Sketching While the Bullets Flew.

The period 1858–59 was one of Maori warfare in the district between the Bell Block (Hua) and the Waitara. The land-selling faction and the Land League, which was opposed to sales, fought each other bitterly and the Government professed itself powerless to stop the fray. Europeans were safe; the Maoris were careful not to interfere with the settlers. Fortifications were built by both sides. Young Percy Smith saw a good deal of the guerilla warfare. On March 10, 1858, he and Mr. Parris, Civil Commissioner in charge of Native Affairs, rode from New Plymouth to the Waitara to watch the combat. Smith, in his capacity of surveyor and topographer, made sketches under fire of the stockades occupied by Ihaia te Kiri-Kumara (the supporter of the Governor and land-selling), and Wiremu Kingi te Rangitaake, the leader of Maori nationality. “Plenty of bullets flying over my head while sketching,” Mr. Smith wrote in his diary.