Te Kooti's War - Te Porere

Te Porere

Disgruntled by this lukewarm response, Te Kooti and his people, maybe by now as many as 800, returned to Tokaanu on the southern shore of Lake Taupo on 18 August, and then a few kilometres further south to Te Porere five km south west of Lake Rotoaira, where he began to build himself an earthern gunfighter style Pā.

Meanwhile the enemy forces were gathering - both Pākehā and Māori armies were moving towards Lake Taupo from all directions.

McDonnell had been appointed by the government to lead the forces against Te Kooti. With a force of Armed Constabulary from Wanganui, he rode north to the Rangipo Desert where he met up with a contingent of Tuwharetoa warriors who were opposed to Te Kooti. Here he learnt that two mounted columns were coming up from Hawkes Bay, a Māori one and Militia column, and third force was coming by a more roundabout route. Meanwhile yet another force, of Armed Constabulary and Arawa, was already on the eastern shore of Lake Taupo. Finally two more groups were being organized in Wanganui to arrive later, including Kepa te Rangihiwinui, Major Kepa.

The Kahungunu led by Henare Tomoana were the first to meet the Ringatu forces. They were moving south down the lake shore when a sudden storm forced them to make camp. Here the Ringatu attacked them: they made off with their horses but that was all they achieved. After a desultory siege lasting two days Te Kooti's forces withdrew. They retreated away from the lake and all the way back to Te Porere. This allowed the government forces to advance right down the lake and establish a base at Tokaanu.

On 25 September there was another skirmish at Pouto where a forward base had been established, just east of Te Kooti's base. The Ringatu attacked and the Arawa attacked right back at them and drove them from the field. Since the Ringatu had the advantage of rifle pits and numbers while Te Arawa were attacking up hill it was not an impressive performance by Te kooti's men. Possibly because of this a decision was made that may have changed the history of New Zealand.

Rewi Maniapoto had accompanied Te Kooti as an observer on behalf of the King Movement. Of all King Tawhio's advisers he had been the one most inclined to support the Ringatu. He had now seen them in action twice and he was not impressed; he turned his back on them and returned to the King Country. This finally closed the door on any possibility of an alliance between the King Movement and the Ringatu. It has since been suggested that this was the last moment when there was any possibility of the King Country remaining as an independent state.

At Te Porere, Te Kooti had constructed a defensive position, one built in the style of a European redoubt than a Māori Pā. He moved his people into it in late September.

The Colonial forces were gathering in strength and could probably have attacked at any time except that one important component was missing: Kepa (Major Kemp) and the Wanganui had not arrived, and Colonel McDonnell was not about to start a battle without his friend Kepa.

They waited, possibly in some of the worst conditions an army ever did have to wait for battle. For several days it snowed heavily. Furthermore the campaign was being fought on the slopes of an active volcanic field and one of them, Ngauruhoe, was in full eruption, spewing out vast quantities of volcanic ash to mix with the snow. Then the snow turned to freezing rain.

Eventually Kepa turned up and the day of the attack was appointed, 4 October 1869. The battle plan was very basic - to advance en masse and overwhelm the defences, the preliminary rifle pits, a small redoubt by the stream, more rifle pits and then the main earth redoubt. One contingent was told that if they could they should work their way around to back to cut off any possibility of escape.

At times attacking colonial troops had been decimated by well-placed Māori forces fighting on the defensive. Obviously the commander, McDonnell, knew more about the situation than we can now understand because his plan worked. Within a few minutes they had taken all the external defences and were up against the main walls of the redoubt, hacking at it with whatever came to hand. Then two of the commanders found the back door to the fort and began to attack it, but both were promptly shot dead. This appeared to drive the Wanganui warriors into a berserk rage. They simply swarmed over the wall and descended and began killing the Ringatu.

The battle was soon over. Te Kooti and a few of his men escaped but many were killed and many more made prisoner. The allied militia casualties were amazingly light, four killed and four wounded. Considering they had attacked a walled fort occupied by some 250 men and women, all firing at them from a very close range.

This is because instead of digging the earthworks from the outside to make the ditch deeper, Te Kooti built it from the inside, which meant that his men had to expose themselves to be able to fire on the approaching troops. Also, the pa was built on a hill that had sloping ground angled in such a way that his enemies could crawl up the hill and not be able to be hit by rifle fire. Te Porere was the last time that a rebel force opposed a government force from a Pa or earth fortress. Comparing the sketches at the time of the battle to the vegetaion now shows that it has changed little partly due to the extreme climate of the area in winter.