"Te Paina to Mercer ...cont. 'Courage is not Enough'

Present-day Mercer township exists geographically on the site formally known as Te Paina. It is the site of the original village and marae of the Tainui people who now centre their activities at Turangawaewae. Te Paina is the ancestral land of the present Maori King and his ancestors, and it is from here that Princess Te Puea moved her people to Turangawaewae in the 1920's.

This site, now known as Mercer, was re-named by the Settler authorities in 1865 to honour a Cpt. Mercer who died from wounds received at the battle of Rangiriri, the third major battle resulting from the British Imperial forces invasion of the Waikato, in 1863.

I was reading through the scrap books at Mercer school and came across a narrative description of the battle and a report of Mercer being wounded. This newspaper reported that when Mercer was hit the Maori Chief Te Oriori, who was already badly wounded himself, leapt into the battle to pull Mercer to safety. Even though he was further risking his life as the British kept shooting at him, Te Oriori continued in his efforts until he had dragged Mercer out of the line of fire.
According to the records, Mercer lived for a few days, long enough for his wife to be bought to him, but soon died of his wound.

The battle at Rangiriri was, by strategic and military measures, won by Maori. Once they knew they had gained victory they hoisted the white flag of truce to stop the killing, negotiate a cease-fire and allow the British to
return to the north. But the British forces manipulated this cease-fire, by firstly pretending to agree to a truce until Maori were relaxed and disarmed, then by re-employing arms themselves proceeded to take 180 or more of them prisoner, including Te Oriori.

I have been trawling through historical accounts of this battle which lead me yesterday to the home of Mr. Gaitely, who set up the small Museum at the Rangiriri site. Mr. Gaitely was born in India and having his British father serve the Raj during the British colonisation of India set the basis for his interest in things military. Although Mr. Gaitely is sadly unwell he retains an immense knowledge base around the Land Wars and has a private library of rare and first edition publications about the war, some written by men who actually took part in the battle.

When asked why he was so interested in Rangiriri he said
“well that battle changed the whole of the history of New Zealand, because that was how the British opened up all the south to being taken control of.”

Mr. Gaitely and various recorded accounts support the story I read about Te Oriori's courageous actions and his consequent arrest during the Battle of Rangiriri.

I asked Mr. Gaitely why he thought that this important information wasn't widely known, and he told me another story, one about a painting of the Battle comissioned by the Royal Artillery only a few years ago.

Mr. Gaitely said that he had heard that there was a war artist, so he arranged to meet her, taking both his sketches of the battle and some images drawn in the 1860's along with an account of the story of Mercer and Te Orirori.
He said;

" I went to England to see the artist, I had seen her paintings she had done so I knew she would get everything all correct. I gave her the information and told her what the pa and and trenches would look like. I said that it would be good to show Te Oriori rescuing Mercer...Te Oriori pulled him (Mercer) out and put him up in a sheltered spot against the bank, so he couldnt get fired at from the top...The British kept firing at him (Te Oriori) and he was shot in the leg..
But the Royal Artillery ignored that and wouldn’t put it in the picture"

He showed me a print of this painting, pointing out the image of a prone soldier as being Mercer, with another British soldier administering aid whilst another is running toward him with supplies. Both these soldiers recieved VC's for their bravery.

There is no depiction of Te Oriori at all, the war artist had been directed by the Royal Artillery to leave him out.

When I asked him why he had been excluded from the image Mr Gaitely said;

"Well the Army paid for the painting and they would have liked to ensure that that their side of the story which was about the two VC's. I don't know how they would (do this) and show Te Oriori, that would be a very different picture..."

I asked, "so was the artist directed by someone senior in the Royal Artillery to exclude Te Oriori from the scene?"

He replied, "They would have said that its not important to them,...well they were paying for the painting...This regiment, you see, has the highest ratio of VC’s, 2 to 30, there were only 30 in the Royal Artillery Regiment at Rangiriri, this is still the highest ratio of VC’s awarded in the history of the British army, because of this they are allowed to fly the NZ flag, they are the only British Regiment allowed to do this."

I responded, " So it really wouldn’t do then, if the story of Te Oriori was well known?”. I was investigating wether he thought that if the story of the Oriori's courage and sacrifice were known, this maybe could cause embarrassment and a loss of face for the British regiment, and may also mean a revisiting of this entire event, perhaps a requiring a change in historical documentation and memory.

He said, "Well they like to keep the whole thing neat and clean, from the British point of view and not from the Maori point of view."

I said, "So in keeping everything neat and clean they’ve completely left him out” [and the historically correct version of the events!]

And he replied ,"They've... yes, he's left out of the British version of the Battle"