The Flagstaff War, also known as Heke's War, Hōne Heke's Rebellion and the Northern War, was fought between 11 March 1845 and 11 January 1846 in and around the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. The conflict is best remembered for the actions of Hōne Heke who challenged the authority of the British by cutting down the flagstaff on Flagstaff Hill (Maiki Hill) at Kororāreka (now Russell). The flagstaff had been a gift from Hōne Heke to James Busby, the first British Resident. The Northern War involved many major actions, including the Battle of Kororāreka on 11 March 1845, the Battle of Puketutu on 8 May 1845, the Battle of Ōhaeawai on 23 June 1845 and the siege of Ruapekapeka Pā from 27 December 1845 to 11 January 1846. The conflict is seen as one of the first of the New Zealand Wars.
Causes
The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi started on 6 February 1840, and Governor William Hobson believed that it established the legal basis for British sovereignty over New Zealand, while, Ngāpuhi, the largest and most powerful northern tribe, one party to the Treaty, believed the contrary, that they had entered into a partnership with the Crown. All Ngāpuhi chiefs had signed the treaty document translated from English to Māori in the context of the time. The actions of Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti in 1844 reflect the controversy that began soon after the treaty was signed. Flag poles became a focus of protest when Governor Hobson refused to allow the United Tribes flag to be flown alongside the British Union Flag.
On 21 May 1840 Governor Hobson formally annexed New Zealand to the British Crown, and in the following year moved the capital from Russell, to more favourable ground at Waitematā Harbour some 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of Waitangi, to a new town called Auckland. In the Bay of Islands, Hōne Heke, one of the original signatories to the treaty, was increasingly unhappy with the outcome of the agreement. Among other things, Heke objected to the relocation of the capital to Auckland. Moreover, the Governor in Council had imposed a custom tariff on staple articles of trade. Before the tariff had gone into effect, more than 20 whaling ships would be visiting the Bay of Islands at any one time; the tariff resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of ships that visited Kororāreka. This reduction in the number of visiting ships caused a serious loss of revenue to Ngāpuhi. Heke also lost income due to their less-frequent collection of the £5 fee they levied on each ship that entered the Bay, a payment which the cousins divided between themselves. Pōmare II complained that he no longer collected payment from American ships that called at Otuihu across from Opua.
Heke and the Ngāpuhi chief Pōmare II had listened to Captain William Mayhew (the Acting-Consul for the United States from 1840) and other Americans talk about the successful revolt of the American colonies against England over the issue of taxation. Heke obtained an American ensign from Henry Green Smith, a storekeeper at Wahapu who had succeeded Mayhew as Acting-Consul. After the flagstaff was cut down for a second time, the Stars and Stripes flew from the carved sternpost of Heke's war canoe. Expecting American support, Heke appeared disappointed when Captain Isaac McKeever, USS St Louis, obliged him to haul down the US ensign from his canoe.
In the Bay of Islands, there existed a vague but widely diffused belief that the Treaty of Waitangi was merely a ruse of the Pākehā, and the belief that it was the intention of the Europeans, so soon as they became strong enough, to seize all Māori lands. This belief, together with Heke's views about the imposition of the customs duties, can also be linked to the further widely diffused belief that the British flag flying on Flagstaff Hill over the town of Kororāreka signified that the Māori had become taurekareka (slaves) to Queen Victoria. This discontent appears to have been fostered by the talk with the American traders, although it was an idea that had existed since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi; William Colenso, the CMS missionary printer, in his record of the events of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi commented that "[a]fter some little time Te Kemara came towards the table and affixed his sign to the parchment, stating that the Roman Catholic bishop (who had left the meeting before any of the chiefs had signed) had told him "not to write on the paper, for if he did he would be made a slave."
The trial and execution of Wiremu Kīngi Maketū in 1842 for murder was, in the opinion of Archdeacon Henry Williams, the beginning of Heke's antagonism towards the colonial administration, as Heke began gathering support thereafter among the Ngāpuhi for a rebellion. However it was not until 1844 that Heke sought support from Te Ruki Kawiti and other leaders of the Ngāpuhi iwi by the conveying of 'te ngākau', the custom observed by those who sought help to settle a tribal grievance.
Hōne Heke moves against Kororāreka
Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti worked out the plan to draw the colonial forces into battle, with the opening provocations focusing on the flagstaff on Maiki Hill at the north end of Kororāreka (Russell).
In July 1844, Kotiro, a former slave of Heke, openly insulted the Ngāpuhi chief. Kotiro had been captured from a southern tribe 15 years earlier, and was now living with her English husband, the town butcher, in Kororāreka. There are differing stories as to the specific insult or the circumstances in which it was delivered. Cowan (1922) says that while bathing with other women, a heated argument about Heke took place and Kotiro dismissed him as an upoko poaka or a pig's head; and that upon hearing of this insult Heke used it as a reason to begin his attack on the town. Hugh Carleton (1874) claimed that Heke used the presence of Kotiro, and her status, as pretext for a taua – a raid upon Kororāreka.
