Flagstaff War

The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi started on 6 February 1840, and Governor William Hobson believed that it established the legal basis for British sovereignty over New Zealand, while, Ngāpuhi, the largest and most powerful northern tribe, one party to the Treaty, believed the contrary, that they had entered into a partnership with the Crown. All Ngāpuhi chiefs had signed the treaty document translated from English to Māori in the context of the time. The actions of Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti in 1844 reflect the controversy that began soon after the treaty was signed. Flag poles became a focus of protest when Governor Hobson refused to allow the United Tribes flag to be flown alongside the British Union Flag. On 21 May 1840 Governor Hobson formally annexed New Zealand to the British Crown, and in the following year moved the capital from Russell, to more favourable ground at Waitematā Harbour some south of Waitangi, to a new town called Auckland. In the Bay of Islands, Hōne Heke, one of the original signatories to the treaty, was increasingly unhappy with the outcome of the agreement. Among other things, Heke objected to the relocation of the capital to Auckland. Moreover, the Governor in Council had imposed a custom tariff on staple articles of trade. Before the tariff had gone into effect, more than 20 whaling ships would be visiting the Bay of Islands at any one time; the tariff resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of ships that visited Kororāreka. Heke and the Ngāpuhi chief Pōmare II had listened to Captain William Mayhew (the Acting-Consul for the United States from 1840) and other Americans talk about the successful revolt of the American colonies against England over the issue of taxation. Heke obtained an American ensign from Henry Green Smith,{{#tag:ref|Henry Green Smith of Warren, Rhode Island, merchant, acted for some time as US Vice Consul during the absence of US Consul John Brown Williams to the United States. They had not received the Royal exequatur, possibly due to the Oregon Question, and had been desired by formality to take down the US flag. Smith, who was understood to have aided the insurgency, quit New Zealand on the whaler Edward Carey soon after the Battle of Kororareka, carrying a portion of the property stolen from the town. The property was seized in America and placed in the hands of Her Majesty's Government. This belief, together with Heke's views about the imposition of the customs duties, can also be linked to the further widely diffused belief that the British flag flying on Flagstaff Hill over the town of Kororāreka signified that the Māori had become taurekareka (slaves) to Queen Victoria. This discontent appears to have been fostered by the talk with the American traders, although it was an idea that had existed since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi; William Colenso, the CMS missionary printer, in his record of the events of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi commented that "[a]fter some little time Te Kemara came towards the table and affixed his sign to the parchment, stating that the Roman Catholic bishop (who had left the meeting before any of the chiefs had signed) had told him "not to write on the paper, for if he did he would be made a slave." The trial and execution of Wiremu Kīngi Maketū in 1842 for murder was, in the opinion of Archdeacon Henry Williams, the beginning of Heke's antagonism towards the colonial administration, as Heke began gathering support thereafter among the Ngāpuhi for a rebellion. the custom observed by those who sought help to settle a tribal grievance. ==Hōne Heke moves against Kororāreka==

Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti worked out the plan to draw the colonial forces into battle, with the opening provocations focusing on the flagstaff on Maiki Hill at the north end of Kororāreka (Russell). ==Flagstaff cut down for the first time==

On 8 July 1844 the flagstaff on Maiki Hill, at the northern end of Kororāreka, was cut down for the first time by the Pakaraka chief Te Haratua. Heke had set out to cut down the flagstaff but had been persuaded by Archdeacon William Williams not to do so. In the second week of August 1844, the barque Sydney arrived at the Bay of Islands from New South Wales with 160 officers and men of the 99th Regiment. The Government brig Victoria arrived in company with HMS Hazard, with a detachment of the 96th Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel William Hulme. Tāmati Wāka Nene and the other Ngāpuhi chiefs undertook to keep Heke in check and to protect the Europeans in the Bay of Islands. Hōne Heke did not attend, but sent a conciliatory letter and offered to replace the flagstaff. The soldiers were returned to Sydney, but the accord did not last. The Ngāpuhi warriors led by Te Ruki Kawiti and Hōne Heke decided to challenge the Europeans at Kororāreka. ==Flagstaff falls twice more==

