This memorial stands in front of Te Kotahitanga Hall – also known as Unity Hall – on Ngatirangi Street (SH2) in Nūhaka, a small settlement on the east coast of the North Island. Nūhaka is north-east of the Māhia Peninsula on State Highway 2, about 30 km east of Wairoa and 70 km south of Gisborne.

The memorial was erected by the New Zealand government to acknowledge the allegiance of Ihaka Whaanga (died 1875) to the Crown.

Whaanga was a leader of the Ngāti Rākaipaaka hapu of Ngāti Kahungunu, based at Māhia and Nūhaka. He strongly opposed Pai Mārire – Hauhau – activity in Hawke’s Bay in the mid-1860s and actively supported the government against Te Kooti Rikirangi of Rongowhakaata between 1868 and 1872.

Ihaka Whaanga led contingents of Ngāti Kahungunu in a number of military campaigns. After helping to drive Wairoa Hauhau from Omaru-hakeke pā (Marumaru) in the Wairoa valley on Christmas Day 1865, he and Kopu Parapara pushed on towards Waikaremoana. Ambushed and under heavy fire, the ‘fearless’ Whaanga was wounded twice while rallying his people at Te Kopane on 13 January 1866.

Nine months later, Whaanga was among Ngāti Kahungunu leaders who joined Colonel George Whitmore’s militia in driving Hauhau forces out of Ōmarunui pā near Napier. On the morning of 12 October 1866 he distinguished himself in action.

Whaanga was one of the leaders of the Hawke’s Bay contingent that went to Poverty Bay after Te Kooti’s attack in November 1868. The ‘staunch old chief’ led his people in pursuit of Te Kooti, first to Makaretu and then to Ngatapa, where he joined Rāpata Wahawaha’s Ngāti Porou in the first attack on the pā on 5 December 1868.

In April 1869, Whaanga led the Wairoa force that reinforced the defenders of Hiruhārama (Jerusalem) pā, near the mouth of the Mōhaka River, when it was besieged by Te Kooti. He was one of the leaders of the kūpapa (Māori fighting alongside the government) who were presented with swords of honour in 1872 in acknowledgement of their services.

Ihaka Whaanga died at Māhia on 14 December 1875 and was buried on a hill at the southern tip of the peninsula. This memorial appears to have been erected at the initiative of the land purchase officer, magistrate and politician Samuel Locke. The historian Thomas Lambert believed that it originally stood at Māhia on the spot where Whaanga’s father Te Rataau had been killed in the early 19th century. On 4 August 1915 the Poverty Bay Herald reported that Native Land Court Judge Robert Jones had that day unveiled a memorial stone ‘re-erected at Nuhaka’ to the late chief.

The Herald also reported that a resolution was passed at Nūhaka ‘to do honor to the memory of the dead chief, here, beside his tomb’. However, no other evidence that Whaanga was reinterred at Nūhaka has as yet been discovered.

Additional images

Inscription

He tohu aroha / mo / Ihaka Whanga / He rangatira no / Ngatikahungunu / He hoa piri tonu ki te / Pakeha He Kai hapai / I te Ture / I mate ki Te Mahia / Tihema 14, 1875 / Na te Kawanatanga tenei tohu / I Whakatu.

In Memory / of / Ihaka Whanga. / A Chief of the / Ngatikahungunu Tribe. / A firm friend of / Europeans / and supporter of the / Queen’s Laws / Died at Mahia / Hawkes Bay. / 14th December 1875. / This Monument is Erected / by the Government.

See also: image of the memorial from the 1880s (Timeframes). At this time the monument was topped by a classical figure that has since been removed.

Further information

• ‘Resolution of the Maoris’, Poverty Bay Herald, 4 August 1915
• Angela Ballara, ‘Whaanga, Ihaka - Biography’, in Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010
• James Cowan, ‘The First Wairoa Campaign’, ‘The Fight at Omarunui’, ‘First Engagements with Te Kooti’, ‘The Siege of Ngatapa’, and 'Te Kooti’s Attack on Mohaka’, in The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period: volume II: The Hauhau Wars, 1864–72, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1956, pp. 129–35, 137–42, 235–43, 270–6, 327–35
• Thomas Lambert, The story of old Wairoa and the East Coast district, North Island New Zealand, Coulls, Somerville, Wilkie, Dunedin, 1925 (reprinted with index by Reed, Auckland, 1998), esp. pp. 348–9, 562, and photo facing p. 697

The Māori settlement (kāinga) of Ōmarunui was on the south bank of the Tūtaekuri River, about 13 km south-west of Napier.  On the morning of 12 October 1866, the kāinga was the scene of a battle in which settlers and local Ngāti Kahungunu fought a Pai Mārire (Hauhau) faction of Ngāti Hineuru.

This memorial stands on the site of Ōmarunui, about 4 km south-west of the Napier suburb of Taradale. It is situated on the edge of a vineyard on Omarunui Road, 2 km from the junction with Korokipo Road (State Highway 50).

The Pāi Marire movement arrived on the east coast of the North Island in 1865. In Hawke’s Bay it found strong support within Ngāti Hineuru, an inland iwi with its principal kāinga at Te Hāroto and Tarawera on the present Napier–Taupō Road (State Highway 5).

In early October 1866, Ngāti Hineuru chief Te Rangihiroa and the Pai Mārire prophet Panapa led 80 men in an ‘advance’ on Napier. The party occupied Ōmarunui. The kāinga’s leader, Pāora Kaiwhata of Ngāti Kahungunu, had taken most of his people to Pā Whakairo, Tareha Te Moananui’s strongly fortified pā 1½ km away.

(A mounted group of 25 Ngāti Hineuru men led by Te Rangihiroa and Pāora Toki subsequently arrived from the interior, reportedly to attack Napier from the north but more likely to reinforce their kinfolk at Ōmarunui. On the morning of the engagement at Ōmarunui this group was ambushed by Hawke’s Bay Military Setters at Pētane.)

Ōmarunui’s new occupants ‘remained quiet and refrained from any act of violence’. However Donald McLean, Superintendent of Hawke’s Bay Province, was anxious to know their intentions. Panapa’s ambiguous response – that peace and war were both good – led McLean to act with force.

Just after midnight on 12 October, 200 European militia marched out of Napier under the command of Colonel George Whitmore. They were joined by 200 Ngāti Kahungunu whose leaders included Kaiwhata, Tareha, and Rēnata Kawepō.

By daybreak Ōmarunui was nearly surrounded. When Panapa rejected an invitation to surrender, Whitmore ordered heavy fire to be concentrated on the kaingā’s meagre defences from three sides.

Panapa was killed during the firing, which lasted more than an hour. Most of the Ngāti Hineuru who attempted to escape through the rear of the pā were captured, wounded or killed. When the remaining defenders raised a white flag, Whitmore ordered a ceasefire.

Two Europeans – one of them Private W. Young – were killed and nine wounded. Two Ngāti Kahungunu were killed and four wounded. It is thought that 23 Ngāti Hineuru dead were buried in the pā, while another 30 or so were wounded.

The Ngāti Hineuru taken prisoner were exiled to the Chatham Islands, from where they escaped with Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki on 4 July 1868. Several of those captured at Ōmarunui, including Nikora, Petera Kahuroa and Te Rangitahau, were among Te Kooti’s most loyal lieutenants during the guerrilla campaign that followed (1868–72).

In March 1916, 30 ‘enthusiastic’ Ōmarunui veterans met in Napier’s Athenaeum building to discuss ‘means and ways’ of commemorating the engagement. After some discussion the meeting agreed to hold an anniversary picnic at Ōmarunui and erect a memorial on land already donated by W. Kinross White. (Similar arrangements were made to commemorate the Pētane ambush.) A committee was formed to meet descendants of the chiefs of ‘friendly natives’ to discuss the arrangements.

The octogenarian J.D. Ormond, who had been the local member of Parliament at the time of the battle, unveiled this memorial at Ōmarunui on its 50th anniversary, 12 October 1916. The ceremony, which took place in pouring rain, was attended by New Zealand Wars veterans from around the country. Only the base of the original monument remains; the structure was deliberately damaged in the early 1990s.

