1859 - Thomson, A. S. The Story of New Zealand [Vol.II] - Part II. (Contd.) History of the Discovery of New Zealand by Europeans - CHAPTER VIII. GOVERNOR FITZROY'S RULE, DECEMBER 1843 TO NOVEMBER 1845.

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CHAP. VIII.

GOVERNOR FITZROY'S RULE, DECEMBER 1843 TO NOVEMBER 1845.

CAPTAIN ROBERT FITZROY, R.N., was appointed to succeed Governor Hobson. This officer's connection with the colony arose from his having visited the Bay of Islands in 1835 in her Majesty's surveying ship Beagle, and from having given evidence in 1838, regarding New Zealand, before the committee of the House of Lords.

In December 1843 Captain Fitzroy arrived at Auckland, and his landing in Commercial Bay was eminently ridiculous. A gentleman connected with the native department carried a pole surmounted with a crown of flax, from which waved the New Zealand flag; and Captain Fitzroy, excited by the occasion, cried aloud when stepping on shore, "I have come among you to

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do all the good I can." The crowd of fifty persons replied to this noble sentiment with a cheer, and the commanding officer of the company of soldiers in attendance shouted, "quick march;" immediately the two drummer boys and the fifer of the guard of honour struck up "The king of the Cannibal islands," to which appropriate air His Excellency marched to Government House.

Next day a curious scene occurred at the levee. The colonial office had given Captain Fitzroy files of a New Zealand newspaper, famous for abusing Acting-Governor Shortland, to read during the voyage; and when the editor of that paper was presented at Government House, the Governor informed him that he highly approved of the principles of the Southern Cross. This speech, equivalent to announcing in the Government Gazette that the colonial secretary was an arrogant fool, caused Mr. Shortland to resign his office; and Dr. A. Sinclair, a surgeon of the royal navy, who had accompanied Captain Fitzroy to explore the natural history of the country, was appointed colonial secretary in his stead.

At this levee two addresses were presented from the natives; in one they complained of not being permitted to sell land, in the other of the high price of tobacco.

On the 18th of January 1844, Captain Fitzroy embarked for Cook's Strait in one of her Majesty's ships of war, to inquire into the Wairau conflict.

On arriving at Wellington, His Excellency held a levee which was numerously attended. The settlers complained of the natives with bitterness, and the natives stated that the settlers were ill-disposed towards them. "We have been taught," says the settlers' address, "that

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one drop of the blood of the meanest of her Majesty's subjects was sacred at the extremities of the earth, and here we find twenty-two slain, nine massacred in cold blood, by men who instead of being brought to trial have been treated as innocent or injured parties." The reading of this address visibly irritated the Governor, and he so abused Mr. Jerningham Wakefield and several settlers for their hatred to the natives, that some of the spectators thought he was not master of his own actions. 1

His Excellency then crossed over Cook's Strait to Nelson; here he publicly rebuked the magistrates who signed the warrants for Rauparaha and Rangihaeata's arrest, and stated that the warrant against Rauparaha for arson, which led to the massacre, was illegal. "Arson," said the Governor, "is burning another man's house, it is not arson to burn your own house. The natives had never sold the Wairau, the hut which was burned was built on ground which belonged to the natives, and of materials which belonged to them also; consequently no arson was committed, and therefore the warrant was illegal." This speech, delivered in an irritating tone, produced a deep sensation among men mourning the death of their fellow-colonists. Several magistrates immediately resigned their commissions, and called her Majesty's representative a madman. Captain Fitzroy's visit to Nelson aggravated the hatred of races towards each other, instead of allaying it.

From Nelson Captain Fitzroy crossed the strait to the island of Kapiti, under the lee of which the ship was anchored, and the Governor landed to visit Rauparaha at Waikanai, a large pa on the coast near Wellington.

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Since the Wairau conflict Rauparaha had professed Christianity and had become a church-goer, and to account for the suddenness of his conversion he likened himself to St. Paul. At his interview with the Governor there were twelve Europeans and five hundred natives present. Rauparaha squatted close to His Excellency's chair, Rangihaeata stood aloof, and neither of their faces expressed fear or anxiety. His Excellency informed the meeting that he had visited Wellington and Nelson to hear the settlers' account of the Wairau affair, and he had now come to listen to Rauparaha's narrative, so that he might judge justly between the combatants. Rauparaha got up to speak with great reluctance, and said the fight in the Wairau arose out of the land not having been fairly bought; he gave a minute account of the conflict, and stated that the police magistrate twice ordered the settlers to fire. No description was given, or asked, concerning the massacre.

For half an hour after Rauparaha had done speaking a solemn silence pervaded the assembly, and when the Governor rose to deliver his verdict a low murmur ran through the crowd. "In the first place," said his Excellency, "the white men were wrong, but you" (looking at Rauparaha and Rangihaeata) "committed a horrible crime in murdering men who had surrendered themselves, in reliance on your honour as chiefs; but, as the Europeans were the first in the wrong, I will not avenge their deaths." The Governor then introduced Major Richmond as superintendent of the southern division of New Zealand, and urged the natives to seek advice from their missionaries and protectors. 2

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This decision proved injurious to the future peace of New Zealand. There were faults on both sides in regard to the Wairau conflict, but the settlers from whom most forbearance was to be expected were the aggressors, and no native custom was violated on the part of Rangihaeata in tomahawking the prisoners. Even if Rauparaha and Rangihaeata were more guilty than they were, there was no force in the country sufficient to arrest them, and the Governor thought the safety of the Cook's Strait settlers required that he should at once announce there was no intention to revenge the massacre at a future day.

Justice, however, obtained from the weak is never duly honoured, and the natives mistook the verdict for cowardice. Not to avenge the dead, according to native law, indicates the most craven spirit; and in all dealings with them it is necessary to take their own customs into consideration, when this can be accomplished without violating those of justice. This principle was unknown to Captain Fitzroy, otherwise he would have claimed the Wairau valley, as having been paid for by the blood of his countrymen. The consequence was that Rauparaha laughed heartily at the Governor's speech, and openly stated His Excellency was afraid of him. Another chief said: "You white people are very good for building houses and ships, for buying and selling, for making cattle fat, and for growing bread and cabbages; you are like the rats, always at work, but as to fighting, you are like them also, you only know how to run." 3

After the Wairau massacre, out-settlers, in their solitude, began to forbode evil, and it was generally admitted that the moral influence period, so loudly vaunted

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in England, was ended, and the days of physical force were at hand. Hitherto the New Zealanders were invariably defendants in disputes with settlers; now they became the domineering race, and for the sake of peace several concessions were made to them by the Governor.

The first was an alteration in the law of theft. Soon after the treaty of Waitangi, the natives complained that imprisonment for theft was an unjust punishment to them; that it was like putting a gentleman in jail, as it degraded a free New Zealander to the rank of a slave. The consequences of the confinement were more than the confinement itself, and a code of laws, conducted on the payment for injuries principle, was in their opinion the best.

