Wahawaha Rapata Ngati Porou 1868 1878

edmondsallan - Hello - Warfare broke out again on the East Coast on 10 July 1868, when Te Kooti and his followers landed after escaping from the Chatham Islands. They were pursued inland unsuccessfully by Maori and Pakeha volunteers and Armed Constabulary, led by Lieutenant Colonel G. S. Whitmore. Rapata and 200 Ngati Porou were again brought down to Wairoa and set out for Puketapu, led by Major Charles Lambert. On learning that Te Kooti had left, Lambert led his force back to Wairoa. Rapata wished to advance after Te Kooti, who was reported to be preparing to attack Poverty Bay. The report was correct; on the night of 9--10 November 1868 Te Kooti attacked and killed some 54 people, more than 20 of them Maori. He held the district for a week and then retired with booty and captives to Makaretu, which he fortified. There Rapata and other members of Ngati Porou, and government troops, attacked him. Te Kooti and his followers were driven from the pa and retreated to the fortress of Ngatapa, inland from Turanga. The first assault on Ngatapa, on 5 December 1868, was led by Rapata, Hotene Porourangi and Lieutenant G. A. Preece; they succeeded in gaining the outer defence works. Rapata and a few troops fought all night, but had to retreat in the morning because they were not supported by Porourangi's Ngati Porou or by Ngati Kahungunu. Rapata was awarded the New Zealand Cross for gallantry in this action and raised to the rank of major. Preece and Rapata retreated towards Gisborne and met Whitmore, who was advancing against Te Kooti with a force of Te Arawa and Wanganui Armed Constabulary. Rapata refused to accompany him; with Whitmore's agreement, he announced his intention of returning to Waiapu to recruit new Ngati Porou troops. He also threatened to attack Ngati Kahungunu, who had failed to support him at Ngatapa.
Whitmore, with too few troops to attack Ngatapa, went to Makaretu and waited for Rapata's return. After an illness Rapata arrived on 31 December. With Captain T. W. Porter and a contingent of Te Arawa he cut Ngatapa off from its water supply. An assault on the pa on 4 January captured the outworks and the pa was abandoned during the night. In the pursuit several hundred prisoners were taken; 120 male prisoners were shot and thrown over a cliff. Rapata, throughout his military career, executed only male prisoners taken in arms; by the standards of the time he showed restraint. Te Kooti escaped into the Urewera, and, finding new followers, raided Whakatane and Mohaka.
Whitmore decided that the Urewera would have to be invaded, to put an end to its use as a sanctuary and a supply and recruitment area by Te Kooti and the remaining Hauhau leaders. The district, for example, was known to harbour Kereopa, who was held responsible for the killing of the missionary C. S. Völkner in 1865. Whitmore planned to invade the Urewera with three converging columns. Rapata and Ngati Porou were attached to Lieutenant Colonel J. L. Herrick's column, which was to go to Waikaremoana and capture refugees driven south by the other columns. The columns led by Whitmore and Lieutenant Colonel John St John destroyed the villages and crops of the Tuhoe people and met in the valley of Ruatahuna. On 6 May 1869 Whitmore took the Tuhoe pa of Te Harema; for the first time the Urewera had been successfully invaded. As winter closed in, Whitmore led his troops out of the mountains and Te Kooti went to Taupo and the King Country in a last attempt to build around himself a great Maori alliance.
After failing in this goal and after losing against Te Arawa, Te Kooti returned to the Urewera. Rapata made four expeditions in pursuit of him. The first was a joint operation with Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui, leader of the Wanganui Native Contingent, which began in February 1870. Rapata took the Tuhoe stronghold of Torea-a-tai on the mountain of Maungapohatu, which had never fallen before. On 23 March Te Keepa and then Rapata stormed the pa of Te Kooti at Maraetahi, high up in the Waioeka Gorge, ending his last attempt to hold a fortified position and freeing Te Whakatohea prisoners taken in raids near Opotiki. Te Keepa made peace with the Hauhau leader Eru Tamaikowha, and returned to Wanganui in April. Rapata searched the hills around Opotiki for hidden ammunition supplies and returned to Waiapu. Tuhoe continued to surrender throughout 1870; Te Waru Tamatea surrendered late that year. Te Kooti had ceased to be a military threat; he and his followers lived as fugitives.
