Kaute
‘Māori warrior disappears’ reported newspapers in April 1912 when Kaute suddenly vanished from his home at Puniu, near Kihikihi. Kaute was one of the few survivors who had defended Ōrakau in the Waikato Wars 48 years previously. He was last seen at 5am fully dressed leaving his whare. He had been suffering much of late from toothache. The matter was reported to the Kihikihi police.
Drawing of Rewi Maniapoto’s immortal reply to General Cameron at the Battle of Orakau, on April 2, 1864.
Māori survivors of the Battle of Orakau later told of toiling all through the hours of darkness building defences, knowing that the Pākehā soldiers might be upon them at any moment. An account reported they took no rest, they had no time to get fuel and water into the fort, and their stock of food was very limited.
Suddenly the advancing army was seen, the lines of marching men rising and falling as they covered the land like a great flood. Māori crowded into the trenches and against the walls with their guns and prepared for the struggle. Then, as the morning sun slanted down upon the land the cry of “Fire!” rang out. The soldiers rushed forward, long rows of smoke puffed out between the palisades, the guns of the Pākehā poured forth great sheets of flame, the roar of cannon struck against the heavens, and the white cloud of war floated low across the lands which drank the blood of Māori and Pākehā. Then were heard the sharp cries of the Pākehā, the yells of Māori warriors, and the voices of the wahine as they urged them on. Fighting continued all night, they had no sleep, and scarcely any food, apart from a few pumpkins which they ate raw.
There were calls to charge out of the pā and attack the soldiers in the open. Rewi Maniapoto said, “Do not go forth. The Pākehā are settled firmly upon the land, nothing will shake them, but in the darkness of night then is our chance to break out.”
As night came on Kauaeroa of Tuhoe seized his patiti (hatchet) and leapt from the fortifications. With one blow of his patiti he killed the foremost soldier and then rose a shout of triumph within the pā as the war cry of Kauaeroa was heard – “Mine is the first fish.” The warriors thought the pakeha soldiers would run away when the first man was killed, but they continued to form their ditch around the pā.
On the third day, when the ditch was very near the pā, the Pākehā filled it with soldiers and assembled their forces in the hollow. The sound of their war bugles was heard, and a great multitude of men surged forth and attacked. Then Tuhoe and Waikato, warriors and women, were driven out of the pā like sheep, with the soldiers behind and on either side. For miles they were pursued, the one thing that saved them being the swamp to which they fled.
And so fell Ōrakau pā.
Now Kaute had fought his last battle. An exhaustive search for him revealed mere traces, Constable Ryan tracking his footprints to the banks of the Puniu stream, which was flooded.
It was assumed he was demented through toothache pain and probably inflammation of the brain, and had wandered too close to the river and fallen in.
