Our organisation had also greatly improved, as all the permanent fighting men had been embodied into one corps, which for the future was to be known as the New Zealand Armed Constabulary, and which soon became a picked body of men, second to none in his Majesty’s dominions, and as they were all trained bush fighters were invaluable for the work they were called on to perform. It was now high time to put a limit to Titokowaru’s capers, so the Colonel therefore ordered a field force to pay him a visit on the 6th November, the said force to consist of Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 6 Divisions of the Armed Constabulary, two small parties of the Patea volunteers, together with the Kupapas, a nice, handy taua (war party), being about two hundred and fifty white men and four hundred natives. At six A.M. on the morning of the 7th we found ourselves outside the bush within which at a distance of about four hundred yards we expected to find the stronghold of the Hau Haus, and we had been informed that it only consisted of a simple stockade. This was false, as we afterwards discovered it to be one of the strongest and most cunningly constructed works ever built by Maoris. The O.C. orders were that Te Kepa with twenty-five men of No. 1 Division and one hundred Kupapas should work his way through the bush to the right rear of the pah; an hour being allowed him to carry out this movement. The order was successfully obeyed, Te Kepa penetrating to the point assigned him, and lying down within forty yards of the pah itself. It was now a regrettable incident happened through Colonel Whitmore’s ignorance of Maori customs, for he involuntarily or otherwise insulted an important Maori chief, upon which the remaining Kupapas refused to enter the bush or fight, thereby preventing the surrounding of the pahs, and the shutting up of Titokowaru inside it, which, had it been done, would have forced him to surrender notwithstanding the defeat of our storming party, as we afterwards ascertained the Hau Haus had neglected to provision their stronghold and must have been starved out in three days. But then Colonel Whitmore, notwithstanding the fact that he was a brilliant soldier, greatly lacked tact, and seemed to take a delight in, or at all events to be utterly callous about, injuring the feelings of his subordinates, a failing that more than once cost us dearly, anyhow it was to do so on this occasion. As soon as the allotted time had expired Major Hunter was ordered, with fifty of No. 3 Division and some other details, to advance as a storming party, myself and Tim being in the crowd, and attack the front of the pah, which we believed to be a simple stockade, and quite four hundred yards if not farther in the bush.