878 
MINUTES QE PROCEEDINGS Of 
sent to Whangamarino, and the three guns were placed in a small battery 
having platforms made of large trees sawn in half, with the convex surface 
sunk in the ground. 
Two Armstrong 40-prs. were sent over from Sydney (n.s.w.), and were 
sent to Whangamarino to be mounted. The latter was a service of great 
labour and difficulty, as the guns had to be dragged piecemeal up to the top 
of the eminence on which the stockade was built, and then mounted. 
The guns at Whangamarino then annoyed the Maoris at Mere-mere as 
much as possible. It was found that the best way to damage canoes at great 
distances was to fire shells with concussion fuzes, to strike rather short of the 
canoes; the shell burst on striking the water, and the pieces ricocheted 
forward among the canoes. It was found also that by firing with time fuzes 
fixed to burst at the extreme range of the fuze, the pieces of the shells all 
went over 2600 yards if the gun was laid with about half a degree more 
elevation than the actual range required. The shells thus fired burst high 
in the air, and the pieces being propelled forward and downward, went to a 
great distance. 
Three gun-boats were constructed in Auckland from cargo-boats, they 
were plated with iron and capable of carrying a 12-pr. Armstrong and small 
mortar in each. Two iron-plated steamers were also constructed, and about 
the end of October 1863, everything being ready for a move, a force was 
taken up the Waikato past the Mere-mere position in the steamers and 
gun-boats, and landed at Takapou about five miles in rear of Mere-mere. 
Arrangements were then made for attacking the Maories in front and rear 
simultaneously. On the day before the attack was to take place, however, 
the natives were seen to be evacuating their position in great numbers, 
having with infinite labour dragged their canoes during the night from the 
Waikato river, overland, to the swamp. They left behind them three or four 
old carronades or ship guns which they had fired with little or no effect at 
the steamers and gun-boats as they passed their position. 
After Mere-mere had been occupied by the troops the three 12-pr. guns 
were sent back to Queen’s redoubt (crossing the Maungatawhiri piecemeal 
as before), and on the 18th November, two of them were again taken to 
pieces and towed in boats to Mere-mere. The sheers used for embarking 
and disembarking, were trunks of trees cut down near the spot. 
Eoreseeing the impossibility of conveying ammunition wagons with the 
small number of transport animals that accompanied the force. Captain 
Mercer had caused extra ammunition boxes to be made, to fit and travel on 
the footboard of each limber, and to contain 24 extra rounds of ammunition 
per gun with cartridges, and time and concussion fuzes complete. 
On the morning of the 20th November, 1863, the two Armstrong 12-prs. 
drawn by bullocks, and a 6-pr. naval field gun drawn by sailors, accompanied 
the force under General Cameron which left Mere-mere at 7 o’clock a.m. 
for Bangiriri, about 12 miles south of Mere-mere. Eight bullocks drew 
each gun, and the weight they had to draw was much increased by eight 
scaling ladders and the extra ammunition-box, besides several planks being 
carried on the guns. 
The track led through several swamps and gullies and over some narrow 
ridges, where the bullocks had to be taken out and the gunners to draw the 
guns by hand. When half-way to Bangiriri, thirty of the gunners were supplied 
