Toitu te Whenua: Places and People of the New Zealand Wars, by Lauren Keenan (Te Āti Awa ki Taranaki), gives readers the history of 30 key battles and confrontations in the New Zealand Wars as well as timelines, maps, driving tips and helpful information for those seeking knowledge and understanding from a Māori perspective. In this edited extract, Keenan outlines the British campaign against rangatira Riwha Tītokowaru and south Taranaki iwi in 1868-89.
The land confiscations and subsequent scorched-earth policy were destablising and tragic for Taranaki Māori. In South Taranaki, a leader emerged to resist these changes: Tītokowaru, who was supported in large part by fighters from Ngāti Ruanui and Ngā Ruahine, and described by historian James Belich as “both the greatest and the least-known of the Maori generals”.
South Taranaki iwi had attempted passive resistance to the loss of their land, burning fences and interfering in European attempts to survey the land. Tītokowaru had even gone so far as to declare 1867 as a year of peace: “Tēnei e tau tamahine,” he said. “Tēnei te tau o te Rameti.” (“This is the year of the daughters (or girls). This is the year of the Lamb.”) But it did not work.
Tensions escalated in June 1868 when two surveyors and a military settler were killed by Māori at Māwhitiwhiti, near modern-day Normanby. The three men had been felling trees, which the Māori believed to be on their land. Those responsible took refuge with Tītokowaru’s men in the bush. Tītokowaru was asked to hand the men over. He refused, even though he had been told failure would result in his being arrested, along with the guilty parties. This defiance raised the government’s hackles; around 400 extra men were recruited into the Armed Constabulary and “friendly” Māori were mobilised to assist. Local settlers were warned: conflict was imminent. So Tītokowaru decided to launch a pre-emptive strike.
Attack on turuturumōkai
On the evening of July 11, 1868, around 25 members of the Armed Constabulary went to sleep in or around Turuturumōkai Redoubt. The redoubt was built near an ancient pā that had been used by Māori for keeping slaves, hence the name (one translation is “pole of the slaves”). The redoubt was located between land owned by two military settlers turned farmers. The redoubt was around 18sq m, so not very large as redoubts go. For this reason, the captain’s house was located outside of its walls.
The attack by Tītokowaru’s men came under cover of darkness during the wee hours of the morning, taking the occupants completely by surprise. “Get up, boys,” one of the Armed Constabulary later recalled being told. “There’s firing going on across the plains.” Tītokowaru’s men knew exactly where to go — some had visited the previous day, one claiming to be looking for “old clothes” while scoping out the redoubt walls. The Armed Constabulary quickly woke and rushed to defend themselves during a fight that would last around two hours.
Tītokowaru’s men were unable to breach Turuturumōkai’s walls. They eventually fell back and retreated as soon as they realised a cavalry force was approaching from the larger Waihī Redoubt, 8km away. However, 10 men of the Armed Constabulary were killed, including their commanding officer, 33-year-old Captain Frederick Ross.
In retaliation, the Armed Constabulary decided to do whatever it took to bring Tītokowaru to justice — even if it meant fighting him at his own base. As Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas McDonnell said when taking charge of the redoubt after the battle: “I shall have revenge for this.”
Te Ngutu o te Manu
Tītokowaru was based in the papa kāinga Te Ngutu o te Manu, located deep in the southern forests. The area had been destroyed two years earlier but was rebuilt in 1867 to have a number of whare, a wharenui and a marae. It was also a place of rongoā and known as a sanctuary.
After events at Turuturumōkai Redoubt, the Armed Constabulary attacked Te Ngutu o te Manu in an attempt to capture Tītokowaru. During their second attempt on August 21, 1868, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas McDonnell had 350 men with him, including some reinforcements from the newly formed Wellington Rangers and Wellington Rifles. But the bush was thick, the rain heavy, and a flooded river proved difficult to cross. And Tītokowaru’s men were concealed in the papa kāinga itself, something the constabulary did not know until Māori began to fire. During the subsequent affray, the invading party were not able to capture Tītokowaru as they had hoped.
On September 7, 1868, they decided to try again. This time, McDonnell’s plan was to venture around the back of Te Ngutu o te Manu and surprise Tītokowaru’s men. The forces marched through the forest, some led by Major Gustavus von Tempsky.
Von Tempsky was fighting with the Armed Constabulary, one of two majors reporting to McDonnell. Von Tempsky and the other major, William Hunter, did not always see eye to eye: they had argued about how best to respond to the attack on Turuturumōkai and their relationship remained tense. Hunter led another group into the trees. Neither they nor McDonnell knew that Tītokowaru had planned for this exact eventuality by digging rifle pits and preparing other hidden places in the trees.
Soon, heavy fire pummelled them from the bushes. The government forces were taken by surprise; they had not seen Tītokowaru’s men, and had been wrong about where exactly in the bush they were.
