Course News

Some updates.

The Internal Assessments are due together on August 6 (Line 1) and August 7 (Line 3).

If you have any issues about the assignments you need to see me ASAP. Several people have given me their research to check. I've been pleased to see how well they have done.

The Level 3 History (NZ option) Day at Victoria University is August 17th 9.30-12.30. I will give you more details as they arrive.

The Moodle Course is here. I'll try to work to get more resources online for you.

Assignment II

3.2 requires either an article from the NZ's Heritage or a plate from the Historical Atlas. Hopefully your research in to the focussing questions has given you the opportunity to discover a range of resources and also given you the chance to decide on how to complete the presentation. The reason we spent so long on getting the the focussing questions right was to ensure you could use them to frame the main headings within the presentation, good questions allow you to break them down to the sub-headings. Ensure you have some relevant visual images/maps/cartoons/photographs/paintings, hopefully one per subheading.

The due date has been extended. If you weren't in class for the announcement, then come and see me, don't indulge in ill-informed or ill-founded speculation. BOTH 3.1 and 3.2 are due together.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

By now you should be finishing your research by now. The important part of the first couple of weeks was finding a good topic. Once this was decided then creating a good set of Topic Questions was supposed to allow you to explore the question.

Almost everyone in the classes has checked in their Appendices 1-3 which leaves just 4 and 5 to complete for 3.1. If you have not done this then you need to see me as early as possible next term

It is important to remember that Appendix 4 requires FIVE resources (properly sourced!) for each Topic Question. (that’s 15 in total for the mathematically challenged!). Text, Maps Photos, Paintings tables etc. all count as sources but should be referred to within your presentation.

Appendix 5 is of course just your evaluation but you must ensure you answer as much of it as you can – and in depth, a single sentence or a statement without explanation or examples is not enough.

In terms of time its probably best if these were completed by the end of the holidays.
That leaves you the next three weeks to complete 3.2 the presentation of the information. Its important that you create as closely as possible a "New Zealand’s Heritage" style magazine article OR a plate from the "Historical Atlas".

For each Topic Question should form a major heading of the text with each broken into subheadings. This should allow you to address a range of historical ideas in your presentation.

Remember that we are BACK in class now and will be completing the section on the Gold Miners and other developments before returning to the latter part of the NZ Wars.

Gold Mining

During the 19th Century gold held an incredible hold over the imaginations of people. For many it was a quick route to wealth. As a result there were massive gold rushes in various parts of the world. The first was to California in 1848, the prospectors who took part were called ‘49er’s… This was followed by the Victorian rush in the 1850’s and the Eureka Stockade insurrection that followed. The economies of these areas grew enormously. The huge numbers of prospectors and the services they demanded created a lot of wealth (little of which actually came from finding gold).

As a result the provincial Governments were desperate to find gold somewhere within their regions. Several offered rewards to anyone who could find it. New Zealand appeared to have the geology (although that was a relatively new science) so it simply appeared to be a matter of finding it. Early discoveries of ‘colour’ were made in the Coromandel but were unworkable.

Eventually as you know an Australian Gabriel Read discovered gold in Otago in May 1861 and the rush was on. The province exploded, prospectors arrived from all around the world, but especially from Victoria. Many were keen to escape the taxation and corruption of the Australian fields. In Otago they were taxed less and received larger claims to boot.

This was alluvial gold, which could initially be easily found by individuals. Later small groups or collectives formed to extract the gold from the riverbanks.

Eventually gold was also found in the West Coast, Nelson and again in the Coromandel. When news of the discovery on the Coromandel arrived in Auckland, the male population of the city disappeared overnight, emptying stores of pans, shovels and food. Many were disappointed to find the gold locked away in the rock.

These later discoveries were quartz based gold, which required even larger amounts of money, the days of the lone prospector were numbered. Companies formed in Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland were formed to buy the equipment needed to extract the rock and crush it. This needed water or steam power, and the giant stampers which kept Grahamstown (Thames) awake 6 days a week.

Gold remained an important export commodity for much of the century. Its importance lay in the changes it made to the physical and social fabric of New Zealand. Much of the South Island was now settled with towns spread from north to south and east to west. Much of the island had been explored and for a time Dunedin was the country’s largest city. South island run-holders were able to expand as the population gave them a market for their meat. The miners also brought with them a belief in equality and the early ideas of mateship that were also developing in the bush settlements of the north.

