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William Malone

William George Malone was one of New Zealand’s outstanding soldiers of the Gallipoli campaign. Born in Kent in 1859, Malone was 21 years old when he arrived in Taranaki to join his elder brother. He served with the Armed Constabulary at Ōpunake and Parihaka before taking up a farm near Stratford.

Malone was active in local affairs as chairman and member of several boards and councils. In the early 1890s, with his family expanding, Malone studied law at night after farming during the day. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1894.

It is for his military achievements that William Malone is best known. During the South African War he helped raise the Stratford Rifle Volunteers and served as captain. By 1910 he was a lieutenant-colonel and commanding officer of 4th Battalion, Wellington (Taranaki) Rifle Volunteers.

On the outbreak of war in August 1914 Malone was appointed to command the Wellington Battalion of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The oldest man in the battalion, he was ‘fit, hard & well’, almost six feet tall and of solid build. He had spent 15 years reading military history and strategy, and was achieving a lifelong ambition by going to war. In training in Egypt in late 1914 and early 1915 he drove his battalion mercilessly, working his men harder and longer than those of any other battalion in the New Zealand infantry brigade.

Following the mismanaged landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915, Malone immediately began to impose order. He consolidated and secured the ANZAC Corps perimeter whenever it was threatened. His diaries over the course of the campaign chart a growing disenchantment with impractical British regular officers, and a growing love for his men.

On 8 August 1915 Malone’s battalion seized the strategic heights of Chunuk Bair. There Malone was accidentally killed by supporting artillery fire. The tenacity displayed by the Wellington Battalion in the face of the overwhelming odds they were up against that day embodied the spirit of their commanding officer.

By Chris Pugsley; adapted by Matthew Tonks

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Puketakauere

Puketakauere (1860)

Te Ātiawa tweaks Britannia

The First Taranaki War began in March 1860, sparked by rivalry within Te Ātiawa and Governor Thomas Gore Browne’s unwise purchase of ‘the Waitara Block’ from chief Teira over the wishes of the more senior Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake. It escalated rapidly after Māori disrupted surveying and the British provocatively built ‘Camp Waitara’ atop an ancient pā in the centre of the disputed block. That month government forces ‘captured’ Te Kohia pā, which Te Ātiawa had abandoned after a one-day siege, and won the ‘Battle of Waireka’, a much-exaggerated skirmish on the other side of New Plymouth.

Three months later, however, the war became real and bloody. British forces learned that Māori - Te Ātiawa supported by Ngāti Maniapoto - were fortifying two old pā (Puketakauere and Onukukaitara) within sight of Camp Waitata. The new pā took account of British artillery and tactics. Onukukaitara had the traditional (now vulnerable) wooden palisades but the real defences were encircling rifle pits and underground shelters, hidden obstacles to British post-bombardment assaults. On the wet winter morning of 27 June Major Thomas Nelson, ordered to ‘teach the troublesome Natives a lesson they will not easily forget’, ordered the bombardment of the pā, concentrating on the more conspicuous decoy, Onukukaitara. Then the infantry attacked. Well-directed musket and shotgun fire from the rifle pits and trenches was cutting down the men of the Grenadier and Light companies of the 40th Regiment even before Te Ātiawa reinforcements closed in. The British lost 32 dead and as many wounded; fewer than a dozen Māori died.

The defenders abandoned the pā soon after the battle. In September troops moved in, destroying the defences and building a small ‘Puketakauere Stockade’ on Onukukaitara (this burned down and was abandoned a few years later, during the Second Taranaki War). Puketakauere, as the wider site is known, has been an historic reserve for several decades.

Further information

This site is item number 26 on the History of New Zealand in 100 Places list.

Websites

Books

James Belich, The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian interpretation of racial conflict, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1986
David Green, Battlefields of the New Zealand Wars: a visitor’s guide, Penguin, Auckland, 2010
Matthew Wright, Two peoples, one land: the New Zealand Wars, Reed Books, Auckland, 2006

Credit:

Text: Gavin McLean, 2013

Main image: David Green, 2009

Aerial image: Kevin Jones, 1994

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Date established:

1860

Pukerangiora Pā Historic Reserve

Pukerangiora Pā Historic Reserve (1821-22)

A palimpsest etched in blood

Although we think of the First World War as our most costly in terms of human life, the Germans and the Turks spilled less New Zealand blood than the ‘New Zealanders’, as the British called the Māori, did fighting each other in the Musket Wars of the early 1800s. Historian James Belich accuses us of indulging in ‘historical amnesia’ over the New Zealand Wars. In fact we lobotomised ourselves to erase this earlier conflict, which covered more territory, caused more cultural disruption and claimed many more lives than the later wars. Yet ignore it we do. The fiercest fighting took place between 1818 and 1836. Body counts are hazy. The Oxford companion to New Zealand military history says that ‘between 20,000 and 30,000 may have died either in battle or of disease (with one estimate putting the mortality as high as 80,000)’ – about 20% of the estimated Māori population, even at the lower end of the range. While some historians question the accuracy of the ‘musket’ part of the wars’ name, it appears to have stuck.