During the Governor's absence from Auckland, an event occurred which led to a modification of this law. A native was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for stealing a cap, and when the turnkey was removing the prisoner from the dock, Kawau, an influential Christian chief, aided by a number of followers, rescued him, and carried him away to the neighbouring village of Orakei. Major Bunbury, of the 80th Regiment, and a company of soldiers, pursued the criminal without capturing him. Next day a warrant was issued to arrest Kawau, but the Executive Council, dreading another conflict, refused to allow it to be executed. Some days afterwards, through the influence of the missionaries, the rescued thief surrendered himself to the sheriff, and was lodged in jail.

When the Governor returned, Kawau acknowledged his guilt, but urged that a money payment was sufficient compensation for theft, and that such a law would give

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satisfaction to heathen and Christian natives, because it was in strict accordance with the Holy Scriptures and the customs of the New Zealanders. The Governor entirely concurred with Kawau, two months of the thief's confinement were pardoned, and an ordinance enacted allowing native thieves to escape imprisonment on giving a four-fold payment of the value of the goods stolen.

The second concession had reference to land. No settler could legally purchase land from the natives after 1840, and as Governors Hobson and Shortland had bought very little from them, the natives were deprived of their usual supply of money from this source, and complained of the injustice of the new arrangement; the Governor, they stated, would neither purchase their lands nor allow others to do so.

In compliance with these entreaties, Captain Fitzroy, in March 1844, gave the settlers permission to buy land direct from the natives, on the purchaser paying ten shillings an acre to the Government; 4 but this act was not deemed sufficiently liberal for land-speculators, and only 1795 acres were purchased under it.

In purchasing land under this proclamation, the buyers represented to the natives that they would have given them more money for their lands were they not obliged to pay the Governor ten shillings for every acre in addition to the payment given to them. Friendly chiefs avoided inquiring into the nature of this additional payment, and dissatisfied ones adduced it as a proof that the Waitangi treaty was a deception, and that the land was not their own. The Maoris around Auck-

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land, who were most immediately concerned with this law, conceived that a friendly display of their strength would produce a beneficial influence on the Governor's mind. In order to strike this moral blow, a feast was celebrated in the immediate vicinity of the town, and crowds of warriors intimated to the Governor that unless the law were modified there might be a general rising of the people.

Terrified by the one race, and cajoled by interested persons in the other, Captain Fitzroy proclaimed that the ten shillings an acre proclamation had been represented to be a badge of slavery, and that, to avoid evil consequences, the Government would henceforth give crown grants to purchasers of native lands on the payment of a penny an acre; 5 under which proclamation 90,000 acres were purchased from the natives.

Both these proclamations enabled private individuals to purchase lands in the vicinity of Auckland, which Government should have previously purchased. It was expected the penny an acre proclamation would restore prosperity to the country, and allure thousands of emigrants from Australia; but none came, as life and property were not then considered safe in New Zealand.

The display of physical force just noticed, not only overawed Auckland, but caused the Governor to prorogue the meeting of the Legislative Council. The feast was given to the Waikato tribes, and the place of assembly was two miles from the town, on a fern plain between Mounts Hobson and St. John, now covered with grass parks and gay villas. Here a shed four hun-

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dred yards long was erected, and covered with Witney manufacture, and fifty yards from it there was a breastwork of potatoes, surrounded by a fence loaded with dried sharks. As the warriors congregated, an uneasy feeling spread over the town. On the 11th of May the Governor visited the feast by invitation; at a given signal each tribe seized the food portioned out for it, and sixteen hundred men armed with guns and tomahawks danced the war dance. The soldiers in Auckland sunk into nothing before this host; and settlers, for the first time, admitted that they lived in New Zealand on sufferance. Two hundred men of influence returned the Governor's visit, and requested that their lands should be secured to them. After this interview the assembly dispersed.

No depredation was committed by the armed crowds who daily perambulated the streets to admire the articles displayed for sale in the shop windows; and men asked: Would the Caledonians, from the age of Constantine to that of the Plantagenets, have shown similar forbearance? At this banquet there were given away to the guests 11,000 baskets of potatoes, 9000 sharks, 100 full-grown pigs, 1000 blankets, and large quantities of wheat, rice, sugar, and tobacco. It was observed that the tribes living near Auckland were better dressed than those from a distance; many were clad in European apparel, but none in a complete suit. Wetere, a man next in rank to Te Whero Whero the Waikato chief, was dressed in a blue frock coat, and wore a cloth cap with gold band and ostrich feather, but he had no shoes.

Physical force extorted another concession from the Governor. It has been already related that before the Wairau massacre the New Plymouth settlers, on two

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occasions, armed themselves and drove off the manumitted slaves and returned fugitives from disputed lands, broke down their fences, and insulted them with impunity. Times were now changed; two hundred of these natives armed themselves and assembled on Mr. Cook's farm, and without opposition cut down trees, jeered at the authorities, and stated it to be their intention to occupy the land until it was paid for; and, as they kept their words, this appeal to physical force by the natives brought Captain Fitzroy to New Plymouth.

The merits of the case were these. Mr. Spain, the commissioner sent from England to examine into the New Zealand Company's land claims, reported in 1843 that the company's agents had fairly bought 282,000 acres from the natives: 6 71,900 acres were in the Wellington district, 151,000 in Nelson, and 60,000 at New Plymouth. Colonel Wakefield's "twenty millions of acres," his "country as large as Ireland," dwindled down to about a county under the commissioners inquiry.

This award of 60,000 acres of land at Taranaki caused the fugitives and manumitted slaves to appeal to arms. Just at the time Mr. Spain was conducting his investigation at New Plymouth a native battle was fought at Mongonui, in consequence of Government having purchased land from New Zealanders who held a title to it by inheritance, but had lost it by defeat. The case was this. Noble, a Christian chief, sold Government a tract of land from which he had been expelled forty years before. The conquerors and occupiers of the soil denied that he had any right to dispose of their property, and a conflict ensued in which forty lives were lost; the Go-

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vernment, eventually, had to repurchase the land from the true proprietors; for the Queen of England had as much right to sell land in the United States as Noble had at Mongonui. Mr. Spain, cognizant of this unfortunate affair, and induced by other circumstances, decided that the returned fugitives and slaves, who now constituted the majority of the native population at New Plymouth, had no right to receive payment for the land; and this award was the cause of the present disturbance.

Governor Fitzroy, after inquiry, reversed Mr. Spain's award, and declared the company had only purchased 3500 acres at New Plymouth; in which decision Captain Fitzroy was both right and wrong. He was right in recognising the claims of the fugitives and slaves; because Te Whero Whero, the conqueror, had never occupied the district, and occupation alone, according to native law, makes conquerors proprietors. But Captain Fitzroy did wrong in entirely changing Mr. Spain's decision; he should have approved of the purchase of 60,000 acres, and ordered the fugitives and slaves a further payment for the disputed land. As it was, Captain Fitzroy's decision produced much discontent among the settlers, showed the natives that physical force was their best weapon, and consequently laid the foundation of future strife.

