www.waikatotimes.co.nz
MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011
7
Rewi’s last stand far from the end
Some Maori
embraced trading
with early settlers
and adopted their
steel tools, woollen
clothing, new
crops, education
and more peaceful
religion. Others
saw only the threat
of losing their land
and traditions to
the Pakeha. So
alliances arose –
and Maori war
parties clashed in
the land wars of
the 1860s.
The defeat of Rewi Maniapoto and about 300
of his supporters at Orakau on April 2, 1864,
has been referred to as Rewi’s Last Stand but,
although the renowned fighting leader and
strategist of the Maori King Movement did
not take the field against the British again, he
never submitted to British sovereignty and
the fighting was far from over.
Like the Irish and Scottish clans before
them, Maori tribes were divided over loyalty
to Britain. For some tribes in and near major
Pakeha settlements there were opportunities
for trade, principally supplying the new
settlers with agricultural produce and
firewood. In return many had learned to read
and write, enjoyed the convenience of Pakeha
technology and adapted readily to the more
peaceful Pakeha religion. Steel tools and
woollen clothing were also superior in many
ways to stone and woven flax.
For other tribes, the retention of their
lands, traditional lifestyle, social structures
and independence was preferable to becoming
landless labourers in a Pakeha world. Clashes
between these tribes were, therefore,
inevitable, particularly during the land wars
of the 1860s.
Before the invasion of Waikato by General
Cameron, Rewi Maniapoto had sent
messengers to many other tribes seeking
assistance in the war he was sure was
looming on his northern border. In the days
of pedestrian travel it often took weeks and
sometimes months for these war parties to
finally arrive and, for Rewi Maniapoto,
‘‘Unless immediate steps are taken towards
the conservation of large tracts of existing
forests, and towards the re-planting [of
forests] the climate, which is naturally dry,
will become, year by year, more dry, until
at length pastoral and agricultural pursuits
will become profitless, if not impossible."
This was not written in 2008. Nor 1988.
Nor even 1948.
These concerns appeared in 1880, in a
publication written by the colourfullynamed New Zealand and Australian
surveyor, Frederick Septimus
Peppercorne.
Peppercorne’s words were in the
vanguard of a widespread set of interlinked
fears about the impact of imperialism and
environmental change on everything from
climate and human health, to racial
development and urban planning.
Fears like these, the research of senior
lecturer in history, Dr James Beattie,
reveals, reached New Zealand through
international networks of science as early
as the 1840s.
Beattie has been leading the charge on
investigations into the origins of many of
several arrived too late and some never
arrived at all. One group of Ngati Kahungunu
arrived just as Rewi and his followers were
retreating from their northern Waikato
homelands after the fall of Rangioawhia.
Honour demanded that they be given an
opportunity to face the British invaders after
travelling so far, and Rewi finally agreed to
make a stand at Orakau and it ended in the
now famous and predictable defeat.
Over several weeks in March and April
1864, a combined group of about 1000 people
from several East Coast tribes gathered at
Otamarakau, near the mouth of the
Waitahanui Stream, in preparation for a trek
inland to assist their kinsmen among the
Waikato tribes against the British. Apart
from ties of kinship and inter-tribal loyalty,
many felt it was better to meet and defeat the
British in Waikato before they turned their
greedy eyes on other tribal lands. By the time
they were ready to move off – some time in
March – on the long trek to the battlefront,
they were not aware Cameron had already
penetrated deep into Waikato and Rewi
Maniapoto was fighting a series of desperate
rear-guard battles as he fell back further
southwards to the Puniu River. The East
Coast tribes had many days of difficult travel
ahead but their troubles began almost
immediately when the resident people of the
area, Arawa, blocked their way.
Arawa were one of many tribes who had
formed close working ties with the Pakeha
settlers as far north as Auckland. They owned
a fleet of small sailing ships and enjoyed a
brisk trade along the coast. The last thing
they were prepared to tolerate was a band of
invaders crossing their tribal territory on the
way to fight the British in Waikato and access
was denied. The invaders had come too far to
be turned back at the first difficulty and
requests to cross Arawa land quickly turned
to heated demands and, finally, threats.
our present environmental management
concerns.
