Origins of the Northern War

The Northern War was in part a reaction to the increasing control of the colonial government over Maori affairs. New rules and regulations cost Maori in the Bay of Islands in terms of lost trade and opportunities. The imposition of customs duties and shipping levies increased prices and deprived Maori of revenue. A ban on the felling of kauri and Crown control of land sales contributed to a fear that Maori authority was being increasingly undermined.

Tamati Waka Nene

The murder trial and public execution of Maketu in 1842 was confirmation for Hone Heke that chiefly authority was now subservient to that of the British Crown. Tamati Waka Nene shared these concerns. By 1844, as tensions grew, Nene accepted the reassurances of men like Governor Robert FitzRoy and the missionary Henry Williams. Heke did not.

The war that was to follow was no simple matter of Maori versus British. Two factions of Ngapuhi fought against each other. One, led by Hone Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti, fought both the Crown and another Ngapuhi faction led by Tamati Waka Nene, Eruera Maihi Patuone, Mohi Tawhai and Makoare Te Taonui. This faction of Ngapuhi has subsequently referred to as kupapa or pro-government.

There were three major engagements involving the British army and Maori: Puketutu, Ohaeawai and Ruapekapeka. But there were also battles in which the British played no part at all, Te Ahuahu in June 1845. Nene and his men scouted for the British and skirmished with great vigour but played no part in the decisive action in the other three major battles.

A symbol of ‘Maori despair’

Hone Heke

The British flag at Kororareka became the focus of Heke’s protest. After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi the Union Jack had replaced the flag of the United Tribes as New Zealand’s official flag. Hobson had the United Tribes flag removed from the flagstaff at Kororareka (the New Zealand Company's version of the flag was also hauled down at Port Nicholson). Heke saw this as a rejection of the equal status of Maori with the government. He had gifted the flagstaff to Kororareka in the first place so that the Maori flag could be flown. Heke believed that a symbolic gesture against the flag would highlight that his grievance was with the government. He had no desire hurt or alarm settlers.

The flagstaff was cut down for the first time on 8 July 1844. It was re-erected but chopped down again on three further occasions: 10 January 1845, 18 January 1845 and finally on 11 March 1845. Governor FitzRoy referred to the flagstaff as ‘a mere stick’ but acknowledged that as it was ‘connected with the British flag it [was] of very great importance’.