These transactions exhibit the temper of the natives around the English settlements of Auckland and New Plymouth; the spirit animating those about Wellington in 1844 is best gleaned from the scenes which occurred in settling disputed land claims.

Mr. Commissioner Spain held a court for this purpose at Porirua in March, at which were present six Europeans and two hundred natives, among whom were Rauparaha

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and Rangihaeata. The commissioner opened the court by saying: "Rauparaha! I received your letter asking me to settle the Port Nicholson purchase, and after inquiry I have decided that the natives who owned the land are entitled to more money, and I therefore offer you the following terms." Rauparaha said: "My wish was to settle my claims on Port Nicholson, but you want me to give up the Hutt." Mr. Spain replied: "Did you not consent to receive 300l. for Port Nicholson and the Hutt?" Rauparaha answered that he did not consider it in that light. Mr. Spain said: "I am aware of the cause of this objection; that man sitting by your side, Te Ringa Kuri, is cultivating land in the Hutt to which he has no right." Rauparaha replied: "It belongs to him; he is the eldest man of the resident natives, and that boy is the real chief of the place." Mr. Spain rose to go away, upbraided Rauparaha for not keeping his word, and recalled to his memory his own statement, "I am now a Christian and want peace." Rauparaha detained him by saying: "Do not go away in anger." Mr. Spain replied: "I only go away in sorrow." Then Rauparaha commenced talking about the Wairau massacre, but Mr. Spain refused to listen to anything about that affair, as the Governor had settled it. Mr. Spain then said: "I go away in sorrow;" to which Te Ringa Kuri answered: "If you go away in sorrow anger will soon follow, for sorrow is always followed by anger." Mr. Spain, laughing at this caustic remark, and shaking hands with Te Ringa Kuri, said: "No no, I am only sorry you will not take my advice."

Mr. Spain visited the Hutt a few days after this, to ascertain whether Te Ringa Kuri was cutting, as reported, a line between the lands of the natives and the settlers.

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On arriving at the valley, a native said: "If you have come to make remarks about our cutting this line, you may as well return, as we will listen to nothing you have got to say, nor will we be deterred from it by you, by the Governor, or by the Queen." Mr. Spain found Te Ringa Kuri in the midst of a crowd of natives, and he requested to know what object he had in cutting the present line. "I am cutting the line," replied Te Ringa, "by Rauparaha's orders, to divide the lands of the settlers from our own." Mr. Spain said: "This is not the line formerly agreed on." Te Ringa replied: "It is plain you are not peaceably disposed; you heard at Porirua that Rauparaha would not agree to your boundaries, and you appear determined to insist on them. You had better return to the land of your birth." Mr. Spain said: "Te Ringa Kuri, you know you are speaking false; we do not want to take your land from you. This land has been already sold; I have a deed with Rauparaha's signature acknowledging the receipt of money for it, and I have directed he should receive more money, which he refuses. If you do not desist from cutting that line you must abide the consequences." Te Ringa refused to stop, and the man who spoke so rudely now rose and told Mr. Spain to begone; but Te Ringa requested him to be silent, and said: "You are all alike, you only want to get our lands; you are not our friends. You, Mr. Spain, were one of the first to seek vengeance for the Wairau fight." Mr. Spain replied: "You accuse me falsely; you know my object in going to the Wairau was peace, and did I not take charge of some of your wounded?" Te Ringa Kuri, seeing Mr. Spain moving off, said: "Do not go away. I was wrong to accuse you; and we are peaceably disposed,

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although we will obey Rauparaha's instructions about cutting this line." 7

But the natives in the most northern part of the colony were more defiant than those surrounding Wellington. After the establishment of the British government in New Zealand, the natives in the Bay of Islands grew every month more and more discontented with the customs duties, the absence of whale ships from Kororareka, and the high price of tobacco and blankets. Unfortunately also the demand for Hokianga timber in the Australian market, so active from 1838 to 1842, ceased in 1844, and Hokianga was like a suburb of the Bay of Islands.

These great changes made chiefs feel that they had lost their influence with the settlers, and that a new and to them unknown power had risen up against their old ways of doing business. An American settler more sharp than honest, well known to the natives, whispered, as he walked about the Kororareka beach with his pipe in his mouth, that the British flag, waving from the staff on the hill above the town, was the emblem of the power which ruined the Hokianga timber trade, and deterred the American whalers from entering the harbour of Kororareka. These words produced a deep impression, and when the blankets were worn out, the second-rate finery ragged, and tobacco scarce among the settlements on the banks of the rivers which fall into the Bay of Islands, an idea was kindled in the native mind, that, if the flagstaff were cut down, the fine old days of Kororareka would return.

Hone Heke, one of the sufferers from these changes, lived at Kaikohe. This man was educated by the mis-

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sionaries and had acquired a deep knowledge of the Bible; he was baptized in the presence of the British Resident, and the tears he shed on the occasion showed how keenly he felt the solemnity of that sacrament. 8 Heke did not spring from the highest aristocracy of the country, but, having married Hongi's beautiful and intelligent daughter, he derived from this renowned alliance some of the magic influence attached to that great warrior. When Heke became a man he fell back into heathenism, and took delight in religious disputes; he argued against the truths of Scripture, and confounded Christians with their own weapons. The missionaries called him an apostate. 9 He disliked Europeans, and expressed this feeling allegorically by saying, one beehive was very good, several were troublesome. He bore to the English a hatred similar to that cherished by Hannibal against the Romans, and looked on every thing pertaining to them with jaundiced eyes. Borrowing a simile from Holy Writ, he likened the English to the Egyptians in Pharaoh's days, and the New Zealanders to the oppressed Israelites. He said the natives were the settlers' slaves, and adduced in proof of this that many natives were servants to Englishmen, but no Englishman was servant to a native. He pointed out to his tribe that in 1840 they were clad in the best clothes, now they wore old blankets; that in 1840 they smoked American tobacco, now they puffed dried indigenous leaves.

Education would have made Heke an accomplished diplomatist, for his mind was of the order found in the

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front rank of intellectual progress; but he had no love for fighting, although ambitious of the fame of a warrior. Like his father-in-law Hongi, he became nervously anxious to create a name for himself among his countrymen, and he accomplished this by taking advantage of the present discontent.

