Imperial officers, who on their
side accused the settlers of unreason in refusing to remove their
families, of insolence to Native allies and prisoners, of want of
discipline, and of such selfish greed for compensation from Government
that they would let their cattle be captured by natives rather than
sell them to the commissariat. On the other hand, the natives were far
from a happy family. The Waikato had not forgotten that they had been
aforetime the conquerors of the Province, now the scene of war, that
the Ngatiawa and Taranaki had been their slaves, and that Wiremu Kingi
had fled to Cook's Straits to escape their raids. They swaggered among
their old foes and servants, and ostentatiously disregarded their
advice, much to our advantage.

In June we were defeated at Puke-te-kauere on the Waitara. Three
detachments were sent to surround and storm a _pa_ standing in
the fork of a Y made by the junction of two swampy ravines. The
plan broke down; the assailants went astray in the rough country and
had to retreat; Lieutenant Brooks and thirty men were killed and
thirty-four wounded. The Maori loss was little or nothing.

In August General Pratt came on the scene from Australia. He proceeded
to destroy the plantations and to attack the _pas_ of the insurgents.
He certainly took many positions. Yet so long and laborious were his
approaches by sapping, so abundant his precautions, that in no case
did the natives stay to be caught in their defences. They evacuated
them at the last moment, leaving the empty premises to us. Once,
however, with an undue contempt for the British soldier, a contingent,
newly arrived from the Waikato, occupied a dilapidated _pa_ at
Mahoe-tahi on the road from New Plymouth to Waitara. Their chief,
Tai Porutu, sent a laconic letter challenging the troops to come and
fight. "Make haste; don't prolong it! Make haste!" ran the epistle.
Promptly he was taken at his word. Two columns marched on Mahoe-tahi
from New Plymouth and Waitara respectively. Though the old _pa_ was
weak, the approaches to it were difficult, and had the Maoris waylaid
the assailants on the road, they might have won. But at the favourable
moment Tai Porutu was at breakfast and would not stir. He paid for his
meal with his life. Caught between the 65th regiment and the militia,
the Maoris were between two fires. Driven out of their _pa_, they
tried to make a stand behind it in swamp and scrub. Half a dozen
well-directed shells sen