His book, Empire and Environmental
Anxiety: Health, Science, Art and
Conservation in South Asia and
Australasia, 1800-1920, published by
Palgrave Macmillan, provides a radical
and fascinating new analysis of
imperialism and environmental change. It
is an analysis that promises to re-write
interpretations of the British Empire, but
also shed new light on present
environmental management problems.
Celebration: St Peter’s scout den in Lorne St, Hamilton, will turn 100 this year.
For most of us today swearing and cursing
is as natural as breathing. Laws that
prohibit obscene language are seldom
enforced. Swearing in Parliament itself has
become if not commonplace then certainly
far from rare.
It was not always the case. The charge of
‘‘using obscene language’’ was extremely
serious in colonial times. In 1869, for
example, one Hetty Barnes, who was
already out on bail for another offence, was
fined 40 shillings for swearing in
Christchurch’s Cathedral Square. In 1904, a
woman from the same city got a month
with hard labour for swearing in her own
house after she was heard by passers-by.
The guilty were usually given the option
of paying a fine or going to prison but there
were significant inconsistencies in the
Eventually the war party simply gathered
their weapons and baggage, ignored the local
people and set off inland.
The Arawa people were not well armed and
swift messengers were sent northwards along
the coast to elicit help from the British
garrison at Tauranga and kinsmen working
at Maketu. Two days later the invaders had
skirted around Lake Rotoehu and reached the
eastern shore of Lake Rotoiti, where they
were attacked by a now well-armed but small
band of Arawa fighters. Carrying muskets
and shotguns, they had raced inland from
Maketu and paddled the length of the lake to
set up an ambush.
After two days of running gunfights
through the scrub and wetlands, with a few
casualties on both sides, the East Coast
invaders realised they could not get past the
determined Arawa and turned back towards
the coast. In their anger and frustration they
called out their intention to burn Maketu, just
10 miles away, to the ground and kill any
Arawa people they found there. Swift Arawa
messengers were again called on, to take the
dreaded news to the British garrison at
Tauranga. By this time the township of
Rangioawhia had already been overrun and
Rewi Maniapoto had retreated from Orakau
and northern Waikato in defeat.
With Rewi Maniapoto gone from Waikato,
the British were able to send a powerful
contingent to reinforce the garrison at
Maketu and preparations were made to
defend the little port and the local population
against the expected attack by the East Coast
invading force.
After almost two weeks the defenders at
Maketu began to relax and assumed the East
Coast people had slipped quietly away to their
homes. It was a false and almost fatal
assumption.
sentences handed out. On November 19,
1885, a certain Richard Taylor was sent to
jail for 48 hours for ‘‘swearing in a public
place’’. A week later, in the same Lyttleton
court, the same magistrate sentenced
Daniel O’Brien to a month in the big house
for the same offence.
In 1905, a married man with three
children was sent to prison for six months
for swearing at a tramway conductor.
The most widely reported 19th century
case was notable not so much for the
severity of the sentence as for the
occupation of the accused.
The May 1886 story of a ‘‘Salvation
[Army] lass’’ being fined for using obscene
language ‘‘while intoxicated’’ attracted
much attention. In her case, as in others,
swearing was thought a greater crime than
drinking.
Using obscene language also often
resulted in a harsher penalty than using
violence. In 1907, a drunk was fined £10 for
swearing but only £1 for assaulting a boy,
the respective prison sentences being four
months and one month.
Henry Gaze
1874-1953
Henry Gaze is one of Hamilton’s
foremost artists, a gifted
photographer whose work was
seen in many exhibitions
overseas, including venues in
Chicago, London, France, Spain,
Ireland, Antwerp, Brussels,
Capetown and Melbourne. He was
awarded medals in photography
and became a fellow of the Royal
Photographic Society.