The name Pukerangiora now covers several sites and a lot of military history. It was besieged twice during the Musket Wars. In 1821 a taua led by Tūkorehu of Ngāti Maniapoto was besieged here for seven months by Te Ātiawa, who surrounded it with earthworks and palisading, adding insult to injury by dubbing the siege ‘Raihe Poaka’ (the penned-up pigs). Blood flowed here again a decade later. Te Ātiawa, weakened by recent emigration to join Te Rauparaha in the Cook Strait area, holed up at Pukerangiora after a large Waikato taua descended on North Taranaki. When the pā fell after a three-month siege, as many as 1200 may have died.

Ironically, Pukerangiora is probably better known for its role in the First (1860-61) and Second (1863-66) Taranaki Wars. The first was the major fight. After their defeat at Puketakauere government forces generally avoided pā, which they knew were there to lure them into attacking, but as the campaign ground on they decided to destroy Te Ātiawa strongholds south of the Waitara. In ‘Pratt’s Sap’, forces under Major-General T.S. Pratt tunnelled laboriously up the slopes towards a new pā, Te Arei (‘the barrier’), erected in front of freshly strengthened Pukerangiora. Te Ātiawa chief Hapurona commanded both. Pratt built eight redoubts and dug two stretches of sap (covered trench). Maori counter-attacked, most famously against number three redoubt on the night of 23 January, suffering heavy casualties in the crossfire between the redoubts. Working under cover of large sap rollers and supported by artillery fire, the British advanced. By March 1861 number eight redoubt was just 75 m from Te Arei pā, which was taking a heavy pounding. Hapurona wisely sought a truce. In a ‘settlement’ disliked by both sides, the Waikato and southern Taranaki tribes withdrew. An uneasy peace descended on Taranaki.

The Second Taranaki War was a sideshow to the Waikato campaign, but Te Arei was briefly again the site of conflict. On 11 October 1864, under cover of thick fog, Colonel H.J. Warre took it. Shots were fired but the defenders quickly withdrew. A redoubt was built quickly but abandoned about three years later. A blockhouse relocated to the other side of the road in 1869 was manned for about a year. Since then sheep have grazed the site. Cultivation destroyed about a third of Pukerangiora but since 1910 the rest has been a Crown reserve, now managed by DOC.

Further information

This site is item number 10 on the History of New Zealand in 100 Places list.

On the ground

The site is signposted.

Websites

Books

R.D. Crosby, The Musket Wars, Reed Books, Auckland, 1999
David Green, Battlefields of the New Zealand Wars: a visitor’s guide, Penguin, Auckland, 2010

Credit:

Text: Gavin McLean, 2013

Main image: Jock Phillips

Other contemporary images: Jock Phillips and Kevin Jones

Historic images:

Alexander Turnbull Library
References: E-294-006/007 and E-294-010/011 (painted/sketched by Henry James Warre)
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of their images.

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1821-22

Taranaki South African War memorial

The Taranaki South African War troopers' memorial at the Cathedral Church of St Mary, New Plymouth.

The memorial is in the form of a Celtic Cross and was designed by Archdeacn Walsh of Waimate North. See an article about the unveiling of the memorial from Taranaki Herald 27 August 1903 (PapersPast)

Credit:

Jamie Mackay, 2010

Find out more about the men listed on this memorial from the South African War embarkation database.

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Report from Joseph Orton

In the early 1840s Riwha Tītokowaru was baptised as Hohepa Ōtene (Joseph Orton) by the Methodist missionary John Skevington. This report confirms his attendance at a Wesleyan missions meeting at Onehunga in 1858.

Tītokowaru acquired a thorough knowledge of the Bible while working for Skevington as an assistant teacher. He learnt to write in Māori, a skill that he would use to strategic advantage during his war. Following Skevington’s death in 1845 Tītokowaru worked with the missionary William Hough at Pātea.

Credit:

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 27 November 1858, p. 2 (PapersPast)

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Moturoa battle plan

A map of the battlefield of Moturoa (1868) drawn by James Cowan in 1921. The map indicates that a soldier was eaten after this encounter. While there were few verified instances of cannibalism, the colonial press used this fear to portray Tītokowaru and his supporters as ‘fiends in human shape.’ Belich believed that the focus on this aspect of Tītokowaru’s war served to deflect attention from his military achievements.

Although it appeared to be only half built, Moturoa’s palisade concealed its real strength. Tītokowaru’s force was able to conceal itself in a two-level firing trench and three low towers made of packed earth.

