Invasion of Waikato - The Battle of Orakau (Rewi's Last Stand)

The Battle of Orakau (Rewi's Last Stand)

The Waikato Māori did not fight alone. Of the 27 North Island tribes, 15 had sent war parties to assist in the fighting. As they were withdrawing from Paterangi one of the Waikato chiefs, Rewi Maniapoto, encountered a party of Ngāti Kahungunu and Tuhoe, about 170 men, who had come a long way to join in the war, all the way from the East Cape and Te Urewera. They told Rewi quite forcefully that they had not carried their guns all that distance simply to go home without a fight. Having already experienced repeated defeats at the hands of the British and being very short on ammunition, Rewi was very reluctant to fight from such a poorly sited and tiny position with no water supply. Rewi decided that to keep his mana intact they should have their battle.

Orakau was chosen as the site of the battle, a low hill surrounded by rolling country. It was a very bad choice as it broke every rule the Māori always observed when building a fortification or pā (see Māori Wars). First, it had no internal water supply and second, it would be relatively easy to surround, with the only means of escaping a swampy valley to the southand it was overlooked from a nearby hill. 50 women and a few children were in the redoubt.

Beginning on 28 March 1864, two days of hard digging had produced a defensible redoubt. A three-day siege began early on 31 March with the first British attack. After a reconnaissance Cameron decided to take the pa by sapping. A zig zig sap was built towards the pa. A large party of about 300 toa arrived but stayed in the bush doing haka to encourage the defenders but did not attempt to attack the NZ soldiers. They were shelled with the very accurate Armstrong artillery. The bunkers in the pa were initially deep enough and strong enough to neutralize the artillery.

The Māori ran out of water and were short of ammunition. The British pulled back and at 1pm Gilbert Mair who spoke fluent Maori invited the Māori to surrender. Chief Hauraki Tanganui replied, saying they were determined to fight to the last man, woman and child, although by 3:30pm the same day they ran. The forest rangers crept up close to the pa while the British soldiers dug a sap towards the pa. A large supply of hand grenades were bought up and these were thrown into the Maori trenches. Suddenly, late in the afternoon of the third day, the effect of the Armstrong artillery firing from only 20m – point blank range – destroyed one corner of the pa and the iwi in that area panicked and fled. At 3:30pm about 200 of the rebel Māori emerged in one tight group and, taking the troops by surprise, broke through the cordon surrounding them and escaped in small groups into the bush via the swampy valley. There was a final assault on the pā, and the remaining 50 defenders were killed, including one woman. During the battle the Government forces fired 40,000 rounds of ammunition. One hundred and sixty rebel Maori were killed or died of wounds, while the NZ forces lost 17 killed and had 51 wounded. Many of the Forest Rangers were armed with revolvers and Bowie knives. Most of those who died were killed as they fled south. It is estimated that about half were wounded. They were chased by the cavalry as far as the Punui River. In the 1980s the swamp valley 600m west of Tiki Road was drained by a dairy farmer, Mr Shakespeare, and an array of tomahawks were found that had been discarded by the retreating Maori. They are on display at the Te Awamutu museum. This ended Cameron's victory over the Kingitanga rebels in the Waikato. He was put forward for a Victoria Cross because of his successful campaign. Two years later he resigned his commission in NZ, after the successful conclusion of the Second Taranaki War). Cameron was sick of the continual disputes with Grey over the conduct of the campaigns. For his part Grey was extremely sick, short-tempered and suffering from severe depression.

The Māori established yet another defensive line some 20 kilometres south of the furthest British advance at Maungatautari and announced that it would be defended vigorously. However when the NZ forces investigated from their post at Pukemiro they found the position deserted. In addition they were suddenly faced with the prospects of serious conflict in other areas of the North Island (see Tauranga Campaign and Second Taranaki War). The War in the Waikato was over by 5 April, just as the ramifications of it were spreading to the rest of the island.

The fourth Waikato defensive line, the Punui river, became the new frontier of the King Movement territory. Despite the peace, three settlers were murdered after the end of hostilities. The first was the surveyor Todd, murdered on Mt Pirongia in 1870. The second was the tomahawking of Mr Lyon, a farm hand at Orakau on the Government side of the Puniu River. The third was the decapitation of farm labourer Timothy O'Sullivan near Roto-o-Rangi on 25 April 1873 by Hau Hau. The killer was Purukutu, who cut out O'Sullivan's heart and cut off his head with the intension of giving it to one of the Maori King's wives, but she was not impressed. This area did not become fully integrated with the rest of New Zealand until 1885 when there was a split between the King and his Maniapoto hosts over the issue of land sales. The area is still known as the King Country.