Maori and the war - NZ in the South African ('Boer') War
Maori and the war
Even before the outbreak of the war, some Maori wanted to contribute to the imperial cause in South Africa. The failure of the Jameson raid, and the subsequent Anglo-German crisis in 1896, induced Te Arawa, for example, to offer to raise a guerrilla unit for service there. When the government offered a contingent of volunteers for service in South Africa, Premier Richard Seddon implied that Maori men would be accepted for service, and that it was possible that a Maori contingent would be sent.
Offers of support
Despite being personally sympathetic to the Boers' position, Wi Pere, the member of Parliament for Eastern Maori, offered to lead a contingent of 500 Maori to South Africa, as did Legislative Councillor Henare Tomoana. The three other Maori MPs also supported the imperial cause, as did Maori leaders outside Parliament, including Tuta Nihoniho of Ngati Porou, who proposed to send an ancestral mere named Porourangi to the imperial Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts. The small Te Uriohau hapu of Ngati Whatua pledged their back-dated income from the Mangawhai tenths block to the cause.
'A white man's war'
Despite this patriotic support, the imperial authorities ruled out direct Maori participation. The idea of using of non-white troops in a 'white man's' war was deplored by some sectors of New Zealand society.
Seddon continued to advocate Maori military participation. In March 1900 he claimed that Maori chiefs had offered 2000 troops for the war, 'men as good as any Boers who ever pulled a trigger'. Later that year, he proposed that the Sixth Contingent should be half manned by Maori drawn from the Volunteer Force. The Colonial Office in London rebuffed this suggestion, though the Colonial Secretary thought it a pity that New Zealand had not just sent Maori as part of its contingents, on the grounds that 'no one would have known the difference'. In fact, this had happened on a small scale, with a number of Maori with mixed ancestry gaining places in the contingents. The authorities turned a blind eye to such enlistments.
Participants
Among Maori participants in the war were H.R. Vercoe, Arthur Te Wata Gannon, and William Pitt; all later served with the Native Contingent and the Pioneer Battalion during the First World War. Nothing came of a proposal that Maori volunteers be used as garrison troops in other parts of the Empire to free up British troops for service in South Africa. During the conflict, Maori communities helped raise funds to support the fitting out of the Rough Rider volunteer contingents. A large carnival at Wellington in March 1900 to raise funds for the Transvaal War Fund was one of a number of events. At such gatherings, Maori participants delighted the audiences with haka such as 'Kikia te Poa' (Kick the Boer) to mark imperial successes.
The constant warrior
One young Maori who served in the South African War was Edward Renata Mugunga 'Tip' Broughton. He left Wanganui Collegiate at the age of 17, told the recruitment officers he was 21, and sailed for South Africa as part of G Squadron, North Island Regiment, in 1902.
Broughton later saw action at Gallipoli and the Western Front in the First World War. He was mentioned in dispatches before being discharged at the end of the war with the rank of captain. He moved to Australia in 1920.
When the Second World War broke out, Broughton joined up immediately and was quickly promoted to corporal in the 14th Australian Infantry Battalion. Once more he lied about his age, claiming to be 16 years younger than he actually was. This was discovered and he was discharged. However, in 1940 he regained his commission and commanded a company of German-Jewish refugees, transported from Britain on the SS Dunera.
He died in Melbourne in 1955.
Adapted from an essay from the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History, edited by Ian McGibbon with the assistance of Paul Goldstone, (Oxford University Press, 2000).
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