Whitmore divided his force into three for the assault on Moturoa. Keepa and his men were to take position at the rear while Whitmore and his party remained in front to cover an attack by Major W.M. Hunter from the left flank. Hunter was desperate to lay to rest allegations of cowardice at Tuturuturumōkai. His exposed party had little chance when Tītokowaru’s men opened fire from their concealed position. They then moved into hidden rifle pits on the flanks of Whitmore’s position, maintaining a heavy fire that forced him to retreat. Hunter was one of 19 men who died in the failed attack; a further 20 were wounded. Tītokowaru lost only one man killed.

Credit:

Cowan, James, The New Zealand Wars, 1923. See digitised version of this book (NZETC).

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Report of Tītokowaru meeting at Waihī

Extract from a report in the Wanganui Herald of a meeting between Tītokowaru and local settlers at Waihī in south Taranaki. See full report here.

This was the beginning of Tītokowaru’s ‘peace march’ of June–July 1867, during which he and his followers visited Pātea and Whanganui before reaching Pipiriki on the upper Whanganui River.

Credit:

Wanganui Herald, 18 June 1867, p. 2 (PapersPast)

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Map showing Tītokowaru's southern Taranaki campaigns

Detail of a map created by Howard Hill to show Colonel George Whitmore’s campaigns of 1868–9. Battle sites mentioned in this feature that are marked on the map include Turuturumōkai, Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu, Moturoa, Nukumaru (Taurangaika) and White Cliffs (Pukearuhe).

Tītokowaru’s theatre of war was the 110-km coastal strip between Whanganui and Mt Taranaki.

See the full map on the National Library website.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: MapColl-832hkm/1868-1869/Acc.5862
Cartographer: Howard Hill.
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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A return to peace - Tītokowaru's war

In late 1869 a tohunga absolved Tītokowaru of the sin which had cost him his support at Taurangaika, and his mana and following began to recover. After what has been described as his third conversion to peace his relationship with Te Whiti and Tohu Kākahi of Parihaka strengthened. He nevertheless made it known that he would fight if attacked.

In 1871 Tītokowaru began to reoccupy his former territories. He established a new meeting house, Te Aroha Kainga, at his birthplace at Ōkaiawa, and developed a profitable business selling cocksfoot grass-seed to settlers.

Parihaka

Though Tītokowaru was no longer considered to be a military threat, a fresh wave of ‘creeping confiscation’ saw him enter a new phase of activism in the late 1870s. He initially accepted £900 (equivalent to $130,000 in 2011) for some of his land; the payment was added to the common fund at Parihaka. Tītokowaru’s position hardened when the government started surveying confiscated land on the Waimate plain in 1879. His followers pulled up survey pegs and removed equipment belonging to the surveyors. The disputed land was then ploughed. This non-violent protest was designed to overwhelm the Pākehā legal system. Mass arrests of those involved severely tested both the patience and the resources of the authorities. Tītokowaru was imprisoned three times during these ploughing campaigns.

While historians emphasise the role of Te Whiti and Tohu in this campaign of passive resistance, it was Tītokowaru who saw to its logistics. His presence at Parihaka was certainly not lost on the authorities when plans were made to invade the settlement in November 1881.

Riwha Tītokowaru

Given Tītokowaru’s reputation, Native Minister John Bryce took no chances. A force of over 1500 was deployed against the inhabitants of Parihaka. The settlement’s key figures, including Te Whiti, Tohu Kākahi and Tītokowaru, were arrested without resistance. Most of its inhabitants were driven away and the settlement was largely destroyed. Much of central Taranaki now became Pākehā farmland.

Tītokowaru was released from prison in July 1882. Although he was now in poor health he resumed his campaign for peace. A number of reconciliation pilgrimages reminiscent of his campaigns of 1867 were conducted in 1885–6. These attracted up to 1200 followers as he pledged to ‘shower peace upon the people until the end of time’.

This was not ‘supine acquiescence’. Tītokowaru refused to accept any rent payments from his land that had been compulsorily leased through the public trustee. He was arrested again in July 1886 after a protest near Manaia. This was to be his final incarceration. His health continued to decline steadily and on 17 July 1888 he died at his home at Ōkaiawa. Some 2000 Maori attended his tangihanga, after which he was buried secretly.

Tītokowaru in perspective

The full extent of Tītokowaru’s war was soon downplayed. Within a few years some colonists were writing of the absurdity of the ‘hysteria’ during his campaign.

Native Minister Donald McLean admitted that Tītokowaru’s military reputation had protected central Taranaki as (in effect) an independent Māori state for most of the 1870s. Only the invasion of Parihaka ended his resistance. His military prowess was recognised by the colonial press. The Daily Southern Cross observed that ‘Tito has evidently been out-generalling our generals to a lamentable extent’. Whitmore would later suggest that many had overreacted to the threat posed by Tītokowaru. Belich disagreed, believing that although he was overshadowed at the time by first Te Kooti and then Te Whiti, Tītokowaru was perhaps the ‘greatest threat to European dominance in the history of New Zealand’.