On 10 January 1845, the flagstaff was cut down a second time, this time by Heke. On 17 January, a small detachment of a subaltern and 30 men of the 96th Regiment were landed. The British force consisted of about 60 soldiers of the 96th Regiment and about 90 Royal Marines and sailors from the Hazard, plus colonists and sailors from the merchant ships provided about 200 armed men. ==Battle of Kororāreka==

The next attack on the flagstaff on 11 March 1845 was a more serious affair. There were incidents between the Ngāpuhi warriors led by Hōne Heke, Kawiti and Kapotai on 7 and 8 March. A truce was declared for the next day, a Sunday, during which the Reverend Brown entered the camp of Heke and performed a service for him and his people who had been baptised by the Church Missionary Society. A Catholic priest conducted a service for those warriors among Kawiti's followers who were Catholics. In the early hours of Thursday, 13 March, the third day, HMS Hazard prepared for sea. Lieutenant Phillpotts, RN, had deemed it advisable to sail with all despatch, considering that the flagstaff was down, the town sacked and burnt, and there was no further reason to remain. They had stayed as long as they could, and the sick and wounded required attention. At 8:30 am the flagstaff blockhouse was set alight, as well as the police office and temporary buildings on the beach. The refugees of Kororāreka sailed for Auckland, with HMS Hazard (whose sailors had taken part in the fighting ashore), the British whaler Matilda, schooner Dolphin and 21-gun United States corvette departing the Bay of Islands throughout the day. Eleven sailors, marines and soldiers, and thirteen civilians had died in defence of the town and its people, or as a result of the battle soon after. About 36 were wounded. Heke and Kawiti were victorious. ==Attack on the pā of Pōmare II==

is held on board HMS North Star, 30 April 1845.Artist: John Williams, 58th Regt, 1845Alexander Turnbull Library The colonial government attempted to re-establish its authority in the Bay of Islands on 28 April 1845 with troops of the 58th and 96th Regiments, and volunteers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Hulme, along with HMS North Star, Slains Castle, Velocity, Aurora and the Government schooner. The following day, 29 April, the force prepared to attack Otuihu, the pā of Pōmare II, notwithstanding his position of neutrality, for what were claimed to be treasonous letters from Pōmare to Pōtatau Te Wherowhero that had been intercepted. This action caused considerable puzzlement since up until that time, as Pōmare had been considered neutral by himself and almost everyone else. Along with the pā, the British also burnt two pubs, or grog shops, which Pōmare had established there to encourage Pākehā settlers, sailors, whalers and others, to visit and trade with him. Pōmare was taken to Auckland on the North Star. He was released after the intervention of Tāmati Wāka Nene. ==Battle of the sticks==

After the attack on Kororāreka Heke and Kawiti and the warriors travelled inland to Lake Ōmāpere near Kaikohe some , or two days travel, from the Bay of Islands. Heke's Lake Ōmāpere pā, Te Kahika (Puketutu), sometimes called "Te Mawhe" in relation to a hill of that name to the north-east, was away. In April 1845, as the colonial forces gathered in the Bay of Islands, the warriors of Heke and Nene fought many skirmishes, on the small hill named Taumata-Karamu between the two pā, and on open country between Okaihau and Te Ahuahu. F. E. Maning, Jacky Marmon and John Webster, of Opononi, Hokianga were three Pākehā Māori (a European turned native) who volunteered to fight with Nene and fought alongside the warriors from Hokianga. Webster used a rifle (a novel weapon at that time) and had made two hundred cartridges. ==Attack on Heke's pā at Puketutu==

After the destruction of Pōmare II's pā, the 58th and 99th regiments moved to attack Heke's pā, choosing to travel by a walking track from the Bay of Islands rather than via a cart track that ran from Kerikeri through Waimate and passed nearby Heke's pā. This decision may have been influenced by the wish of the missionaries to keep Te Waimate mission tapu by excluding armed men so as to preserve an attitude of strict neutrality. For example, the pā at Ōhaeawai, the site of a battle in the Flagstaff War, was described as having an inner palisade that was high, built using pūriri logs. In front of the inner palisade was a ditch in which the warriors could shelter and reload their muskets, then fire through gaps in the two outer palisades. The storming parties began to advance, first crossing a narrow gully between Lake Ōmāpere and the pā. Here they came under heavy fire both from the palisade and from the surrounding scrub. Kawiti and his warriors arrived and engaged the soldiers in the scrub and gullies around the pā. This battle is sometimes described as the Battle of Okaihau, although Okaihau is to the west. ==Raid on Kapotai's pā==

