The Eviction of John Gorst.

Te Awamutu, with its mission and Government establishment, was an outpost of Pakeha influence in the heart of the Maori country. Young John Gorst (afterwards Sir John), lately come from England, was there as Governor Grey's officer, half magistrate, half school superintendent; he carried on a pro-Government propaganda with his little newspaper, the “Pihoihoi Mokemoke,” a vigorous counterblast to the Kingite gazette “Hokioi,” which the chief Patara te Tuhi and his brother Honana printed at Ngaruawahia, the Maori capital. King Tawhiao and Wiremu Tamehana tolerated Gorst; not so Rewi. In his fiery way he marched a war-party of his tribe down to Te Awamutu, seized the objectionable printing press and type, thrust Gorst out (or rather forced his recall by the Governor), and sent his printing gear off to Auckland after him. This precipitated the Waikato War.

Rewi was determined to have a final decision by force of arms. He and his cousin, Tupotahi—a man of like physique and energetic character to himself—made a recruiting expedition to the distant Urewera Country. There by his thrilling appeals and his chanted war songs he infused a fighting spirit into the mountain men—indeed, they did not need much urging, although they had no quarrel with the Pakeha. They would go far for the sheer love of using gun and tomahawk. So it came about that presently considerably more than a hundred Urewera warriors were on the battle trail in Waikato; at Orākau there were nearly a hundred and forty of them, and they furnished the backbone of the defence there.