Further information

• ‘Fight at Omaranui – Twenty Three Hau-Haus Killed’, Colonist, 19 October 1866
• ‘Further Particulars’, Colonist, 19 October 1866
• ‘Another Engagement – Twelve Rebels Killed’, Colonist, 19 October 1866
• ‘Meeting of War Veterans’, Colonist, 24 March 1916
• ‘Interprovincial’, Poverty Bay Herald, 12 October 1916
• John Battersby, The one day war: the battle of Omarunui, 1866, Reed Books, Auckland, 2000
• James Belich, ‘A New Kind of War’, in The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian interpretation of racial conflict, Penguin, Auckland, 1998, pp. 203–34
• James Cowan, ‘Captured at Omarunui’, in New Zealand Railways Magazine, vol. 12, issue 11 (1 February 1938), pp. 25–30
• James Cowan, ‘The Fight at Omarunui’, in The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period: volume II: the Hauhau Wars, 1864–72, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1956, pp. 137–42
• Ken Te Huingarau Gartner, ‘Te Rangitahau - Biography’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010
• Thomas Lambert, The story of old Wairoa and the East Coast district, North Island, New Zealand, Coulls, Somerville, Wilkie, Dunedin, 1925 (reprinted with index by Reed, Auckland, 1998), pp. 600–11
• Chris Maclean and Jock Phillips, The sorrow and the pride: New Zealand war memorials, GP Books, Wellington, 1990, p. 29
• Patrick Parsons, ‘Kaiwhata, Paora - Biography’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010
• Nigel Prickett, ‘The East Coast, 1865–66’, in Landscapes of conflict: a field guide to the New Zealand Wars, Random House, Auckland, 2002, pp. xxx, 125–31

This memorial is located beside the Napier–Taupo Road (State Highway 5) about 15 km north-west of Napier. Standing between the road and the railway line next to Shaw Road, it commemorates the Pētane ambush of 12 October 1866.

The Pai Mārire movement arrived on the east coast of the North Island in 1865. In Hawke’s Bay it found strong support within Ngāti Hineuru, an inland iwi with its principal settlements (kaingā) at Te Hāroto and Tarawera on the present Napier–Taupo Road (State Highway 5).

In early October 1866, Ngāti Hineuru chief Te Rangihiroa and the Pai Mārire prophet Panapa led 80 men in an ‘advance’ on Napier. This party occupied Ōmarunui.

(Ōmarunui was on the south bank of the Tūtaekuri River, about 10km south-west of Napier. On the morning of 12 October – the same morning as the ambush at Pētane – the poorly fortified kaingā was surrounded and fired upon by a combined force of European militia and Ngāti Kahungunu.)

A party of 25 Ngāti Hineuru men on horseback led by Te Rangihiroa and Pāora Toki subsequently made for Pētane, probably with the intention of reinforcing their kinfolk at Ōmarunui. On the morning of 12 October, they were seen advancing down the Esk (Waiohinganga) Valley.

Concerned about the possibility of an attack on Napier from the north, Colonel George Whitmore had despatched Major James Fraser and 40 Wairoa-based Hawke’s Bay Military Setters to Pētane at 2 a.m. They were reinforced by Captain Oswald Carr and some armed settlers.

In mid-morning movement was spotted 800 m up the valley. An ambush was hastily prepared around a clearing just below a small gorge. The Ngāti Hineuru party was taken by surprise, and in the firing that followed an initial call for surrender, 12 – including Te Rangihiroa – were killed and one wounded. The only European casualty was Sergeant James Fletcher, who was shot in the knee.

Three Ngāti Hineuru were taken prisoner at Pētane and later exiled to the Chatham Islands alongside prisoners taken at Ōmarunui. From there they escaped with Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki on 4 July 1868. Several Ngāti Hineuru, including Nikora, Petera Kahuroa and Te Rangitahau – were among Te Kooti’s most loyal lieutenants.

Among the Ngāti Hineuru who escaped from Pētane were Toki and Ānaru Mātete. Mātete joined Te Kooti in 1868 and fought with him during the guerrilla campaign that followed (1868–72).

In March 1916, 30 ‘enthusiastic’ Ōmarunui veterans met in Napier’s Athenaeum building to discuss ‘means and ways’ of commemorating the engagement. After some discussion, the meeting agreed to hold an anniversary picnic at Ōmarunui and erect a memorial there on land that already been donated by W. Kinross White. ‘A similar arrangement’ would commemorate the Pētane ambush; T. Clark was to be asked to donate land for a memorial there. A committee was formed to meet descendants of the chiefs of the ‘friendly natives’ to discuss the arrangements.

The Pētane memorial was funded partly with money left over from the Ōmarunui one. It was unveiled ‘before a large gathering of veterans and other interested people’ in April 1917, possibly on Anzac Day. Like its counterpart it was deliberately damaged in the early 1990s and is now a mere remnant of the original, which apparently bore the inscription:

To commemorate the fighting at Petane, October 12, 1866, between military settlers and volunteer settlers of this district against the Hauhaus; erected October, 1916.

Additional images

Further information

• ‘Fight at Omaranui – Twenty Three Hau-Haus Killed’, Colonist, 19 October 1866
• ‘Further Particulars’, Colonist, 19 October 1866
• ‘Another Engagement – Twelve Rebels Killed’, Colonist, 19 October 1866
• ‘Meeting of War Veterans’, Colonist, 24 March 1916
• ‘News of the Day’, Colonist, 27 April 1917
• John Battersby, The one day war: the battle of Omarunui, 1866, Reed Books, Auckland, 2000
• James Cowan, ‘The Fight at Omarunui’, in The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period: Volume II: the Hauhau Wars, 1864–72, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1956, pp. 137–42
• Thomas Lambert, The story of old Wairoa and the East Coast district, North Island New Zealand, Coulls, Somerville, Wilkie, Dunedin, 1925 (reprinted with index by Reed, Auckland, 1998), pp. 600–3
• Chris Maclean and Jock Phillips, The sorrow and the pride: New Zealand war memorials, GP Books, Wellington, 1990, p. 29
• Nigel Prickett, ‘The East Coast, 1865–66’, in Landscapes of conflict: a field guide to the New Zealand Wars, Random House, Auckland, 2002, pp. 125–31

Nine steamers plied the Waikato and Waipā rivers between 1863 and 1870 to supply the British and colonial military forces stationed in the area. This river fleet was a key means of implementing British strategy during the Waikato War (1863–4). General Duncan Cameron’s plans required complete British control of these waterways.

Three paddle-steamers – Avon, Pioneer and Koheroa– served during the Waikato War, along with four armoured barges and several smaller barges. The fleet enabled the rapid movement of forces and supplies into the Waikato heartland; they also allowed the British to scout, shell and outflank Māori positions.

Cameron began assembling an armoured fleet before the invasion of Waikato on 12 July 1863. The paddle-steamer Avon was purchased in Lyttelton and fitted out for war at Onehunga in 1862. It was armed with a 12-pounder ship’s gun and a Congreve rocket tube, and iron-plated for protection from enemy fire. In addition, four armoured barges were prepared as troop carriers.

Pioneer was the first naval vessel built for the New Zealand government. The shallow-draught paddle-steamer was constructed at Pyrmont, Sydney, by the Australian Steam Navigation Company at a cost of £9500 (equivalent to $1 million in 2011). Pioneer was launched on 16 July 1863, left Sydney under tow on 22 September and arrived at Onehunga on 3 October.

The vessel was a flat-bottomed, stern-wheeled paddle-steamer, 43 m long with a 6 m beam. Twin 30 hp engines and a 3.7 m (12 ft) stern wheel enabled a top speed of 9 knots (17 kph). The vessel was fitted with two iron turrets measuring 2.4 m high and 3.6 m in diameter. Positioned fore and aft, these protected 12-pounder Armstrong guns and provided loopholes for troops firing rifles and small arms.

Pioneer’s engine room and other important components were well armoured. On the Waikato River near Meremere, the vessel came under fire from an old ship’s gun acquired by the King Movement. While one round penetrated plating and spoiled a barrel of beef, Pioneer was largely undamaged by the improvised projectiles.

The ship was purpose-built for use on the Waikato River. Although constructed from 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) iron and weighing 304 tons, its draught was only 0.9 m when carrying hundreds of men. This enabled Pioneer to operate as far inland as Te Rore, on the Waipā River near Te Awamutu.

Pioneer was manned by officers and men from Royal Navy ships, including HMS Curaçoa. Its service was comparatively brief. Pioneer was wrecked on the Manukau Bar in 1866 after breaking its moorings at Port Waikato.