Gaze was a Waikato Society of
Arts member from its inception,
exhibiting as well as judging work
at annual exhibitions. He was a
renowned art critic for the
Waikato Times from about 1906.
He was also a member of the
Waikato Photographic Society.
Gaze initiated the first New
Zealand International Salon of
Photography, held at the Waikato
Winter Show in Bledisloe Hall in
1938.
He was an active member of
dramatic and operatic societies;
not only was he a talented
vocalist, he assisted with makeup
and designed costumes. He was an
original member of the French
and Shakespearean clubs (1923).
Born in Christchurch in 1874,
Gaze came to Hamilton in 1900 to
work as a photographer. Initially
he could not afford a studio, but
set up as an itinerant
photographer, riding on
horseback as far afield as Raglan
and Kawhia. Later he had
commercial studios in Victoria St,
first in the Howden’s building
until the mid 1920s, then in King’s
Building.
In 1907 he married Lotchen
Augusta von Sturmer (daughter
of Frederick J von Sturmer, onetime editor of the New Zealand
Herald), and they had five
daughters and one son. The Gazes
lived in Ohaupo Rd (now
Pembroke St) on a one-acre
property bordering the lake.
Many of his artworks, family
shots and landscapes feature the
lake and Lake House.
Gaze’s photographs record
many aspects of Hamilton’s
history – places, events and
formal portraits of council
members, sports teams and
citizens. While his commercial
work was conventional and
documentary, his art photographs
were symbolic, figurative and
romantic. Critics have described
his ‘‘intuitive vision’’ and noted
the ‘‘escapist quality’’ in his work.
Waikato Museum has in its
collection many examples of his
commercial and artistic work.
Gaze retired in 1948 and moved
to Tauranga. He died on
November 23, 1953, aged 79, and is
buried in one of the lawn areas of
Hamilton East Cemetery.
Historic record: Waikato Museum has photographs taken by Henry
Gaze, whose grave is in a lawn area of Hamilton East Cemetery.
SCOTSMANS VALLEY
The St Peter’s Sea Scouts troop celebrates
its 100th birthday this year. Although the
troop’s den in Lorne St is an unassuming
building from the outside, both its age and
the echoes of den meetings past are easily
appreciated inside.
As is well known by those of a certain
age and upbringing, Sir Robert BadenPowell founded the Scouting movement in
Britain in 1907. The Scouts New Zealand
website says the ‘‘first New Zealand Scout
Troop was officially registered at Kaiapoi
on 3 July 1908, following the arrival in New
Zealand of Baden-Powell’s book Scouting
for Boys. In 1911, the first all-Maori Scout
Troop was formed at Ohinemutu.’’
In the same year, the curate of St Peter’s
Anglican Cathedral founded Hamilton’s
first troop.
The Scouting movement emphasises
service, adventure and personal growth,
catering for all ages within a structure that
still carries the marks of Baden-Powell’s
military background. Children progress up
the ranks of Keas, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers
and Rovers and, in recent times, girls have
been welcome to join in the fun.
The Scouts’ National Mud Slide Day
requires no building, but the Scout Den is
busy several evenings a week as boys and
girls learn watercraft, how to make gloop
and about other countries’ games and
traditions. The den was built for the
Melville troop and was renamed St Peter’s
in 1962 when the two groups merged.
Several generations of families have
passed through the den doors and with the
centenary coming up, no doubt there will
be many people reflecting on the fun that
was had and the sense of achievement
gained from being part of St Peter’s Sea
Scouts. Our family’s Kea is just looking
forward to sharing his fly-casting talent
and sailing on Lake Rotoroa when he is
bigger.
Scotsmans Valley, the little settlement between Cambridge and
Morrinsville, was named after a senior member of the Shaw family who
farmed the area in the pioneering days of the early 1870s. It is said that the
name was bestowed by ‘‘Granny Shaw’’ in memory of her ancestral home in
the Scottish Highlands. The Maori name for the region is Tauwhare.
Sources include Places Names of New Zealand (Reed) and New Zealand
Encyclopedia (Bateman)