www.waikatotimes.co.nz
MONDAY, JULY 11, 2011
7
Stealthy attack on a sleepy town
The attack by General
Duncan Cameron on the
soft target of
defenceless
Rangioawhia town was
intended to deprive the
defenders at Rewi
Maniapoto’s massive
Paterangi fortification
of food and supplies,
and so avoid the need
for a direct assault.
For many of us when we are sick, the first
port of call is the doctor’s surgery. For
others, alternative choices are available
through the chemist or health shop. We
frequently take these choices for granted,
but what choices were available for New
Zealand’s earliest settlers? A great number
of immigrants were encouraged to move to
New Zealand for the sake of their health.
But for colonists who chose to live in the
many small and isolated settlements
around New Zealand, the nearest doctor
was often hours away, and given the
nature of medical practice in the 19th
century, many preferred the advice and
treatment of alternative practitioners.
In the smaller settlements women often
took up the role of doctor applying skills
they brought to New Zealand and then
adapted to the colonial environment.
Chemists played a vital role supplying raw
ingredients for home remedies and patent
and proprietary medicines. Sister Suzanne
Aubert (1835-1926), a French nun who
arrived in the 1860s under the auspices of
Bishop Pompallier, is probably best known
for combining her nursing skills with local
Graceful:
The singlearch Narrows
Bridge has
been
registered by
the NZ
Historic
Places Trust
as having
national
significance.
The stand-off at Paterangi, between
General Duncan Cameron and Rewi
Maniapoto, had dragged on for more than
a week in the early summer of 1864 before
Cameron made his move to outflank the
massive defensive system.
Cameron had a well-equipped and
experienced army of about 2000 men under
arms at various posts in his forward
positions deep in Waikato.
They were well supplied by an equally
extensive system stretching all the way
back to Otahuhu, and supported by a fleet
of gunships on the Waikato River.
By the beginning of 1864 they had
occupied the Maori King’s headquarters at
Ngaruwahia and penetrated several miles
up the Waipa River but could not bring
Rewi Maniapoto and his alliance of
Waikato tribes to a decisive battle.
The Maori force of about 1500 to 2000
armed men and women had fallen back
steadily under the onslaught of this huge
army, making a number of stands to slow
the British advance and refusing to engage
in a one-sided pitched battle.
Finally, at the massive earthworks
defensive system based on Paterangi, Rewi
had decided to make a decisive stand. The
huge complex could withstand any amount
of artillery bombardment, and shotgun and
musket fire would take a heavy toll of
infantry attempting a frontal assault.
Behind and slightly to the west of
Paterangi lay the extensive grain fields,
farms and flour mills surrounding the
knowledge; observing, learning and then
incorporating plants used by local Maori.
Agnes Harrold moved with her husband
James to New Zealand in 1848 and bought
the Taieri hotel where she looked after
orphan children using her knowledge of
medicinal plants and remedies. After
moving to Stewart Island, Mrs Harrold
provided medical care for most of the
island’s inhabitants.
Her remedies combined introduced
herbs such as peppermint, dandelion with
native plants including rata, koromiko and
kokihi.
❚ Joanna Bishop is a PhD candidate in the
History Programme at The University of
Waikato.
Rangiaowhia township which formed the
supply system for the Maori fighting force.
Cameron quickly realised that taking
possession of this food supply would bring
the contest to a rapid conclusion without
the massive loss of life for both sides in an
all-out assault on Paterangi.
On the night of February 20 1864 a force
of about 1000 men assembled at Te Rore
and began a silent advance around the
western end of the Paterangi complex
towards Otawhao (not far from today’s Te
Awamutu Railway Station) from where a
dawn attack on the unfortified and
virtually defenceless Rangioawhia
township was launched.
The attacking force included Captain
Gustavus Von Tempsky at the head of the
Forest Rangers, men of the 65th Regiment,
under Lieutenant Tabuteau and Colonel
Nixon’s Colonial Defence Force Cavalry.
Significantly, Bishop Selwyn, who had
played a major role in the establishment of
the Rangioawhia township for the mixed
Ngati Apakura and Pakeha community,
rode with General Cameron.
