brought out with great difficulty. While the advance-party was so engaged, the main body of the Militia reached the spot where Mair ’ s dead horse was lying, and Private Burslem, by way of a joke, stood up on the animal and began soliciting bids, when about a dozen shots rang out from the edge of the bush and a bullet deprived the self-constituted auctioneer of part of an ear.

At the request of the Government, Major William Mair, R.M. at Maketu, raised a force of two hundred armed Arawa, at a pay of 3s. a day, for the purpose of following up the Hauhaus to their forest villages and dispersing them and destroying their cultivations. Mair was instructed to begin at Te Puke; then the headquarters of Hakaraia ’ s band (Waitaha and Tapuika clans), to destroy food crops there, and then to push on to Oropi. After burning the village and making havoc in the food-gardens the Arawa pushed on along the edge of the bush. The instruments belonging to Mr Graham, the surveyor, were found at Te Puke. Oropi was found unoccupied and was destroyed. Here a large quantity of loot and some gunpowder was found, and Hakaraia ’ s great flag and other Hauhau banners were discovered in the bush.

On the 4th February a combined attack was made on the Hauhaus assembled at Te Akeake, a short distance inland of the redoubt called Pye ’ s Pa (after Captain Pye, V.C., of the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry) at Otupuraho. The column was made up of the 1st Waikato Militia under Colonel Harrington, Mair ’ s Arawa, and some other Arawa under Captain Walker. The Hauhaus were collected in some strength in a wooded gorge. After some sharp skirmishing from tree to tree they were driven back into the dense forest. Akeake and Taumata Villages were taken, with five prisoners, from whom it was ascertained that Hakaraia had been there with forty-five men. Gilbert Mair led the attack on the rifle-pits at Taumata, and the Defence Minister, Colonel Haultain, who accompanied the expedition, gave him a commission as ensign of Militia. The work of cutting down and otherwise destroying the food crops in the captured settlements occupied the Militia for three days. From here the Arawa went on inland to Paengaroa, where the Hauhaus retired into the forest after firing a few heavy volleys. The settlement here, too, was burned down.

In the middle of February a strong expedition was organized at Tauranga to attack Te Irihanga and Whakamarama again. On this occasion the force was composed almost entirely of Arawa natives commanded by Major William Mair and his brother Gilbert. Captain H.L. Skeet ’ s company of volunteer engineers, a fine body of young surveyors, all well accustomed to bushwork, formed part of the column, and several companies of the 1st Waikato Militia acted as supports. The expedition followed the route taken by the first attacking column, up the right (proper) bank of the Wairoa, fording that river at the lower falls. The first night out was spent in bivouac at Awangarara, near the ford. On reaching the Irihanga village, on the eastern fringe of the forest, on the 15th February, the place was found strongly held by the enemy. The Hauhaus did not fire until the troops got into the open ground near the top of the hill on which the village stood. The summit was about 150 yards from the bush. The fern on each side of the narrow road was 8 feet or 10 feet high. The Hauhaus had cleared a space of about