The return to the Bay of Islands was accomplished without incident. A week later, on 15 May, Major Cyprian Bridge and three companies of troops and the warriors of Tāmati Wāka Nene attempted a surprise attack on Kapotai's pā at Waikare Inlet, which they could reach easily by sea. The defenders of the pā became aware of the attack and chose not to defend it, although the warriors of Kapotai and Nene fought in the forests around the pā. The pā was soon burnt and destroyed. Lieutenant Colonel Hulme returned to Auckland and was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Despard, a soldier who did very little to inspire any confidence in his troops. ==Battle of Te Ahuahu==

Until the 1980s, histories of the First Māori War tend to ignore the poorly documented Battle of Te Ahuahu, yet it was in some ways the most desperate fight of the entire war. However, there are no detailed accounts of the action. It was fought entirely between the Māori: Hōne Heke and his tribe against Tāmati Wāka Nene and his warriors. As there was no British involvement in the action, there is limited mention of the event in contemporary British accounts. After the successful defence of Puketutu pā on the shores of Lake Ōmāpere, Hōne Heke returned to his pā at Te Ahuahu ("Heaped Up"), otherwise known as Puke-nui ("Big Hill"), a long-extinct volcano. Some days later, he went to Kaikohe to gather food supplies. During his absence, one of Tāmati Wāka Nene's allies, the Hokianga chief, Makoare Te Taonui (the father of Aperahama Taonui), attacked and captured Te Ahuahu. This was a tremendous blow to Heke's mana or prestige; obviously it had to be recaptured as soon as possible. The ensuing battle was a traditional formal Māori conflict, taking place in the open with preliminary challenges and responses. By Māori standards, the battle was quite large. Heke mustered somewhere between 400 and 500 warriors, while Tāmati Wāka Nene had about 300 men. Hōne Heke lost at least 30 warriors. There are no detailed accounts of the battle fought on 12 June 1845 nearby Te Ahuahu at Pukenui. Tāmati Wāka Nene remained in control of Heke's pā. In a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Despard, Tāmati Wāka Nene described the battle as a "most complete victory over Heke". ==Battle of Ōhaeawai==

for two British soldiers killed at Ōhaeawai A debate occurred between Kawiti and the Ngatirangi chief Pene Taui as to the site of the next battle; Kawiti eventually agreed to the request to fortify Pene Taui's pā at Ōhaeawai. Shaken by his losses, Despard decided to abandon the siege. However, his Māori allies opposed this. Tāmati Wāka Nene persuaded Despard to wait for a few more days. More ammunition and supplies were brought in and the shelling continued. On the morning of 8 July, the pā was found to have been abandoned, the enemy having disappeared in the night. When they had a chance to examine it, the British officers found it to be even stronger than they had feared. It was duly destroyed, and the British retreated once again to the Bay of Islands. Te Ruki Kawiti and his warriors escaped, Hōne Heke recovered from his wounds, and a new and even stronger pā was built at Ruapekapeka. The Battle of Ōhaeawai was presented a victory for the British force, notwithstanding the death of about a third of the soldiers. The reality of the end of the Battle of Ōhaeawai was that Te Ruki Kawiti and his warriors had abandoned the pā in a tactical withdrawal, with the Ngāpuhi moving on to build the Ruapekapeka pā from which to engage the British force on a battlefield chosen by Te Ruki Kawiti. An account of the battle is provided by the Rev. Richard Davis, who was living at the CMS mission at Te Waimate mission and visited the pā during the siege; as a consequence, Despard complained as to interference by the missionary in the action against Hōne Heke. The Rev. Richard Davis commented on the siege that, "[t]he, natives, I know, are capable of taking care of themselves. It was a happy thing for the troops, that they did not succeed in getting into the Pa. Had they accomplished their object, from the construction of the Pa the poor fellows must all have fallen. It was a sad sacrifice as it was of human life, and ought not to have been made. The Commander-in-chief had every opportunity of viewing the interior of the fort from the heights only about 500 yards distant. People's mouths were opened rather largely on the subject. The bravery of the poor fellows who made the attack was beyond all praise; but the wisdom of their commander has been questioned. To judge of this I leave to wiser heads than mine." ==Battle of Ruapekapeka==

