The Whanganui campaign was a brief round of hostilities in the North Island of New Zealand as indigenous Māori fought British settlers and military forces in 1847. The campaign, which included a siege of the fledgling Whanganui settlement (then named "Petre"), was among the earliest of the 19th century New Zealand Wars that were fought over issues of land and sovereignty.
Background
The settlement of Petre, preferably known as "Wanganui" by its settlers, was established by the New Zealand Company in 1840. William Wakefield stated that he had purchased the land for the settlement from the local Māori in November 1839, which some Māori disputed. By 1845, the settlement had grown to about 200 people and about 60 houses. The surrounding area was inhabited by about 4000 Māori, with whom the settlers traded for food. There was nevertheless friction over the occupation of the land, which some Māori chiefs denied having sold, with New Zealand Company surveyors reporting obstruction and harassment.
In March 1846, hostilities broke out in the nearby Hutt Valley over similar issues of disputed land occupation. One of the most prominent fighters in Hutt Valley was Te Mamaku, a principal chief of the Ngāti-Hāua-te-Rangi tribe of the Upper Whanganui. The settlers in Whanganui became worried that the conflict would expand to encompass their region, so requested military protection.
A force made up of the 58th Regiment (5–6 officers, 4 sergeants and 160 men), Royal Artillery (4 men with 2 12-pounder guns on garrison carriages), Royal Engineers (1 officer with tools for 200 men), Commissariat (1 officer with salt provisions for two months and £500), and Medical (1 officer)—landed from HMS Calliope at Wanganui in December 1846 to construct the garrison's stockade. Lieutenant Thomas Bernard Collinson, Royal Engineers, noted:
Dec. 13. We landed in boats at the mouth of the Wanganui River: all the rivers on that coast of Cook's Straits have bar harbours; and had to make 4 miles up to the village. This was rather an exciting march, as we had no idea what sort of reception we should meet; and might have to fight our way. Happily the prestige of the "Hoia" (i.e. Soldiers) was still considerable, and we entered the little settlement in peaceful triumph; to the great joy of the few white settlers.
There, Collinson and Captain Joseph Henry Laye, 58th Regiment, selected the hill pā of Pukenamu at the town's northern end for the Rutland Stockade, and commenced its construction. Another 100 soldiers from the Grenadier Company of the 65th Regiment arrived in May 1847. The York Stockade was built on high ground to the south. The establishment of the garrison led Te Mamaku to anticipate further government intervention. He vowed to fight the soldiers but not the settlers.
Attack and siege
Hapurona Nga Rangi, a minor chief of Putiki, was employed by Midshipman Crozier of the gunboat, to build a house for him in the Rutland stockade. Whilst Nga Rangi collected his wages on 16 April 1847, he suffered a severe gunshot wound to the head from the discharge of Crozier's pistol. The ball passed through his right cheekbone and lodged somewhere in his skull. The shot was claimed to have been accidental and Crozier was restrained whilst the incident was investigated. Nga Rangi was placed under the care of Dr Thomas Moore Philson of the 58th Regiment, and when sufficiently recovered from his wound, confirmed that the shot had been accidental.
A small party of Māori nevertheless decided to exact utu (revenge, or recompense) for the blood-letting. They attacked John Alexander Gilfillan and family at home on 18 April with tomahawks, killing his wife and three of their children, severely wounding Gilfillan and his second daughter, and leaving two infant babies untouched. Five of the six killers were captured by lower Whanganui Māori and handed over to the British; four were court-martialled in Whanganui and hanged at Rutland Stockade. The execution inflamed the situation, prompting a much larger revenge attack.
Between 500 and 600 heavily armed Māori formed a taua (war party) that travelled down the Whanganui River in war canoes in early May, plundering and burning settlers' houses and killing cattle. The warriors killed and mutilated a soldier from the 58th Regiment who ventured out of the town. The town's residents began sleeping in a small group of fortified houses, abandoning their homes each night.