This turret from Pioneer stands in the Waikato town of Ngāruawāhia near the confluence of the Waipa and Waikato rivers. It was presented to the town by the government in 1927 and is now located on The Point, close to the band rotunda and the First World War memorial.

Ngāruawāhia, the home of the Māori King, was occupied by the British in early December 1863, soon after their hard-won victory at Rangiriri. For the next few months The Point was a staging depot for the campaign to conquer the fertile land between the Horotiu (upper Waikato) and Waipā rivers. No trace remains of a redoubt built nearby on the site of earthworks that had been hastily thrown up by the Kingites.

The second Pioneer turret is located in the small town of Mercer, some 50 km north of Ngāruawāhia via State Highway One. Despite being used as Mercer’s police lock-up and later incorporated in the local First World War memorial, it retains more original features than its twin.

Apart from Pioneer’s gun turrets, the major surviving relic of the Waikato River fleet is the iron hulk of HMS Rangiriri, a sister vessel to the Koheroa. This arrived from Sydney too late to see active service but landed the first military settlers at Kirikiriroa (Hamilton) on 24 August 1864. It ran aground on the east bank of the Waikato River in 1889 and served for many years as a retaining wall and diving platform. In 1982 Rangiriri was excavated and moved to its current site opposite Waikato Museum. In 2009 the hulk was lifted, treated and moved to a purpose-built shelter above flood level.

Transcript of information panel

The Pioneer gunboat was built in Sydney / for military operations in the Waikato and / was part of the river fleet used in the British / invasion in 1863–4. It played a crucial role / in transporting hundreds of troops up the / rivers, and was capable of carrying 500 / troops at a time. After the war it was used / for transporting supplies and European / settlers. / It was an iron flat-bottomed stern-wheel / paddle steamer of nearly 3000 tonnes, with a length of 43 metres and a beam of 7 metres, drawing only 1 metre of water when / fully loaded. It was built of 9 millimetre / bullet-proof iron and fitted with four watertight compartments. / Its two gun turrets were pierced for 12 / pounder Armstrong guns and rifles. One / stands here, as a reminder of the war, which / led to the confiscation of Waikato lands. / The other turret is at Mercer.

Further information

• James Cowan, ‘Gunboats and Maori Cannoneers: The Romance of The Rail: A Descriptive and Historical Story of the North Island Main Trunk Railway’, in The New Zealand Railways Magazine, vol. 3, no. 2 (1 June 1928), p. 34
• James Cowan, ‘The River War Fleet’, in The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period: Volume I: 1845–1864, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1955, pp. 308–15
• Andy Dodd, ‘PS Rangiriri: the last remant of “New Zealand’s first navy”’, Forts and Works, no. 25, June 2009, pp. 1–7
• Grant Howard, The navy in New Zealand, Reed, Wellington, 1981, pp. 11–12
• Neville Ritchie, ‘The Waikato War of 1863–64: a guide to the main events and sites’, Te Awamutu and District Museum, 2001
• J. O’C. Ross, The White Ensign in New Zealand, Reed, Wellington, 1967, pp. 87–8
• T.D. Taylor, New Zealand’s naval story, Reed, Wellington, 1948, pp. 108–9

This memorial stands in the Te Puni Street urupā – burial ground – in Petone, a seaside suburb of Lower Hutt City whose correct Māori name (Pito-one) means ‘end of the sand beach’. It commemorates the prominent Te Ātiawa leader Honiana Te Puni’s ‘unbroken friendship’ with Pākehā.

Te Puni belonged to the Ngāti Te Whiti and Ngāti Tawhirikura hapū of Te Ātiawa. He and his younger cousin Te Wharepōuri were among the first to welcome the New Zealand Company ship Tory when it arrived in what would become Port Nicholson (Wellington Harbour) on 20 September 1839.

The first New Zealand Company settler ship, Aurora, arrived at Petone on 22 January 1840. This marked the founding of the settlement that would become Wellington.

Te Puni became a firm friend of the new arrivals. His people built houses for the settlers and supplied food in exchange for European clothing and other goods. Later, he provided military advice and assistance.

Not all Māori were happy with the influx of Europeans to the Wellington region. By 1845 tensions were mounting as Ngāti Toa chief Te Rangihaeata supported local hapu such as Ngāti Rangatahi which opposed European settlement in the Hutt Valley.

On 16 May 1846, Tōpine Te Mamaku of Ngāti Hāua-te-rangi – Ngāti Rangatahi’s Whanganui allies – led a raid on the British military stockade at Boulcott’s Farm, 5 km up the Hutt River from Petone. Six British soldiers were killed and another soldier and a farm worker were mortally wounded.

Two weeks earlier, Te Puni had warned of an impending attack. His offer to assist Major Mathew Richmond if he was supplied with arms and ammunition had been rejected.

After Boulcott’s Farm, however, Te Puni was issued with 100 muskets. He built a stockade between Fort Richmond (Lower Hutt) and Boulcott’s Farm, and strengthened his own pā at Petone.

Skirmishes took place between Te Puni’s men and Ngāti Hāua-te-rangi on 2 June. Although Te Puni did not wish to initiate an attack, he was prepared to assist the Europeans. Te Puni’s son later crossed the Hutt River, occupied a position that had been held by Ngāti Rangatahi, and forced them to retreat without battle.

In July Te Puni’s forces escorted militia and armed police across the western Hutt hills to Pāuatahanui. This action helped to prevent further occupation of the Hutt by Te Rangihaeata and his allies.

Te Puni died on 5 December 1870 and was buried in the family cemetery, the urupā at Petone, on the 9th. The funeral was ‘as great a one as the city [Wellington] could give’. Government offices, banks and commercial houses were closed for the day, and ‘everybody of any consequence, who could possibly make the trip, went out to Petone by sea or road’.

Pallbearers included Native Minister Donald McLean and William Fitzherbert, the local Member of the House of Representatives. The Bishop of Wellington, Octavius Hadfield, read the funeral service and three volleys were fired over Te Puni’s grave by members of the Hutt Volunteers.

This memorial was erected in 1872. The Ōamaru stone was carved by a Mr Membray from a design by Colonial Architect William Clayton.

In December 1907, Te Puni’s monument was described as the ‘saddest feature’ of the ‘forlorn’ urupā at Petone. Within the burial ground, many graves had no markers and long grass covered the area. The memorial itself leant sadly awry, its base tilted. Some rings had been broken from the stone at the top, the entire structure was covered in moss, and the fence railings were rusted.

It is unclear what action was taken, when, and by whom. However, a photograph taken by an Evening Post staffer on 23 January 1940 shows Te Puni’s memorial in better times. A large group surrounds the gravesite shortly after Deputy Prime Minister Walter Nash laid a wreath in memory of the chief to mark Wellington’s centennial.

The urupā in which Te Puni’s memorial stands remains in use, although it is now within an industrial area.

Additional images

See also these 1940 and undated images of the memorial from the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Inscription

Front face
To the memory of / Honiana Te Puni / A Chief of Ngatiawa / who died on the / 5th of December 1870

Side face
This / monument is erected by the / New Zealand government / in consideration of the / unbroken friendship / between him and the Pakeha

Rear face
Ko te Tohu Tenei o / Honiana Te Puni / Rangatira o Ngatiawa / I Mate I Te / 5th Tihema 1870

Side face
Na Te Kawanatanga Oniu / Tireni Tenei Kowhatu I / Whakatu Hei Tohu Mo Te / Piri Pono O Taua Kaumatua / Ki Te Pakeha

Further information

• ‘Local and General News’, Wellington Independent, 2 February 1872
• ‘Te Puni. A Petone Chief’, Evening Post, 5 December 1907
• Angela Ballara, ‘Te Puni-kokopu, Honiana’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010
• James Cowan, ‘Wellington Settlement and Hutt War’ and ‘The Fight at Boulcott’s Farm’, in The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period: volume I: 1845–1864, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1955, pp. 88–111
• Chris Pugsley, ‘Walking the Wellington Wars: The Hutt War of 1846 and the Fight at Boulcott’s Farm’, New Zealand Defence Quarterly, no. 6 (Spring 1994), pp. 36–41
• Louis E. Ward, ‘Death and Burial of Te Puni, 1870’, in Early Wellington, Whitcombe and Tombs, Auckland, 1928, pp. 172–6

This memorial stands on Taneatua Road, about 5 km south of the eastern Bay of Plenty town of Whakatāne. It commemorates French miller Jean Guerren, who died defending the Te Poronu flour mill on 11 March 1869.

Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki of Rongowhakaata raided Whakatāne and Mōhaka in March and April 1869, seeking new recruits and supplies of guns and ammunition.

On 9 March he led an attack on the Ngāti Pukeko pā of Rauporoa, about 5 km south of Whakatāne. Rauporoa was defended for several days before being abandoned at the cost of four lives. At the same time, less than 1 km to the south-east, Ngāti Pukeko’s flour mill at Te Poronu was attacked by a 100-strong war party led by the Ngāti Tuwharetoa chief Wirihana Koikoi.

Ngāti Pukeko had employed Guerren – also known as ‘John the Frenchman’, ‘John the Oui Oui’ and ‘Hoani Te Wiwi’ – to erect and run Te Poronu flour mill around 1867. The mill stood on a mound above a dam on the Poronu Stream which supplied water to turn the wheel.

Machinery for the mill had been gifted to Ngāti Pukeko by the government as part of an initiative by Governor Sir George Grey. In late 1868, the Armed Constabulary constructed a small redoubt next to the mill as a means of defence. This was not garrisoned in March 1869.

At the time of Koikoi’s raid, Guerren was about 45 years old. Of ‘short and sturdy build’, he was ‘an excellent mechanic’ with a good working knowledge of flour mills.  Guerren’s wife was Erihapeti (Elizabeth) Manuera (‘Peti’), the daughter of Manuera Kuku, a Ngāti Warahoe chief of the upper Rangitāiki Valley. Her sister Monika (‘Nika’) lived with the couple in a house beside the mill.

Only seven or eight people were at Te Poronu when Koikoi’s war party descended on the mill. Along with the Guerren family, they apparently included two Ngāti Pūkeko men – Tautari and Te Mauriki – and two women – Maria Te Ha, wife of Kaperiera, and Pera.

Sources provide conflicting accounts of the engagement and its aftermath. However it is known that Guerren led this small group in ‘a heroic fight against overwhelming odds’. They defended the mill for two days against an enormously superior force before being overrun.

Of the mill’s defenders, it is thought that only Te Mauriki escaped. Guerren appears to have been shot dead during the fighting, while most of the others were probably killed immediately following the mill’s fall. Peti and Nika were captured by Te Rangihiroa from Tarawera; later, apparently on Te Kooti’s orders, he killed Nika and took Peti as his wife.

It is thought that seven men from the war party were killed. They included Koikoi and another chief, Paora Taituha, whose bodies were later found in the mill dam.

After the Rauporoa siege, Te Kooti’s men looted and burned Whakatāne village at the mouth of the river.

This memorial stands about 100 m from the site of the mill. It incorporates one of the grindstones supplied by the government to replace those destroyed by Te Kooti’s men during the attack. (The second millstone lies at the base of the flagpole at Ngāti Awa’s Wairaka Marae – also known as Te Whare o Toroa – at Whakatāne.)

The Whakatane & District Historical Society claims a significant role in the creation of the Jean Guerren memorial. Its unveiling in June 1965 ‘brought to a successful conclusion a dream the Society [had] cherished for ten years’. D.C. Butler, Chairman of the Whakatane County Council, accepted the memorial on behalf of the district before formally handing it over to Society President Ken Moore for safe keeping.

Inscription

Erected to the memory / of a gallant son of France / Jean Guerren / who died March 11th 1869 / heroically defending the Te Poronu Mill / on this site, against the rebel forces / under Peka Makarini, Lieutenant of the / Maori insurgent leader, Te Kooti / Erected by Y Squadron / Legion of Frontiersmen

Further sources

• James Cowan, ‘Te Kooti’s Raid on Whakatane’, in The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period: Volume II: The Hauhau Wars, 1864–72, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1956, pp. 314–25
• James Cowan, ‘The Defence of the Mill: The Story of a Gallant Frenchman’, in Hero Stories of New Zealand, Harry H. Tombs, 1935, pp. 169–73
• Chris Maclean and Jock Phillips, The sorrow and the pride: New Zealand war memorials, GP Books, Wellington, 1990, p. 43
• Whakatane & District Historical Society, ‘Society History’

The New Zealand Wars battle site of Te Ranga is located in a paddock on Pyes Pa Road (SH36) near the corner of Joyce Road, about 10 km south of the centre of the Bay of Plenty city of Tauranga. Here, on 21 June 1864, British forces decisively defeated local Māori.

The heavy British defeat at Pukehinahina (Gate Pā) on 29 April 1864 shocked New Zealand’s European settler community, and its military and political establishment. Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron returned to Auckland, leaving Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Greer in command of a large British garrison on the Te Papa peninsula. Greer was ordered to attack immediately should Māori forces begin constructing another pā in the district.

On the morning of 21 June, Greer left Camp Te Papa (now the Tauranga CBD) with a force of 600 men. Five kilometres inland from Gate Pā, the British force discovered 500 to 600 Maori working on defensive earthworks at Te Ranga. Led by Rāwiri Puhirake, they comprised Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāti Ranginui, supported by Ngāti Porou from the east coast and Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāti Rangiwewehi from Rotorua. Early that afternoon, following the arrival of reinforcements, Greer ordered men from the 68th and 43rd regiments and 1st Waikato Militia to advance.

The battle that followed at has been described as among the bloodiest of the New Zealand campaigns. In desperate hand-to-hand fighting, British troops exacted terrible vengeance for Gate Pā. The Māori garrison was unable to hold the incomplete defences and, when Puhirake himself was killed, those able to do so retreated.

British casualties were nine dead and 39 wounded. More than 100 of the defenders – including Puhirake – were buried in the trenches at Te Ranga.

Twenty-seven severely wounded Māori were taken to hospital at Te Papa camp. Fourteen did not long survive the battle and were buried at Mission Cemetery. Among the mortally wounded was Te Tera of Ngāi Te Rangi, the only one to be identified in official reports.

The one-sided battle at Te Ranga largely crushed resistance in the vicinity of Tauranga Harbour. Some Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāti Ranginui surrendered arms to the British at Camp Te Papa in ceremonies on 21 and 25 July. Much of their land was subsequently confiscated.

This Historic Places Trust marker was erected at Te Ranga in 1964, 100 years after the battle.

Additional image

Transcript

Here on 21 June 1864 after their / heroic stand at Gate Pa in April / Maori forces were overcome in / the decisive battle of Te Ranga

Further information

• ‘Tauranga. The Victory of the Rebels. Further Particulars. (From our own Correspondent.)’, Daily Southern Cross, 29 June 1864
• ‘The Engagement at Tauranga’, Taranaki Herald, 2 July 1864
• James Belich, ‘The Tauranga Campaign’, in The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian interpretation of racial conflict, Penguin, Auckland, 1998, pp. 177–200
• A.C. Bellamy, Tauranga: 1882–1982, Publicity Printing Ltd, Tauranga, 1982
• Ernest E. Bush, ‘These Things We Must Not Forget’, Te Ao Hou, no. 76 (June 1975), pp. 38–40
• James Cowan, ‘Gate Pa and Te Ranga’, in The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period: volume I: 1845–1864, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1955, pp. 421–40
• Gilbert Mair, The Story of Gate Pa, April 29th, 1864, Bay of Plenty Times, Tauranga, 1937
• Nigel Prickett, ‘The Tauranga Campaign, 1864’, in Landscapes of conflict: a field guide to the New Zealand Wars, Random House, Auckland, 2002, pp. 87–95
• Chris Pugsley, ‘Walking the Waikato Wars: The Battle of Te Ranga: 21 June 1864’, New Zealand Defence Quarterly, no. 20 (Autumn 1998), pp. 32–7
• Jinty Rorke, ‘Puhirake, Rawiri - Biography’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010
• Tauranga City Libraries, ‘War Memorials - Tauranga’, accessed 10 June 2011
• War in Tauranga (NZHistory)
  

The Auckland suburb of Ōtāhuhu, 13 km south-east of the central city, straddles the narrow strip of land between the head of Manukau Harbour and the estuary of the Tāmaki River. Ōtāhuhu was established in 1847 as one of a ring of garrison towns protecting Auckland from attack from the south by hostile Māori.

This memorial stands on a triangular reserve at the junction of Mangere and Great South roads. It commemorates Ōtāhuhu settler and Franklin Member of the House of Representatives Colonel Marmaduke George Nixon, who commanded the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry during the Waikato War (1863–4). Nixon died on 27 May 1864 from a wound received at the battle of Rangiaowhia earlier that year.

