Rangiriri Pa

One of the crucial battles of the Waikato campaign was fought at Rangiriri Pa on 20 November 1863. Waikato-Tainui Maori threw up a defensive line across a narrow strip between the Waikato river and Lake Waikare. After the Rangiriri battle Te Wheoro's Redoubt was built on Maori earthworks nearby to house the British garrison. The Pa itself is now Heritage Listed and also carries a Wahi Tapu Status. The Heritage and Cultural Centre provides education about this important chapter in Waikato history. Listen to the audioguide for more.

**Decisive battle of the wars
**By Gavin McLean
The Waikato War of 1863–64 was the most intensive of ‘Queen Victoria’s little wars’ in New Zealand. By now the government forces were better organised. Governor Grey’s Great South Road was snaking down from Auckland, river gunboats and transports being built and they could call on 12,000 imperial soldiers and sailors as well as colonial units and substantial allied Maori. In contrast, the King Movement could field no more than 2000 of its 5000 part-time warriors at a time. Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron pushed south, making good use of his steamers, taking Koheroa and then Meremere (evacuated at the last moment by the Kingites). The steamers, which now made the rivers more a liability than a resource for pa-builders, gave Cameron momentum, keeping him ahead of his foes, who needed time to regroup and to resupply. Five hundred Kingites were still preparing a new defensive line at Rangiriri when he attacked on 20 November 1863. Rangiriri was a small, low-lying redoubt surrounded by the usual rifle pits and other defensive positions. The outnumbered Kingites fought well. They repelled at least eight attacks and forced government troops to spend a wretched night bivouacked on the wet ground. Victory probably came by mistake; misinterpreting a white parley flag for surrender, the British got inside the pa before the defenders realised what was going on. The Kingites lost 47 men (more than the British) but their biggest loss was the 180 captured. Three weeks later Cameron occupied Ngaruawahia, the ‘capital’ of the Kingites. He went on to win at Rangiowahia and Orakau early in 1864, lose at Gate Pa and then win again at nearby Te Ranga on 21 June, ending the Waikato War.

© 2002 Original text – Gavin McLean.

Further reading: James Belich, The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1986*.*

Image Credits: NZPlaces, Mosborne and Charles Heaphy