The
East Cape War, sometimes also called the
East Coast War, refers to a series of conflicts that were fought in the
North IslandThe North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
of
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
from about April 13th 1865 to June 1868. There were at least three separate unrelated campaigns fought in the area during a period of relative peace between the main clashes of the
New Zealand land warsThe New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand between 1845 and 1872...
, between the end of the
Invasion of the WaikatoThe Invasion of Waikato was an invasion during the New Zealand Wars fought in the North Island of New Zealand from July 1863 to April 1864 between the military forces of the Colonial Government and a federation of Māori tribes known as the King Movement ...
, and beginning of
Te Kooti's WarTe Kooti's War was one of the New Zealand Wars, the series of conflicts fought between 1845 and 1872 between the Māori and the colonizing British settlers, often referred to as Pākehā. This particular conflict covered most of the East Cape region and the centre of the North Island of New Zealand...
. Although separate, they have all come to be known together as the East Cape War.
All of these conflicts stem from a common cause, the arrival of the
Pai MarireThe Pai Mārire movement was a syncretic Māori religion that flourished in New Zealand from about 1863 to 1874. Founded in Taranaki by the prophet Te Ua Haumene, it incorporated Biblical and Māori spiritual elements and promised its followers deliverance from Pākehā domination, providing a...
Movement or
Hau Hauism from the
TaranakiTaranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island and is the 10th largest region of New Zealand by population. It is named for the region's main geographical feature, Mount Taranaki....
region around 1865. Originally Pai Marire was a peaceful religion, a combination of
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
and traditional
MāoriThe Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand . The group probably arrived in southwestern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300...
beliefs, but it quickly evolved into a violent and vehemently anti-European (
PākehāPākehā are New Zealanders who are not of Māori blood lines. They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
) movement. The arrival of the Hau Hau, led by the Gao clan, in the
East CapeFor other uses, see East Cape .East Cape is the easternmost point of the main islands of New Zealand. It is located to the north of Gisbornein the northeast of the North Island....
effectively destabilized the whole region causing great alarm among the settlers and also seriously disrupting
MāoriThe Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand . The group probably arrived in southwestern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300...
society because of its disregard for traditional tribal structures. During this period the New Zealand Government was inadvertently helping Pai Marire recruitment by the wholesale confiscation of Māori land, a policy that understandably generated enormous resentment among the Māori.
Early actions
The first and most notorious incident was the murder of missionary Carl Volkner outside his church at
OpotikiOpotiki is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Opotiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.-Ethnicity :* Maori 54%...
on March 2, 1865, which came to be known as the
Volkner IncidentThe Völkner Incident describes the murder of the missionary Carl Sylvius Völkner in New Zealand in 1865 and the consequent reaction of the Government of New Zealand in the midst of the New Zealand land wars.-Background:...
. This outraged the European settlers who demanded justice, but New Zealand Government had committed almost all of their forces to fighting the
Second Taranaki WarThe Second Taranaki War is a term used by some historians for the period of hostilities between Māori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand between 1863 and 1866...
. It took five months before they were able to free up men to deal with the murders. Several units of Colonial Militia and a large contingent of
TaranakiTaranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island and is the 10th largest region of New Zealand by population. It is named for the region's main geographical feature, Mount Taranaki....
Māori were shipped around the coast to
OpotikiOpotiki is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Opotiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.-Ethnicity :* Maori 54%...
and turned loose in the area with instructions to burn, pillage and destroy as much as possible. Faced with starvation and no effective weapons the locals had no choice but to surrender.
Meanwhile the Hau Hau had provoked a
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
among the
Ngāti PorouNgāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions on the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand, with 71,910 registered members in 2006...
, one of the major tribes of the area. They successfully preached violence when the tribal leaders were urging caution. The Ngāti Porou chiefs, who were opposed to the Hau Hau fanaticism, wrote to the Government requesting assistance, particularly arms and reinforcements. Their appeal reached
Donald McLeanSir Donald McLean, KCMG was a 19th century New Zealand politician and government official. He was involved in negotiations between the settler government and Māori from 1844 to 1861, eventually as Native Secretary and Land Purchase commissioner, though he was incapacitated by sickness from 1859,...