After war broke out in Taranaki, the government accepted Nixon’s offer to raise a volunteer force. From 1860 his cavalry guarded the communication and supply lines south of Auckland. In June 1863, Nixon became commander of the newly formed Colonial Defence Force Cavalry.

Nixon’s cavalry were among the imperial and colonial forces that reached Te Awamutu at dawn on 21 February 1864. More than 1200 troops had outflanked Māori positions along the great Pāterangi defensive line in a daring night march. Under the command of Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron, they immediately pushed on to Rangiaowhia, 4 km south-west of Te Awamutu.

The large unfortified Māori settlement of Rangiaowhia was a vital agricultural centre supplying food to Kingite warriors. With most of the Māori force still holding the Pāterangi line, the settlement was occupied by some 100 Ngāti Apakura and Ngāti Hinetū men, and many women and children. Although the British attack was unexpected, a small garrison of aged warriors put up a fierce defence.

Nixon’s men galloped ahead of the main attacking British force. When they reached Rangiaowhia, shooting broke out. The cavalrymen dismounted to concentrate their fire on a whare (house) in which the defenders had gathered.

Nixon, leading an assault on the building, was shot at the entrance and received a severe chest wound. Several troops and 10 Māori were killed, most of the latter inside the whare, which caught fire during the fighting. Cameron then withdrew his forces to Te Awamutu.

When Nixon’s chest wound proved fatal three months later, there was widespread mourning. Though the government initially demurred, on 30 October 1865 the New Zealand legislature passed an act granting a pension of £150 per annum (equivalent to $16,000 in 2012) to his surviving sisters, Catherine Elizabeth Nixon and Anna Susanna Nixon.

By the time Nixon was buried in Auckland’s Grafton Cemetery, the erection of a memorial to him was already being suggested, although some felt that money raised by public subscription would be better applied to educational scholarships. Two sites in central Auckland proved unsuitable for the elaborate design chosen, a scale model of Scotland's Wallace Monument. In May 1865 the Nixon Memorial Committee accepted an offer of land at the Triangle, Ōtāhuhu, and decided on a simpler obelisk. In August, the lowest tender for its construction was accepted, a decision that backfired when Ōamaru stone had to be replaced by Hobart stone.

Though the monument was ‘almost completed’ by August 1866, debts resulting from the use of more expensive stone and the failure of some ‘gentlemen’ to fulfil their promises remained ‘a slur on the district’ in April 1868. The committee persuaded the new Governor, George Bowen, to inaugurate the monument on 13 May. The debt was paid off from the proceeds of a concert and ball held that evening in the local hall under His Excellency’s patronage. On Anzac Day 1968, Nixon’s remains were transferred to the base of the memorial and a headstone was erected.

The Nixon memorial was the second of only three memorials to be erected in New Zealand during the New Zealand Wars (1845–72). The others were the Moutoa memorial in Whanganui, and the memorial to the 57th Regiment at Te Hēnui Cemetery in New Plymouth.

In the late 1920s, the reserve was expanded and beautified and a second war memorial was erected on it. Dedicated to Soldiers of The Great War, Ōtāhuhu’s First World War memorial was unveiled by Governor-General Sir Charles Fergusson on 25 April 1928. The new memorial features an impressive bronze figure of a New Zealand Mounted Rifleman which is sometimes mistaken for Nixon. There is scope for confusion, as the Great War memorial includes a plaque dedicated to the New Zealand Wars colonel.

The Nixon memorial also commemorates three Colonial Defence Force corporals who fell at Rangiaowhia: Edward McHale, Horatio Alexander, and Joseph Thomas Little.

Alexander’s name is also recorded on the New Zealand Wars memorial in the cemetery of old St John’s Church, Te Awamutu. However, a similar memorial in Ngāruawāhia Public Cemetery records that ‘Corporal Thomas Hill’ died at Rangiaowhia.

According to the ‘Nominal Return of Officers and Men of the Colonial Forces who have been Killed in Action or who have Died of Wounds prior to the 11th July, 1868’, no man with this surname died at Rangiaowhia. However, Corporal Thomas Little received a ‘severe’ – eventually fatal – gunshot wound to the thigh at ‘Rangiawhia’. It is likely that the surname ‘Hill’ on the Ngāruawāhia memorial resulted from a misreading of ‘Little’.

When the monument was repaired in 1992, the original marble plaques were replaced by black ones. The images below were taken some years earlier.

Additional images

See also 1992 image of the east face plaque here

Inscription

Headstone, beneath north plaque

Sacred / to / the memory of /Colonel M. G. Nixon. / Who died of wounds / received in the service of his / Country / May 27 1864. / originally interred in Symonds street / Cemetery / remains transferred to this site / 25th April 1968 

North plaque

This monument is erected by public subscription / to the memory / of / Marmaduke George Nixon, M.H.R. / Colonel commanding the Colonial Defence Force / and / Royal Cavalry Volunteers, / who fell mortally wounded in action / at Rangiawhia 21. February 1864, / and died at Mangere on the 27 of May 1864.

West plaque

In memory of the men of the / Colonial Defence Force / who fell at Rangiawhia / on the 21 February 1864. / Namely / Corporal Edward McHale / Corporal Horatio Alexander / Corporal Joseph Thomas Little

East plaque

In memory of the brave men / who served their Queen & Country / in the Maori War. / Waikato Campaign 1864.

Further information

• ‘The Nixon Monument Movement. Public Meeting’, Daily Southern Cross, 13 June 1864
• Reports of the Nixon memorial inauguration ceremony,Daily Southern Cross, 14 May 1868
• ‘Further Papers Relative to the Issue of the New Zealand War Medal’, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1871, Session I, G-1A
• Laurie Barber, ‘Nixon, Marmaduke George - Biography’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010
• James Cowan, ‘The Invasion of Rangiaowhia’, in The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period: volume I: 1845–1864, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1955, pp. 351–64
• Chris Maclean and Jock Phillips, The sorrow and the pride: New Zealand war memorials, GP Books, Wellington, 1990, pp. 21–2
• Mending a memorial, 1992 (Auckland Council Libraries)
• The New Zealand Mounted Rifles Association, ‘The Otahuhu Soldiers’ Memorial’
• Nigel Prickett, ‘The Waikato War, 1863–64’, in Landscapes of conflict: a field guide to the New Zealand Wars, Random House, Auckland, 2002, pp. 69–86
• Neville Ritchie, ‘The Waikato War of 1863–64: a guide to the main events and sites’, Department of Conservation, 2001

This memorial to the battle of Moturoa stands a short distance south of the pā site. It was unveiled on 7 November 1993, the 125th anniversary of the battle.

The memorial records the names of 22 colonial troops and one allied Māori who were killed during the attack on 7 November 1868, or died later of their wounds. A similar number were wounded in the battle. Only one of their opponents, who were led by the renowned Ngāti Ruanui leader Riwha Tītokowaru, is known to have been killed. Though Inspector John Roberts, Henare Kepa Te Ahururu and Major Keepa Te Rangihiwinui were awarded the rare New Zealand Cross for their bravery at Moturoa, there was no hiding the fact that this was a disastrous defeat for a colonial army that was struggling to meet the twin threat from Tītokowaru and Te Kooti on opposite sides of the North Island.  Read more about this battle.

The memorial to Taitoko Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (Major Kemp) stands in Moutoa Gardens (Pākaitore), Whanganui. Nearby are the Moutoa monument and the Whanganui Māori war memorial.

Te Keepa was a rangatira of the Whanganui iwi Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi and of Muaūpoko from the Horowhenua district. By the early 1860s he was regarded as one of the leading pro-government Māori in Whanganui, and he took part in the fighting at Moutoa Island on the Whanganui River in 1864. From 1865 he was a leader of Māori troops who fought first against Pai Mārire followers, and then against forces led by Tītokowaru and Te Kooti.

After the wars Te Keepa continued to work for the government, but his focus increasingly turned to defending his own people’s interests in Whanganui and Horowhenua. In 1880 he had four poles set up to mark out a large area in the Whanganui district which was declared off limits to land purchasers. In the 1890s he was involved with the Kotahitanga movement, which advocated greater Māori autonomy and the retention of Māori land. He died in April 1898.

