HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



1069 



approached Wanganui, burning settlers' houses and creating general consternation, which 

 was intensified by the news of the massacre by Te Kooti at Poverty Bay. At this 

 juncture, Colonel Whitmore was ordered with all his available forces to Poverty Bay, and 

 Titokowaru was thus left in possession of the field. One hundred of the Armed Con- 

 stabulary, with two hundred and ninety militia and volunteers, were entrusted with the 

 protection of Wanganui and the preservation of the Kai-iwi frontier line. In January, 

 1869, Colonel Whitmore returned and resumed his operations against Titokowaru, who 

 retired to the forests beyond Moturoa, where his last victory had been won. He planted 

 ambuscades, and one 

 of these succeeded in 

 surprising ten of the 

 volunteers who were 

 gathering peaches in a 

 grove, and shot down 

 seven of them. 



Meanwhile, the 

 undaunted Kepa te 

 Rangihiwinui and his 

 brave Wanganuis were 

 scouring the country 

 near Putahi, and ren- 

 dering the colony yeo- 

 man service. On the 

 1 3th of February, 1869, 

 a war-party of the 

 Ngatimaniapoto from 

 Mokau pounced upon 



the British redoubt at Pukearuhe, or the White Cliffs, thirty-six miles from New Ply- 

 mouth, and massacred Lieutenant Gascoigne, his wife and three children, as well as two 

 other Europeans. Just after the tragic deed had been perpetrated, the Rev. John Whiteley, 

 a Wesleyan missionary, was seen approaching on horseback. The Maoris shouted for 

 him to go back. He held on his way, however, and was then shot down. This was 

 never avenged. Colonel Whitmore and Major Kepa pursued Titokowaru to the Upper 

 Wanganui, where he remained safe from further molestation. 



TK KOOTI AND THE POVERTY BAY MASSACRE. 



Incidental reference has been made to Te Kooti and the frightful massacre with 

 which his name will for ever be associated. It is at this stage of our narrative that 

 the salient episodes in which he figured must be introduced. Expatriated to the 

 Chathams merely on suspicion, he seems to have given very little trouble to his guards, 

 while over his fellow-prisoners he gradually established an ascendancy by professing to 

 be inspired. The promise had been held out to the exiles that, if they conducted them- 

 selves well, they would be allowed to return home in two years. But when this period 

 had elapsed the hope of release seemed as remote as ever. It was then that Te 



VOLKNERS CHURCH. 