In the town of Kororareka there lived a European called Lord, who had married a woman of Heke's tribe. This woman, in a fit of rage, called Heke a pig, and Heke to avenge the insult collected a hundred men, marched to Kororareka, plundered Lord's house, and carried his wife away to Kaikohe. Lord, lamenting her absence, offered Heke a cask of tobacco if he would let her return. This offer was accepted, and Heke fulfilled his part of the bargain, but Lord refused the promised payment; whereupon Heke returned to Kororareka, pillaged several stores, and insulted the inhabitants for several days with impunity. On the 8th of July 1844 Heke taught his troops to regard themselves as under the protection of Heaven, by praying to the true Grod and also to the false; he mingled the Christian prayer of love and mercy with the wild chant in honour of Tumatauenga, the god of war. Then his followers danced the war dance, cut down and burned the Kororareka flagstaff, and carried away the signal balls. On Heke's march homewards after the perpetration of this act, he visited a missionary's only son at Waimate who was dying; bidding the boy farewell, he turned to the father and said: "Brown, we must leave your boy with God; if he suffers him to live it will be good, if he takes him to heaven it will still be good." 10

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This chivalrous mode of commencing war alarmed the Governor; and as there were only ninety soldiers of the 96th at Auckland, despatches were sent to Australia in hot haste for troops. Early in August, 160 men of the 99th Regiment, with the detachment of the 96th and two light guns, under the command of Colonel Hulme of the 96th, arrived at the Bay of Islands, and encamped at Kororareka. On the advent of her Majesty's ship Hazard with the Governor on board, orders were issued for the troops and armed seamen to follow Heke into his fastness.

Just as the force was landing on the banks of the Keri Keri river for this service, several chiefs besought the Governor not to commence hostilities; and they promised to pay for the flagstaff and to be responsible for Heke's future good behaviour. These terms were agreed on, and the Governor, at a large meeting of natives in the village of Waimate, accepted ten old muskets as an atonement for the cutting down of the flagstaff; and in a long speech attributed the disturbances to the evil advice of wicked settlers. Twenty-five chiefs apologised for Heke's conduct, and as a proof their speeches were not sincere, none complained of the high price of tobacco, the scarcity of blankets, or the absence of the whale ships from Kororareka. Heke was not at the meeting, although Waimate was only ten miles from his residence. He, however, apologised to the Governor, by letter, for cutting down the flagstaff, and in extenuation of his conduct, impudently asserted that the staff was his own property, and was dragged out of the forest by native labour, for the purpose of displaying the New Zealand, not the British, flag.

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At the request of Walker Nene, the Governor entirely withdrew the troops from Kororareka, and Nene promised to keep the peace. The value of this man's adherence at this critical juncture is ill understood. New Zealanders in all important affairs are guided by ancient usages, but there was no precedent to guide Nene in joining white men in a war against his own race. The fact, therefore, of his declaring in favour of the Government on this grave occasion became a precedent, or a law, which produced several imitators, and raised up allies for future conflicts. The flagstaff was again erected at Kororareka, and the Governor, before leaving the Bay of Islands, being convinced that the customs duties had injured the place and caused discontent among the natives, declared Kororareka a free port, which act so overjoyed the white settlers that all the candles in the town were squandered in an illumination.

Never was the colony in a more critical state. The financial difficulties of 1843 had become worse in 1844, and the Governor was literally paralysed for want of money. The government officers were unpaid, the customs were dwindling down, and 400 crown grants for land lay in the colonial secretary's office, from inability of the proprietors to pay for each a pound fee. All over the colony the natives were in a state of confident excitement, and the spirit of the settlers was subdued. For several days Heke with a hundred men insulted the whole town of Kororareka; and the people of Auckland shrank from training themselves to arms, lest by so doing they should exasperate the natives. The Company's agents had stopped their works for want of funds, and their settlers were in confusion and distress.

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At Nelson, seed-potatoes planted in the ground were actually dug up for food.

To prevent the colony falling to pieces from bankruptcy, the Legislative Council passed a bill authorising the Governor to issue 15,000l. of debentures, which debentures were declared a legal tender; and it was represented to the Government that Auckland, like Kororareka, should be declared a free port. The absolute necessity of this act was, however, denied by the Governor's Executive Council, as there are several free ports in Europe in the midst of ports where customs are levied. But the inhabitants of Auckland could see no analogy between Hamburgh and Kororareka; and as Captain Fitzroy had attributed all the evils of the country to the imposition of customs duties, he was easily convinced, and a bill was hastily passed abolishing the act for levying customs duties in the colony, and substituting a property-rate ordinance. So much haste boded little real speed, but the Governor thought otherwise; for, on closing the Legislative Council which enacted these measures, his Excellency stated that the crisis of the colony was past: an unfortunate attempt to look into futurity, as an event again occurred at the Bay of Islands which discerning men knew to be the commencement of a new difficulty.

Late in the year 1844 news arrived in New Zealand that a committee of the House of Commons had declared the treaty of Waitangi an injudicious proceeding. 11 As the Governor and the missionaries had represented that act to the natives as the one which preserved to them their lands, this intelligence produced evil results; Heke

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made it the means of convincing the doubtful, and of strengthening the zeal of his lukewarm adherents, and wrote to the Governor that he now believed they were to be deprived of their lands, like the aboriginal Australians. The disturbances took a new turn. Settlers Hingstone of the Bay of Islands and Mellon at Matakana had their property destroyed for occupying lands which the natives considered their own, and the flagstaff at Kororareka was again cut down without any opposition from Walker Nene. However, this was no infringement of Nene's promise to keep the peace, as neither party shed blood, and both shrank from killing a human being for a piece of wood.

Two proclamations were immediately issued; in one a reward of 100l. was offered for the apprehension of the natives who destroyed Messrs. Hingstone and Mellon's property, and a similar sum for the capture of Heke. Neither of these proclamations was of any use, and the latter excited the zeal of the enemy. "Is Heke a pig," they said, "that he should be bought and sold?" Heke, no way daunted, and to be on even terms with the Governor, offered a reward of 100l. for Captain Fitzroy's head. A detachment of the 96th Regiment and her Majesty's ship Hazard were sent to erect the flagstaff again at Kororareka. This time the pole was sheathed with iron, surrounded with a stockade, and a detachment of soldiers was left to protect it. All these proceedings confirmed the New Zealanders in their opinion that the flagstaff was the power which scared the whale ships from the bay. "See," said Heke, "the flagstaff does mean a taking possession, or why else should they persist in re-erecting it?"

On the 4th of March 1845, the Governor opened the

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Legislative Council by stating that the prospects of the colony were improving, and that if it were not for the pernicious effect of slanderous publications the country would be tranquil. But the settlers had now lost all confidence in his prophecies, and a memorial was sent to the throne asking for troops and money, in which memorial it was stated that the New Zealanders were getting overbearing from the conciliatory policy adopted towards them. At the very time that Captain Fitzroy was indulging in visions of peace, settling every question and leaving everything unsettled, Heke struck a blow when there was no adequate preparation to parry it.

