Waerenga A Hika
Early in November of the same year a large group of Hau Hau built a pā on the outskirts of a Pākehā settlement in Poverty Bay, some 10 km from Gisborne. There is some doubt about the nature of this group. Some authors suggest that they were refugees fleeing from Ropata and the Ngāti Porou. However there were at least 200 armed men with the party, threat enough to the settlement which seemed to be confirmed by their building a Pa. Once again it fell to Donald McLean to assemble of force to deal with the threat and to organize the shipping to move his warriors into the area. This was completed by about 12 November, including Ropata and some 300 Ngāti Porou.
They surrounded the pā on three sides and began a siege. The first day was spent in ineffectual rifle fire from both sides. The next day Major Fraser ordered his men to begin digging a trench towards the pā but this was ambushed and a dozen of his men killed or wounded. There were two more days of rifle fire.
On Day five a large party of men, about 200, emerged from the pā carrying white flags as if to surrender. However they were fully armed and by all contemporary accounts appeared to have no intention of surrendering. In the fighting that followed about sixty Hau Hau were killed while only one of the militia was slightly wounded.
On Day seven the militia acquired a small cannon from Gisborne but no ammunition. Instead they fired empty salmon tins packed with bullets, about a hundred per tin. The effect must have been impressive because after the third shot the Hau Hau did surrender, properly this time. Some 400 of them were made prisoners although many others escaped into the surrounding bush.
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