The Land Court

While hostilities continued in the Tauranga Taranaki and East Coast the Settler government began to legislate to ensure even more land could be made available. They did so by ignoring any obligation under Article 2 or 3 of the Treaty.

Judith Binney has called this an "Act of War' and she is probably right.

The Native Land Court was established under legislation in 1862 and then 1865. It had two main aims. The First was to identify and establish ownership of Maori land and convert the communal form of ownership to a European title. Once under title it could then be sold to Settlers. Henry Sewell said it was designed to undermine and destroy Maori culture (detribalise) by ridding them of the communist thread that ran through all of their institutions.

The Court could investigate ownership and establish title - both a long protracted and expensive process. The Owners could then present their decision to the governor to recieve a freehold title.

No matter how large the area under investigation it could be placed into the control of only 10 trustees. Later legislation would shift the ownership of the land to the trustee who were then free to do as they wished with it, without consulting the larger group of 'owners'.

No matter Settlers could now acquire land outside the confiscation areas.

By 1872 the Court had investigated 5m acres of land.

The 1873 Land Act went further making every member of the tribe an owner on a title. Land could be sold if a simple majority agreed to it.

In the Hawkes Bay, groups of claimants, surveyors and shopkeepers exploited the system to effectively steal Maori land by forcing them to defend often dubious claims and rorting them through the debts this incurred.

The Trap in Tauranga

In Tauranga, the local Ngaitirangi 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 Ngaitirangi 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 Waikato 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 outer fence 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.(New 2008: The blame game immediately followed.

The Settlers and Government expecting a great victory charged the soldiers and the dead officers with cowardice. Cameron was also seen as a scapegoat, no-one it seemed was prepared to give the Maori their due. The Pa was by most measures a wondeful piece of construction. It withstood a massive bombardment and the defences seem to have forseen the style of attack with defences turned inward which mean there were no defenders to attack - they were all safely ensconced within their bunkers. having made their point the Ngaiterangi abandoned the Pa as was the custom.

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

Invading the Waikato 1863-4

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.

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. He could go no further. His lines of communication were to long and he would have to leave the security of the river and venture into the forests of the interior. He needed another way of proving his mettle.

Orakau was an unfortunate accident for the Kingites. Newly arrived Ngati Porou unhappy at missing out on previous battles chose to build a pa in a poorly positioned site.It was easily surrounded, had no escape route, and was incomplete. to make matters worse it had little food and no water. To compound matters they were surprised and had no chance to send their women away.
That Cameron killed 80 odd Maori was some consolation but the escape of Rewi Maniapoto was a dissappointment. Despondent Cameron then recieved news of a opportunity at Tauranga...