IIISTORIC.il. AY:' /'//:// OF NEW ZEALAND, 



1059 



hern beaten. Rewi, however, was still unsubdued. From the 8th of December till the 

 2;th of January, 1X64, General Cameron lay at Xgaruawahia awaiting supplies, lie then 

 established himself at Te Rore, and threw out an advanced post within fourteen hundred 

 yards of I'aterangi, forty miles up the \Vaipa, where the Maoris had strongly entrenched 

 themselves. A sharp skirmish at Waiarei was marked by the gallant rescue of a wounded 

 soldier by Major lleaphy, who won the Victoria Cross thereby. As I'aterangi was too 

 strong to be stormed without heavy loss, General Cameron marched out of Te Ron- on 

 the night of the 2oth of February with a force of one thousand men, and, guided by 

 a settler named Kdwards, appeared 

 before daylight at 1C Awaniutu, where 

 the Maoris were surprised in their 

 beds. From '1'e Awamutu he pushed 

 on to Rangiaohia, where he similarly 

 took the natives by surprise. A run- 

 ning fight, however, was maintained 

 among the huts of the village, where 

 Colonel Nixon and other officers of 

 the Colonial I )cfence Corps were; mor- 

 tally wounded. The natives were dis- 

 lodged. General Cameron withdrew 

 his forces for the night to Te Awa- 

 mutu, but early next morning it was 

 found that the enemy, to the number 

 of about four hundred, had evacuated 

 I'aterangi, and were entrenching them- 

 selves at Rangiaohia. A detachment 

 of the Fiftieth Regiment was imme- 

 diately sent forward, and, charging 

 with the bayonet, routed the enemy 

 from the cover of an old bank fence, 

 whither the Mounted Defence Force 

 drove them into the swamp and bush. The main forces of the military were next 

 concentrated at I'ukerimu for the reduction of the hill stronghold of Maungatautari, on 

 the llorotiu, about fifteen miles north-east of Te Awamutu. Here the enemy had 

 mbled in force, the position being considered almost impregnable. It was also 

 regarded as their only remaining fortification in the Waikato proper. 



Rewi, however, had abandoned the Ilunua Forest, and was fortifying himself at 

 Orakau, about three miles from Kihikihi, where he made a stand that has shed 

 imperishable lustn; upon his race, and which will always be memorable as the scene of 

 one of the most notable instances of Maori heroism. On the 301)1 of March, l.rigadier- 

 Gencral Carey, the Eighteenth Royal Irish, reconnoitred the position and determined to 

 attack it. Collecting a force of about one thousand men, with three guns, he made a 

 night march and appeared before the />(/// at day-break, when he so disposed his men 

 as to completely surround the enemy. He thus placed the Maoris at a serious dis- 



KKWI MAM POTO. 