It happened that a slave girl belonging to Heke, Kotiro by name, was living at Kororāreka with a butcher named Lord. Heke, having a colourable right to recover his slave. A karere [messenger] was sent ahead, to announce the intention; the message was delivered to the woman in the butcher's shop, where several fat hogs were hanging up. Kotiro answering contemptuously of their power to take her away, pointing to one of the hogs, said, ina a Heke [that is Heke]. In any event Heke used the insult as a reason to enter the town, to demand payment from Lord as compensation for the insult. Satisfaction was refused: for several days Heke and his warriors remained in the town persisting in the demand, but, in reality, feeling their way, trying the temper of the Pākehā.
The Auckland Chronicle reported the incident as such:
Being disappointed in their expected booty, they [Heke and his warriors] became outrageous, brandished their tomahawks in the faces of the white people, indecently treated some white females, and exposed their persons; they took every thing out of the house [of Lord (husband of Kotiro)] and...
Flagstaff cut down for the first time
On 8 July 1844 the flagstaff on Maiki Hill, at the northern end of Kororāreka, was cut down for the first time by the Pakaraka chief Te Haratua. Heke had set out to cut down the flagstaff but had been persuaded by Archdeacon
William Williams not to do so. The Auckland Chronicle continued in its report of the event:
... [they] then proceeded to the flagstaff, which they deliberately cut down, purposely with the intention of insulting the government, and of expressing their contempt of British authority.
In the second week of August 1844, the barque Sydney arrived at the Bay of Islands from New South Wales with 160 officers and men of the 99th Regiment. On 24 August 1844 Governor Robert FitzRoy arrived at the bay from Auckland upon HMS Hazard. The Government brig Victoria arrived in company with HMS Hazard, with a detachment of the 96th Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel William Hulme. Governor FitzRoy summoned the Ngāpuhi chiefs to a conference at Te Waimate mission on 2 September and apparently defused the situation. Tāmati Wāka Nene requested the Governor to remove the troops and redress the native grievances in respect of the customs duties that were put in place in 1841, that Heke and Pōmare II viewed as damaging the maritime trade from which they benefited. Tāmati Wāka Nene and the other Ngāpuhi chiefs undertook to keep Heke in check and to protect the Europeans in the Bay of Islands. Hōne Heke did not attend, but sent a conciliatory letter and offered to replace the flagstaff. The soldiers were returned to Sydney, but the accord did not last. The Ngāpuhi warriors led by Te Ruki Kawiti and Hōne Heke decided to challenge the Europeans at Kororāreka.
Flagstaff falls twice more
On 10 January 1845, the flagstaff was cut down a second time, this time by Heke. On 17 January, a small detachment of a subaltern and 30 men of the 96th Regiment were landed. A new and stronger flagstaff sheathed in iron was erected on 18 January 1845 and the guard post built around it. Nene and his men provided guards for the flagstaff, but the next morning the flagstaff was felled for the third time. Governor FitzRoy sent over to New South Wales for reinforcements.
Early in February 1845 Kawiti's warriors begun to plunder the settlers a mile or two from Kororāreka. The Hazard arrived from Auckland on 15 February with the materials to construct the block-house around the base of the flagstaff. Within a few days the block-house was completed and a guard of 20 soldiers was placed in it. Soon after this the officials purchased the mizzenmast from a foreign ship in the harbour and installed this as the fourth flagstaff.
The British force consisted of about 60 soldiers of the 96th Regiment and about 90 Royal Marines and sailors from the Hazard, plus colonists and sailors from the merchant ships provided about 200 armed men.
Battle of Kororāreka
The next attack on the flagstaff on 11 March 1845 was a more serious affair. There were incidents between the Ngāpuhi warriors led by Hōne Heke, Kawiti and Kapotai on 7 and 8 March. A truce was declared for the next day, a Sunday, during which the Reverend Brown entered the camp of Heke and performed a service for him and his people who had been baptised by the Church Missionary Society. A Catholic priest conducted a service for those warriors among Kawiti's followers who were Catholics. The next day, Ngāpuhi warriors approached Kororāreka, but were fired upon. An account of the preparation for the attack later given by the CMS missionaries was that on Monday, the plans of Heke were disclosed to Gilbert Mair, who informed Police Magistrate Thomas Beckham, who then informed Lieutenant George Phillpotts, RN, of HMS Hazard, but the "information was received with indifference, not unmingled with contempt".
At dawn on Tuesday 11 March, a force of about 600 Māori armed with muskets, double-barrelled guns and tomahawks attacked Kororāreka. Hōne Heke's men attacked the flagstaff blockhouse, killing a number of its crew and a young part Māori girl, only to cut down the signal station and flagstaff for the fourth time. At the same time, as a diversion, Te Ruki Kawiti and his men attacked the town of Kororāreka only to be forced back by acting Commander Robertson's naval party in a deadly clash. In the early afternoon, Polack's house, serving as the powder magazine within the stockade, exploded, setting surrounding buildings alight. The garrison of about 100 men managed to hold the perimeter while the town was evacuated to the ships moored in the bay. Lieutenant Phillpotts of HMS Hazard ordered the bombardment of Kororāreka. Europeans and Māori proceeded to plunder the buildings, and most of the buildings in the north of the town were burned. However, Heke had ordered that the southern end of the town, which included the missionaries' homes and the church, be left untouched. Tāmati Wāka Nene and his men did not fight with the Ngāpuhi who sacked Kororāreka. As the services of the Government Brig Victoria were no longer required, Thomas Beckham ordered her to sail for Auckland. Conveying the despatches and a share of the women and children, she departed at about 7.00 p.m.