Hōne Heke
Riria and the children died soon after and Heke married Hariata (Harriet) Rongo, daughter of Hongi Hika, in the Kerikeri chapel on 30 March 1837.
[3] Pōmare II also felt aggrieved that he could no longer collect payment from American whaling and sealing ships that called at Otuihu across from Opua.
[4] The British representative became concerned that Heke and the Ngāpuhi chief Pōmare II flew the American Ensign.
Heke obtained an American ensign from Henry Green Smith, a storekeeper at Wahapu who had succeeded Mayhew as Acting-Consul.
William Mayhew left New Zealand and Green Smith and Charles Berry Waetford then acted as unofficial American Consuls.
Waetford was later convicted and imprisoned for gunrunning, but Green Smith successfully escaped New Zealand before the Crown could arrest him.
"[8] Following the signing of the treaty the British regarded the authority of the chiefs as subservient to that of the Crown; an interpretation which is not actually written in the Treaty of Waitangi [9] and has not born out in the courts since,[10][11] as the governor asserted the rule of law, the presence of government officials and troops had resulted in an end to the free-wheeling lawless situation that had prevailed in the North since the 1820s.
[14] On 8 July 1844 the flagstaff on Maiki Hill at the north end of Kororareka was cut down for the first time by Heke's ally Te Haratua, the chief of Pakaraka.
[16] As a signal of his unhappiness with the British, and encouraged by the American traders, in the space of six months Hōne Heke returned to chop the flagpole down three times.
[19] The survivors from the 250 soldiers and settlers abandoned the town as HMS Hazard bombarded Heke's warriors with cannon.
Heke's order that the southern part of Korororeka remain untouched resulted in the Anglican and Catholic churches being undamaged.
[19] Many Māori under the mana of the leading northern rangitira, Tāmati Wāka Nene, stayed loyal to the British government.
[22] In April 1845, during the time that the colonial forces were gathering in the Bay of Islands, the warriors of Heke and Nene fought many skirmishes on the small hill named Taumata-Karamu that was between the two pās,[23] and on open country between Okaihau and Te Ahuahu.
[24] On 8 May 1845 Heke's Pā at Puketutu (Te Mawhe) was attacked by troops from the 58th, 96th and 99th Regiments with marines and a Congreve rocket unit, under the command of Lt Col William Hulme.
Eventually the discipline and cohesiveness of the British troops began to prevail and the Māori were driven back inside the pā.
Hugh Carleton (1874) mentions Heke committed the error (against the advice of Pene Taui) of attacking Walker [Tāmati Wāka Nene], who had advanced to Pukenui.
The disaffected, although consisting of 500 men, were kept at bay all day, and ultimately driven off the field by the loyalists, although their force did not exceed 100.
When the bodies were brought home, as one of them was a principal chief of great note and bravery, he was laid in state, about a hundred yards from our fence, before he was buried.
The troops were in the Bay at the time, and were sent for by Walker, the conquering chief; but they were so tardy in their movements that they did not arrive at the seat of war to commence operations until the 24th inst.!
[21] In a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Despard the battle was described by Tāmati Wāka Nene as a "most complete victory over Heke".
Richard Davis noted in his diary of 14 January 1846 Yesterday the news came that the Pa was taken on Sunday by the sailors, and that twelve Europeans were killed and thirty wounded.
[38] Shortly after Ruapekapeka, Heke and Kawiti met their principal Māori opponent, the loyalist chief, Tāmati Wāka Nene, and agreed upon peace.
Grey had no respect for the political stance that Heke assumed, saying "I cannot discover that the rebels have a single grievance to complain of which would in any degree extenuate their present conduct and.
The missionary Richard Davis, writing on 28 August 1846, stated that "amongst his countrymen, as a patriot, he has raised himself to the very pinnacle of honour, and is much respected wherever he goes".
Richard Davis performed a Christian ceremony and then his second wife Hariata Rongo (a daughter of Hongi Hika)[49] and other followers who had been his bodyguards for many years, took his body to a cave near Pakaraka, called Umakitera.
[50] In April 2011 it was announced by David Rankin, (of Te Matarahurahu hapū (subtribe) of the Ngāpuhi and the Hōne Heke Foundation), that the bones of Hōne Heke would be moved and buried at a public cemetery, as the land near the cave was being developed,[51] and in May 2011 he supervised the move;[52] although some Ngāpuhi questioned his right to do so.
[53] A relief sculpture of Heke can be found on the Auckland High Court building walls, and which was sculpted by Anton Teutenberg and unveiled in 1866.
