The siege of Ngatapa was an engagement that took place from 31 December 1868 to 5 January 1869 during Te Kooti's War in the East Coast region of New Zealand.
Te Kooti's War was part of the New Zealand Wars, a series of conflicts between the British, the local authorities and their Māori allies on one side, and several Māori iwi (tribes) on the other, that took place from 1843 to 1872. Like some of the later clashes in this period, Te Kooti's War had a religious basis. Te Kooti was the leader of the Ringatū religion and gathered a following of disenfranchised Māori who like himself had been exiled to the Chatham Islands in 1866 by the government. After two years of captivity, they escaped to the mainland, landing on the East Coast in July 1868. Pursued by the local militia, Te Kooti and his followers moved inland. He mounted a raid in November in Poverty Bay which resulted in the murders of several local settlers and a series of skirmishes with Māori aligned with the government—known as kūpapa—followed.
Te Kooti and his 300 followers, along with their families and a number of prisoners, retreated to the hillfort—or pā—at Ngatapa (). An initial attack made on 4 December by warriors of the Ngāti Porou iwi, led by Ropata Wahawaha, was fended off. At the end of the month, the Armed Constabulary—a regular paramilitary force—commanded by Colonel George Whitmore, along with Ropata's Ngāti Porou warriors, surrounded the pā. After being encircled and cut off from their water supply for almost a week, Te Kooti and his men escaped down a cliff face that their attackers believed to be inaccessible. Many of Te Kooti's followers were subsequently captured and executed by the Ngāti Porou and some Māori members of the Armed Constabulary with the cognisance of Whitmore, a massacre that has in modern times been condemned as an abuse of law and human rights.
Background
From 1843 to 1872, there were a series of conflicts in New Zealand between some local Māori people on one side, and British imperial and colonial forces and their Māori allies on the other. These clashes are collectively termed the New Zealand Wars. While some of the wars of this period were as a result of land confiscations or clashes with the Māori King Movement, many of the later conflicts were due to the rise of prophetic Māori leaders and religious movements which threatened the autonomy of the government. These movements also subverted tribalism so often were met with hostility by the leaders of many iwi (tribes) as well. Te Kooti's War was the last of these later wars, and marked the final field engagements of the New Zealand Wars.
The earliest conflicts of the New Zealand Wars saw Māori warriors using muskets in addition to their traditional weapons, such as striking staffs—or taiaha—and war clubs—or mere. By the time of Te Kooti's War, they were equipped with modern Snider–Enfield rifles; either captured in battle or purchased from arms dealers. They still retained their close combat weapons and were also known to use shotguns. Their opponents also used Snider-Enfield rifles but could rely on more reliable and robust supplies of ammunition compared to the Māori, who would have to rely on what they captured or scavenged.
Te Kooti was a Māori warrior of the Rongowhakaata iwi who in 1865 had fought on the side of the New Zealand government against the Pai Mārire religious movement during the siege of Waerenga-a-Hika in Poverty Bay. Afterwards, already regarded as a troublemaker by the settlers in the region and some local Māori, he was arrested by the local magistrate and militia commander, Captain Reginald Biggs, on the grounds of being a spy; communications between Te Kooti and a Pai Mārire leader, supposedly arranging an ambush of local militia, had been intercepted. In March 1866 he was exiled without a trial to the Chatham Islands along with 200 Pai Mārire warriors and their families. While there he developed his own religion, Ringatū. In 1868, he and his followers escaped from captivity and, now armed with weapons secured from the vessel they had commandeered to effect their escape, landed back at Poverty Bay in July.
After rebuffing a request from Biggs to surrender, Te Kooti and his Ringatū warriors were pursued by the local militia, made up of European settlers, in order to prevent them moving inland. A series of defeats followed for the militia as they endeavoured to stop Te Kooti's march to Puketapu, a hillfort—or pā—in the Urewera hill country. This resulted in Te Kooti acquiring more supplies for his men. The militia were soon reinforced with troops from the Armed Constabulary, a paramilitary law enforcement agency that formed New Zealand's main defence force at the time and which was led by Colonel George Whitmore.
In September, conflict in South Taranaki saw Whitmore and his men withdrawn to deal with that threat while the government sought a truce with Te Kooti, offering land in exchange for a surrender of arms. This did not meet with a response; Te Kooti did not trust the government. Te Kooti then spread rumours that an attack on Wairoa in Hawke's Bay was imminent. However, on the night of 9/10 November, Te Kooti and his Ringatū men instead attacked a number of communities in Poverty Bay, including at Matawhero. There they massacred settlers, their families, and local Māori. Te Kooti sought revenge—or utu—for his banishment to the Chathams. Among those killed were Biggs, his wife, and their infant son. Soon afterwards, Te Kooti murdered a chief—or rangatira–Paratene Pototi, who had played a role in Te Kooti being sent to the Chathams. Six other rangatira were also executed. Te Kooti remained in control of the area for a week, taking prisoners and gathering weapons and supplies. As a result of the massacre, the government were now determined to deal with Te Kooti, placing a bounty for his capture and sending Whitmore's Armed Constabulary back to the region.