Tītokowaru had also known about the attack in advance: women and children had already been sent away and Tītokowaru’s men had been waiting for just the right moment to attack. The colonial forces were “knocked over like ninepins”. McDonnell was paralysed with indecision about whether the men under his command should advance or retreat.
Von Tempsky asked for permission to storm the papa kāinga but McDonnell refused. Von Tempsky became agitated and moved about between the trees, listlessly swiping his sword at the leaves — until he was fatally shot. Later, when the Māori realised who he was, they took his gun, hat, watch and sword, which were later presented to Tītokowaru himself.
A retreat was eventually sounded but what happened next in the confusion is difficult to corroborate. What we do know is that losses to the colonial forces were significant: von Tempsky and around 50 members of the group were killed or wounded. Von Tempsky’s constabulary group mutinied after Te Ngutu o te Manu and, after word got around about what had occurred, recruitment into the Armed Constabulary plummeted. Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell was encouraged to resign from his position. And Tītokowaru had evaded capture once more.
Timeline of events
June 9, 1868
Two surveyors and a military settler are killed by Māori near modern-day Normanby. According to local Māori, they were felling on land that did not belong to them.
July 12, 1868
In the early hours of the morning, a military redoubt at Turuturumōkai is attacked by Tītokowaru supporters. While the Māori were unable to breach the redoubt’s walls, the military suffered heavy losses before Māori retreated.
August - September 1868
The Armed Constabulary retaliate by attacking Tītokowaru’s base camp three separate times in the hope they will be able to arrest Tītokowaru. An attack on 7 September proves fatal for the Armed Constabulary and results in the death of Major Gustavus von Tempsky. The event also severely reduces confidence in the Armed Constabulary.
November 6, 1868
The Armed Constabulary attack Moturoa Pā, without success. A number of frontal assaults by the Armed Constabulary prove unsuccessful, forcing them to withdraw after sustaining heavy losses.
February 2, 1869
Tītokowaru abandons his pā at Taurangaika and takes refuge in the bushy Ngāti Maru rohe near Waitara. The campaign against Tītokowaru is over.
Tītokowaru
Tītokowaru can seem to have myriad contradictions, difficult to understand from our 21st-century vantage point. He fought ferociously but preached peace. He encouraged kaitangata [cannabilism], motivated by mātauranga and his role as tohunga, but refused to partake himself.
James Belich described Tītokowaru in colourful language, writing that, “His enemies found his victories so stunning and so humiliating that they paid him the ultimate compliment of forgetting him, as a child does a nightmare.” At the time, though, Tītokowaru’s presence loomed large ‒ newspapers frequently reported on his actions and attempts to defeat him became a significant focus for the Armed Constabulary.
During the late 1860s, Tītokowaru was in his mid-40s. As a young man, he had been baptised as a Methodist, taking the name Hōhepa (Joseph) Ōtene. He was later influenced by the teachings of prophet and Pai Mārire founder Te Ua Haumēne.
After the battles with the Armed Constabulary, he retreated to live with Ngāti Maru in North Taranaki before returning to South Taranaki, where he continued to preach peace. By November 1881, Tītokowaru was at Parihaka. After the invasion there, he was arrested and spent eight months in prison. When arrested, Tītokowaru was put in chains as he was still considered a threat. He died in 1888.
Gustavus von Tempsky
If anyone in the New Zealand Wars could have stepped out of a Victorian adventure story, it was Gustavus von Tempsky. It is little wonder that James Cowan, who had a penchant for the dramatic in his retellings of the New Zealand Wars, featured the Prussian so heavily in his books. A handsome, globetrotting artist-adventurer, von Tempsky was also a good singer, a gymnast and a skilled fighter. He carried a Bowie knife he had picked up in the US and dressed flamboyantly.
Born in what is now Kaliningrad, von Tempsky spent a short time in the Prussian military, eventually leaving for Central America, where he was part of the militia forces. He dug for gold in California and Australia, wrote a book on his travels, then came to New Zealand in search of more gold in the Coromandel.
He fought in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Whanganui, rising to the rank of major. To Māori, he was known as Manurau, “the bird that flits everywhere”.
Von Tempsky painted what he saw. One such example is his painting of Chute’s campaign, titled On General Chute’s March, West Coast, now housed at Te Papa. He also wrote vivid recollections of battles. This was apparent in the tragedy of Rangiaowhia where he was not shy to criticise his fellow military men. He was especially appalled at the atrocities committed against unarmed Māori.
Regardless, it cannot be forgotten that he was also one of the leaders of the forces that caused so much misery.
An edited extract from Chapter 7 of Toitū Te Whenua: Places and People of the New Zealand Wars, by Lauren Keenan (Penguin, RRP $45.)