NATIONAL

Present arms!

You can’t be too careful with firearms and other things that go bang – even if they haven’t been used for over a century.

WORDS: John O’Hare, Belinda Maingay IMAGES: Alex Bell

Recent changes to the Arms Act – and specifically the requirements of the dealer’s licences and their potential impact on museums and organisations like Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga– have made for an interesting few months, according to our Collections Advisor, Belinda Maingay. “The changes have put the spotlight on the firearms in our collection and our responsibilities under the revised Arms Act,” she says. “No matter how old they are, firearms have the potential to cause injury and worse. The good thing is that firearms in our collections at properties around the country have all been disabled, and cannot fire – and because of their age are generally not a concern to the Police.” Information provided by the Police Museum in consultation with the New Zealand Police confirmed that firearms manufactured before 1899 and which are not capable of firing ammunition are classified as antiques – and therefore exempt from the firearms licensing requirements. “That means that these artefacts can be kept at our historic places safely and legally,” says Belinda. The change in legislation, however, has highlighted the fact that we have some pretty interesting guns in our collection – to say nothing of sundry other ordnance which in their day would have had an explosive impact. Two Bay of Islands properties in particular have an impressive collection of arms – the Kerikeri Mission Station and Te Waimate Mission.

“Given that the musket had practically become a form of currency in the Bay of Islands at the time the missionaries were active it’s no surprise that we have a couple in our collection,” says Kerikeri Mission Station Property Lead, Liz Bigwood. “The ‘Brown Bess’ musket was traded and sold between ship merchants in the Bay of Islands with Māori keen to acquire the weapon. One of the trade goods that enabled Māori to obtain these highly sought-after weapons in significant numbers was the humble potato.” Extensive cultivations of potatoes established by Ngapuhi at Kerikeri, Waimate North and beyond – coupled with constant demand for spuds for shipping provision – was such that Ngapuhi chief Hongi Hika was able to trade them for muskets.

Missionaries owned muskets, though these were used for hunting, and included a number of fowling pieces. “One of the muskets in our collection is inscribed ‘1663 Tower’ on an iron plate above the trigger, showing it was made by Tower Armouries in London,” says Liz. Twenty minutes’ drive from the Kerikeri Mission Station, Te Waimate Mission’s collection of heritage armaments is of an equally high calibre. “Besides a couple of muskets, Te Waimate Mission has some more unusual items including a flintlock pistol, a cartouche (ammunition belt) from the Northern Wars and a powder flask,” says Hokianga Properties Lead, Alex Bell. The artefacts date back to a time when the mission was awash with guns.

“After the disastrous 1845 attack on Pene Taui’s pa at Ohaeawai during the Northern Wars, the surviving British troops returned to Te Waimate where they commandeered the mission as a military camp and proceeded to make a nuisance of themselves,” says Alex. Missionary Henry Williams records the disruption in a letter written in October 1845.

“Were you to see the Waimate you would scarcely know it … great guns and small arms, with drums and bugles throughout the day and night, this salutation at every turn 'Who comes there?'"

Williams added, perhaps a little too philosophically:

“At present only two houses are burnt down. Wades on the hill and Bedggoods […] more may yet be consumed.” The troops were there partly to recover after the shellacking they took at Ohaeawai which had left them battered, bruised and depleted in numbers. The troops had been ordered to charge the Ohaeawai Pā by Colonel Henry Despard, only to be cut down by musket fire from defenders shooting from trenches and loops in the palisades. The charge left 120 British soldiers dead or injured. Armaments that are part of our collection are often an important part of the bigger stories associated with our places, according to Alex.

“Although specific information about these artefacts may be a bit light at times, they are important in that they provide a broader context in which some of these stories can be told,” he says. “We don’t know who the cartouche belt belonged to, for example, though we know it has deep associations with Te Waimate – and one of the most difficult periods in New Zealand’s history.” n