THE later series of wars between the European population and some Maori tribes which began in Taranaki in 1860 were due to a misunderstanding of Maori land laws. There was further a desire on the part of the Maori people to reassert the diminished mana, or reputation, of their race. In 1860 the white population was about 60,000, slightly greater than the estimated total Maori population in the same year. By 1868 the white population had increased by immigration to more than 200,000. But the bulk of the European popu­lation was in the South Island and the bulk of the Maori in the North. The tribes ranged against British rule probably never numbered more than 30,000, and the numbers of Maori fighting men actively in the field at any given time were only a few hundreds.

In the heavy bush of the centre of the North Island the Maori were at a tremendous advantage. The British regular troops were handicapped by the difficulties of getting supplies and protecting their communications as well as of coming to grips with an elusive and mobile enemy. The Maori party was well armed partly because the peaceful development of the fifties had given the tribes considerable purchasing power from their sales of flour and other produce to white consumers in New Zealand and Australia. Sometimes the Maori attackers had better rifles than the British troops, though the white forces alone had efficient artillery. Aiding the British troops were bodies of colonists and loyal Maori. Under such men as von Tempsky, leading the Forest Rangers, Colonel Whitmore, and Lieutenant-Colonel McDonhell, the colonists, com­bined with loyal Maori forces, under such leaders as Major Ropata and Major Kemp, finally mastered the hostile Maori in bush campaigns of great difficulty. A good part of the operations con­sisted in blockading the belligerent tribes and de­stroying the cultivations on which they depended for their food supply.

In the middle sixties there were about 10,000 Imperial troops in New Zealand, partly paid for by the Colonial Legislature. The British authorities had by then come to the conclusion that the colonists must fight their own wars, and from 1866 the British regulars were gradually removed from the Colony. The ‘self-reliant policy’ had already been formulated in 1864 by Weld, then Premier, partly because of friction between the regulars and the colonial forces and the paralysis resulting from dual command. The last British regiment left in 1870 when Te Kooti was still in the field.

The Wars added over three millions to the public debt. About 10,000 colonial troops were engaged in the struggle. The Militia Act, 1858, had placed all able bodied men at the disposal of the government, but mostly single men under 40 were incorporated in the active forces.

The Victoria Cross (instituted in 1856) was awarded to a number of British regulars engaged in the Maori Wars for acts of gallantry between 1861 and 1865. It was so awarded to J. T. Down, J. Lucas, E. MacKenna, W. G. N. Manley, J. C. McNeill, S. Mitchell, J. Murray, W. Odgers, A. F. Pickard, J. Ryan, H. Shaw, F. A. Smith, D. Stag-poole, and W. Temple. Charles Heaphy, the artist and explorer, was the only member of the colonial forces to receive a V.C. In order to honour mem­bers of the colonial forces who were not eligible to receive the V.C. the institution of a local medal for gallantry, of equivalent value, was gazetted in 1869. This was the New Zealand Cross, and it was won by Henare Kepa, S. Black, B. Biddle, W. Lin-gard, G. Hill, A. Smith, A. W. Carkeek, I. E. Featherston, J. M. Roberts, Kepa Rangihiwinui (Kemp), Ropata Wahawaha, F. J. Mace, G. Preece, S. Walker, C. Maling, R. Shepherd, S. Austin, A. Rodriguez, T. Adamson, T. McDonnell, G. Mair, H. G. W. Wrigg, and H. Northcroft.