Waikato settlement's slaughter remembered

By KEVIN TAYLOR

TE AWAMUTU - Rangiaohia was once the food-bowl of New Zealand - until an attack by colonial forces in 1864.

The settlement's fate was remembered yesterday when the Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, unveiled a plaque.

Only a Catholic cemetery and the 146-year-old St Pauls Anglican church now remain at the site.

The unveiling was part of a pilgrimage by about 500 Catholics and Anglicans, as well as Tainui.

The group was led by the Bishop of Hamilton, Denis Browne, assistant Bishop Takuira Mariu, and the Anglican Bishop of Waikato, David Moxon.

A prosperous Maori settlement near Te Awamutu that produced wheat not only for Auckland but for export, Rangiaohia was attacked on February 22, 1864, during the Waikato Wars.

A 1000-strong force under Major-General Sir Duncan Cameron attacked the undefended village inhabited by women, children and a few men too old to fight.

A whare where women and children were sheltering - and putting up some resistance - was set alight, either by a match or gunfire.

Seven Maori are said to have burned to death. One elderly man who emerged from the burning whare to surrender was shot dead.

In all, 12 Maori died in the attack and many were taken prisoner.

Waikato University historian Cynthia Piper says the settlement's tragic history has been overlooked by many historians.

Rangiaohia was the headquarters of the Catholic mission in the Waikato, with a church, presbytery and school. More than 1000 Maori were baptised there between 1850 and 1864.

The Anglicans also built a church there.

It was one of the most prosperous agricultural areas in New Zealand, farmed by the Ngati Hinetu and Ngati Apakura peoples.

"It was a busy place and it was the food-bowl of New Zealand," says Cynthia Piper.

That was why it was attacked.

Rather than risk a frontal assault on the well-defended Maori pa at Paterangi, north of Te Awamutu, Mayor-General Cameron decided to strike at the base of the food supply at Rangiaohia.

Military historian Chris Pugsley says it was not a deliberate massacre but the inevitable consequence of soldiers attacking an unarmed settlement and finding no one to fight but families.

From then, the war took on a different character, with Maori harried from their land. If women and children fought with the men, they died with them.

Rangiaohia's Catholic and Anglican communities were dispersed and the land was confiscated and settled by European families.



Rangiaohia is remembered in a waiata that laments the expulsion of Ngati Apakura from their homes and confiscation of their lands in the face of the colonial forces advancing from the north.

The first lines are recorded on the plaque: "E pa to hau he wini raro, He homai aroha" - "Gently blows the wind from the north, bringing loving memories."