The idea of a memorial to Te Keepa was first proposed at a meeting of Whanganui Māori with government representatives in May 1898, but did not proceed until it was taken up in 1911 by Te Keepa’s sister, Rora Hakaraia. The resulting memorial, erected in September 1912, includes a marble statue and four panels of text carved into polished granite. The statue was based on a Gottfried Lindauer portrait of Te Keepa as a relatively young man in his military uniform. One of the panels of text is in Māori, and shows his whakapapa (genealogy). The inclusion of whakapapa in a memorial in a public place is unusual, probably unique.

On the lower half of the memorial are bronze relief panels depicting battles in which Te Keepa fought, and detailed descriptions of those battles. Two of the battles are from fighting in Taranaki: Pungarehu (1866) and Moturoa (1868). The other two are from the pursuit of Te Kooti: Te Pōrere (1869) and Maraetahi (1870).

The memorial was made by Frank Harris & Co., monumental masons, and initial work on the statue and bronze relief panels was done by Auckland sculptor W.H. Feldon. When Rora Hakaraia saw the memorial she objected to it, saying the statue did not look like Te Keepa. In 1913, Frank Harris & Co. sued her because she had not completed payment for the memorial, and she counter-claimed for the money she had already paid, saying the work on the memorial was poorly done. The case went as far as the Court of Appeal, which found against Frank Harris & Co. Records of the court case are a rich source of information about the memorial.

Inscription

Front face

In conjunction with his sister / Hihiko-i-Terangi / a chieftainess of several tribes / this monument is raised / by a grateful country / in affectionate remembrance / of / Major Kemp, / high-born Maori chief, / brave soldier & staunch ally of the / N.Z. Government during the troublous / times of the Maori rebellion against / British authority 1865–1870, who after / gallantly serving his Queen & country / in the field in the interests of law and / order, died covered with military / honour, at Putiki April 15^th 1898, / aged 74 years. / “Well done good & faithful servant, / enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” / Matt.25.21.

Left face

He panui whakaatu tenei naaku na Rora Hihipa ki te Rangi ki nga iwi e rua / Maori me te Pakeha me era atu iwi o te Ao. I mate tooku tungaane i te / 15 o Aperira i te tau o to tatau Ariki 1898 ki Putiki Wharanui wahi o Aotea / roa o te Tominiana o Nui Tireni. A i tapukea ano tona tinana ki Putiki / Wharanui. Ko maua ko tooku tungaane ko Meiha Keepa Te Rangihiwinui / he momo ariki he uri rangatira he uri toa, i heke iho i roto i nga whaka / papa o te iwi Maori. Koia tenei o maua whakapapa e mau ake nei.

[Whakapapa follows.]

Ko tenei tangata he tangata tuturu ia na te Kawanatanga no / toona tamarikitanga toona piripono, ki te Karauna tae noa ki / toona matenga. Ko ona turanga i te aroaro o te Karauna he / pirihimana he tangata pikau i te meera o Whanganui ki Poneke he / apiha hoia he kapene he meiha he ateha kooti hara ka mutu oona / turanga. He tangata kaha rangimarie hohourongo. / Heoi naku na / Rora Hihipa ki te Rangi.

[Note: spelling as in the original, but word division and punctuation have been modified.]

Right and reverse faces

The remaining faces feature extended quotations from T.W. Gudgeon, The defenders of New Zealand (1887), including tributes to Te Keepa from Colonel George Whitmore and Sir Walter Buller.

Further information

• ‘Meeting of the Premier and the Hon. James Carroll with the Chiefs and others of the Wanganui Tribe, held on the 14^th May, 1898, at Putiki, Wanganui’
• ‘Major Kemp Memorial. The Subject of Litigation’, Wanganui Chronicle, 29 May 1913
• ‘Major Kemp Memorial. Jury to Visit Wanganui’, Wanganui Chronicle, 29 May 1913
• ‘The Kemp Memorial. Supreme Court Case Continued’, Wanganui Chronicle, 30 May 1913
• ‘The Kemp Memorial. Supreme Court Case Continued’, Wanganui Chronicle, 31 May 1913
• ‘A Question of Art. Major Kemp’s Statue’, Evening Post, 6 May 1914
• ‘The Kemp Statue. More Criticism’, Evening Post, 7 May 1914
• Harris v Hakaraia (1914) 33 New Zealand Law Reports 1074 (CA)
• Anthony Dreaver, ‘Te Rangihiwinui, Te Keepa’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30 October 2012
• David Young, Woven by Water: Histories from the Whanganui River, Huia, Wellington, 1998, ch. 6

On 1 November 1930 a substantial wooden lychgate was dedicated at the Selwyn Road entrance to All Saints Anglican Church, Howick. This was built to serve as a memorial to men of the imperial and colonial forces who had served during the New Zealand Wars between 1845 and 1865. According to a newspaper report, it was also intended as a memorial to ‘friendly Maori’.

The bronze tablet installed on the eastern wall listed the names of 68 ex-soldiers and members of the militia who had been buried in the churchyard since 1865.

Sources

• ‘Howick Memorial’, Auckland Star, 31 January 1930, p. 3
• ‘Maori War Veterans: Memorial at Howick’, NZ Herald, 3 November 1930, pp. 6, 11
• Robert Hattaway and Margaret Willis, When All the Saints: Celebrating 150 Years of All Saints’ Church, Howick, Howick, 1997, pp. 83-4
• Alan La Roche, Grey’s Folly, Howick, 2011, pp. 196-7

On 6 June 2012 a memorial headstone to nine soldiers who had died of ‘non-battlefield causes’ (accident or disease) between 1862 and 1864 was unveiled in the churchyard of St John’s Anglican Church, Drury. Six of the soldiers, privates in the 2nd Battalion 18th Royal Irish Regiment, had been buried in the churchyard between September and November 1863; it is believed the three others may have also been buried there between 1862 and 1864.

The memorial stone was placed beside a 1st Waikato Regiment New Zealand Wars memorial, erected in 1867 to honour officers and men of the militia and volunteers who had died in action at the Battle of Titi Hill on 23 October 1863. Lieutenant J.S. Perceval had disobeyed orders by ambushing a large Kingite raiding party. By the time his small force was extricated from the predicament it soon found itself in, two officers and six men had been killed.

Sources

• ‘Memory of NZ Wars soldiers lives on’, Franklin County News, 19 June 2012, p. 2
• ‘Memorial pays tribute to soldiers’, Manukau Courier, 19 June 2013, p. 7

On 23 October 1965 a concrete memorial cairn commemorating the battle of Tītīi Hill was unveiled alongside the Waiuku to Pukekohe road, near Mauku. The event was organised by members of the Franklin Historical Society.

The plaque on the cairn was worded as follows (in capitals): 'Titi. / Eight Europeans and / an estimated sixteen / Maori warriors / died fighting here / in the Waikato War / 23 October 1863'. Papapokaia Kaihau, representing Tainui, and Margaret Crisp, a descendant of one of the participants in the battle on the Government side, undertook the unveiling.

Sources: 'Memorial Cairn at Titi: Ceremony on Saturday Recalled Battle in 1863', Franklin Times, 27/10/1965, p. 1; 'Laying of Wreath at Titi' [photograph], Franklin Times, 8/11/1965, p. 1; Nigel Prickett, Landscapes of Conflict: A Field Guide to the New Zealand Wars, Auckland, 2002, pp. xvii, 74.

See also: Mauku NZ Wars memorial.

In 1883 the NZ Government granted Onehunga Borough an area of 47 acres on the edge of the Manukau Harbour for use as a recreation ground, rifle range and public cemetery. This area became known as Waikaraka Park. In July 1890 a cemetery was opened—somewhat controversially—on the southern portion of the reserve.

Waikaraka Cemetery became the customary burial place for late residents of the Ranfurly Veterans’ Home in nearby Three Kings. The Ranfurly Home had been opened in 1903 as a South African War memorial and as a home for old soldiers who had seen active service in the British army or navy or (in some cases) the colonial forces.

Fundraising to restore the graves in the veterans’ portion of the cemetery, and to erect a suitable memorial to those buried there, began in 1909. In 1913 Onehunga Borough Council gave permission for work to proceed. There were some delays because of shortage of funds, but on 26 April 1917 Governor the Earl of Liverpool finally unveiled a substantial War Veterans’ Memorial on the site.

