Chapter 15: McDONNELL'S TARANAKI CAMPAIGN (1866) - A discussion of the first Paragraph

AT THE CLOSE of Major-General Chute's campaign on the West Coast there was a brief cessation of active military operations, and the settlement of the confiscated lands was begun, but occupation was precarious, for Ngati-Ruanui, Te Pakakohi, and Nga-Rauru were only waiting their time. Areas totalling about 50,000 acres, mostly open land, south of the Wai-ngongoro, were laid out in military settlements; the townships were Kakaramea, Mokoia, and Ohawe. Many of the Military Settlers took up the occupation of the sections to which their period of service entitled them—there were chiefly men who had already had farming experience—but the majority in the end disposed of their grants and left the district.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DonttreadonMe76 - Ya I'm reading this first paragraph and I understand its an opening to the Chapter 15 written by James Cowan, F.R.G.S. - it conflicts itself. He's leading the reader to an outcome before he even describes what happened. Not only that... he's calling the Maori lands "confiscated lands", then says it's "precarious". Meaning its not actually confiscated, at that point its in unforeseen process.

Then in the very last sentence of the first paragraph it says "but the majority in the end disposed of their grants and left the district". That means the land scheme later on failed and people jetted out, yet the British author dances around the actual outcome. James Cowan is a dooshbag.

Here's what's been told of the 1866 British Taranaki land schemes... The British were losing and a bunch of them aristo-nuts got together to try and fix the problem. Guess what they came up with. They tried to give these bogus land grants to British military, but there was no promise to protect the people once they got there. The region they gave the buyers was hostile disputed territory. Means they set-up their own military buyers, hoping the individual British military buyer would have to not just financially fund, but personally campaign his own resistance against the opposing forces.

Thats pretty f*cked up really - so desperate as to setup your own people, British men with families, hoping by chance that a good win might possibly come out the chaos.

"This is what they call...sacrificing a Pon in the game of Chess."

They were also calling themselves in Auckland (Allied Maori, Colonials, and Imperial British) "A Government", before they'd even won the war, the Maori Wars are going on in 1866, far from over, just starting.

A straight-up fight with the Taranaki Maori was already failing, and the worst part is they weren't even united. So not only was the land scheme of 1866 set-up a certain death trap for individual buyers, but then people like the author James Cowan, skips over the deathtrap part, and writes it as some super cool way to seem in charge.

Its like a bank trying to sell someone's house, but when the owner comes home with a gun and shoots the intruder, the bank seller puts on the sign "Gone to lunch, thanks for your business".

So what happened was "the majority in the end disposed of their grants and left the district", but why didnt James Cowan just say the Imperial British lost (for gods sake they tried to setup your own brotherly people and the author still sticks up for them). It seems the NZ author James Cowan was an imperial doggy boy trying to brown nose - sniff royal crack. ruff ruff, to get recognized as a writer.

Posted in: The History Poker Blog