1054 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 







mouth the same night. The British loss was light, while that of the natives was said 

 to be rather heavy. After this engagement the troops burnt the houses, mills and goods 

 of the enemy wherever they found them, and the enemy made such effective reprisals 

 that, excepting New Plymouth, the settlement was practically destroyed. In the township 

 the crowding of troops and settlers produced much sickness, and eventually nearly all 

 the women and. children had to be deported to Nelson. Kingi had written to the 

 "Kingites" for assistance, but a meeting held at Ngaruawahia in May, 1860, showed that 

 the Waikatos were not disposed to take up arms. Still, parties of the more turbulent 

 natives quietly went off to Taranaki on their own account, and swelled the ranks of 

 Kingi's forces until he had about one thousand seven hundred men. Troops, too, were 

 ordered from Australia and England, and before the end of the year there were two 

 thousand three hundred of them in the field. This number included volunteers. 



After some inconclusive operations, two hundred and forty-five men of the Fortieth 

 Regiment, under Major Nelson, together with parties of the Royal Artillery, Royal 

 Engineers and Royal Marines, early in June, "attacked the Puketakauere, or " L" pah, 

 so called from its shape, situated one thousand four hundred yards from the Waitara 

 Redoubt, and sustained a severe defeat. A breach having been effected with a couple of 

 howitzers, the Grenadier and light companies of the Fortieth rushed forward with the 

 bayonet, but were driven back by a desolating fire. Then a party of natives crept out 

 of the bush and fell upon one of the "divisions in the rear of the pah, and almost cut 

 it to pieces. The main body was retiring towards the camp when the natives next 

 charged the guns, but were received with a deadly discharge of canister. However, the 

 troops were forced to retreat, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. The British 

 loss was thirty-four killed and thirty wounded out of a total of three hundred and forty- 

 eight rank and file, and the enemy's loss was about six killed and eight wounded. 

 Although his pah was subsequently evacuated and burnt, as well as several others which 

 were found empty by the troops, New Plymouth was in the condition of a town 

 invested by the enemy. A dense forest was adjacent to it, and yet fuel had to be 

 procured from Australia. Major-General Pratt now arrived from Melbourne and super- 

 seded Colonel Gold in the command of the troops. He brought with him the remainder 

 of the Fortieth. On the 3rd of September, a night march was made to Burton's farm 

 for the purpose of surprising a body of the enemy, but on arrival there the Maoris were 

 found to have decamped. On the I2th of September, the light company of the Fortieth, 

 under Colonel Leslie, came unexpectedly upon a handful of natives in ambush behind a 

 ditch within a peach-grove, and a volley from the Maoris produced such a panic among 

 the troops that they retreated in headlong flight, with a loss of one killed and four 

 wounded. During September and October, pahs were destroyed at Oakura and Kaikihi, 

 but the enemy evacuated them in each case in safety. A more decisive engagement 

 took place at Mahoetahi, between Waitara and the Bell Rock. One morning it was 

 found to be occupied by one hundred and fifty natives just arrived from the Waikato, 

 under Wetini Taiporotu, a chief of Ngatihaua. General Pratt sent out a force against 

 it on the 6th of November, and after some firing a company of the Sixty-fifth and the 

 Taranaki Volunteers carried the position at the point of the bayonet. The Maoris lost 

 thirty-four killed and fifty wounded, and the British four killed and sixteen wounded. 