Prelude On 17 November, Te Kooti began withdrawing his forces and captives from Poverty Bay to the rural community of Makeretu, known now as Ashley Clinton, about west of Tūranga—now Gisborne. Two days later, 200 Ngāti Kahungunu warriors—kūpapa or Māori who were aligned with the Government—arrived in the area to reinforce the 240 Māori warriors already present in the area, and together began their pursuit of Te Kooti. They attacked Makeretu and met the Ringatū forces in open battle. The kūpapa were forced into a defensive posture on a ridge about from Makeretu, and one of the Ngāti Kahungunu leaders was among the 20 warriors killed. They held their positions while awaiting supplies of ammunition. However, Te Kooti sent a small raiding party to attack the depot that was the expected source of the supplies of ammunition and this proved successful. They routed the small garrison at the depot and plundered 16,000 rounds of ammunition for Te Kooti's forces.
The kūpapa were still able to hold their defensive positions due to their greater numbers but needed reinforcements and ammunition before they could go on the offensive. A force of around 370 kūpapa, led by Ropata Wahawaha of the Ngāti Porou iwi, arrived at Makeretu on 2 December, bringing the total number opposing Te Kooti to over 800. Now resupplied with ammunition portered directly from Tūranga, they attacked Te Kooti's position the following day. However, Te Kooti had moved most of his fighters, along with women, children, food and livestock, to the pā of Ngatapa, about further inland. Only a small rearguard had been left at Makeretu, and at least 14 were killed and some others taken prisoner.
Following the capture of Makeretu, Ropata's Ngāti Porou wanted to execute some of the prisoners, but Tareha Te Moananui, the leader of the Ngāti Kahungunu contingent, refused, and returned to Tūranga with most of his men. The inter-tribal dispute had delayed a move to Ngatapa by Ropata's forces, which now numbered around 450 kūpapa, by nearly a day.
Ngatapa
Ngatapa, about from Poverty Bay and northwest from the modern township bearing its name, was a pā located on a hilltop rising from a ridge. An elongated, narrow ridge extended away to the west side of the pā while its southern side was steep and covered in bush. The northern side was nearly sheer. A secondary hill, known as the Crow's Nest and about to the east rose from the same ridge, and this formed the approach to the base of the hilltop, which was triangular in shape. Te Kooti had strengthened the defences of the pā with a series of three trenches, earth banks and palisades, as well as covered walkways connecting the trenches. The interior of the pā was a maze of rifle pits.
Pā had been a key to success for Māori combatants in previous campaigns, as the British and colonial forces had discovered. When outnumbered, Māori often used a well-constructed pā to negate the advantage of the superior firepower possessed by the attacking Europeans and kūpapa.
Belich argues that Ngatapa was more a traditional pā than a modern one. A fault with the fortifications at Ngatapa was that the parapets were excessively wide, creating a blind spot immediately in front them. When Te Kooti laid out the defensive arrangements he gave little consideration to the construction of traps and diversions, often problematic for attackers of modern pā. Another weakness was the lack of a water source within the pā which, after the withdrawal from Makaretu, would contain around 300 of Te Kooti's warriors, their families plus numerous prisoners, at least 500 people in all. A further problem was a lack of a clear line of retreat, a common feature for modern pā. Nonetheless, Ngatapa was considered a serious obstacle for attacking forces.
Siege On 4 December, after an initial attack on Ngatapa by the remaining kūpapa was beaten off by concentrated fire from the Ringatū, Ropata and a European officer, Lieutenant George Preece of the Armed Constabulary who was attached to the Ngāti Porou contingent, led a party up close to the pā and during the course of the afternoon small groups of warriors were able to join them. Eventually, they breached the outer defensive trench. As night fell, more reinforcements, including some led by Ihaka Whaanga of Ngāti Kahungunu, joined them but ammunition was low. Ropata requested some be brought up, but night had fallen and no one wanted to make the climb up in the dark. Ropata abandoned the position early the following morning as his men had run out of ammunition. They then withdrew from Ngatapa altogether, fatigued from the marching and fight of the past several days, and returned to Tūranga.
Rumours that Te Kooti had abandoned Ngatapa spread in the days following the engagement there, but then on 12 December Te Kooti led a second lightning raid into Poverty Bay. This saw three settlers killed at Opou, near Tūranga, and a skirmish with some Ngāti Kahungunu followed. Further reports confirming Te Kooti's presence at Ngatapa were received. The raid of 12 December galvanised Whitmore, who had arrived at Tūranga with his Armed Constabulary on 6 December, to renew his campaign against Te Kooti. He had previously decided just days earlier to return to South Taranaki on hearing the rumours that Te Kooti had quit Ngatapa and retired inland. His troops, who had embarked on a ship for South Taranaki, were turned around and planning began for a second, better-equipped assault on Ngatapa. Concerned that Te Kooti could still vacate Ngatapa before Whitmore could get there with his men, a contingent of Ngāti Kahungunu had moved off from Wairoa to penetrate the interior and cut off his retreat. In the meantime, Ropata, disappointed with the performance of some of his Ngāti Porou at Ngatapa, went to his home region of Waiapu to recruit more warriors.