MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
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guns while on the line of inarch but were driven out of their hiding places 
without doing any serious damage. 
In the Waikato country great difficulties were now experienced in getting 
the ordnance, already mentioned, to Pukerimu; and the different varieties 
of ammunition and stores, which were entirely new to most of the men (more 
particularly the drivers), were very confusing. 
The two 24-pr. howitzers which had been a long time in the country were 
each of different manufacture; the wheels of one would not fit the other, and 
in the constant removals from one station to another, by water transport, 
this was very inconvenient. 
In the beginning of April 1864, the position for the breaching batteries 
having been chosen and all being ready for the guns to move forward, a 
reconnoitring party discovered that the Maungatautari position with all its 
entrenchments had been suddenly abandoned by the natives. This was 
partly owing to a severe defeat which the Ngatimaniopoto tribe had met 
with at Orakau, near Bangiawhia. Brigadier-General Carey, who com¬ 
manded at the latter post after General Cameron had removed the head 
quarters to Pukerimu, discovered that the Maories had built a pah near 
Bangiawhia. He surrounded the pah suddenly one night, and after two 
assaults had failed, sapped up to it. Three 6-pr. guns (Armstrong’s) were at 
Bangiawhia, and three 12-prs. of “ C ” Battery, under Captain Betty, B.A., 
were also available but were not required. A 6-pr. was, however, sent up 
the sap and was employed in breaching the palisadings on the counterscarp. 
Howitzers or mortars would have been most useful at Orakau, but they 
were all at Pukerimu, and the intervening country was impracticable for 
artillery. 100 hand grenades were put in boxes, and sent on pack ponies to 
Orakau, and were very serviceable. 
Serjeant Angus M c Kay of “ C ” Battery, whose behaviour at Bangiriri 
has already been mentioned, threw the hand grenades at great personal risk 
to himself from the sap into the pah, where they did much execution. Por 
this service Serjeant M c Kay was publicly thanked by General Carey after 
the pah was taken, and highly spoken of in his despatch afterwards. When 
the sap was within a few yards of the ditch, the Maories suddenly rushed 
out of the pah and breaking through a part of the circle of troops which 
was less strongly guarded than the rest, they made their way, though with 
the loss of about half their number, to the swamps, creeks, and ravines with 
which the country abounds. They were followed by the mounted corps of 
artillery drivers, under Lieut. Bait, B.A. and also by the colonial cavalry, 
but the difficulties of the country for cavalry operations prevented much 
damage being done. Veterinary Surgeon Blake’s horse was shot, and a few 
other casualties took place in the troop. 
About the end of April orders were received to remove all the ordnance 
from Pukerimu (except the 12-pr. Armstrong’s and small mortars) to 
Auckland, from whence they were to be sent to Taranaki where operations were 
now to be carried on. There were already several small mortars at Taranaki 
which was the reason those at Pukerimu were left there. The work entailed 
on the artillery in shifting the ordnance, ammunition, and materiel was now 
very great, and the greatest precautions had to be taken to avoid loss of 
stores and the mixture of one description of ammunition with another. 
While on the way to Auckland intelligence was received from Tauranga, 
a settlement on the east coast, the effect of which was, that the guns 
