After renewed fighting in Taranaki in early 1863, Governor George Grey turned his attention to the region he saw as the root of his problems with Māori: Waikato. This was the heartland of the anti-landselling King Movement or Kīngitanga. Grey vowed to ‘dig around’ the Kīngitanga until it fell.
Governor Gore Browne demanded that the Kīngitanga submit ‘without reserve’ to the British Queen and began planning an invasion of Waikato shortly before his reassignment to Tasmania.
The British invasion of Waikato began on 12 July 1863. The first line of defence was at Meremere. After this was bypassed, Rangiriri and Pāterangi provided a second and then a third barrier to the invaders.
After the British victory at Rangiriri, Wiremu Tāmihana tried to negotiate peace. He sent his greenstone mere (club) to Cameron as a token of his good faith. Neither Grey nor the settler government saw any need to negotiate, however.
James Belich argues that the British victory at Ōrākau was also their ‘cruellest disappointment of the entire war.’ Chris Pugsley, on the other hand, sees Ōrākau as the ‘decisive victory that Cameron had sought.’
On 12 July 1863 Lieutenant-General Cameron's forces crossed the Mangatawhiri Stream to invade Waikato. After his return as governor in 1861, George Grey decided that the Kingitanga, with its determination not to sell land, presented a serious challenge to colonial authority.
Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa was born around 1805, and was of Ngati Haua of the Tainui confederation. As a young man he took part in several war expeditions.