Taurangaika - Tītokowaru's war

Taurangaika pā

Tītokowaru now began work on a new pā just 25 km from Whanganui. Taurangaika measured 140 m across at its widest point and was without doubt Tītokowaru’s ‘most formidable fortress’. Its four concave sides were each ‘topped by a strongpoint’, while a ‘labyrinth of trenches and bomb-proof shelters’ provided protection and the ability to move warriors quickly around the pā.

While Whitmore was away on the east coast no moves were made against Tītokowaru. His raiding parties attacked settler farms and abandoned military posts in a fruitless bid to provoke another assault. Tītokowaru’s successes had seen his numbers swell to about 400 fighters, but Whanganui was protected by nearly 2000 men.

Whitmore returned to Whanganui on 18 January 1869 after defeating Te Kooti at Ngātapa, a success which had boosted the spirits of his forces. Within a week Whitmore led 1000 men towards Taurangaika. After several skirmishes en route they arrived on 2 February and set about digging trenches for protection while ‘the six-pounder Armstrong opened fire’. The Daily Southern Cross praised the ‘splendid shooting’ of the artillery; ‘every shell appeared to burst in or very near the pa’.

The pressmen who accompanied the colonial army believed they were about to witness something special. In the view of the Wanganui Times, ‘the fate of Wanganui and surrounding districts for many years to come depends on the success or failure of Colonel Whitmore’s force in the engagement now daily expected’. But at sunrise on 3 February it was discovered that Taurangaika’s garrison had left during the night.

Major-General Sir George Whitmore

Over the next six weeks his enemies searched for Tītokowaru. Whitmore was initially unaware that the Ngāti Ruanui leader’s force had begun to disintegrate even before Taurangaika was abandoned Left with perhaps only 40 loyal warriors who continued to cover the retreat of his former allies, Tītokowaru was relentlessly pursued by 600 hand-picked men, Māori and Pākehā. After several near misses they finally caught up with his rearguard at Ōtautu, inland from Pātea, on 13 March. Once again they were left frustrated as Tītokowaru secured his final victory over the government forces. He avoided capture again on 24 March at Te Ngaere swamp (near Stratford) before seeking sanctuary in the upper Waitara valley in north Taranaki.

This was a very unsatisfactory outcome for Whitmore and his political masters. The settler community was appalled that Tītokowaru had been able to escape despite being ‘hampered … with women, children and wounded.’ Whitmore mixed his metaphors in his frustration, writing to Defence Minister Theodore Haultain that:

after a bush campaign such as there not yet been in this country for distance traversed and fatigue undergone, I believe Titokowaru has slipped through my fingers under my nose.

Whitmore’s best units were sent back to the east coast to continue the pursuit of Te Kooti. As a precaution 500 men were left to provide protection for New Plymouth, while 1600 remained on active service south of the Waingongoro River. This force continued to harry Tītokowaru’s former allies but made no attempt to pursue Tītokowaru himself.

Why was Taurangaika abandoned without a fight?

Tītokowaru had held the upper hand for most of his war. At the beginning of February 1869 he was at the peak of his powers, having reclaimed most of the territory between the Waingongoro and Whanganui Rivers. He had forced the colonial government to consider a number of unpalatable options, including making peace with Te Kooti to allow it to concentrate on Tītokowaru, and returning confiscated land. His following had grown to around 1000 men, women and children from Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Taranaki and Te Ātiawa (especially Ngāti Maru). Taurangaika was well supplied with food and ammunition and there seemed to be no military need for his abrupt retreat.

Whitmore concluded that ‘it is difficult to imagine any reason, except fear, for his abandoning of [Taurangaika].’ This explanation seems highly unlikely. Whitmore had been guilty in the past of underestimating his enemy, but after inspecting the abandoned pā he conceded that ‘no troops in the world could have hewn their way through … [had it been] defended by excellent shots and desperate men’.

One explanation for what happened at Taurangaika lies in a Māori whakataukī (proverb): ‘Men fight wars over land and lose them over women.’ It was alleged that Tītokowaru had had a sexual encounter with the wife of one of his chiefs. This undermined his mana to such an extent that most of his followers refused to go into battle with him. A decision was then made to abandon the pā during the night. Another suggestion was that Thomas McDonnell had guessed – and announced at Taurangaika – the identity of Tītokowaru’s atua (god), taking away much of his mana.

Tītokowaru’s war effectively ended with the retreat from Taurangaika. The colonial army could not claim to have won it, having proved unable to inflict a decisive blow.