1058 AUSTRALASIA ILLLJS1 'A'. / /7:Y>. 



However, the ruse was suspected, and the volunteers were ordered to change front. 

 The entire body of natives immediately broke from their rover and charged, while their 

 opponents, in unbroken order and maintaining a well-directed lire, fell slowly back upon 

 the shelter of the bush. After a very smart engagement* in which part of the enemy 

 assailed their foe hand to-hand, the Maoris retired with a loss of thirty-two killed, 

 hesides many wounded. The volunteers lost eisjht killed, the first to fall on the side 

 of the assailants hein^ Lieutenant IVrcival. 



Hy tin- 3Oth of ( >rtol>er, (ieneral Cameron had lieen provided with two liiillet-proof 

 steamers, one of which, the Ran^iriri, was built in Sydney for the New Zealand 

 Government, and he therefore prepared to besiege Meremere. The natives, however, 

 evacuated it, and retired upon Ran^iriri, aliout twelve miles distant, on the ri^ht hank 

 of the \Vaikato. It was ll. inked on the other side hy the Waikare Lake and S\\amp, 

 and had been strongly fortified. On the joth of November it was attacked hy two 

 divisions. One of them, numbering seven hundred and seventy men, with two Armstrong 

 iMins, proceeded by land ; the other, consisting of live hundred men of the Fortieth, 

 emliarked in one of the. iron-plated steamers, which was accompanied hy live small gun- 

 boats. The enemy was between lour and live hundred strong. The main force was to 

 operate from the front, and the River detachment from the rear. A delay of an hour 

 and a half was caused by the steamer running on the sand-bank. Meanwhile shot and 

 shell were bein^ poured into the entrenchments at a ran^e of six hundred yards. Then 

 followed four separate assaults, each of \\hich was repulsed. The first was led by the 

 Sixty-fifth, and it drove the enemy into a central redoubt, Captain Mercer and thirty- 

 six of the Royal Artillery next assaulted the redoubt, and the gallant officer received 

 his death-wound in the attempt. One hundred volunteers of various regiments also 

 stormed the citadel, but their scaling-ladders were found to be too short. Finally. 

 Commander *Mayne, of 1 1. M.S. /:Y///\,-. advanced at the head of ninety men of the 

 Naval l>ri-ade, but was also driven back. 1>\ this time the Fortieth had landed in the 

 rear, and rushiiu; the rille-pits on that side, drove their occupants into the Swamp, where 

 they were shot down. Parkness did not interrupt the operations. A sap was opened 

 and hand-grenades were poured into the devoted citadel, with the unfortunate result 

 that a hut containing wounded was set on fire, and several poor wretches were burned 

 alive. The enemy replied with a desultory lire. In the morning, seeing that the\ were 

 completely surrounded, they hoisted a piece of calico on a spear and capitulated. The 

 Kim; and the chief famihana had effected their escape, but one hundred and ei^hty- 

 three men and two women, and one hundred and seventy-live stand of arms, fell into the 

 hands of the Uritish. These prisoners were sent on to Auckland. The casualties on the 

 Fiiidish side were two officers and thirty-live men killed, and thirteen officers and eighty- 

 live men wounded, while the Maori losses have been variously estimated at from lilty to 

 one hundred and fifty. Colonel Austin, of the Fourteenth. Captain IMielps and Fusion 

 Ihicrow. as well as Captain Mercer, died of their wounds. 



The Ciovernor declared that he would dictate terms of peace at Nganiawahia, and. 

 as if to pave the way for that intention, the enemy fell back from their capital, 

 allowing I ieneral Cameron to march in and occupy it without a st rustle. Hut the 

 expected terms of peace were not proclaimed, and the war continued. famihana had 



