Battle of The Sticks
After the attack on Kororareka Heke and Kawiti and the warriors travelled inland to Okaihau north of Kaikohe some 30 kilometres, or two days travel, from the Bay of Islands. After the destruction of Pomare's Pā the Colonial forces moved to attack Okaihau, they chose to travel by walking track from the Bay of Islands rather than via a cart track that ran from Kerikeri and passed nearby Okaihau. This choice meant that cannon were not taken to Okaihau. The battle of Okaihau, in April 1845, was the first test of strength between Māori and pakeha. The formidable defences of a Māori war pā became apparent to the Colonial forces, as they suffered casualties of 39 wounded and 13 dead; warriors of Heke and Kawiti were also killed.
Read more about this topic: Flagstaff War
Famous quotes containing the words battle and/or sticks:
“One may confidently assert that when thirty thousand men fight a pitched battle against an equal number of troops, there are about twenty thousand on each side with the pox.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“It is now many years that men have resorted to the forest for fuel and the materials of the arts: the New Englander and the New Hollander, the Parisian and the Celt, the farmer and Robin Hood, Goody Blake and Harry Gill; in most parts of the world, the prince and the peasant, the scholar and the savage, equally require still a few sticks from the forest to warm them and cook their food. Neither could I do without them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)