The monument, designed by Auckland architect Norman Wade, and erected by McNab and Mason, consisted of a semi-circular reinforced concrete wall, covered by a white granite plaster finish, and surmounted by an obelisk in the centre, a statue of a soldier at one end and a statue of a sailor at the other. A marble tablet inset below the obelisk explained the purpose of the memorial (“To commemorate the names of the veterans who fought in defence of the Empire and died at the Auckland Veterans’ Home”).

The name, unit, age and date of death of each of the 52 veterans thus far buried in the cemetery were inscribed on small marble tablets mounted on the wall. Their individual plots were also restored and marked with plain marble slabs.

Many other names have been added to the memorial since. The early tablets mostly acknowledged service in various Imperial regiments, the Royal Artillery, the Royal Navy or the ‘N.Z. Forces’ (i.e. service in imperial campaigns overseas and/or the New Zealand Wars). Acknowledgements to service in the ‘Maori Wars’ [sic], Egypt, South African War, Great War and in the various branches of service, including the Samoan Relief Force and the Merchant Marine, were added in later years.

At the time of the unveiling, high tide on the Manukau reached almost to the foot of the memorial. Some land has been reclaimed since, and a servicemen’s lawn cemetery has been developed behind the memorial.

Sources: Onehunga Cemetery Act, 1898; ‘The Veterans Home’, NZ Herald, 8/4/1909, p. 6; ‘Veterans’ Burial Plot’, Auckland Star, 6/2/1917, p. 6; ‘Heroes of the Past … Waikaraka Memorial’, Auckland Star, 27/4/1917, p. 4; ‘Memorial to Veterans’, NZ Herald, 27/4/1917, p. 16; ‘Memorial to New Zealand Veterans’, Auckland Weekly News, 3/5/1917, p. 35; Janice Mogford, The Onehunga Heritage, rev. ed. Onehunga, 1989, pp. 42-3, 49, 55, 61; Chris Maclean and Jock Phillips, The Sorrow and the Pride: New Zealand War Memorials, Wellington, 1990, pp. 28, 30, 33.

For some years Saint Paul’s Anglican Church in Symonds Street boasted an unusual memorial outside the church: a First World War memorial tram shelter. This was demolished in 1971, but there remain a number of other memorials inside the church: a Field Ambulance memorial plaque, a parish roll of honour, several New Zealand Wars memorial plaques, and a memorial to victims of the wreck of the HMS Wairarapa in 1894.

First World War memorial tram shelter

After the First World War, the St Paul’s congregation decided to build a tram shelter outside the church in memory of the men of the parish who had died on active service. Bishop W.A. Averill laid the foundation stone on 20 July 1919. Acting Minister of Defence Gordon Coates unveiled the completed building on 28 March 1920.

The architect D.B. Patterson had designed the shelter in a compatible style with the church behind it. It was solidly constructed of Rangitoto and Melbourne bluestone, with dressings of Oamaru stone. The words ‘Remembering these dead, let the living be humble’ were carved into the Tudor arch surmounting the entrance. To the left of the entrance was a tablet inscribed with the names of the First World War campaigns; to the right a tablet with a memorial inscription to the fallen. Inside was an Oamaru stone frieze inscribed with the names of 26 battles and a series of polished stone tablets inscribed with the names of 50 fallen (nine more names were added after the unveiling).

Four stained glass windows were later installed in the windows on the back wall.

When trams were replaced by buses in 1956, the building continued for a while in use as a bus shelter. However, after the bus stop was moved, it became a haunt for tramps and target for vandals. The parish demolished the building in December 1971. It is not known what happened to the stained glass windows and the stone tablets. The names of the fallen, at least, were preserved, since there is a roll of honour in the church’s Requiem Chapel. This polished wooden tablet lists in alphabetical order a total of 72 men connected with the church who died in the two world wars.

Field Ambulance memorial plaque

The tram shelter was not St Paul’s only First World War memorial: on 8 May 1921 Lady Jellicoe, wife of the Governor-General, unveiled a brass tablet inside the church in memory of officers and men of No. 3 Rifle Brigade Field Ambulance who fell during the war. This is headed: ‘Erected by No. 3 / (Rifle Brigade) / Field Ambulance / In memory of the / officers & men of the / unit who fell in France / in the Great War’ The names of nine officers are listed in order of rank; the place and date of death are also given. Two NCOs and 24 men are listed by name only. For some years the unit’s flag was displayed above the tablet.

New Zealand Wars memorial plaques

The Requiem Chapel also houses several brass New Zealand Wars memorial plaques. These are relics of the first St Paul’s church, which stood in Emily Place between 1841 and 1885, and which in its early years served as the city’s proto-cathedral and its garrison church. The plaques were transferred to the new St Paul’s when it was opened on the present site in 1895.

One of the tablets was erected in memory of Captain Thomas George Strange, who had been killed at Waitara in 1861. It reads: “To the memory / of  / Thomas George Strange / Captain in Her Majesty’s / 65^th Regiment. / Born A.D. 1827. / Killed in action at Waitara, / in the / northern island of New Zealand. / February the 10^th 1861. / ‘The trumpet shall sound and the / dead shall be raised incorruptible / and we shall be changed.’ / This tablet was erected by his / sorrowing widow.”

Another was funded by members of the 1st Waikato Regiment to honour fellow soldiers who had been killed at the Battle of Titi Hill, Mauku, on 23 October 1863: “Sacred / to the / memory / of / Lieutenants Thomas Norman / and William Percival / & of / Corporal Michael Power & / Privates / William Beswick, George Oborne /  Farqr. McGilvray and Wm. Williamson / of the 1st Waikato Regt. / who fell in action on the 23^rd October 1863 at Mauku / This tablet is erected by the / Officers Non Commisnd [sic] Officers & Privates / of the / Regiment.”

Yet another was erected in memory of Captain John Shaw Phelps: “To the memory of / John Shaw Phelps / Captain in H.M. 14^th Regiment of Foot, / only son of J.C. Phelps Esqr. / of Gostwyck, Paterson River, N.S.W. / Born in Sydney 21^st May, 1829. / Died, 25^th Nov. 1863. / At the Queen’s Redoubt, New Zealand. / From wounds received while gallantly / leading his company against the hostile / Maoris at Rangariri [sic] on the 20^th Nov. / An affectionate son, a loving brother, / and a true friend.”

Finally, there is a substantial brass tablet that evidently was once accompanied by memorial windows, and honours soldiers and sailors who were buried in the Symonds Street cemetery. It is inscribed as follows: “H.M.D.G. / These windows were re-erected in honoured memory of / [followed by names in five columns] [first column] Commodore Wm. F. Burnett C.B. / H.M.S. Orpheus / Lieutenant Wm. E. Mitchell / H.M.S. Esk / Assistant Surgeon / Geo. R. Pickthorn M.B. / H.M.S. Challenger / Midshipman Thomas A. Watkins / H.M.S. Curacoa / [second column] Colonel Chas. W. Austen / 2^nd Battn. 16^th Reg. / Colonel Marmaduke G. Nixon / Col. [?] Def. Force & Royal Caly. Vols. / Lieut Col John F. Kempt / 1^st Battn. 12^th Reg.  / Major Henry Cole / 1^st Battn. 12^th Reg / [third column] Major E. Withers 65^th Reg.  / Major James Paul / 65^th Reg. / Major Edward Cantrobus / 2^nd Waikato Militia / Capt. and St Major James T. Ring / 18^th Royal Irish / [fourth column] Capt. John S. Phelps / 14^th Foot  / Capt. Henry Mercer / Royal Arty. / Capt. Richard Swift / 65^th Reg. / Lieut. Coll McLeod / 43^rd L.I. /  [fifth column] Lieut. Wm. L. Murphy 1^st Battn. 12^th Reg. / Lieut. G.G.S. Menteath 70^th Reg. / Lieut. J.H. Wood Junr. / 2^nd Waikato Militia / Ensign Andrew Ducrow 40^th Reg. / Sergt. J.J. Hanson / Commt Staff Co. / Captain Geo. J. Dormer / 14^th Reg. / And other officers and men who gave their lives in service of the Empire, especially during the Maori Wars. / And whose bodies lie in the Symonds St. Cemetery, Auckland. / R.I.P.”

SS Wairarapa memorial tablet

St Paul’s is also the home of an elaborately carved marble tablet commemorating victims of the wreck of the SS Wairarapa. A total of 121 passengers and crew or more died after the ship struck the cliffs at Miners Head on Great Barrier Island on 29th October 1894. The tablet in St Pauls was erected by the Steward Department of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand in honour of the ten men, women and boys of the department who lost their lives: William H. Judd, Charlotte McDonald, Annie McQuaid, Lizzie Grindrod, Harry Vear, Alexander McLean, Richard Croucher, Hugh Monaghan, Alfred Holmes and John McDonald.

