Invasion of Waikato

After fighting broke out again in Taranaki in early 1863, Governor George Grey turned his attention to the region he saw as the root of his problems with Māori: Waikato, the heartland of the anti-landselling King Movement. Grey vowed to ‘dig around’ the Kīngitanga until it fell.

He issued an ultimatum dated 11 July demanding that the ‘chiefs of Waikato’ pledge their allegiance to Queen Victoria. The following day — before Waikato Māori had even received this message — a force led by Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron crossed the Mangatāwhiri Stream, a tributary of the Waikato River near Mercer. This waterway marked the aukati — a line that should not be crossed — between the European settlement of Auckland and the territory under the mana (protection) of the Māori King. The key conflict of the New Zealand Wars had begun.

Construction of a military road into Waikato had begun in January 1862. Grey used Kīngitanga involvement in the fighting in Taranaki and rumours of an imminent Māori attack on Auckland to ensure the backing of his British masters. Eventually available to him were 12,000 imperial troops, 4000 colonial soldiers and a few hundred kūpapa (‘friendly’) Māori, with the logistical support needed to sustain a lengthy campaign. The Kīngitanga force of fewer than 5000 part-time fighters had to provide much of their own food and supplies.

Because of their comparative lack of men and supplies, the Kīngitanga strategy was to construct defensive lines to obstruct the British advance, an approach that had been effective in Taranaki in 1860–61. The first line of defence was at Meremere. After this was bypassed, Rangiriri and Pāterangi provided a second and then a third barrier.

By February 1864 the British forces had reached the Kīngitanga agricultural base at Rangiaowhia, near Te Awamutu. On the way they had outflanked formidable modern pā at Meremere and Pāterangi and captured an equally formidable but undermanned pā at Rangiriri. Māori defeat at Ōrākau — ‘Rewi’s last stand’ — in April 1864 brought the Waikato War to an end. The British made no attempt to cross a new aukati on the border of what is now known as the King Country. Instead they turned their attention to Tauranga.