The Gate Pa

James Belich argumes that the Maori deliberately created a trap for the British. That the Maori garrison did not evacuate the pa but concealed themselves in underground chambers covered with tree branches and earth.

When the British assault party entered the main redoubt the Maori commenced firing at close range and the assault force could not effectively retaliate.

War in Tauranga

In Tauranga, the local Ngatirangi tribe led by Rawiri Puhirake had been supporters of the Waikato tribes fighting the British. Cameron had sent a small force to camp Te Papa to control the tribe. The Ngatirangi gathered in the Te Papa area to fight the British. They built a pa close to the camp, when this provoked little response, they built one even closer and sent this message:

To the Colonel,
Friend, -Salutations to you. The end of that. Friend, do you give heed to our laws for regulating the fight.Rule 1. If wounded or captured whole, and butt of the musket or hilt of the sword be turned to me, he will be saved.Rule 2. If any Pakeha, being a soldier by name, shall be travelling unarmed and meets me, he will be captured, and handed over to the direction of the law.Rule 3. The soldier who flees, being carried away by his fears, and goes to the house of the priest with his gun (even though carrying arms) will be saved. I will not go there.Rule 4. The unarmed Pakehas, women and children, will be spared.
The end. These are binding laws for Tauranga.

This was just what Cameron wanted. He quickly abandoned the Waiakto and travelled to Taurange with a large force. In all there were over 1700 Imperial and local Militia concentrated at Te Papa. They brought with them some of the heaviest artillery yet …

Belich wrote:

''The concentration of British artillery was of considerable power even in absolute terms. When it is considered that these guns fired unhampered by enemy artillery from a distance of 350 to 800 yards [320 to 730 meters] at a target of less that 3,000 square yards [2,500 square meters], their power appears awesome. Gate Pa was the ultimate test of strength between British and Maori military technologies, between modern artillery and the modern pa. In a wider sense, it was to be the first of many contests between breech-loading, rifled, composite-cast heavy artillery and trench-and-bunker earthworks."

Once again Cameron faced a Modern Pa, but this one was differerent to other fortifications. The pa was shelled from 9am until almost 4pm. When a breach had been made in the defences a force of 300 was sent into the pa. Confusion followed and the force was driven back.

British casualties were more than a third of the assault force with 100 men killed or wounded. Ten officers were killed while 28 non-commissioned officers and privates were killed and 73 wounded. The 43rd Regiment lost 20 killed (including its colonel, Colonel Booth, 4 captains and a lieutenant) and 12 wounded. The 68th Regiment lost 4 killed and 16 wounded. The Naval Brigade lost 13 killed (including virtually all of its officers) and 26 wounded. Total Maori losses were estimated at 25.

In the confusion and rain that followed the Maori garrison faded into the bush.

Two months later a force of 1700 troops routed a 500 of Maori caugt in the middle of building a pa at Te Ranga. This defeat seemed to pacify the Ngatiterangi who surrendered their weapons at Te Papa a month later.

Much of this information came from: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~Sxmitch/Battle.html

Orakau Map

Orakau

Cameron had lost interest in the Waikato. He had wanted to draw the Kingite army out into open battle but had been continually frustrated over the 7 month campaign. It seemed that the King would simply continue to withdraw into the interior drawing him further and further from his base of operations. The further he progressed the more troops he needed to protect his lines of communication, the fewer he had to attack the ever larger fortifications that the Maori constructed. Remember it was only 28 years since the decimation of Napoleons Grand Army in the Russian winter. (about 10% made it back to France).

A few Maori who arrived to late for the fighting in the Waikato decided that they would defy the British and despite warnings built a quick pa at Orakau. Rewi Maniapoto was bound by family lines and loyalty to assist at the Pa. Altogether about 300 were in the fortification when the British arrived. To their surprise it lacked the back door route for an easy retreat that other Pa had. Surrounded and under siege the Maori there held out for several days. Lacking water or ammunition they ate raw kumara and fired peach pits at the British.

During the afternoon of the 31st March, 200 Tuwharetoa, under Te Heuheu Horonuku, were seen on a nearby eminence, but well-directed shellfire discouraged their attempt to relieve the pa

Offers to surrender were rejected.