After the third erection of the flagstaff at Kororareka Heke announced that he would not allow it to remain. The town had then a white population of four hundred souls, and the flagstaff stood on a hill in close proximity to it, although three hundred feet above it. As Heke had never broken his word, the inhabitants were privately drilled to arms; Captain Robertson, of her Majesty's ship Hazard, was posted with a gun overlooking Matavai Bay; twenty soldiers were stationed at the foot of the flagstaff; a body of the inhabitants occupied a blockhouse half way up the hill, and soldiers, marines, and inhabitants garrisoned Mr. Polack's house on the beach. Early in March it was known that Heke's troops were in the neighbourhood of Kororareka, and they gave the first indication of hostilities by firing on an armed boat pursuing plunderers, and by capturing Lieutenant Philpott of the royal navy. One Sunday a missionary preached in the native camp from the text in James, "Whence come wars and fightings;" and at the conclusion of the service, Heke recommended the priest to go and deliver the same sermon in the English camp, as it

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was more applicable there than here; and as a proof of the sincerity of his wishes for peace, he informed the missionary that he had released Lieutenant Philpott uninjured.

Before daylight on the 11th of March 1845 Captain Robertson's position was attacked by two hundred natives under Kawiti, and the soldiers at the foot of the flagstaff were surprised by Heke and the staff cut down. For some time Captain Robertson defended his position with great bravery, but when he saw the soldiers flying down the flagstaff hill, he spiked his gun and likewise fell back. The whole force was then collected in Mr. Polack's house on the beach; and here the soldiers and the inhabitants, with the aid of the guns of the Hazard, defended themselves for three hours against the natives firing from the shelter of broken ground. The officers of the United States ship of war St. Louis had much difficulty in keeping their crew, most of whom were Englishmen, neutral. One bold civilian proposed to retake the flagstaff, but none seconded his proposition. The women and children, like a herd of panic-stricken deer, fled to the ships, and just as their embarkation was completed the powder magazine on shore exploded. A council of war assembled, and it was resolved not to renew the fight, but to abandon the settlement; and during a truce demanded by the natives, to carry off their killed and wounded, the whole of the inhabitants and soldiers embarked on board her Majesty's ship Hazard, the United States corvette St. Louis, the whale ship Matilda, and the schooner Dolphin.

During this flight the enemy, who were over-estimated at eight hundred, squatted on the surrounding heights in a sort of mesmeric amazement; and when the whole had embarked, they danced war dances, made speeches,

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and pillaged the town; some gorged themselves with sugar, a few got beastly drunk. The inhabitants contemplating these scenes from the shipping were differently affected by the destruction of their property; several having recovered from their panic landed to rescue some forsaken valuables, and at one time the pillagers and the pillaged were mingled together. One strong-minded woman was seen pulling a blanket against an armed native, and children left on shore in the hurry of the flight were sent by the enemy uninjured to their parents. The whole affair was conducted in the best spirit. At last the town caught fire, and the buildings being of wood, a conflagration ensued which was seen reflected in the sky during the night for an immense distance. 12 The Roman-Catholic mission station, and several warehouses the property of Americans, standing at the opposite end of the beach, escaped.

During the conflict six seamen, four soldiers, and one half-caste child were slain; and twenty soldiers, inhabitants, and seamen were wounded. Captain Robertson and Lieutenant Morgan of her Majesty's ship Hazard were among the latter. Thirty-four of the enemy fell. Fifty thousand pounds' worth of property was destroyed, and several prosperous men were reduced to beggary. On the 13th of March, when the ashes of the town were cool, the ships with the inhabitants and soldiers on board sailed for Auckland.

Such is the singular story of the destruction of Kororareka, an affair which spread Heke's fame all over New Zealand, convinced the natives that the settlers were unable to protect themselves, and tore from the

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soldiers' brows the charm of invincibility. Fortunately the bravery of the sailors retrieved the defeat of the military, and Captain Robertson's deeds were related with universal admiration in native huts far away from the scene of the conflict. By the time the story got to Rotorua it ran that Captain Robertson killed with his own arm five brave Ngapuhi warriors. The inhabitants of Kororareka accused the soldiers of cowardice; the soldiers accused the inhabitants of evacuating the town without any necessity. The two subaltern officers of the 96th Regiment, the only military officers present, were tried by court martial on these insinuations; the lieutenant was honourably acquitted, and the ensign, a mere boy, was reprimanded for withdrawing his detachment from the blockhouse without orders. Most of the soldiers were recruits, and superstition caused them to dread savage more than civilised foes. Worldly men attributed the fall of Kororareka to a panic; religious persons read in the destruction of the place a judgment for its sins; and curious to relate, two Christian prelates, Bishops Pompellier of the Roman-Catholic and Selwyn of the English Church, witnessed the conflagration and assisted the wounded.

Kororareka has never recovered its former prosperity. In 1853 there were not forty inhabitants in the town; the English church, riddled with shot, still stood, and a wooden tomb marked the spot where the English slain lay. The remnant of the people, owing to long separation from the world, have formed an imaginary idea of their own misfortunes, and some of them believe the destruction of Kororareka to be as famous as the burning of Moscow.

A panic spread over Auckland when the penniless and

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haggard inhabitants of Kororareka, packed like slaves in Guinea ships, landed on the beach. This terror, apparent to the friendly Waikato tribes, increased when the people heard that Heke was to attack Auckland next full moon. Out-settlers, dreading a war of races, congregated about Auckland; several colonists left the country, and property could be bought at a nominal price. Britomart barracks were entrenched and two blockhouses built; a militia ordinance was hastily passed, and 300 men were trained to arms. Fort Ligar, an earthwork near the Roman-catholic chapel, was thrown up, and the windows in St. Paul's church were barricaded.

Every day Heke grew more terrible in people's minds. A sentry was posted on the roof of the barracks to catch the first glimpse of his army. One night musketry were heard, the drums beat, the Governor and troops ran to arms, the officers and men of her Majesty's ship Hazard landed, and all remained in attitudes of defence until daylight; and then much merriment arose when it was found the alarm originated in the firing of guns at the village of Orakei to celebrate a chief's death, the echo of which, reverberated by the hills, was magnified by the people's fears into a conflict. Te Whero Whero, seeing the terror of the inhabitants, offered to defend Auckland against Heke. The Ngatiwhatua tribe, living around Auckland, had little time to think of war, or of giving assistance to the settlers, being busily occupied in collecting kauri gum, the value of which had suddenly risen to a high price in American markets.

When the news of the destruction of Kororareka reached Wellington, fortifications were commenced and Clifford's stockade thrown up; a militia was formed, and

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250 men appeared in arms on the Te Aro and Thorndon flats. At Nelson the same spirit was shown, and a mob of armed natives, who threatened to destroy cattle grazing on disputed grounds, fled hastily before an armed party of settlers.

The Governor was now convinced that war alone could bring about peace; to pass over the destruction of Kororareka on the Christian principle of doing good for evil would endanger every settlement in the country. Despatches were sent to Australia for troops and ammunition, the Legislative Counsel was assembled, and the Governor admitted his error in attributing all the colonial evils to the customs duties. As the Cook's Strait settlers refused to pay the property-rate tax passed in a former session, on the constitutional principle that they were not represented in the Council which imposed it, his Excellency at once repealed the act, and re-enacted the customs ordinance. The unproductive property-tax and the want of money had already forced the Governor to issue more debentures than the act authorised. On the 22nd of April the Legislative Council was closed to prepare for a war which, the Governor proclaimed, was to be conducted with justice and mercy.