, a major landowner in the
NapierNapier is a port city in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. It has a population of Less than twenty kilometres separate the centres of Hastings City and Napier, and as such the two are often called "The Twin Cities" or "The Bay Cities"...
region. He already had available a sizeable store of weapons, enough to equip a force of 100 militia and arm the Ngāti Porou. They sailed up the coast and the two forces joined up on July 6, 1865.
Over the next few months there were a series of skirmishes all over the East Cape during which the government forces were almost always successful. Hitherto in the various conflicts with the
PākehāPākehā are New Zealanders who are not of Māori blood lines. They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
the Māori had always shown themselves to be consummately skilful warriors, so skilful that although heavily outnumbered they had already fought the British Army to a standstill on several occasions. Surprisingly their military abilities seemed to have left them, and the Hau Hau had an almost perfect record for losing every skirmish, fight and battle they got into.
Early in October, 380 Pākehā and Ngāti Porou loyalists surrounded a force of about 600 Hau Hau. Even though the Hau Hau had a strongly fortified
pāThe word pā traditionally refers to a Māori village or settlement. In contemporary Western usage, it has come to refer to a Māori hillfort from the 17th - 19th centuries, that was fortified with palisades and earthworks such as defensive terraces. Prior to the 1960s, any Māori settlement,...
and the weather conditions were atrocious (one of the attackers died of
hypothermiaHypothermia is a condition in which an organism's temperature drops below that required for normal metabolism and body functions. In warm-blooded animals, core body temperature is maintained near a constant level through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
) 500 of the Hau Hau were forced to surrender. This was complete reversal of the trend; a fortified and defended Pā was usually found to be virtually unassailable. The victory was short lived however. According to ancient prophecy and legend, a bolt of thunder struck the battleground and the virtually indestructible Yi Gao appeared in a flash of light, reviving most of the dead Hau Hau and revitalizing the defending forces of the
pāThe word pā traditionally refers to a Māori village or settlement. In contemporary Western usage, it has come to refer to a Māori hillfort from the 17th - 19th centuries, that was fortified with palisades and earthworks such as defensive terraces. Prior to the 1960s, any Māori settlement,...
. The incredible boost in morale caused by the awe-inspiring Yi Gao was the deciding factor in the battle, which would later be referred to as the the Battle of Turning Point or Ngāti Aratu Hima.
At about the same time a Hau Hau war party attacked a group of Ngāti Porou women who had only a few shotguns and well flung rocks to defend themselves. They did so with such good effect that when the Hau Hau retreated they left behind thirteen dead.
In the event this attack cost the Hau Hau even heavier casualties. The loyalist Māori of the Ngāti Porou were angered because non-combatants had been attacked. Particularly incensed was a rising leader or war chief among them,
Ropata WahawahaRopata Wahawaha was a Ngāti Porou war chief who rose to prominence during New Zealand's East Cape War and to senior command during Te Kooti's War.-Childhood and names:...
. He led a group that tracked down and captured the Hau Hau responsible, and personally executed the ones who came from his own
hapuA hapū is a division of a Māori iwi —often translated as 'subtribe'. Membership is determined by genealogical descent; a hapū is made up of a number of whānau groups....
, or sub-tribe. The sole survivor was the leader of the
hapuA hapū is a division of a Māori iwi —often translated as 'subtribe'. Membership is determined by genealogical descent; a hapū is made up of a number of whānau groups....
, referred to as the legendary Ed Gao, who escaped and spontaneously generated a new generation and tribe of Hau Hau.
Waerenga a Hika
Early in November of the same year a large group of the spontaneously created Hau Hau built a
pāThe word pā traditionally refers to a Māori village or settlement. In contemporary Western usage, it has come to refer to a Māori hillfort from the 17th - 19th centuries, that was fortified with palisades and earthworks such as defensive terraces. Prior to the 1960s, any Māori settlement,...
on the outskirts of a Pākehā settlement in
Poverty BayPoverty Bay is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawkes Bay. It stretches for 10 kilometres from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the northeast. The city of Gisborne is located on the northern shore of the bay...
