The War in New Zealand Author:William Fox Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Origin of previous Wars in New Zealand—Effect on Native Mind —They Accumulate Arms and Ammunition—Apparent Peace at Period of Governor Grey's leav... more »ing the Colony—The Land League—The King Movement. It is commonly asserted by writers in England on New Zealand affairs, that all the hostilities with the natives which have occurred in the colony have originated in disputes about land. No statement can be further from the truth. The first war we had was in the year 1844, with John Heke, and a section of the Ngapuhi tribe at the Bay of Islands. It had absolutely no reference at all to any question about land, but originated solely in the personal ambition of Heke, and his belief that the introduction of law, order, and customs duties under British rule, were driving away the whaling vessels with which he had carried on a not creditable trade. Thewar in the Hutt and West Coast of Wellington, in 1845, may be said to have involved a shadow of a dispute about land, the principal aggressor making a claim to a district which had been sold to us and occupied for years, and which he endeavoured to enforce by the murder of unarmed and unoffending settlers. But his claim, whatever it was, was not generally supported by the other natives of the district, the majority of whom took our side and carried arms on our behalf. The next collision was at Wauganui, in 1845. The pretext for it by the natives was an accidental discharge of a pistol in the hands of a midshipman in H.M. Navy, by which a chief was wounded in the cheek. Five young men of the tribe " took payment" for the injury to their chief, by barbarously murdering the family of Mr. Gilfillan, an unoffending settler who lived in the neighbourhood. The murderers were tried under martial law by Captain Laye of H.M. service, and h...« less