Te Kooti's War was among the last of the New Zealand Wars, the series of 19th-century conflicts in New Zealand between the Māori and the colonising European settlers. It was fought in the East Coast region and across the heavily forested central North Island and Bay of Plenty from 1868 to 1872, between government military forces and followers of spiritual leader Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki.
The conflict was sparked by Te Kooti's return to the East Coast after two years of internment on the Chatham Islands, from where he had escaped with almost 200 Māori prisoners of war and their families. Te Kooti desired to be left in peace but two weeks after their return to the mainland, members of his party found themselves being pursued by a force of militia, government troops and Māori volunteers. Te Kooti's force routed them in an ambush, seizing arms, ammunition, food and horses. The engagement was the first in what became a four-year guerrilla war, involving more than 30 expeditions by colonial and Māori troops against Te Kooti's dwindling number of warriors. Although initially fighting defensively against pursuing government forces, Te Kooti went on the offensive from November 1868, starting with a raid on Poverty Bay, in which selected European settlers, their families, and Māori opponents were murdered. The attack prompted another pursuit by government forces, one that included the siege at Ngātapa from which Te Kooti escaped but which resulted in the capture and execution of over 100 of his followers.
Te Kooti gained refuge with Tūhoe tribes, which consequently suffered a series of damaging raids in which crops and villages were destroyed, as other Māori iwi were lured by the promise of a £5000 reward for Te Kooti's capture. Te Kooti was finally granted sanctuary by the Māori king in 1872 and moved to the King Country, where he continued to develop rituals, texts and prayers of his Ringatū faith. He was formally pardoned by the government in February 1883 and died in 1893.
In modern times, much of the actions that occurred during Te Kooti's War, particularly in the early stages of the conflict, have 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 the local Māori people and British imperial and colonial forces, and their Māori allies. 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, which involved the final field engagements of the New Zealand Wars.
Te Kooti
Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was born probably about 1831 into the Ngāti Maru hapū (subtribe) of the Rongowhakaata iwi (tribe) of the Māori people in Poverty Bay, south of East Cape. He desired to become a preacher but soon fell out with the Whakatō Anglican mission where he had been baptised in 1852. He gained a reputation for lawlessness and philandering in the Makaraka district near Tūranga, present-day Gisborne. His actions offended some of the local rangatira (chiefs) and because he also engaged in trading, undercutting local businessmen, became offside with some European settlers.
In early 1865, a new religion, Pai Mārire, the followers of which being known as Hauhau, was spreading among the Ngāti Maru in the East Cape. Te Kooti stayed clear of the faith and during the East Cape War, fought with kūpapa (loyal) Māori and Government troops against the Hauhau in the week-long siege of Waerenga-a-Hika, near Tūranga, in October. Many of the kūpapa were fighting reluctantly and Te Kooti's brother was among the Hauhau at Waerenga-a-Hika. Te Kooti was accused of being a spy and was arrested after the siege ended. Allegations were made by the Rongowhakaata chief Pāora Parau that Te Kooti had provided gunpowder to the Hauhau. He was released after an investigation, but five months later, on 3 March 1866, he was seized again on the orders of Captain Reginald Biggs, the local magistrate and militia commander. Fresh allegations had been made that he had provided covert assistance to a key leader of the Hauhau. However, the charges against him were probably false. Gilbert Mair later wrote that he did not consider allegations could be sustained against Te Kooti and the historian James Cowan also noted that many in Poverty Bay preferred Te Kooti be out of the way. Despite the likely untruth of the allegations, Te Kooti was deported, without trial, to the Chatham Islands.
Confinement and escape
On the Chatham Islands, around 300 prisoners were kept in poor conditions, forced to build their own housing and cultivate their food, while the Government worked towards the confiscation of their land. The prisoners were treated roughly by their guards and the harsh climate resulted in a number of deaths. During his confinement on the Chathams, Te Kooti began to have visions, following a period of illness. From these, he began to develop his own religion, which combined aspects of Christianity, drawn from the Old and New Testaments, and Māori beliefs. He called it Ringatū, or the Upraised Hand. He held services where he used phosphorus and legerdemain to create the illusion of flames being emitted from his hands. Even when placed in solitary confinement, he escaped at night to preach to his fellow detainees.
Promises had been made to the prisoners that they would be released after two years. While some senior rangatira were allowed to leave, it did not eventuate for the remaining prisoners and they grew increasingly frustrated at their confinement. By this time Te Kooti had ascended to a leadership role among the prisoners and held significant influence. On 4 July 1868 Te Kooti led a carefully planned and executed breakout from their internment, overpowering guards, seizing arms and ammunition and commandeering a schooner, the Rifleman, which was moored at the settlement of Waitangi. Te Kooti had ordered that no one be harmed but one guard was killed in the uprising by a prisoner seeking vengeance for harsh treatment. A total of 298 people—163 men, 64 women and 71 children—sailed out of the Chatham Islands for mainland New Zealand. Te Kooti and his Ringatū followers arrived at a secluded cove at Whareongaonga, about halfway between Tūranga and Māhia to the south, on 10 July. The Rifleman and its co-opted crew were allowed to leave after the ship was unloaded of its cargo and passengers and sailed for Wellington. In the meantime, the presence of the escaped prisoners became known to the residents of Poverty Bay. The Government also became aware of the situation, which was of particular concern since there had been an outbreak of hostilities with Māori of South Taranaki, on the opposite coast of the North Island, led by the prominent rangatira Tītokowaru. A separate conflict on the East Coast was clearly undesirable.