Heke and Kawiti, the leaders of the enemy, felt that they must now fight for their lives; and those who knew them confidentially said terror and anxiety were constantly depicted on their faces. The enemy never intended attacking Auckland, in consequence of its proximity to Te Whero Whero's dominions; but to be in readiness for the English they built a pa in the interior of the country, and dragged their war canoes inland for safety. Troops having arrived from Sydney, an expedition sailed from Auckland for the Bay of Islands

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on the 3rd of April 1845, under the command of Colonel Hulme, 96th Regiment. On landing at Kororareka, a guard of honour hoisted the British flag, and proclaimed martial law. No European was aware of the enemy's position, and all the information which could be got about Heke was obtained from Thomas Walker Nene.

The campaign commenced with an act discreditable to the British arms; Pomare, a sharer in the plunder of Kororareka, was taken prisoner by treachery; he was seized when a flag of truce was flying, and his pa, in close proximity to the river, was burnt to the ground. This dishonourable act sprung from a desire to save bloodshed; but no motive can justify the deed. All will admit the difficulty of fighting savages on civilised principles, nevertheless, the more openly war is carried on against them, the more do they respect civilisation; for honesty in war, as well as in other worldly affairs, is the best policy. Pomare was conveyed a prisoner to Auckland, and released with a present of a boat as some compensation for his unfair treatment. 13

It was ultimately undoubtedly ascertained by our allies that Heke was at Okaihau, a fortification belonging to Kawiti, eighteen miles inland from the Bay of Islands; and on the 3rd of May the troops disembarked at Oneroa, a place at the mouth of the Keri Keri river for the purpose of demolishing it. The force consisted of the 58th Regiment under Major Bridge, a detachment of the 96th, and seamen and marines from her Majesty's ships North Star and Hazard; in all 400 men, under the command of Colonel Hulme. The native allies who afterwards joined Colonel Hulme's force under Walker

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Nene amounted to 400 men. The soldiers were amazed at the first sight of their friends, and a war dance, executed in honour of the English host, with Walker Nene's wife in the front rank marking time, added much to the singularity of the alliance. The soldiers of the 58th Regiment just arrived from England could scarcely believe they were brought to the antipodes to fight in alliance with a rabble of cannibals entirely destitute of that prompt obedience which distinguishes an army from a mob. On the other hand, the native allies, who publicly worshipped God night and morning when the reveille and tattoo were beating, asked Colonel Hulme if his soldiers, so lately from the land whence the missionaries came, were Christians.

The commissariat having no means of transport, each soldier carriei in his havresack thirty rounds of ammunition and five days' biscuits. The path to the pa was narrow, little frequented, and much of it lay through a forest. Unluckily it commenced raining as the troops moved off, and the force took four days in getting to the pa, during the whole of which time the rain fell in torrents. The month of May in New Zealand corresponds to November in England. As the expedition had no tents, two thirds of the ammunition and all the biscuits were found unfit for use on arriving before the pa. Our native allies hutted themselves comfortably every night, and formed a poor opinion of the soldiers from their inability for the first day or two even to raise a break wind to sleep behind. But no sickness was contracted, although the men had little to eat, and slept in wet clothes on damp earth. Kauri gum, found in abundance, served the soldiers for fuel, and with lint as wicks it was a good substitute for candles.

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The nature of the citadel the troops had advanced to capture was now seen. It stood on a narrow plain, on the verge of hilly forests and close to a large lake. It had two rows of wooden palisades and a ditch inside; the external fence being covered with flax concealed the enemy. An order was given to assault the pa and force an entrance by pulling down the palisades, but Walker Nene urged the English leader not to try what was impossible, not to sacrifice men like a madman. On the 8th of May, Colonel Hulme, an old soldier, "knowing that the chances of war are many," advanced three storming parties within two hundred yards of the pa, and fired some rockets out of a rocket-tube the land forces borrowed from the navy. The first rocket cut asunder a strong pole, burst inside the pa, and terrified every one: some of the enemy were for flying, but Heke entreated them to wait to see the effect of the next discharge; and as none of the succeeding shots did any injury they recovered their courage, and simultaneously sallied from the pa, and out of an ambush in the forest under Kawiti, armed with tomahawks fastened on long poles, with that undisciplined enthusiasm which cools as the conflict waxes hotter. Fortunately this well-laid forest ambush was discovered by the bravery and discretion of John Hobbs, one of our native allies, otherwise the British loss would have been fearful. After some skirmishing the 58th Regiment and the Royal Marines levelled to the charge and drove the enemy into the pa at the point of the bayonet. During the night after this conflict the evening hymn was sung by the enemy, and the sound rising to heaven conveyed the idea that the warriors inside the fortification were martyrs fighting for their holy faith. Colonel

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Hulme, finding the place impregnable without artillery, marched the troops back to the ships at Oneroa.

The English lost before Okaihau fourteen soldiers slain and thirty-nine wounded; the enemy's loss was not ascertained, but Kawiti's two sons fell in the conflict. Our allies, wearing a white headband to distinguish them from the foe, were, with a few exceptions, merely spectators of the fight. There was much difficulty, on the return of the force, with the wounded, until the allies, now called by the soldiers "Jack Maori," lessened their sufferings by constructing for their use native litters, admirable conveyances for wounded men over a rough mountainous country and through forests. The troops were not molested during their advance on Okaihau, nor during their retreat from it. This circumstance excited much astonishment in the breasts of the soldiers, which feeling rose into respect when they heard the graves of their fallen comrades at Okaihau were deepened by their foes, that Christian priests were brought to read the burial service over them, and that the clothes of the slain were burned and not used.

During the absence of the land expedition from the shipping, Captain Sir Everard Home, the naval commander, destroyed some of the enemy's villages, broke a few old canoes, and recovered several stolen boats. 14

After the affair of Okaihau, 200 men of the 58th Regiment, under Major Bridge, sailed up the Waikari river, to attack a fortification there, but the enemy fled on their approach.

Colonel Hulme, the wounded, and a few troops, re-

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turned to Auckland; the remainder of the force occupied Kororareka. At Auckland the inhabitants were in daily expectation of hearing that the enemy's stronghold was demolished, and their amazement cannot be described when they saw the haggard looks and worn-out accoutrements of the soldiers, the wounded carried on shore, and the despatch stating that fourteen brave men were left dead before Heke's untaken pa. As this was the second time the troops had returned to Auckland after defeat, a feeling of subdued resignation visible on the faces of all the citizens spread among the people.

Men wise after the event blamed Colonel Hulme for attacking Okaihau without means. Captain Bennett, of the Royal Engineers, had reported to the Government in 1843 that native fortifications could not be taken without guns. 15 This, however, was a theoretical opinion which Colonel Hulme probably never saw, for there was then nothing practically known regarding the strength of pas. It must also be borne in mind that the settlers and the Governor were urging the commanding officer to put Heke down, and that it was universally believed that the enemy would fly before trained soldiers properly led. Okaihau is therefore an instance of defeat arising from contempt of the enemy. The bravery of the troops, and the spirit with which they bore up against wet and hunger, were highly commended by General O'Connell, commanding the forces in Australia. But deeds done in the remote corner of an island at the antipodes, before an unknown fort, and with no "Times correspondent" in the camp, are unhonoured in

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England because they are unknown, and the distant soldier has no reward save the consciousness of having done his duty.

