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Spectrum was a long-running weekly radio documentary series which captured the essence of New Zealand from 1972 to 2016. Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins produced the series for many years, creating a valuable library of New Zealand oral history.
This episode features a re-creation of the battle fought at Gate Pā near Tauranga in 1864, between Māori and members of the Imperial Army and Navy. [Gunfire and other battle sound effects are heard throughout.]
The Vicarage, Tauranga, the evening of April 28th 1864, a dozen officers of Queen Victoria’s Imperial force pray as the Archdeacon of Tauranga asks for courage and guidance.
In the enemy stockade three miles inland, a tohunga fortifies the Māori warriors with traditional rites and recited karakia for victims.
Then follows descriptions of both the Māori and the British garrisons’ preparation for battle and then a dramatised re-creation of the battle fought at Gate Pā.
Places and people mentioned in the description include: Ōrākau, Pukehinahina (Gate Pā), General Cameron, Lieutenant-Colonel H.G. Booth, Commander George Hay of HMS Harrier, Hēni Te Kiri Karamū, Rāwiri Puhirake.
the programme was prepared with material supplied courtesy of the Turnbull and General Assembly Libraries and also by permission of Lieutenant-Colonel J. B. Jarvis.
‘And All The Queen’s Men’ was written and produced by Jack Perkins and the programme was made available by Overseas Programmes of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.