The Matarawa killings - war in Wanganui
John Alexander Gilfillan, his wife, Mary, and their six children settled in Wanganui in late 1842. Gilfillan was an artist of some ability and his work provided a useful insight into Wanganui's colonial history. The family arrived in Wellington on Christmas Day 1841 before securing an allotment of 110 acres in the Matarawa Valley near Wanganui. As part of the New Zealand Company plan the family was also allocated a town section in Guyton Street, where the family established itself while work was completed on a substantial family home at Matarawa. In late 1845 the Gilfillans moved onto their farm.
On the evening of 18 April 1847 a party of six young upriver Maori attacked the Gilfillan farm. John managed to escape and headed for Wanganui, some four hours away on foot. He believed that he was the real target and that his family would not be harmed. He was wrong. When he returned the next morning with an armed party he found his wife Mary and three of their children dead and the homestead a smouldering ruin. Another daughter was badly wounded in the attack.
The immediate cause of this attack appeared to be an incident in Wanganui a few days earlier. On 16 April Hapurona Ngarangi, a young upriver Maori, was accidentally shot in the face by a naval cadet, H. E. Crozier, from the gunboat HMS Calliope. The Calliope had supported British forces in Wellington and Te Rauparaha was taken to the vessel after his arrest in July 1846. Some Maori who did not accept that Crozier's actions were accidental gathered outside the Rutland Stockade. Anticipating that Ngarangi might die, they demanded custody of Crozier. This request was refused by Captain Laye. He allowed the garrison surgeon to treat Ngarangi, and once the young man's condition improved it was hoped that the matter was at an end.
Putiki chief Hoani Hipango was angered by the Gilfillan killings, which he saw as attack on the mana of lower-river Maori. Hipango's mana over Te Ati Haunui-a-Paparangi tribal lands extended some 100 kms up the Whanganui River. One of the first Wanganui Maori to convert to Christianity, he took the killings as a personal affront and offered to apprehend the culprits. After some initial reluctance from Captain Laye, men from Putiki quickly captured five of the six offenders. All were related to Hapurona Ngarangi. Governor Grey gave Hipango and his people £145 as a reward.
A number of historians, including James Cowan have concluded that Crozier's actions were the ‘direct cause of the Gilfillan murders’. James Belich believed this incident alone did not explain the violence and considered some of the longer-term causes of tension in the region. There is some evidence to suggest that the Gilfillans were in the wrong place at the wrong time. According to the missionary Richard Taylor, one of the Maori involved in the attack confessed that the Gilfillans had not been the original target. In the end their isolation made them easy prey.
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