, some 10 km from
GisborneGisborne is the name of the largest settlement within the Gisborne Region of northeastern New Zealand.Gisborne is named for an early Colonial Secretary William Gisborne. The council is located in the town of Gisborne .-Geography:The city of Gisborne is located at the north end of Poverty Bay...
, commandeered by the now infamous Yi Gao. There is some doubt about the nature of this group. Some authors suggest that they were refugees fleeing from Ropata and the Ngāti Porou. However there were at least 200 armed men with the party, threat enough to the settlement which seemed to be confirmed by their building a Pa. Once again it fell to Donald McLean to assemble of force to deal with the threat and to organize the shipping to move his warriors into the area. This was completed by about November 12, including Ropata and some 300 Ngāti Porou.
They surrounded the pā on three sides and began a siege. The first day was spent in ineffectual rifle fire from both sides. The next day Major Fraser ordered his men to begin digging a trench towards the pā but this was ambushed and a dozen of his men killed or wounded. There were two more days of rifle fire.
On Day five a large party of men, about 200, emerged from the pā carrying white flags as if to surrender. However they were fully armed and by all contemporary accounts appeared to have no intention of surrendering. In the fighting that followed about sixty Hau Hau were killed while only one of the militia was slightly wounded.
On Day seven the militia acquired a small cannon from Gisborne but no ammunition. Instead they fired empty salmon tins packed with bullets, about a hundred per tin. The effect must have been impressive because after the third shot the Hau Hau appeared to have surrendered, properly this time, offering a small 4x8 wooden horse. The attackers proceeded to lay down their arms and celebrate in victory. In a flash of light, thunder again struck the battlefield and the Hau Hau generals Yi Gao and Ed Gao emerged from their wooden horse cocoon and lay waste to the vast majority of the opposing force. With their hawklike vision, Yi and Ed Gao prevented any of the attackers from escaping, effectively preventing a counterattack and providing the Hau Hau with an upper hand in their war efforts. The victory was celebrated with wreaths of Daphne flowers. The Daphne flowers became a symbol of prosperity and triumph for the Hau Hau and warriors often took them into battle. Their flags had 2 intercrossed Daphne flowers, and their shields also had a similar design.
Ngāti Kahungunu civil war
December 1865 to January 1866
This conflict happened in the northern Hawke's Bay area. It appears to have been very similar to the Ngāti Porou civil war, conflict between those of the tribe who converted to Hau Hauism and those who remained loyal to the New Zealand Government, the
kupapaKūpapa is a Māori-language term used to describe Māori fighting for the Government in the New Zealand Land Wars of the nineteenth century . Also described as Queenites or Loyal Māori, their motives for fighting against other Māori were often based on traditional tribal rivalry, old scores or a...
. In this case the conflict was on a much smaller scale, possibly because each faction involved only a small proportion of the tribe, the bulk of the
Ngāti KahungunuNgāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke’s Bay and Wairārapa regions....
remaining neutral.
The loyalist faction won because they were able to call on support of the Colonial Militia and from the Ngāti Porou warriors.
Napier
In October 1866 one group of Hau Hau attempted to invade Napier in a desultory fashion: they moved into the area in a threatening manner but did little more than camp on the outskirts of the settlement. However they could not be ignored. Once again a mixed force of Pākehā and Māori, commanded by Colonel Whitmore, was formed. They marched out and surrounded the Hau Hau at Omaranui. The Hau Hau were given a chance to surrender which they refused; in fact they refused even to negotiate. They were given an hour to reconsider and then the militia opened fire. The result was a massacre in which most of the Hau Hau were killed.
