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Post by Kiwi Frontline on Jun 19, 2020 11:34:42 GMT 12
Gisborne Herald 18/6/20 HAMILTON CLAIM OUTLANDISH In an article published on Tuesday, the claim was made that Capt. John Hamilton “killed Maori in the Waikato land war”. Where is the evidence of that? Hamilton never set foot in the Waikato. The only military action he took part in was at Pukehinahina Pa, known colloquially as Gate Pa, under the command of Lieut-General Duncan Cameron. The conditions that led to the Gate Pa conflict are complex and it cannot be shown that Capt. Hamilton had any part in the developments preceding that particular conflict. He was, after all, merely the commander of a lesser British warship, the HMS Esk, which only arrived in Tauranga a matter of days before the battle. It is said that in the midst of the battle, Hamilton, ordered by Cameron to advance, leaped from the trenches and called “follow me, men”. With that he fell dead from a head shot. Given that only 15 pa defenders were killed in the skirmish, mostly by artillery fire, it would be of considerable historical interest to discover that Capt. Hamilton had “murdered” anyone. Indeed, it is highly likely he never killed anyone at Gate Pa or anywhere else in New Zealand. If activists are going to throw around claims that blackguard the name of a man who is not here to defend himself, they should give us the benefit of their knowledge of the matter and put the evidence into the public realm. DAVID MORRIS, Auckland sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
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