There were only about 200 men, women
and children in the village when the attack
started and many sought refuge in the
churches or houses of the town.
Within minutes the Forest Rangers and
other infantrymen were running through
the village firing into raupo huts and
wooden buildings, driving the terrified
occupants into the surrounding swamps
although some of the townspeople returned
fire through church windows.
While infantrymen burned and looted
the almost-abandoned town Colonel Nixon
sent Lieutenant McDonnell and Ensign
William G Mair of the cavalry forward to
demand the surrender of a number of
Maori who had taken refuge in a large
raupo house, but they were greeted with a
Media hysteria about the synthetic drug
Kronic has many historical parallels.
Perhaps none are as interesting as late
19th and early 20th century concerns over
the smoking and distribution of opium.
For Australia and New Zealand, the
issue was as much about race as narcotics.
The opium issue was intrinsically linked to
fears about Chinese immigration.
Reportage and editorials, and in all
likelihood the majority of enforcement,
centred almost exclusively on the so-called
‘‘Celestial’’ community. In those rare
instances where a European attracted
headlines for illegal importation, his
connections with the Chinese were
insinuated if not openly declared.
In a 1901 parliamentary debate over the
Opium Prohibition Bill, Premier Richard
volley from several shotguns inside. The
house had a sunken floor and the
occupants were firing from below ground
level and sheltered from return fire. The
house was soon surrounded by infantry
and an intense battle developed.
Finally in frustration a young sergeant
rushed the house and began shooting
through the doorway with a revolver but
he was shot dead and dragged inside.
Colonel Nixon stepped forward and fired
into the house and was killed by a shot
from the open doorway. More soldiers were
shot down until the house was set alight,
some say by the flash of muskets within.
Others claim it was deliberately torched.
The fire eventually drove one of the
occupants, a tall, elderly man, out of the
burning house.
As he stood up from the low doorway
with hands in the air and obviously
unarmed one of the officers shouted to the
soldiers to cease fire but he was felled with
a volley from at least a dozen rifles at close
range. The officer was furious that his
order had been ignored but because there
were so many men firing, no-one was
arrested or charged.
Two more men who rushed from the
burning house firing their shotguns were
also shot dead.
When the soldiers were finally able to
enter the burnt-out house they found the
charred bodies of the young sergeant and
seven Maori men.
About a dozen other buildings were put
to the torch and, at the Catholic church,
about 30 Maori defenders had intended to
fight to the last but, when they discovered
the wooden walls were not bullet-proof
they escaped southwards.
Twelve Maori, including the chiefs
Hoani and Ihaia, were killed in the attack
on the town and about 30 were captured.
John Gordon
1846-1932
John Gordonwas a prominent and
highly respected Waikato farmer
of the late 19th-early 20th century.
He was secretary of the New
Zealand Agricultural Society,
chairman of the Kirikiriroa Roads
Board, one of the first members of
the Waikato County Council and
actively connected with the
Waikato Agricultural and
Pastoral Association. He won
many prizes at cattle shows.
From 1885 Gordon was manager
of Woodlands at Gordonton, part
of the extensive Eureka estate.
Gordonton is named after him.
After the Land for Settlement Act
was passed in 1894, the large
estates were broken up to form
smaller farms and Gordon bought
a parcel of the Eureka Estate at
Eureka.
Gordon built a new large
homestead. The house was part of
a complex of workers’ cottages, a
barn, a smithy and other
outhouses with an extensive
plantation of English trees.
Gordon took with him from
Woodlands some of the milking
shorthorn herd. Later, in 1908, the
Department of Agriculture bought
some of the descendants of those
cows for the new experimental
farm at Ruakura.
Gordon married three times,
but outlived each wife. His first
wife was Susan Houstan whom he
married in 1882. On the birth of
their first son, the staff at
Woodlands were given a holiday,
with sports and a dance, which
became a tradition.
However, on the birth of their
second son in 1892 Susan
developed serious complications
and, despite John hiring a train to
bring a doctor from Auckland, she
died soon after.
In 1898 Gordon married Alice
Mayhew and they had one child.
