1879 - Featon, J. The Waikato War, 1863-64 - CHAPTER III, p 16-20

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CHAPTER III.

ACTIVE preparations were now made for an invasion of the Waikato. A camp had been formed at Otahuhu, and huts erected for the accommodation of a large number of troops. Colonel Leslie at the Queen's Redoubt had been reinforced, and an advanced post taken up at the Mangatawhiri Creek. In the meanwhile the Waikatos had not been idle. A large number of them had assembled at Rangiriri, and were busy throwing up extensive

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earthworks, and a fleet of canoes was collected for the purpose of conveying a force that was to march on and burn Auckland.

On the 23rd of June, a day memorable to the citizens of Auckland, a circular was issued from Government House by the Governor, Sir George Grey, calling out for active service four hundred militiamen from the first division of the Auckland district. These comprised all unmarried men capable of bearing arms, from sixteen up to forty years of age. The names of the militiamen liable to be drawn were written on separate pieces of paper or card of uniform size, and then placed in a bag. The officer appointed to command the militia, Colonel Thomas Rawlings Mould, of the Royal Engineers, in the presence of a Justice of the Peace, drew from the bag one by one as many pieces of paper or card as there were men required. The men whose names were drawn had to serve. The pay of the militia was 2s 6d per diem and rations such as supplied to Her Majesty's Regular Forces. The clothing consisted of one muffin cap, the same as worn by the troops, one blue shirt or jumper, one pair of trousers with a red stripe down, two pairs of boots, one pair of gaiters and one great coat provided at the expense of the Government. When on service outside the Auckland militia district, one shilling a day extra pay was given.

The Governor's circular, as may be imagined, caused great excitement amongst the bachelors, who, however, did not respond to the call of duty so readily as the authorities desired. Numbers of them, to escape service, delayed no longer, but popped the question, and got married right away, to the great delight of the young ladies concerned, and others, hoping to be tied up in holy bonds some day, objected on principle to run the chance of being cut off in the flower of their youth and beauty. The martial flame of the Auckland citizens had evidently not been yet kindled, and they were not particularly eager to close with the wily savage in his native woods and swamps. The fact of a great many not coming forward for enrolment called forth shortly afterwards from the Deputy Adjutant General of Militia and Volunteers the following unique notice, which will doubtless be interesting to the readers of the present day:--

On July 3rd the head quarters of the 2nd battalion 18th regiment consisting of 28 officers and 290 rank and file, arrived in Auckland harbour, from England, in the transport Elizabeth Ann Bright. The next morning they disembarked and marched through Queen-street, headed by the band of the 65th regiment, en route to the camp at Otahuhu, where the 14th and detachments of the 12th and 70th regiments had been quartered for some time previously. A few days afterwards, this force, including the newly-arrived 18th, numbering in all about 1,200 men, marched to Pokeno forming on the way a camp at Drury where 170 of the 18th regiment were left behind.

The 65th regiment, then stationed in the Albert Barracks, Auckland, left their quarters at 4 a.m. on the 9th en route for the front, and were followed next day by Captain Mercer's Battery Royal Artillery, consisting of 170 men, 50 of whom were mounted, with 4 six-pounder Armstrong guns, 4 twenty-four pounder howitzers, and 1 nine-pounder. The Volunteers and the Militia mounted guard in the Albert Barracks in place of the troops that had left. Immediately after the Artillery, General Cameron left Auckland for the front. Six large boats and thirty seamen from H. M. S. Harrier went up the Manukau

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harbour to Drury. The boats were then carted on to the Mangatawhiri Creek, for river service on the Waikato.

A strong force of some 2,000 men being now assembled at the Queen's Redoubt, General Cameron upon his arrival immediately advanced, or, as military historians would say, threw the 14th regiment across the Mangatawhiri Creek, and occupied a strong position on the Kohiroa Hills.

The Colonial Defence force, under the command of Colonel Nixon, and which did such good and hard service for the country, was now raised. Placards were posted about the town and suburbs inviting good horsemen to join the corps, the headquarters, which was to be a Otahuhu. Horses, arms, and appointments were furnished to non-commissioned officers and privates. The pay was, for sergeants, 7s 6d; corporals, 6s 6d; and troopers 5s per day finding their own rations, but when required forage for horses was supplied by the Government. A large number of settlers responded to the call, and in a few days one hundred saddles were filled ready for the field.

Simultaneously with the forward movement of the troops the natives living in the southern districts of Auckland received notice to take the oath of allegiance, and give up their arms, or failing which, they would be ejected. The following is a translation of the notice which the natives received: --

The Governor's notice to take the oath of allegiance or quit fell like a bombshell amongst the natives, and at almost every settlement they elected to leave, and join their comrades in the Waikato. Unfortunately most of them got away with their arms and ammunition, which they had been storing up for some time. The Princess Sophia came down from the Waikato to Mangere for the avowed purpose of unearthing the bones of her ancestors, and conveying them to a place of security in the Waikato. The ancestral bones were taken away in boxes, the oblong shape of which and heavy weight savored more of arms and ammunition than of bones. A large escort of natives accompanied the Princess and the mysterious boxes in several large canoes across the Manukau at night, to Waiuku. The boxes were then taken overland to the Awaroa Creek where a numerous party of armed Waikatos were awaiting their arrival. The whole party then proceeded in a number of canoes up the Waikato. The writer and several others who were in a cutter lying anchored waiting for the ebb tide in the Manukau Harbour, about sixteen miles below Waiuku, had a narrow escape of being murdered by the escort of the Princess as they passed, and were only prevented by the Princess Sophia herself, she, probably thinking that they might be stopped at Waiuku, if, by any means, the crime should be discovered, and an alarm raised. At most of the settlements the night before the natives departed from their homes for ever was spent in speechifying, tangeying, going through the war dance, firing off guns, and rum drinking. A large fire was kept burning in the open, into which was cast nearly everything that they did not intend to take away on the morrow.