From the conflict of Okaihau the New Zealanders learned that they were no match against disciplined troops in the open field, and strengthened their pas, which, with much wit, they denominated their best allies.

Heke, in the hour of victory, wrote two letters to the Governor about peace, which were full of war and insult. In one letter he said: "If you make peace, do not bear malice against your enemy. Caasar, Pontius Pilate, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Nicodemus, Agrippa, and Herod were kings and governors; did they confer any benefit, or did they not kill Jesus Christ?" 16 So boastful were the enemy after Okaihau that they attacked our native allies, and Heke received a bullet in his thigh which prevented him taking an active part in the next campaign.

Meanwhile the Governor, although lamenting that the enemy had discovered their strength, was fully roused to the critical position of the colony. More troops having arrived from Sydney, orders were issued for another expedition against Heke, who now occupied a stronghold at Oheawai, a place nineteen miles inland from the Bay of Islands, and seven from the mission station of Waimate. Colonel Despard, 99th Regiment, an old soldier, who had seen service early in the century in the East Indies, having arrived in New Zealand, assumed the command of the troops.

On the 16th of June 1845, the expedition landed at

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Oneroa, and marched to the Keri Keri mission station; the path from which to Waimate, although only twelve miles, was accomplished with difficulty, from the guns being without tumbrels or limbers, and having ship-carriages with wheels fifteen inches high. From the want of conveyance much ammunition was left behind, and it was the 22nd of June before the whole force paraded at Waimate. The expedition was composed of some of England's best soldiers, and notwithstanding the reverses already sustained, the men were animated with that spirit which renders success almost certain. It numbered 630 men and 4 guns; our allies were reckoned at 250 men. Among the European portion of the force there was the 58th Regiment, numbering 270 men, under Major Bridge; 180 men detached from the 99th Regiment; 70 men of the 96th Regiment, 30 men of her Majesty's ship Hazard, and 80 volunteers from among the Auckland settlers. Several chiefs tendered their services to Colonel Despard, and among them were Ruhe, the father of the executed murderer Maketu, and the released prisoner Pomare.

Early on the 23rd of June the troops commenced their advance from Waimate. As the path was a bad one for guns, it was nearly dark before the whole force reached Oheawai. Few men slept that night in either camp; the enemy sat up praying, eating, and talking; the English lay on the ground watching for daylight to see what sort of work was before them, and from the colonel to the youngest drummer-boy all pronounced the fortification to be twice as strong as Okaihau.

Oheawai stood on a clear level space in the forest 500 yards square; on each side of the pa was a

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ravine with woody hills, and the surrounding country was thickly covered with trees. The pa was 90 yards by 50, with a square flank projecting on each side; it was surrounded with three rows of palisades, the two outer being close together, and 6 feet from the inner fence; the inner palisade, the strongest of the three, was constructed of trunks of trees 15 feet high, and from 9 to 20 inches in diameter. Between the inner and middle fences there was a ditch 5 feet deep, with traverses, from which the defenders fired through loopholes on a level with the ground, and this ditch communicated with passages under the palisades. Inside the pa there were huts having underground excavations. The enemy within the fortification were estimated at 250 men, armed with double and single-barrelled guns, with plenty of ammunition. Flax was hung over the outer fence to conceal the strength of the inner palisade.

On the 24th of June the six guns and twelve-pounder carronades were fired against the pa at ranges from two hundred and fifty to eighty yards without effect; and had not Commander Johnston, of her Majesty's ship Hazard, brought up a thirty-two pounder, the force would have been obliged to act as it had done at Okaihau. This thirty-two pounder was placed in battery a hundred yards from the pa, half way up a hill, and fired obliquely on the palisades. One day the enemy made a sortie from the pa and attacked Walker Nene's position; and so sudden and unexpected was this sally that a British flag was taken and Colonel Despard and some senior officers only escaped by a ridiculous and undignified flight. This token of success was hoisted inside the fortification under Heke's flac.

After twenty-six shots had been fired from the thirty-

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two-pounder, Colonel Despard thought the palisades sufficiently broken in two places for an assault, but Captain Marlow, the senior engineer officer, did not consider either breach practicable. In defiance of this professional opinion Colonel Despard ordered a storming party of 160 soldiers under Majors Macpherson and Bridge, and 40 seamen and volunteers under Lieutenant Philpott, R.N., with hatchets, ropes, and ladders, to be ready at 3 p.m. on the 1st of July. All the troops told off for this awful service paraded at the hour named, save one man of the 99th Regiment, who was taken prisoner in the morning. When the advance was sounded, the stormers rushed on the breach at eighty yards, and for ten minutes tried to enter the pa by pulling down the palisades; but the inner fence being unbroken, and two officers and half the men having gone down, the party fell back baffled from an impregnable stockade. The whole force then withdrew to a position four hundred yards from the pa.

Never did British troops pass a more dreadful night than the troops before Oheawai after this unsuccessful assault. Huddled together in constant expectation of an attack, they could not shut their ears to the groans of the dying, the moans of the wounded, and the shrieks of the captured soldier of the 99th Regiment, who was tortured every half hour inside the pa with burning kauri gum and red-hot irons. Unfortunately the night was still, not a leaf stirred in the forest, and his screams of "0 my Grod!" with the yells and roars of the war-dance, drove the soldiers frantic. None slept in the British camp that horrible night, and those around the camp-fires begged to be led to the rescue and revenge of their tortured comrade. There was a general feeling

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that a retreat would be ordered, but Colonel Despard kept his ground, and both armies eyed each other for several days without firing a shot. Archdeacon Henry Williams approached the pa to bury the dead, and was warned off. On the 3rd of July the enemy hoisted a flag of truce, and called the English to come for their dead. When the slain and wounded were counted, the former amounted to thirty-four, the latter to sixty-six. Among the killed were Captain William Grrantof the 58th Regiment and Lieutenant Philpott, R.N. The body of the former officer could not be found, and the scalp of the latter was cut away. Lieutenant Beattie of the 99th Regiment, and several other soldiers, afterwards died of their wounds. The enemy's loss was not ascertained, it being a point of honour among the New Zealanders to carry off and conceal their dead.

