THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
371 
BEMAEKS 
ON 
THE OPERATIONS OE THE ROYAL ARTILLERY DURING- THE CAMPAIGNS, IN 
NEW ZEALAND, IN 1861, AND 1863-1864. 
BY LIEUT. A. E. PICKARD, T$r.C # , R.H.A. 
On the 4th March 1861 Captain Mercer’s battery of the 4th Brigade, 
Royal Artillery arrived in Auckland harbour from Woolwich, in the troop¬ 
ship “ Norwood/’ after a passage of 99 days. The ship could not be 
brought alongside the pier, so the guns, stores, &c., had to be lowered into 
cargo boats which were unloaded on the pier. 
The battery horses had not yet arrived from Sydney (n.s.w.), and the 
harness was not unpacked; the ordinary civilian cart-harness could not be 
fitted to the gun-carriages; so, as the different parts of the carriages were 
brought on shore, they were packed on carts, taken up to the barracks, and 
mounted as soon as possible. 
In four days the six 12-pr. Armstrong’s belonging to the battery, and two 
10-in. and two 8-in. mortars (which had also arrived in the “Norwood”), were 
ready for service. 
On the 12th March, Captain Mercer and Lieut. Pickard, with three 12-pr. 
Armstrong’s and four mortars, were ordered to Taranaki, a settlement on the 
west coast of New Zealand, where Sir T. Pratt, k.c.b., in command of about 
2000 men and a few guns, was still engaged in operations against the 
natives. 
The ordnance, &c. had again to be taken to pieces and conveyed in carts 
to the Manukau harbour (six miles from Auckland) on the west coast. At 
the Manukau, the carts were driven into the water alongside cargo boats, 
into which they were uidoaded, and everything was taken to the Colonial 
steam sloop “ Victoria,” which was to convey the half-battery to Taranaki. 
On the 13tlr March, the “Victoria” anchored off the mouth of the river 
Waitara, in Taranaki. The guns, stores, &c. having been lowered into surf 
boats, were disembarked on the left bank of the river, and were taken up by 
hand or in carts to the camp which was about a mile distant; bullock-poles 
were then fitted to the carriages. 
On the 15th March, the guns and mortars, drawn by six bullocks each, 
started at 6 a.m. The 10-in. mortars travelled in carts. 
In about three hours the guns arrived at a redoubt occupied by the 40th 
Regiment about 800 yards from the native position, called Te Arei. This 
position consisted of lines of rifle pits, communicating with one another, 
[vol. iv.] 49 