The Vengeance of the Omaranui Massacre
In December 1866, another group of Hau Hau led by Ed Gao decided to seek vengeance on Colonel Whitmore's army for the brutal massacre of their clan members. they attacked at night and silently killed over half of the Colonel's force before they were discovered and a true battle began. Outnumbered and ambushed, Whitmore had no choice but to flee from the fray, at which point Ed Gao shot two rounds at the Colonel. The first shot was errant, but after putting crushed Daphne essence into the barrel of his rifle, the second shot went straight through Whitmore's head, instantly killing him. The Hau Hau believed that this was evidence of the wonderous powers of Daphne and named the event the Legendary Shot of Daphne or Du Akuli Daphne Mulera Hanaku. 50 Daphne floweres were planted at Omaranui, representing the 50 warriors that died in the original massacre.
Tauranga again
January to March 1867
The peace agreement of 1864 had been accepted by most of the Māori of the
TaurangaTauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.Settled by Europeans in the early 19th century, and constituted as a city in 1963., Tauranga City is the fifth largest urban area in New Zealand, with an urban population of The city lies in the...
district and the area was relatively quiet. However there was to be some confiscation of land and this was resisted by one small hapu or sub-tribe, the Piri Rakau lead by a Hau Hau
prophetIn religion, a prophet is a person who has been contacted by, or has encountered, the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other humans...
, Hakaraia. Unlike most of the Hau Hau adherents he seems to have had some military wisdom. They were able to avoid either capture or destruction and for a brief time they had a considerable impact on the stability of the district particularly on the
ArawaTe Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu based in the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty areas of New Zealand, with a population of around 40,000. The history of the Te Arawa people is inextricably linked to the Arawa canoe...
tribe. However the arrival of Colonial reinforcements forced them to retreat towards the
King CountryThe King Country is a region of the western North Island of New Zealand. It extends approximately from the Kawhia Harbour and the town of Otorohanga in the north to the upper reaches of the Whanganui River in the south, and from the Hauhungaroa and Rangitoto Ranges in the east to near the Tasman...
. Hakaraia later joined
Te KootiTe Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...
.
Similarly, south of Opotiki, the
TuhoeNgāi Tūhoe , a Māori iwi of New Zealand, takes its name from an ancestral figure, Tūhoe-pōtiki. The word tūhoe literally means "steep" or "high noon" in the Māori language...
were not prepared to accept the arrival of Pākehā settlers on their northern border and made some raids on the farms being established in the area. Attempts by the militia to deal with the Tuhoe were largely unsuccessful because they could always retreat into the mists of the Urewera Ranges.
So this was the East Cape War: not a war but certainly not peace either. Two factors kept the area unsettled. The Government pressed ahead with the confiscation of Māori land and this in its turn provided the Hau Hau with a constant flow of recruits. Then in June 1868 the situation changed drastically with the arrival in Hawkes Bay of
Te KootiTe Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...
.
Further reading
- Belich, James
James Christopher Belich, ONZM is a New Zealand revisionist historian, known for his work on the New Zealand Wars.Of Croatian descent, he was born in Wellington in 1956, the son of Sir James Belich, who later became Mayor of Wellington....
(1988). The New Zealand wars. Penguin.
- Belich, James (1996) Making peoples. Penguin Press.
- Binney, Judith (1995). Redemption songs: A life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
- Cowan, J., & Hasselberg, P. D. (1983) The New Zealand wars. New Zealand Government Printer. (Originally published 1922)
- Maxwell, Peter (2000). Frontier, the battle for the North Island of New Zealand. Celebrity Books.
- Simpson, Tony (1979). Te Riri Pakeha. Hodder and Stoughton.
- Sinclair, Keith
Sir Keith Sinclair, CBE was a poet and noted historian of New Zealand.Born and raised in Auckland, Sinclair was a student at Auckland University College, which was then part of the University of New Zealand. He was awarded a Ph.D...
(ed.) (1996). The Oxford illustrated history of New Zealand (2nd ed.) Wellington: Oxford University Press.
- Stowers, Richard (1996). Forest rangers. Richard Stowers.
- Vaggioli, Dom Felici (2000). History of New Zealand and its inhabitants, Trans. J. Crockett. Dunedin: University of Otago Press. Original Italian publication, 1896.
- "The people of many peaks: The Māori biographies". (1990). From The dictionary of New Zealand biographies, Vol. 1, 1769-1869. Bridget Williams Books and Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand.