New Zealand Wars - Participants

Participants

In 1859, the European population of New Zealand was about 10,000 less than the Māori population. However, neither population was stable. At the time it was believed the Māori population had declined so fast during the Musket Wars that some people saw their extinction as a distinct possibility. However it is now known that Maori census figures were extremely inaccurate. It is estimated that at least 20,000 Māori were killed, but more importantly many iwi were driven from their traditional lands, and Crosby states that eight complete iwi were wiped out by their fellow Māori. Meanwhile, immigrant ships were arriving from Britain almost every week. Surprised by the hundreds of settlers arriving at Wellington, Māori chiefs asked if the whole English tribe was moving to New Zealand.

The imperial troops were supplied and paid for by Britain and not by the fledgling colony. Māori were fighting against the economic base of industrial Britain as well as Australia. Additionally, the Māori had an agrarian economy — their warriors were also their farmers and food gatherers. As such, they were limited to periods of only two or three months of campaigning each year before they had to return to their homes, although during the Musket Wars they had managed to leave their turangawaiwai(home territory) for a year at a time. They developed a system of rotating shifts for the longer conflicts, but were never able to deploy their entire force.

The Invasion of the Waikato was the largest conflict. The colonial side mustered some 18,000 men, with a peak deployment of possibly 14,000. Opposing them were 4,000 to 5,000 Māori, of whom only about half were actively involved at any one time.

None of the wars were simple two-sided conflicts. To some degree there were four sides to each war. There were always Māori on both sides of the conflict — fighting for and against the British. In the Flagstaff War, Māori allies were wholly independent of British command; Tāmati Wāka Nene was at war with Hone Heke. Indeed, the Battle of Te Ahuahu, where the two forces met and fought with determination, did not involve the British at all.

By the 1870s, in Te Kooti's War, there were Māori fighting as part of the colonial forces. Ngāti Porou formed their own regiment. In the later stages (the hunt for Te Kooti through the Urewera Ranges) the colonial forces were mainly Māori troops. These Māori troops formed the basis of an ongoing positive relationship with the New Zealand armed forces that continues to this day.

The Pākehā can also be divided into two groups. One was the British imperial forces (the combined forces of the British Empire, including Australians going overseas to war for the first time). The other consisted of the various militias formed from the settlers, answerable to the New Zealand government, not to London (these units eventually evolved into the New Zealand Army). The first war was fought by imperial forces, assisted by a few settlers and loyal Kupapa Māori. The Taranaki War involved organised units of settler militias. The British government increasingly became reluctant to be involved in the Zealand Wars. To get its support for the suppression of the Kingitanga rebels, Governor George Grey had to present a picture of the seriousness of the situation to the Colonial Office in London. What became known as the Second Taranaki War was the reaction of the Māori to the confiscation of their land by the colonial government, which originally used imperial troops for this. The commander, General Duncan Cameron, worn out and tired of arguments with the colonial government, retired to England.

In 1870 the last British troops were withdrawn from New Zealand; this was in line with both the "self-reliance" policy of Premier Frederick Weld and the Cardwell reforms of the Army in Britain.

There was one British ex-soldier who fought for the Māori, known as Kimball Bent, who was actually an American by birth. He had been convicted of theft and desertion. Bent acted as Titokowaru's armourer and later became a noted tohunga (priest). However the majority of Māori either supported the government or fought alongside the government. In 1864 the total rebelling Kingitanga population who went into hiding, was estimated at 15,000, or about 25% of the Māori population, although this number is uncertain as the rebels killed Pakeha, who went into the King Country and refused to complete the census. At that time half-caste Māori – many of whom lived in Pakeha settlements – were included in European population statistics in the census, which distorts population figures. Demographer Professor Ian Poole estimates that this boosted the nominal European population by as much as 5,000 to 10,000.

There was also a significant anti-war movement among British settlers. Led by the Anglican Church Missionary Society and a number of prominent humanitarians, this group opposed government aggression and the confiscation of land. Members included Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, Archdeacon Octavius Hadfield, Sir William Martin, South Island politicians like James Fitzgerald and other public figures. Most active during the First Taranaki War, the group divided over the government's invasion of the Waikato and response to the Kingitangas. Eventually, some chose to support the government, a decision they immediately regretted because the Māori backlash placed missionary lives in danger. Selwyn, in particular, suffered from his association with the invasion and had to leave the country in disgrace. Some missionaries later tried to prevent wholesale confiscation of Māori land, but were ignored by the government.