On 12 July, a local rangatira was sent by Biggs to seek the surrender of the escapees but Te Kooti refused. Having been held for over two years without trial, he did not trust the Government. He made it clear he did not wish to fight but would do so if he and his followers were forced to defend themselves or were hindered from travelling to the interior of the North Island, where he intended to establish a kingship to rival that of Tāwhiao, the Māori king.
Pursuit
Biggs scrambled to assemble a force with which to confront Te Kooti at Whareongaonga—his militia volunteers, the Mounted Rifles under Captain Charles Westrupp, and some kūpapa , nearly 90 men in total. Two other parties were raised; about 25 militia and 100 kūpapa set out from Wairoa in Hawke's Bay, while a few days later another 30 militia, accompanied by 40 kūpapa departed from Napier. The latter party, led by Colonel George Whitmore, the commander of the Armed Constabulary and in overall charge of the pursuit of Te Kooti, would later be joined by 50 men of the Armed Constabulary.
Meanwhile, the Ringatū departed Whareongaonga on 15 July and began making their way to Paparatu, a pā (hillfort) about 40 kilometres (25 mi) inland. Te Kooti's fighting force amounted to around 150 to 160 warriors although only 40 to 50 of them had firearms. The Ringatū narrowly avoided being intercepted by Biggs and his men, who arrived at Whareongaonga too late to stop them. On discovering he had missed Te Kooti, Biggs marched his 70-strong force to Paparatu via a more direct route through open country, intending to cut off his quarry as they crossed the Arai Stream. He and his men reached Paparatu on 18 July where Biggs left Westrupp in command and returned to Tūranga to organise a resupply. On the morning of 20 July, the government forces sighted Te Kooti's followers and moved onto two hills overlooking their route forward. Te Kooti split his armed men into two parties, one of which mounted intermittent attacks to the front as a diversion while the other worked its way around to the rear. This took several hours but at 4:00pm, the rearwards party attacked Westrupp's force, killing two Europeans and forcing a retreat. Te Kooti seized food, arms and ammunition and 80 horses.
Westrupp's men encountered Whitmore's advancing column the next day. Despite Whitmore's attempt to dissuade them, they refused to join his force and instead continued on back to Poverty Bay. The Wairoa force, commanded by Captain W. Richardson, was ordered to move against Te Kooti in order to delay their passage, while Whitmore took his men back to Napier to await his Armed Constabulary reinforcements. Richardson's party, depleted by at least 50 of the kūpapa who refused to fight, attacked Te Kooti at Te Koneke on 24 July. It was a halfhearted affair and after the Ringatū warriors began to flank Richardson's 75 or so men, the government forces withdrew and returned to Wairoa. Richardson claimed to have inflicted several casualties on Te Kooti's men but this was likely inflated while his own force had one man killed and another wounded, albeit in a friendly fire incident.
Whitmore's column, now reinforced with men of the Armed Constabulary and numbering around 200 men, followed Te Kooti's tracks, having set out from Tūranga on 31 July, from where they had been transported via ship from Napier. The weather was poor and swelled the local rivers which they had to traverse, making progress slow. On 5 August at Waihau, the Poverty Bay militia that were part of Whitmore's force refused to advance any further on the grounds they had reached the boundary of their district; Whitmore's harsh treatment of them may have also been a factor. With the militia went their allied kūpapa. These departures reduced the column to around 120 men. The adverse weather also affected the progress of Te Kooti's followers, which included women and children, to Paparatu.
At Ruakituri Gorge, downstream from Puketapu, on 8 August, Whitmore's column caught up with Te Kooti's force. The column was strung out along the gorge on account of the difficult terrain and exposed to fire from Te Kooti's men, some of whom had positioned themselves on an island mid-stream. Some militia and kūpapa of Ngāti Kahungunu managed to cross further downstream and fire on the reverse side of the island, which allowed the main body of Whitmore's force to withdraw. Five men were killed and six wounded, three of whom later died of their wounds. Ringatū casualties were two men killed and nine wounded, Te Kooti among them, but in his reports back to the government, Whitmore overstated Ringatū losses. The outcome of the pursuit of Te Kooti was an embarrassment for the government and the commitment of some of the kūpapa involved was questioned by some of the colonials. Nevertheless, Whitmore favourably noted the performance of the Ngāti Kahungunu kūpapa at Ruakituri Gorge.
Buildup of the Ringatū
Resuming their trek, the Ringatū reached Puketapu a few days later. They would remain here for over two months, strengthening the pā's fortifications, collecting supplies, and receiving reinforcements. The succession of victories over the previous few weeks attracted more recruits to Te Kooti's cause, including Ngāti Kōhatu chief Korohina Te Rakiroa and some of his men.
Across the country in Taranaki meanwhile, government forces had suffered a defeat at the hands of Tītokowaru at Te Ngutu o Te Manu and Whitmore and his men were withdrawn in early September from the East Coast and sent to deal with the threat this presented. The government, eager to free further resources for use against Tītokowaru, seized the moment to offer Te Kooti a peace agreement. In mid-October Defence Minister Theodore Haultain directed that a message be sent to Te Kooti at Puketapu stating that if the prisoners surrendered themselves and their arms, no further proceedings would be taken against them and land would be found for them to live on. Catholic missionary Father Euloge Reignier was chosen to act as the emissary and negotiator, but was prevented from reaching Te Kooti and instead passed the message on via Pai Mārire warriors. If Te Kooti did receive the offer, he rejected it, suspicious of the government's intentions and aware that its scouts had reconnoitered Puketapu.