In 1908 Alice and John shifted to
Bankwood, a large farm on what
was then the northern outskirts of
Hamilton. Their house at
Bankwood was the large villa,
now part of Waikato Diocesan
School for Girls. The house is
registered by the Historic Places
Trust. However, Alice did not
have much time to enjoy it – she
died a few months later at Opoia
Hospital.
Gordon’s third wife, widow
Margaret Brown, whom he
married in 1910, lived with him at
Bankwood until her death in 1916.
They are all buried with him in
Hamilton West Cemetery.
All together:
The
headstone
erected by
John Gordon
for his first
wife, Susan, is
one of the
more
impressive
monuments
at Hamilton
West
Cemetery. He
and his
second and
third wives,
Alice and
Margaret, and
a newborn
baby who is
presumably
his grandson,
are buried in
the same
large grave.
John Seddon said an increase in the ‘‘evil
habit of opium smoking’’ could be proven
by reference to police records, adding that
‘‘to my mind a drunkard or a gambler was
preferred to an opium smoker’’.
Given Seddon’s notoriously prejudicial
track record on all things Asian, his
meaning was plain: even in the matter of
vice, the white man was superior to the
yellow.
The MP for Bay of Plenty, William
Herries, questioned Mr Seddon’s statistics,
and rejected the suggestion of wider usage
in the colony: ‘‘I suppose opium smoking is
always prevalent amongst Chinamen, and
perhaps more so in Wellington than
another city, because of the larger number
of Chinamen here, but I never heard it was
affecting colonial youths . . . ‘‘
Nine years and two pieces of legislation
later, the Truth ran an appalling article
suggesting opium defendants should be
convicted on racial grounds ending: ‘‘It
galls a decent white New Zealander to
think that a slimy Celestial should be able
to escape punishment by reason of a
technical flaw in the act.’’
Gordonton
The Waikato River is spanned by many bridges
and they are probably regarded more as a
necessary part of one’s journey than appreciated
for their heritage value. Hamilton’s Fairfield
Bridge has been recognised as having national
significance by the NZ Historic Places Trust,
which has also registered the Narrows Bridge on
Airport Road.
Both bridges were designed by the same firm of
Auckland engineers, Jones and Adams. R C
Adams teamed up with Stanley Jones in 1920 and
the firm later became the multi-disciplinary
practice KRTA, which was also responsible for
the 1958 grandstand at the Matamata Racecourse.
Jones and Adams were responsible for a
number of bridges in Auckland and the Waikato
during the 1920s and 1930s, most often replacing
timber structures that had done their time.
In 1875, when it was first suggested that ‘‘a
bridge might be thrown across the river at the
Narrows’’, the Waikato Times reported that this
was an ‘‘absurd suggestion’’ given that ‘‘a bridge
a mile and a half away [from Hamilton] would be
comparatively useless’’. Evidently the paper held
no sway in the matter and by February 1877 the
Narrows Bridge was being discussed in a much
more favourable light. Tenders were called in
May 1878.
By 1896 the timber bridge was considered
unsafe for heavy traffic and the ‘‘owners of
traction engines cross only at their own risk’’. A
replacement was some way off, however. Having
designed the Horotiu [1919-21], Te Aroha [1926],
Tuakau [1933] and Fairfield [1937] bridges, Jones
and Adams designed a new Narrows bridge in
1939.
Built from reinforced concrete, the bridge is
carried, rather then ‘‘thrown’’, across the river by
a single graceful arch. Temporarily closed late
last year while the riverbank beneath it was
strengthened, the bridge is part of the region’s
transport and engineering history. Slowing down
to navigate the approaches to it provides a chance
to admire both the 70-year-old structure’s design
and the ancient river that it spans.
Gordonton, about 14
kilometres from Hamilton,
was named after the New
Zealand Land Association
property manager John
Gordon who was appointed
to manage about 32,300ha
of Waikato peatlands in
1886. The original Maori
name for the area was
Hukanui. It had been
surveyed for military
settlement allotments after
the land wars of 1864. As
there was another location
named Hukanui near
Wellington the name was
changed to Gordontown
following a public meeting
of Maori and Pakeha
settlers.
lSources include Places
Names of New Zealand
(Reed) and New Zealand
Encyclopedia (Bateman)