief of Ruatahuna) appeared safely, and we continued our retreat together.

“Rewi Maniapoto had gone to the Urewera Country before Paterangi was built, in order to enlist assistance in the war. There were old ties of friendship with the Urewera dating back to the time of the battle of Orona, at Lake Taupo, in the ancient days. The Warahoe section of the Urewera had a pa there then, and there were Ngati-Maniapoto living with them. Some of Warahoe later came and lived in the Ngati-Maniapoto country. Two casks of gunpowder were given to Rewi for the war; one of these was paid for in this way: Takurua, elder brother of Harehare, of the Ngati-Manawa tribe, came back with Rewi, and Raureti gave him £30 to pay for the gunpowder.”