Royal Navy British Army Ordnance HM Treasury Armed Police Māori allies Taua 19 May 0 killed0 wounded[5][non-primary source needed] 19 July 19 May 2 killed≥10 wounded[5][non-primary source needed] 19 July The Whanganui campaign was a brief round of hostilities in the North Island of New Zealand as indigenous Māori fought British settlers and military forces in 1847.

The campaign, which included a siege of the fledgling Whanganui settlement (then named "Petre"),[8] was among the earliest of the 19th century New Zealand Wars that were fought over issues of land and sovereignty.

[10] There, Collinson and Captain Joseph Henry Laye, 58th Regiment, selected the hill pā of Pukenamu at the town's northern end for the Rutland Stockade, and commenced its construction.

[13] Hapurona Nga Rangi, a minor chief of Putiki, was employed by Midshipman Crozier of the gunboat, to build a house for him in the Rutland stockade.

Whilst Nga Rangi collected his wages on 16 April 1847, he suffered a severe gunshot wound to the head from the discharge of Crozier's pistol.

Nga Rangi was placed under the care of Dr Thomas Moore Philson of the 58th Regiment, and when sufficiently recovered from his wound, confirmed that the shot had been accidental.

The governor was accompanied by Tāmati Wāka Nene, future Māori king Te Wherowhero and several other northern chiefs in a bid to defuse the situation.

[2]: 43–45 [non-primary source needed] By mid-winter Māori leaders, recognising they had reached a stalemate and conscious that their potato-planting season was approaching, decided to launch a full attack on the town to draw troops from their forts.

[2]: 45 [non-primary source needed] On 19 July, some 400 Māori fighters approached the town from the low hills inland, occupying a ridge at St John's Wood where they dug trenches and rifle-pits, then breastworks.

[4] On 23 July, Te Mamaku's forces, at least 600 men, returned to their entrenchments on the hill at St John's Wood and planted a red ensign.

[20][non-primary source needed][21] Soon after, Wanganui settlers ventured out of town again, returned to their farms, settled matters of cattle losses with their besiegers and re-established trade with them, such that peace was generally established about two months later.