Rewi Maniapoto

The missionaries built a trade school in Te Awamutu to teach literacy and practical skills such as making and repairing agricultural tools.[2] The core of Ngati Mahuta then moved out of the area in 1849 to settle on land in Māngere provided for them by the government to guard Auckland from an attack from the south.On 4 April Grey arranged for a 300-strong Imperial force to evict Māori from the contested Tataramaika block in Taranaki and reoccupy it.The ambush, ordered by Rewi, may have been planned as an assassination attempt on Grey, who regularly rode the track between New Plymouth and the Tataraimaka military post.Pompallier, the Catholic Bishop, further heightened tension by suggesting he start another mission in the area to counter the influence of the protestant Church Missionary Society (CMS).[7][8][9][10] On 10 July 1863, Grey ordered the invasion of the Kingite territory, claiming he was making a punitive expedition against Rewi over the Ōakura ambush and a pre-emptive strike to thwart a "determined and bloodthirsty" plot to attack Auckland.[11][12] On 12 July General Cameron and the first echelon of the invading army crossed the Mangatāwhiri Stream[4][13][14] - the Invasion of the Waikato had begun.Rewi and the Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement) troops were surrounded by the government forces, with limited supplies of food and water.At this the defenders panicked and, leaving 50 toa (warriors) in the pā, the rest made a sudden breakthrough the government lines and into adjacent swamps.This, together with Maniapoto's refusal to stand and fight at the battle of Rangiriri in 1863,[citation needed] left a bitter note between the two groups.Rewi reluctantly sheltered Te Kooti, who had escaped from the Chatham Islands and then attacked and killed various Māori and European settlers.[17] Eventually Rewi agreed to sell land to the government for the main trunk railway line on the understanding that his men would be paid to cut the bush for the surveyors and no alcohol was to be sold in the King Country.