The 1865 campaign - war in Wanganui

Wanganui blockhouses

Following the battle of Moutoa Island in 1864, Hipango pursued the retreating Pai Marire (Hauhau) warriors. Fighting continued from fortified positions upriver near Hiruharama. A series of redoubts were built along the river and on the town's northwestern boundary. The killing of provincial councillor James Hewett on his farm in February 1865 raised fears of another attack on Wanganui. Hewett's farm was only a few kilometres from one of the redoubts.

Hori Kingi Te Anaua was prepared to act as peacemaker while Hoani Hipango favoured a military solution. This attitude ultimately cost him his life. In February 1865 Hipango was wounded in an attack that he and Mete Kingi led against the main Hauhau pa at Ohoutahi, below Pipiriki. The pa was captured but Hipango died two days later from his wounds. He was buried with full military honours on Korokata hill, overlooking Putiki. The provincial government erected a wooden obelisk on the site as a mark of gratitude.

Waitotara in 1865

Governor George Grey was determined to end the Pai Marire threat in Wanganui and south Taranaki. In January 1865 General Duncan Cameron and 2000 British troops left Wanganui to reclaim the Waitotara block for the Crown.

Cameron's experiences in Waikato and Bay of Plenty the previous year made him too cautious for the governor's liking. Well aware of the risks involved in attacking pa directly, he kept his men in the open country near the coast. No pa would be attacked. Maori nicknamed him the 'Lame Seagull'. An unhappy Grey questioned these tactics. For his part Cameron questioned the motive for the campaign, which he believed was designed to acquire land for the New Zealand government.

Picket at Nukumaru

Cameron had defeated Hauhau forces at Nukumaru in January and Te Ngaio in March by fighting in the open. Grey was more concerned about Weraroa pa, high above the Waitotara River north-west of Wanganui. Early in Cameron's campaign this had become the headquarters of a Maori force of up to 2000. The general seemed willing to play a waiting game, considering the pa both too strong to attack and of little strategic importance. Cameron's lack of action at Weraroa led to the complete collapse of his relationship with Grey.

Grey's principal Maori allies, Te Anaua and Mete Kingi, appealed to Grey to negotiate the surrender of Weraroa. The governor would have none of it. Mete Kingi then advised Grey against a frontal assault, arguing that an attack on Arei-ahi village to the rear of Weraroa would cut off its food supply. When Mete Kingi's Maori contingent achieved this, it found that the main pa had been abandoned by its defenders. Grey seized the political opportunity and accompanied a mixed force of Maori, volunteer cavalry and Forest Rangers into the pa on 21 July.

Mete Kingi Paetahi

Mete Kingi and his men then turned their attention back to the Whanganui River. His force travelled up river to relieve a force under siege at Pipiriki. Any remaining Hauhau fighters dispersed before it arrived. The abandoned Hauhau village of Ohinemutu near Patea was also burned.

With any immediate threat to Wanganui removed, Mete Kingi proposed to Grey that he and his troops be used to avenge the death of the missionary Carl Völkner, killed by Hauhau at Opotiki in March 1865. Mete Kingi arrived in Opotiki in September. He was involved in the capture of a number of pa and some 400 Hauhau warriors before returning to Wanganui, where he led the Maori contingent in Major-General Trevor Chute's South Taranaki expedition of January-February 1866.

The Wanganui-South Taranaki area was now considered to be ‘pacified’. But the confiscation of large quantities of land in the area for European settlement led to the outbreak of Titokowaru's war in 1868, once more bringing conflict to the Wanganui region.