On the 9th of July some more shot having arrived for the thirty-two pounder, a few were thrown into the pa; on the 11th a Pakeha Maori informed Colonel Despard that the enemy had left Oheawai during the previous night, and were now at Ikorangi, a position ten miles from Oheawai. They had concealed their retreat by tying up their howling dogs within the pa. Large stores of potatoes were found inside, and also two ship's guns, which had been fired several times loaded with iron nails and grape shot. The palisades were destroyed by the English. Careful search was made for Captain Grant's body, during which one of the enemy's dead was found with a well-read copy of the Gospel of Saint Matthew in his breast, and near it, under a slight layer of earth, lay Captain Grant's body, with part of the hip cut away. They were evidently ashamed of what they had done to the corpse, for the trowsers were drawn over the

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denuded bones. The slain officers were, however, the only persons mutilated; and their bodies were chosen for the purpose as chiefs in the host. Such mutilations were perpetrated to propitiate the god of war, not for cannibal purposes. 17 In the churchyard at the beautiful mission station of Waimate are three wooden tombs, now covered with luxuriant vegetation, commemorating the names of the officers who fell at Oheawai; and in the old church at Paramatta, Australia, there is a tablet to Captain Grant of the 58th Regiment, raised by his brother officers to commemorate the loss of "a good soldier and a warm friend:" but the non-commissioned soldiers and sailors who fell all sleep together without a memorial in the wild forest before Oheawai.

On the 14th of July the troops returned to Waimate, and 200 men were detached to attack Aratoa's pa, but that wily chief fled on their approach.

Both parties claimed Oheawai as a victory, and both were right according to their different customs in war: the English obtained possession of the pa and lost most men; New Zealanders estimate victory by the numbers slain and captured --to them the loss of a fighting pa is no disgrace. Colonel Despard was justly blamed by soldiers and civilians for sacrificing men's lives in attacking a half-breached pa; and it was whispered in the military clubs in London that the Duke of Wellington, on reading the despatch, stated that distance alone prevented him bringing Colonel Despard to a court-martial. Our allies said the English leader was "an old fool;" and the enemy, imagining the storming party free agents, said they were drunk. It was asserted

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that if all the thirty-two pound shots had been fired at one part of the palisade, a practical breach might have been made, but some were thrown away in attempting to dislodge the foe. The enemy pretended to have had a revelation from their gods, taunting the English with defeat and irreligion at Oheawai, which they sung at their new position of Ikorangi during the war-dance.

At this critical juncture in the war, Mr. George Clarke, the chief protector of the aborigines, urged Governor Fitzroy to sheathe the sword and give the enemy time to sue for peace; Colonel Despard was therefore prohibited from further operations, and the troops were moved down to Kororareka, where they commenced forming a strong military post. The colonists opposed this armistice, and urged the Governor to conduct the war so as to make the enemy dread the English; and they stated that the British troops had now suffered in the eyes of the natives three signal defeats, that Heke was not subdued, that the settlers and the customs revenue were decreasing, that there was nothing but paper money in circulation, and that the expenditure greatly exceeded the revenue. Captain Fitzroy, irritated at these observations, accused the press

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of publishing what was false, and of injuring the cause of peace. 18

Meanwhile, the English public despaired of the colony, and in June 1845 the House of Commons was occupied for four days in discussing the state of New Zealand. The question was brought before parliament by Mr. Charles Buller, who moved that her Majesty's Government had inflicted on the New Zealand Company severe injury by violating their agreement. Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Mr. Shiel, Sir James Graham, Mr. Cardwell, and many other influential statesmen addressed the House; and on a division there was a majority of 51 against Mr. Buller's motion in a house of 395 members. The ignorance displayed by every speaker concerning the true state of New Zealand was great, though all agreed that only self-government could extricate the colony from its difficulties. 19 A petition from the Cook's Strait settlers attracted much attention at this time in England. It was drawn up by Mr. Domett, and detailed in eloquent language the miserable condition of the colonists and Captain Fitzroy's incompetency for his office. The directors of the New Zealand Company, ever fertile in expedients, proposed at this critical juncture to settle the country by establishing a proprietary government on the model of such governments in the early days of the North American colonies, but Lord Stanley said the difficulties of accomplishing this arrangement were insuperable. 20

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During the debate in the House of Commons, news arrived of the disturbances at the Bay of Islands; and when the destruction of Kororareka and the defeat of the troops became known, there was a feeling of anxiety lest the natives should forget ancient feuds and make common cause against the settlers. Troops, ammunition, ships of war, and money were immediately despatched; and the secretary of state, doubting Captain Fitzroy's fitness for his high office, directed Captain George Grey, the Governor of South Australia, to assume the reins.

Four months after the conflict of Oheawai, Heke and Kawiti had not been brought to terms: the former warrior, being fond of epistolary correspondence, employed himself in writing letters to the Governor; the latter was occupied in building pas. Heke's personal hatred to Europeans, Kawiti's ancient feuds with our allies, and Governor Fitzroy's stipulations, kept them hostile. To both chiefs death was preferable to relinquishing the lands of their fathers,--one of the governor's terms of pardon. They were still in high spirits, and all over the country they obtained much sympathy. Te Heu Heu, the great Taupo chief, told Mr. M'Lean he considered Heke in the right, and that the English were an insatiable people, desirous of conquering all nations. 21 The inhabitants of remote villages in the interior often sat up until daylight, in expectation of messages from the seat of war, and none of the conflicts lost anything in splendour from the distance the news was carried. Heke rose high in the estimation of his race: he was the first warrior who had fought against England's

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trained soldiery; he stood forth as the deliverer of his country, and his personal appearance and his connexions were not unworthy of his position.

Captain Fitzroy was about to renew the war when news arrived of his successor's appointment. The advent of so many ships of war and troops at Auckland in October 1845 terrified the natives in the neighbourhood, and they commenced strengthening their fortifications for the coming struggle, and preparing for the policy of Governor Grey, already represented by rumour as a man who would soon teach them to know their proper place.

Captain Fitzroy left behind him a curious character. In all colonies ruled by the Colonial Office there are two parties whose point of attack and defence is the Governor, and from one party his Excellency invariably receives abuse and from the other adulation. New Zealand was in this condition on Governor Fitzroy's recall: the advent of Captain Grey was therefore hailed by one set as a happy deliverance from a foolish sailor, by the other party Captain Fitzroy's departure was considered as the sacrifice of an able man to unavoidable misfortunes.

It was announced in Parliament that Captain Fitzroy was superseded for not reporting his proceedings, disobedience of orders, want of judgment and firmness, and hasty legislation. The task of ruling New Zealand when Captain Fitzroy arrived was beset with difficulties, not the least of which were the discontent among the natives, the want of money and troops, and the opposition of the directors of the New Zealand Company. To all men Captain Fitzroy seemed singularly fitted for the office; and this opinion would have continued had he not been unfortunately called to fill it.

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Out of evil often comes good -- Captain Fitzroy's bankrupt finances brought large grants of money, and the destruction of Kororareka large bodies of troops. It is not, therefore, singular that Captain Fitzroy has been described "as the man who lost Kororareka, but saved New Zealand." 22

A bad policy with perseverance will occasionally produce good fruits, but Governor Fitzroy gave none of his schemes time to ripen. His policy may be described as the policy of vacillation; a policy where failure is certain, success impossible.