The New Zealand Wars in Tauranga Moana

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The mid-19th-century New Zealand Wars are an indelible part of the history of Aotearoa and, as such, an ingredient in the shaping of national identity. They were fought between government forces (including allied Māori) and Māori over issues such as land ownership and sovereignty.

The Tauranga Campaign was a six-month-long armed conflict that played out in early 1864. In a provocative move, British troops landed at the northern end of Te Papa Peninsula and blockaded Tauranga harbour. In response to this invasion of their lands Māori leaders issued a challenge to the British after agreeing on a revolutionary Code of Conduct. When their invitation to battle was ignored, Māori selected a site on the Pukehinahina ridge where they designed and built a fighting pā to a radical new design.

Gate Pā | Pukehinahina Flag (1869) by William Francis Gordon. Image: Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand 1992-0035-1631/9 via https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2014/04/28/the-new-zealand-wars-150th-anniversary-of-pukehinahina-the-battle-of-gate-pa

Underestimating their opponent, British forces suffered a humiliating defeat on 29 April 1864 at the Battle of Gate Pā | Pukehinahina (Te Pakanga o Pukehinahina). Despite vastly outnumbering their Māori foe, 31 invaders were killed and 80 wounded. However, seven weeks later British forces had their revenge, routing their opponents during the Battle of Te Ranga | Te Taumata-i-a-hui on 21 June 1864. More than 80 Māori were killed or fatally wounded during this encounter.

Battle of Te Ranga, 21 June 1864. Rough sketch of ground occupied by rebels on 21st June 1864 by Lt. Warburton, R.E. Sketched on day of action. Published in Journals of the Deputy Quartermaster General in New Zealand : from the 24th December, 1861, to the 7th September, 1864. Image Credit: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Map 268-19 via https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/maps/id/8262/rec/53.

Having lost a generation of leaders at Te Ranga, Tauranga Māori surrendered weapons and pledged peace to Governor George Grey. Far from being regarded as patriots defending their lands, they were instead branded as rebels. The New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863, which contemptibly breaks the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, meant that the Crown could take the lands of those Māori who ‘engaged in open rebellion against Her Majesty’s authority’.

Tauranga Māori witnessed raupatu or confiscation of their lands under this Act. Especially affected were Ngāti Ranginui hapū Ngāi Tamarāwaho whose home was Te Papa Peninsula. The Church Missionary Society were given little choice but to gift 4/5ths of the Te Papa Block to the Crown. The surveyed land was distributed to the initial 211 military settlers, founding the new town of Tauranga.

Some Māori responded to the surveying of confiscated land with a small-scale conflict throughout 1867 known as the Tauranga Bush Campaign (Te Weranga ki Taumata). The Crown forces brutally crushed the rebellion by randomly burning villages and destroying cultivations, many of whose occupants were not involved in the insurgency. Raupatu combined with introduced European diseases and the loss of access to traditional food sources to condemn generations of Tauranga Māori to lives of poverty.

Village on fire. Image via Maria Emma https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/555983516480084009/ and https://www.pngjoy.com/fullpng/k6p2l6p9u4p1r4/

Tauranga Māori have never stopped protesting the injustices against them, and it is only in recent times that some restitution has come to pass through the work of the Waitangi Tribunal. In order for Tauranga Moana to move forward as a city, a full comprehension of the events that shaped the region is necessary. It is only then that each Treaty partner can grow our relationship and our whenua to its full potential in an atmosphere of mutual understanding, appreciation, trust, and respect.

© Debbie Joy McCauley (2021, updated 2022) | All Rights Reserved | Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Debbie McCauley and https://debbiemccauleyauthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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