The settlers, now that the Governor had taken a decisive step and brought affairs with the natives to a crisis, were alarmed at their exposed and unprotected position. At Waiuku a stockade was commenced on rising ground in the centre of the township, and armed parties went each day into the bush for slabs. At the Mauku it was decided, if attacked, to make a stand in the church, where to this day can be seen the apertures cut for the rifles to be pointed through. The majority of the settlers living with their families isolated in bush clearings, hastily left their homes and crowded into Auckland homeless, and in not a few cases nearly penniless, their cattle wandering untended through the bush, their pigs and poultry running wild, and the severe work of many years left to go to wreck

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and ruin. Not a few homesteads were pillaged and burnt, and the live stock killed by the natives, taking in all cases years to repair the damage done.

And these were the colonists who were basely charged by certain high parties and religious fanatics in England of desiring a war with the natives. God forgive them, for the New Zealand settlers find it difficult to do so, the calumny being so untruthful and wicked.

The Militia shirkers not having been unearthed in sufficient numbers, although a great many old scores were paid off by informing, had to be drawn out, for we find that at this time Colonel Mould, R. E., was instructed by the Governor to draw out with all convenient speed the whole of the first-class Militia. There was no escape this time. The badgers were drawn and had to serve.

Quite a crowd collected each day round the Militia office to give in their names. Auckland was getting intensely military. The young men who served behind the counters in the shops were full privates, and the baker's man who brought the bread was perchance a lance-corporal or a sergeant. The drill instructors had a busy and harrassing time of it. Day after day the recruits endeavoured to form into line, to right-about face, and to form fours, but they got helplessly mixed up together in their frantic efforts to form fours, and when it came to right-about face nose was often pointed to nose amidst the laughs and jeers of the spectators, whose time had not yet come, but did shortly afterwards, when the second-class Militia were called upon, and respectable middle-aged parties who, after their cash, above all things believed in their personal dignity, had in their turn to succumb to the inevitable and become a prey to the drill sergeant. What dignity could possibly stand the goose step and the withering sarcasm of the drill instructor? And then of a night, instead of the cheerful bright fire and warm slippers in a comfortable room to be ordered to go prowling about the outskirts of the town with a loaded gun, looking earnestly for the savage foe that was coming to fire and sack the city, and praying to goodness that he might never see him. No dignity that ever existed could stand such work as this. The constant trickling of water will in time even wear away a stone, and so steady drill wore away the awkwardness of the Militia so observable at first.

All sorts of dodges were tried to evade the Governor's edict. The quick-sighted suddenly became opthalmic, and lost their vision beyond twenty yards, and the slightly rheumatic, helplessly lame, limped painfully before the inspecting doctor. It was in the bones, sir, where even the skilful eye of Esculapius could not penetrate, and many got struck off the roll in this way, real shirkers in every sense of the word.

The value of the Auckland Rifle Volunteers was now again demonstrated, as it had been before when the war first broke out at Taranaki, for here was a force that was already drilled and capable of taking up their duties at once, mustering some 400 bayonets. The battalion was under the command of Major Campbell, and comprised five companies. No. 1, under Captain Howell; No 2, Captain (afterwards Colonel) Lyon; No. 3, Captain Heaphy; No. 5, Captain (now Major) Derrom; and No. 6, Captain J. M. Clarke. There was, for some reason or other, no No. 4 company. The Volunteer Naval Brigade, under Captain Daldy and Lieutenant Guilding, also did good service in relieving the Rifles and Militia of their duties. Shortly afterwards the strength of this Brigade was augmented by a No. 2 company, under the command of Captain John Copeland.

Those of the Militia who had volunteered for active service outside of the Militia district were under the command of Captain St. John (afterwards Colonel St. John), whose brilliant services in the field will long be remembered by New Zealand colonists. The Militia Volunteers were camped at Otahuhu.

To reinforce the Waiuku stockade and the Maukau district, a small number of about twenty-five men were enrolled and sworn in as special constables, their pay being 3s 6d a day and rations. These men seem to have been distinct altogether from the Militia, for they had to apply to Mr Joseph May at Epsom, who being a J.P., no doubt swore them in, and had the corps all to himself.

Several fires taking place at this time in Auckland caused great excitement amongst the inhabitants, who made sure that it was the work of the Maori foe, who were sacking the town. The ringing of bells,

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bugles sounding the alarm, the hurried tramp of crowds of Militiamen and Rifles with their arms through the streets, women screaming, and the red glare of the fire overhead rendered more glaring by the blackness of night, throw the whole town into the greatest disorder, so much so that it became necessary for a notice to be issued requesting inhabitants in case of fire to remain in their houses, the Militia to assemble in the barracks, and the Rifles at posts selected in case of alarm.