A Dark Chapter from New Zealand History. James Hawthorne
had granted that pecuniary assistance to which New Zealand was fairly entitled when she undertook to establish the Queen’s supremacy, and to end an Imperial war after the British forces had failed, and for which the colonists have been heavily taxed.
It may be truly said that Mr. Stafford obtained office under false pretences. Whilst accepting the “Self-Reliance Policy” he promised to effect a reduction of £240,000 upon the Estimates, which (and no one could have known it better than himself) it was impossible for him to do. This was proved at an after date, when it was found that by a cheese-paring economy, calculated to impair the efficiency of the public service, his boasted savings amounted to about eight thousand pounds.
Mr. Stafford became Premier on the 17th October, 1865. During that month the Hauhaus in Poverty Bay were busy erecting three formidable pas, of which one named Waerenga-ahika was the strongest. On the 9th November Mr. M‘Lean arrived at Poverty Bay with the victorious forces from Waiapu. On the 10th he sent an ultimatum to the rebels, of which no notice was taken. Fighting ensued on the 17th, and continued five days, during which about sixty of the enemy were killed. On the 22nd Waerenga-ahika was surrendered, 180 men and 200 women and children being made prisoners; 160 guns and a vast amount of plunder stolen from settlers were likewise captured. Shortly after a spy named Te Kooti was taken. He was afterwards better known as the author of the Poverty Bay and other massacres.
Upon the fall of Waerenga-ahika a profound dread fell upon the remaining Hauhaus; the other fighting pas were precipitately abandoned, and their garrisons fled to Wairoa, there to stir up sedition; the remnant came in and submitted to European rule.
The last stage of the East Coast campaign of 1865–6, was marked by the severe defeats sustained by the Hauhaus at the Upper Wairoa and the Waikare-moana. Upon the borders of that lake, the Hauhaus suffered a heavy loss; the survivors escaped in their canoes, but were mostly killed or captured at Petane and Omaranui, on the 12th October, 1866.
Thus ended a campaign unmarked, as far as the author is aware, by a solitary reverse on our side. There has never been a campaign like it in New Zealand, before or since. It was won for us by friendly natives and a handful of Europeans, who numbered about 120 whites. The force was led by brave officers, and chiefs who secured the goodwill, respect, and confidence of their men, European and native. By uniform courtesy and a gentlemanly demeanour towards those over whom they were placed, such men as Biggs, Wilson, and the chiefs Mokena and Rapata, found that the men would follow them wherever those officers and chiefs were pleased to lead the way. Hunger and hardships were endured without complaint by all alike; districts unknown, and hitherto deemed inaccessible, were penetrated, no matter how savage or remote; and the murderous rebel was taught, for the first time, that no place could shelter him from the consequences of his crimes. In various ways, not less than 400 natives are believed to have been killed or to have died of their wounds. From first to last the prisoners were not far short of a thousand, all ages. Of these the ringleaders were afterwards deported to the Chatham Islands. The grand result was perfect safety for life and property in the lately disturbed districts; that result was obtained for the colony in the wise selection made of brave and intelligent instruments to carry out his skilful combinations, by Donald M‘Lean.
CHAPTER III.
EXILES—THEIR LANDS—A COMPLIMENT—GRATITUDE—IMBROGLIO—A SUPERINTENDENCY LAWYER AND LAND SHARK—PUNIC FAITH—“DISTRICT POLICE ACT”—INTERESTS CLASH—COMPENSATION—A MUDDLE—“SOFT SAWDER”—NO GO—ANNEXATION.
The East Coast Hauhau prisoners were deported to the Chatham Islands in 1866, to the number of 187, of the worst characters; their women and children were permitted to accompany them. Land, seeds, and implements were allotted each man; they were well fed and clothed, and a guard of 25 men was placed over them. One of the prisoners was the spy Te Kooti, who had planned an ambush to murder an escort party.
The Chathams are well adapted for expatriation purposes, their nearest point being 400 miles from the mainland of New Zealand. When the prisoners arrived, the Chathams were inhabited by 46 Europeans and a small number of Morioris and Maoris; the former were aborigines of the Chathams, who had been conquered by the latter.
Upon the restoration of peace, a problem of difficult solution presented itself, viz., the administration of Hauhau lands. In accordance with Maori usage, those lands were so minutely divided and mixed up with lands owned by loyal natives, that the greatest tact and intimate acquaintance with native customs and land tenures were requisite in him who should be entrusted with the unpleasant task, in order that injustice might be avoided. There is no subject upon which a Maori is so sensitive as that of his land: but so confident were the natives in Mr. M‘Lean’s impartiality, that the whole of their lands were placed at his disposal, by the unanimous desire of all concerned. There is not another man in New Zealand to whom such a compliment would be paid; and if the land question remains unsettled to this day, the fault is attributable to Mr. Stafford and his colleagues. It has been shewn that, by his conquest of the East Coast, Mr. M‘Lean had paved the way for its speedy and peaceful colonization. At this juncture ministers stepped in, and, jealous of his unrivalled influence with the Maoris, meanly tried to filch the laurels he had won. The administration of the East Coast was practically transferred to themselves, and Captain Biggs, a highly meritorious officer, but quite incapable of dealing with a question of such magnitude, was appointed to negotiate between them and the natives.
Consequences followed that might have been foreseen. The natives, irritated and bewildered at the seeming refusal of the Government to accept their liberal offer through Mr. M‘Lean, whilst another agent was treating for the very lands included in that offer, became first suspicious, and finally disaffected. Between the date, however, of their offer to place all their lands at Mr. M‘Lean’s disposal and the disaffection alluded to, the natives had taken an important step and petitioned the Assembly that Poverty Bay and East Coast districts might be annexed to the province of which Mr. M‘Lean is Superintendent. Such a proposal was “gall and wormwood” to ministers; accordingly, they played into the hands of Mr. Whitaker, and thereby prevented the proposed annexation and consequent settlement of those districts, though they were well aware that at that very time Mr. Whitaker, the Superintendent of Auckland and a General Government Agent, was breaking the law, and assisting to prevent a settlement of the Poverty Bay land question, by negociating, through his agent, with rebel Hauhaus, for the cession of the Poverty Bay oil springs and other lands.
The recognition of rebel claims by a person holding such a high position, led to similar dealings of the most irregular description, involving breaches of faith with the loyal natives, whose confidence became weakened by the treatment they experienced after the valuable services rendered by them in the East Coast campaign of 1865, while the assurance of those lately in rebellion greatly increased, and led both to deny what had been at first unanimously approved, viz., the justice of the principle embodied in the Outlying Districts Police Act of 1865, which assents, that “expenses incurred in suppressing rebellion should be borne out of lands of the insurgents.”
By 1867, manifold conflicting interests had grown up in Poverty Bay and East Coast districts, in the shape of land purchases and leases of runs, which of necessity interfered with a settlement of out-standing claims. A committee of the House of Representatives had eschewed the right of East Coast settlers to compensation for losses sustained in 1865. This led to some of those settlers applying for and obtaining compensation from rebels in land. The consequence of all this was that complication after complication arose, until the land question became an unintelligible web of confusion to ministers, who, seeing no other way of escape from a serious dilemma, called Mr. M‘Lean to the rescue.
But though they had by their injudicious meddling marred the fairest prospect that ever presented itself for settling a question of vital importance to the whole colony, and were compelled to ask the assistance of the man whose influence they envied and tried to undermine, their peddling policy was perceptible to the end; even whilst they gave Mr. M‘Lean to understand they had no doubt though “the opportunity for carrying out good arrangements had long passed