After the Battle of Ōhaeawai, the troops remained at Waimate until the middle of October, destroying Te Haratua's pā at Pakaraka on 16 July 1845. and the 18-gun sloop HEICS Elphinstone of the Honourable East India Company. and two Congreve rocket-tubes. although Te Ruki Kawiti and a few of his warriors remained behind and appeared to have been caught unaware by the British assault. The assaulting force drove Kawiti and his warriors out of the pā. Fighting took place behind the pā and most casualties occurred in this phase of the battle. The reason why the defenders appeared to have abandoned but then re-entered the pā is the subject of continuing debate. It was later suggested that most of the Māori had been at church, as many of them were devout Christians. If this is the correct explanation, then the Heke's ambush was only partially successful, as Kawiti's men, fearing their chief had fallen, returned towards the pā and the British forces engaged the Māori rebels immediately behind the pā. It was Māori custom that the place of a battle where blood was spilt became tapu, so the Ngāpuhi left the Ruapekapeka pā. The casualties in the British forces were in the 58th, 2 men killed; in the 99th, 1 man killed and 11 wounded; 2 marines killed and 10 wounded; and 9 seamen killed and 12 wounded. These designs were the basis of what is now called the gunfighter pā that were built during the later New Zealand Wars. The Battle of Ruapekapeka Pā marked the end of the Flagstaff War. Kawiti and Heke did not suffer an outright defeat, but the war affected the Ngāpuhi – in the disruption to agriculture and in the presence of British forces who brought with them disease and social disruption. While Kawiti expressed the will to continue to fight, Kawiti and Heke made it known that they would end the rebellion if the colonial forces would leave Ngāpuhi land, and they asked Tāmati Wāka Nene to act as an intermediary in the negotiations with Governor Grey. The Governor accepted that clemency was the best way to ensure peace in the north. Heke and Kawiti were granted free pardons and none of their land was confiscated. This prompted Wāka to say to Grey, "you have saved us all." As peace was concluded in the north, a new war was about to break out at the southern end of the North Island, around Wellington. The British casualties during the war were 82 killed and 164 wounded. Heke and Kawiti assessed their losses at 60 killed and 80 wounded, although the British estimated 94 killed and 148 wounded. There is no record of the numbers of allied Māori hurt during the conflict. ==Outcome of the Flagstaff War==

, Van Dieman's Land in 1850, in memory of the soldiers of the 99th Regiment of Foot who were killed during the New Zealand campaign of 1845–46 After the capture of Ruapekapeka, Kawiti and Heke approached Tāmati Wāka Nene about a ceasefire. This did not necessarily suggest they wished to acquiesce to British demands, but it did reflect the economic strain imposed on the Ngāpuhi and the disruption of food supplies and epidemics that resulted in significant numbers of deaths. It is clear that Kawiti and Heke made considerable gains from the war, despite the British victory at Ruapekapeka. After the war's conclusion, Heke enjoyed a considerable surge in prestige and authority. The missionary Richard Davis, writing in August 1848, stated that Heke had "raised himself to the very pinnacle of honour," and that "the whole of the tribes around pay him profound homage." The question of the ultimate result of the Northern War is contentious, as the British, Heke and Kawiti had all gained from its conclusion. For the British, their authority was preserved and the rebellion crushed, and their settlement of the area continued; The flagstaff which had proved so controversial was not re-erected. Whilst the region was still nominally under British influence, the fact that the Government's flag was not re-erected was symbolically very significant. This was not lost on Henry Williams, who, writing to E.G. Marsh on 28 May 1846, stated that "the flag-staff in the Bay is still prostrate, and the natives here rule. These are humiliating facts to the proud Englishman, many of whom thought they could govern by a mere name." The flagstaff that now stands at Kororāreka was erected in January 1858 at the direction of Kawiti's son Maihi Paraone Kawiti; the symbolism of the erection of the fifth flagstaff at Kororāreka by the Ngāpuhi warriors who had conducted the Flagstaff War, and not by government decree, indicates the colonial government did not want to risk any further confrontation with the Ngāpuhi. ==References==