Sources: ‘St Paul’s Memorial Shelter’, NZ Herald, 19/7/1919, p. 11; ‘St Paul’s Tram Shelter’, NZ Herald, 26/3/1920, p. 4; ‘The Soldiers’ Part: Memorial to Fallen’, NZ Herald, 29/3/1920, p. 6; ‘War Ambulance Work: Memorial at St Paul’s’, NZ Herald, 9/5/1921, p. 6; ‘Modern Chivalry’, Auckland Star, 9/5/1921, p. 8; Jackie Eaglen, A Brief History of St Paul’s Symonds Street, Auckland, 1991, pp. 14, 17; ‘Old Memorial Stone Shelter To Be Demolished’, NZ Herald, 30/12/1971, p. 1.

The Battle of Gate Pā (Pukehinahina) near Tauranga on 29 April 1864 was notable for the ferocity of the fighting, the initial repulse of the British and colonial forces, and an act of chivalry by one of the defenders, Heni Te Kiri Karamu, who at some risk to her own life gave water to a dying British officer and other wounded men. There are several memorials to the participants in the old military cemetery in March Street, Tauranga. These include the Tauranga 1st Waikato Militia NZ Wars memorial, Tauranga 43rd Regiment NZ Wars memorial, Tauranga Naval NZ Wars memorial, individual memorials to Hōri Ngātai and Rāwiri Puhirake, and the Tauranga Māori NZ Wars memorial).

What remained of the battle site was preserved as an historic reserve following the establishment of the Gate Pā Domain Board in 1887. However, no memorial was erected until St George’s Memorial Church was opened on part of the site in 1900. This was dedicated to the memory of the officers and men who fell at Gate Pā.

In 1964 the Tauranga Historical Society erected a memorial in the reserve itself. This was unveiled by Chief Justice Sir Harold Barrowclough and dedicated by the Reverend Brown Turei on the centennial of the battle. The memorial bore plaques commemorating the chivalry displayed by both Māori and Pākeha during the battle and in memory of the unnamed Māori who had been killed during the battle and buried nearby.

On 29 April 2007 a carved tomokanga, or gateway, was installed at the lower entrance to the reserve. This incorporated carvings of Tū, the god of war, and Rongo, the god of peace.

In 2014 members of the Pukehinahina Charitable Trust enlarged and embellished the memorial, adding a large deck, or marae ātea, and replacing the old flagpole. Two trees flanking the memorial which had been due for removal were instead lopped and turned into carvings. Eight carved pillars, or pou, were also installed along the edge of the reserve. The refurbished memorial was dedicated on 29 April 2014.

Fruther information

• NZ Gazette, 1887, pp. 929, 1367
• ‘The Memorial’, Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society, no. 19, March 1964, pp. 33-6
• ‘Memorial Unveiled’, Bay of Plenty Times, 28 April 1964
• ‘Gate Pa Centennial Address’, Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society, no. 21, September 1964, pp. 3-7
• Pukehinahina: Historic Gate Pa, 2nd edn, Tauranga, 1968
• Chris Maclean and Jock Phillips, The Sorrow and the Pride, Wellington, 1990, pp. 39-41
• W. Kennedy, ‘A Brief History of Greerton’, Historical Review, vol. 42, no. 1, May 1994, pp. 40-8
• ‘Battle of Gate Pa Commemorations’, Bay of Plenty Times, 12 April 2014
• Tauranga Memories: Battle of Gate Pā, 1864

At midday on 29 August 1920 Sir Frederick Lang, Speaker of the House, unveiled two wooden memorial tablets in Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Picton Street, Howick. These were inscribed with the words: “Erected in memory / of the / imperial soldiers / who fought in the Maori War / and are interred in the / Howick cemetery.” Altogether, the tablets listed the names of 59 men.

Later in the afternoon Bishop Dr H.W. Cleary unveiled two similar tablets in St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Panmure. These were inscribed with the names of a further 66 veterans who had been buried in the Panmure cemetery.

The majority of the men listed were former imperial soldiers who arrived in New Zealand between 1847 and 1852 as members of Royal New Zealand Fencibles. They were settled on the outskirts of Auckland to provide a defence against potential Māori attack. Newspaper reports published at the time of the tablets’ unveiling described these men as ‘Maori War veterans’ [sic], and the inscription quoted above suggests that they took an active part in hostilities. In fact, apart from regular musters and the occasional call-out, few if any of the Fencibles undertook service in the field within New Zealand.

Some years ago, the original tablets from Our Lady Star of the Sea were transferred to Howick Historical Village, where they are now on display in the old Howick Methodist church building. Replica tablets have recently been placed in Our Lady Star of the Sea.

Some years ago the two wooden tablets in St Patrick’s were replaced by a single brass plaque, perhaps when the original St Patrick’s was demolished in 1958. The plaque is on display in the new church’s foyer.

Sources

• ‘[Note re memorial to deceased Maori War veterans]’, NZ Herald, 28/8/1920, p. 9, col. 1
• ‘Memorial Unveiled: Tablets to Maori War Veterans’, Auckland Star, 30/8/1920, p. 2
• ‘Maori War Veterans: Tablets to their Memory’, NZ Herald, 30/8/1920,p. 6
• Mike and Helen Hammond, Footsteps of the Faith: Our Lady Star of the Sea 1847-2010, Howick, 2010, p. 203.

This small obelisk was erected in Symonds Street cemetery in 1912 in memory of troops who died during the New Zealand Wars.

The inscription reads:

Erected to the Memory of the 80 men of the Imperial and colonial forces buried here, who fought in the defence of New Zealand in the Maori Wars. This obelisk erected through the efforts of the Victoria League.

The Victoria League had been founded in London soon after the monarch’s death in 1901, and an Auckland branch was established in 1909. This soon established a Graves Committee, with Edith Statham as secretary. By late 1910 they had been informed of a plot that was said to contain the unmarked graves of 80 to 100 imperial and colonial troops who had died in hospital in Auckland during the New Zealand Wars.

Fundraising was undertaken and a government subsidy was promised. The simple granite obelisk on a sandstone base was erected in late 1912 at a cost of £54. It was sited on ‘a green bank, which is rather steeply sloped, and apparently not a very desirable site for a grave’. The League had found the names of some of the men in the graveyard register, but these are not recorded on the monument.

On 1 November 1930 a substantial wooden lychgate was dedicated at the Selwyn Road entrance to All Saints Anglican Church, Howick. This was built to serve as a memorial to men of the imperial and colonial forces who had served during the New Zealand Wars between 1845 and 1865. According to a newspaper report, it was also intended as a memorial to ‘friendly Maori’.

The bronze tablet installed on the eastern wall listed the names of 68 ex-soldiers and members of the militia who had been buried in the churchyard since 1865.

Sources

• ‘Howick Memorial’, Auckland Star, 31 January 1930, p. 3
• ‘Maori War Veterans: Memorial at Howick’, NZ Herald, 3 November 1930, pp. 6, 11
• Robert Hattaway and Margaret Willis, When All the Saints: Celebrating 150 Years of All Saints’ Church, Howick, Howick, 1997, pp. 83-4
• Alan La Roche, Grey’s Folly, Howick, 2011, pp. 196-7

On 6 June 2012 a memorial headstone to nine soldiers who had died of ‘non-battlefield causes’ (accident or disease) between 1862 and 1864 was unveiled in the churchyard of St John’s Anglican Church, Drury. Six of the soldiers, privates in the 2nd Battalion 18th Royal Irish Regiment, had been buried in the churchyard between September and November 1863; it is believed the three others may have also been buried there between 1862 and 1864.

The memorial stone was placed beside a 1st Waikato Regiment New Zealand Wars memorial, erected in 1867 to honour officers and men of the militia and volunteers who had died in action at the Battle of Titi Hill on 23 October 1863. Lieutenant J.S. Perceval had disobeyed orders by ambushing a large Kingite raiding party. By the time his small force was extricated from the predicament it soon found itself in, two officers and six men had been killed.

Sources

• ‘Memory of NZ Wars soldiers lives on’, Franklin County News, 19 June 2012, p. 2
• ‘Memorial pays tribute to soldiers’, Manukau Courier, 19 June 2013, p. 7