Early in the afternoon of the third day, because he was impressed by the defenders' courage, Cameron sent William Mair forward with a flag of truce to urge the pa to surrender. Rewi replied, “Kaore e mau te rongo, ake, ake!” (“Peace shall never be made, never, never!”) This was conveyed to Mair by Hauraki Tonganui, a Ngati Tuwharetoa chief who was noted for his stentorian voice, and who had been conversing with Mair while Rewi considered the message.

Later another offer was made:

Mair then asked that the women and children be sent out of the pa. While Rewi was considering this, Ahumai Te Paerata, a tall handsome young woman, daughter of the old West Taupo chief Te Paerata, stood up and replied on behalf of the women: “Ki te mate nga tane, me mate ano nga wahine me nga tamariki.” (“If the men die, the women and children must die also.”)

Quotes are from: http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/O/OrakauSiegeOf/OrakauSiegeOf/en

When a 5th Assault threatened to overwhelm the palisades the defenders choose to leave. The next morning they simply walked through the cordon and then fled for the safety of a nearby swamp. Cavalry chased them down killing many but failed to kill or capture Rewi, who escaped with the bulk of the defenders.

For Maori it seemed to be a defeat but Pakeha seemed to see it as another failure. Once again the Kingites had escaped and their ability to defeat the Maori in a single great engagement.
Then word arrived that an opportunity had presented itself near Tauranga.

Progress in the Waikato

Thanks to nzhistory.net and the NZ Historical Atlas for this image

The war in the Waikato.

Greys intention was always to destroy the base of the King. That meant advancing into the Waikato and attacking him in his Turangawaiwai. His motives were simple. Remove the King and he would remove the one obstacle to establishing (his) hegemony over the country. Colonial Administrators wanted more. Much, much, more. Russell and Whitaker dominated the Government but also had a personal reason for wanting to invade and confiscate Maori land.


Their small cabal of investors were envious of the Maori farms which supplied Auckland and the Australian colonies with produce. They saw great potential if this land could be acquired cheaply (Confiscation is about as cheap as you can get) and then sold at a profit to the ever growing number of settlers arriving in the colony. Maori farms remained communally owned and the Waikato was the seat of the Kingite ‘Land League’ which stubbornly refused to become alienated from any more of its land.



The Settler Government acquired the £3m loan which paid for the arrival of the ‘Fencibles’, militia who would be paid for their service to the Government with grants of land in the confiscated areas, fulfilling two goals. This force meant the Settler government could show that they were playing their part in the war as well as providing a long term force capable of mobilisation at a moments notice (The NZ version of the Minute men?)

The invasion itself went slowly. General Cameron was a professional soldier who had a distinguished career, he was expected to crush the Kingites in short order. The Great South Road made it easy for him to shift men and supplies to the Waikato but not into it. Progress was slow and made even slower by Maori attacks on the fringes of Auckland. This necessitated leaving soldiers behind to protect both Auckland and the supply lines. It took three months to reach Meremere.


In some respects Maori tactics had been to successful. A force of 1500 warriors had erected the Meremere line and waited patiently for the British to arrive. But 3 months was to long and many had been forced to return home, leaving a force to small to defend the fortifications. After a brief fire-fight, which included Maori use of artillery, the defenders melted back into the forest and Cameron marched on.



To Rangiriri, which was again a massive set of fortifications (amongst the worlds largest according to Belich) which ran between the river and a Lake forcing the British to attack head on. Because they controlled the river they were able to land troops behind the line and attack from both sides. Despite this advantage the Maori held out, repulsing several attacks at least one of which reached the central redoubt before being pushed back.




The next morning under what the Maori claimed was a flag of truce, the British captured 180 Maori, the rump of the army that had initially been prepared to fight them – the rest had again disappeared. Not surprisingly within 18 months almost all of these prisoners had escaped.


Cameron marched on.He captured the empty Ngaruawahia, capital of the King. He then reached a third line of fortifications. This was the Paterangi line, even bigger than those at Rangiriri. Intelligence said this was defended by a far larger force than at the previous battle. If a few defenders could hold him back there what could a larger force in better prepared positions do? Cameron decided to repeat his tactics, and bypassed the line by landing at Rangiaowhia, a village the Maori believed to be neutral. Many old people and children were killed when the whare caught alight during the fighting here. It is here that John Bryce won his medal for bravery (we’ll talk about this later) Afterwards when Cameron advanced on Paterangi he again found it abandoned. The King and most of his followers had again vanished travelling south into the fastness of the Maniapoto