Talk:Duncan Cameron (British Army officer)

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Date and place of birth, death? Any other details of his life other than the New Zealand campaign? Cameron appears to be an amazing officer, resigning rather than hazard troops with a colonial land grab war. Compare with US Indian Wars, c. 1760 (or earlier) - 1890.--TGC55 10:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC) The information about a land grab is highly dubious to say the least.Cameron learnt a lot of important lessons from Crimea and applied them to NZ. The Maori of Nz were generally more than willing to sell land to settlers and had done so for many years prior to the Treaty of Waitangi 1840. Maori willingly sold the entire South Island. Note that only a minority of Maori hapu or iwi joined in the rebellion against the govt. Northland Maori saw how they had been badly effected by the war of 1843-44 so they did not join the rebellion. East coast Maori did not join in the rebellion. Few Taranaki or Wellington tribes joined in. Maori were paid either in cash or, their normal preference, in goods. No one was forced to sell. Out of about 60 to 70,000 Maori living in Nz in 1863 about 3-4,000 Maori took an active part in the battles although most battles involved only 100-300 warriors. The tribe at the heart of all the warmongering were the Ngati Maniapoto and they lost no land at all. After the war Maori rebels were given back huge areas of land-120,000 acres by 1873. Other confiscated land(mainly hill country) was never surveyed and never used.Claudia June 2011 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.237.35.183 (talk) 00:35, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Meremere 1000-1500 defenders? Food for thought
Recently I had the chance to examine the Mere mere pa at close quarters. It is in good shape. It is also rather small-about 50m x 40 m with no outworks as far as I could see(they are still visible in parts at Rangiriri). How on earth would you put 1000 let alone 1,500 warriors in such a tiny space? Some references suggest there might have been this many in the area perhaps. Given the speed at which Maori could throw up a gunfighter type pa it seems very strange that 1,000 or more would take 3-4 months to build this pa. The works are far smaller than Rangiriri. The whole pa was the size of Rangiriri's central redoubt but far lower and less complex earthworks. Compare this with the Cameron's Whangamarino Redoubt which is the same size, was manned by 150 men and 2 cannon and even then some of their tent accommodation was outside the earth works. This redoubt was built in 10 days by the 14th regiment and this included making a zig zag track to the ridge top to pull up the huge cannons from the river. The redoubt was very strong with 6m high walls(the walls are still about 3.3m high in places.)They had to clear the site of large trees and bush. Claudia — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.62.226.243 (talk) 23:02, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

How many Maori defenders died at Rangiriri?
The normal figure quoted for Maori defender deaths is 41.It has sometimes been speculated that others may have died in the swamp/lake. Maori did have the opportunity to remove their dead during the night when the "200" escaped. If the initial figure of 500 to 520 is correct we can deduct the 180 captured which leaves 320- 340. From this we deduct the 200 escapees, which leaves 120- 140. Then we deduct the 41 dead leaving about 80- 100. We know that the 14th chased a few Maori in to the swamp at the eastern end of the trench. The question is -was it 80-100?

Maori practice was not to abandon bodies if at all possible. We know precise numbers from Pukekohe East attack where only 6 Maori bodies were left behind but Maori sources involved in the attack say 30 others died. It is interesting that they went to some trouble to remove bodies even when under fire. The bodies were then hidden or buried later. This suggests there is a strong possibility, but no proof, that some or many of the unaccounted for 80-100 actually were killed. To balance this, attacking forces normally expect to deploy 3 times the force of the defenders to be able to take a defended position. The standard of medical care on the British side was quite high by the standards of the day, after the lessons learnt at Crimea. The soldiers morale remained high throughout the campaign-they even had time for a full scale game of cricket while waiting for supplies to catch up at Te Awamutu. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.62.226.243 (talk) 03:27, 4 November 2013 (UTC)