In January 1871 Rapata and Porter returned to the pursuit, in partnership with Captain Gilbert Mair and Te Arawa troops; the campaign against Te Kooti was now left to Maori troops. They were no longer paid, and compensated themselves by plundering Tuhoe. In July Mair and Te Arawa found Te Kooti's camp at Waipaoa but Te Kooti had escaped. Ngati Porou took up his trail and at dawn on 1 September surrounded his camp at Te Hapua (also known as Ruahapu), near Te Whaiti. Te Kooti broke through the bark wall at the back of his sleeping hut, and shouting 'save yourselves, it's Ngati Porou', plunged into the bush. He escaped with one of his wives and five followers, and took refuge in the King Country. Later in 1871 Rapata carried out a final pacification of the Urewera, where he had built several pa, suggesting a permanent Ngati Porou presence. He told Eru Tamaikowha, who acted as an intermediary, that he only wished to capture rebels and murderers and that refugees and fugitive hapu could return home. Tuhoe were now tired of war and destruction; they helped to capture Kereopa, so that the war would end. After this Rapata had Tuhoe assemble at Ruatahuna and in a farewell speech told them to end their association with the Hauhau, and that the government was now at peace with them. He withdrew his garrison from Maungapohatu and returned to the East Coast in December, after ensuring that Tuhoe had food supplies and seed for new crops.
Rapata had become a leading man in Ngati Porou through his prowess as a soldier. In battle he never took cover and always pursued retreating enemies. He had fought on the side of the government, but in doing so had taken revenge on his childhood captors, Rongowhakaata, and had safeguarded the land of Ngati Porou from confiscation. Although Rapata fought in alliance with the government and rejected ideas of Maori nationalism, he always acted as a tribal leader. When he took prisoners, he wished to show clemency to local people who had fought against him under their tribal leaders, and to execute only those who had come from other districts. Like other loyalist leaders, he used government assistance to strengthen his tribe and to attack traditional enemies.Rapata did not feel sufficiently rewarded for his services in war. He said he was promised much which he had not received. It is probable that he was referring to the acquisition of Poverty Bay land, confiscated from Rongowhakaata. In 1873 Ngati Porou received a cash settlement of their land claims in Poverty Bay.I n the 1870's Rapata was an opponent of the Repudiation movement on the East Coast. This movement, which included former Hauhau, originated in Hawke's Bay. In alliance with Pakeha opponents of the dominant settler landowners, it attempted to regain Maori land by litigation. In the 1876 election for the Eastern Maori seat Rapata opposed Karaitiana Takamoana, a Ngati Kahungunu leader of the Repudiation movement, and attempted to rig the vote in favour of the East Coast candidate, Hotene Porourangi, but was unsuccessful. Ngati Porou leaders then tried to get a new election held, claiming that flooding of the Waiapu River had prevented hundreds of their people from voting, but Karaitiana Takamoana eventually took his seat in Parliament.
In 1878 Rapata was awarded a sword of honour by Queen Victoria for his services in the wars. He was appointed officer in charge of the militia in the Ngati Porou district, with a salary of £200 a year, and under the Native Circuit Courts Act 1858 was made an assessor to assist in law enforcement. When these salaries were stopped in 1884, as a result of government economies, he objected bitterly. Later, he received a pension of £100 a year, and in 1887 was appointed to the Legislative Council. He continued to encourage Ngati Porou to co-operate with the government, and to adapt to the changed situation in order to control its impact. Till we meet again - Regards -edmondsallan