Imperial Troops in the Maori Wars 1860-66

Abstract

There should be no explanation or apology for offering a thesis on the subject of the Maoris Wars at a time when the standard work on the subject James Cowan's New Zealand Wars and the Pioneering Period has just run to a new edition. Neither the popularity of this work nor its wealth of detail should obscure some unsatisfactory impressions which it gives. The part played by the colonial forces bulks larger than that of the Imperial Troops, which seems rather anomalous, at least for the early stages of the war, and to Cowan the wars seem to be an endless and haphazard catalogue of actions in which the main element is heroism. No general history contributes enough material to moderate or dispel these impressions, to which another unsatisfactory feature is usually added, a quarrel between Governor Grey and General Cameron, the details of which are too complicated to unravel except to cast more reflection on the activities of the Imperial troops. What the troops actually did is a question which can be answered superficially by reference to selected incidents in Cowan, but little light is shed on the relation of each incident to a campaign or how one campaign led to the next. To throw some light on this it is necessary to find out what the troops were told to do, and, if the Grey versus Cameron argument is to have any meaning, who told them to do it. When these facts are established and the manner in which the troops performed their allotted duties is examined, a better relative assessment of their work and worth can be made. This has meant some problems of arrangement which require explanation. The opening chapter of this thesis includes an outline of the constitutional arrangements and regulations under which the troops were supposed to be employed. I have then divided the period of their active participation in the war into four actions, two of which overlap, and one that is a period of truce. The first part of each of these chapters seeks the answer to a double question – who gave the troops their orders and what did these orders contain? The second parts describe how, and to what degree the orders were carried out. This has involved going over the same ground twice with a certain amount of repetition, but I hope that this combination of chronological and topical treatment will provide the clearest answers to the questions posed. The general aim in presenting this information has been to make a contribution towards a more coherent military history of the war, but this study should also serve as one case illustration of contemporary Imperial Government policy with regard to military commitments in colonies, and further, as this is the only occasion on which regular troops have been engaged in warfare in New Zealand, it may be present-day implications for the use of such forces, despite the changed conditions of the intervening century.