HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



1045 



guerrilla warfare lasted for two years, and, after sixty Maoris had been slain and one 

 hundred wounded, a truce was made between the parties in December, 1856. 



The Government saw that it had erred in not interposing, and the head chiefs of 

 the North Island were invited to a conference on native affairs with the Governor, at 

 Kohimarama, in the outskirts of Auckland. About fifty attended, but as the inaugural 

 address was in large part a special argument in support of the sale of land, the 



chiefs regarded the whole 

 proceeding as a crafty attempt 

 to hoodwink them, and little 

 good was effected by the 

 meeting. The League was up- 

 held, and a few years later 

 the land question was fated 

 to be the cause of a bloody 

 war. In August, 1857, agra- 

 rian troubles broke out in the 

 province of Hawke's Bay, on 

 the east coast of the North 

 Island. Two divisions of the 

 Ngatikahungunu tribe quar- 

 relled over the distribution of 

 money received from the 

 Government for the sale of 

 land ; and, both sides taking up arms, a battle 

 was fought, in which eight men were killed 

 and sixteen wounded. Te Hapuku the leader 

 of one party, entrenched himself in a pak on 

 land to which his title was doubtful, and 

 Moanui, leader of the rival party, besieged him 

 there. After the siege had continued for several 

 months, the Governor, Colonel Gore Browne, 

 fearing that the beleagured forces would be 

 massacred, sent two hundred and fifty men of 

 the Sixty-fifth, under Colonel Wyatt, to Napier, 

 in February, 1858. Moanui at once moderated 

 his demands, and through the good offices of 

 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Donald McLean, a fort- 

 night's armistice was arranged, which resulted in Te Hapuku being allowed to march 

 out with the honours of war. Subsequently, peace was proclaimed, and the belligerents 

 exchanged presents in token of amity. 



" THK KING MOVEMENT." 



While these warlike distractions were keeping portions of the North Island in a 

 state of unrest, a great movement, fraught with the utmost importance, was silently 



THK CONSTABULARY STATION, PUKEARUHE. 



